Help! I am Drowning in Candy!!!
A few more Halloween candy ideas:
- Do science experiments with it! (Be sure to click the link - I LOVE this website, it is such a nerdy, Mom Unplugged thing!)
- Send it to troops overseas for them to pass out to local children. For more info, go to the Operation Gratitude website, but basically just send your candy (plus an optional but very welcome $11 to cover the cost of shipping overseas) before December 8th to:
Operation Gratitude/California Army National Guard
17330 Victory Boulevard
Van Nuys, California 91406
ATTN: Charlie Othold
You can also send it anytime to Operation Shoebox at this address:
Operation Shoebox
8360 E Highway 25
Belleview, FL 34420
(Keep in mind that soft or chocolate candy might not travel so well, especially to a hot climate.)
- Find a local dentist who is participating in a Halloween Candy Buyback program. Participating dentists give your kids $1/pound of candy and then they send it to troops overseas! Go to the Halloween Candy Buyback website to do a zipcode search for participating dentists in your area. Consider encouraging your children to donate their dollars to a charity that interests them.
- Save it to use on a holiday gingerbread house. Check out the Flickr Gingerbread House Showcase for inspiration.
- Some food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters accept candy. Be sure to call first to find out if yours wants it.
- Buy inexpensive cellophane party favor bags and make pretty little candy packages. Tie the top with a scrap of ribbon or yarn and donate them to your local charitable thrift store for them to sell. Great stocking stuffers for someone!
- According to this article in the Wall Street Journal Online, some Ronald McDonald Houses accept candy donations. Call your local Ronald McDonald House to find out.
- Of course you can always do a Candy Bank too, and then use one of these ideas as the final destination for your traded candy!
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Themocracy
I love your list — I hadn’t thought of the gingerbread house idea. That’s a tradition we enjoy every year. Good idea!
Thanks,
Melissa
Melissa Taylor´s last blog ..Teach your child to read
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Mom Unplugged Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Isn’t that a great idea? I can’t take credit for it though. Several years ago someone mentioned in a comment that they made gingerbread houses with Halloween candy! Unfortunately I can’t remember who it was, or even which post, so I can’t link. If anyone out there thinks it might be you then please let me know!
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I love these ideas. Thanks for sharing them. I did not know that you could sell candy to some dentists! Brillant!
Blessings,
Dawn
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Mom Unplugged Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Yes, I think that is a great idea! Unfortunately none of the dentists in our area do it, but there is a dentist who is collecting candy to send to Iraq. That is where our extra candy will go.
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I don’t really understand this ‘drowning in candy’ thing as in the UK here Halloween just isn’t so big lol. Can’t you just choose to stay in and receive ‘trick or treaters’ rather than go trick or treating? That’s what we do…the kids love making goo to put the sweets into, dressing up and trying to scare any trick-or-treaters who visit.
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Mom Unplugged Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Yes, I know it’s not so big in the UK. My parents were English and they never understood or enjoyed Halloween. Consequently it has never been my favorite holiday either.
However it is a HUGE deal here in the US (I cynically feel that is all due to the efforts of the candy company lobbyists and advertisers).
I agree that staying home would be the ideal solution to the candy overload, but trying to tell your kids to stay home when all their friends are trick or treating would be very difficult! Something like announcing that there would be no Christmas tree or presents this year.
We know one family whose children have lots of allergies and can’t eat most of the candy they get. When they were young, it was easy for their parents to keep them home, but now that they are older, they really want to go with their friends. They trick or treat and trade their candy in for a small toy.
Actually, we had a good time this year. We went trick or treating with two other families. All the kids enjoyed themselves, particularly at one house that always goes all out to be scary. We adults went along with the children (minus the candy collecting or course) and enjoyed each other’s company too.
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chicken shed Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
ok, just one more question (from ignorant UK person lol!)…if all the children are out trick-or-treating, then who is going to be in the houses to give them sweets?
I think this year we must have been pretty much the only family in our street who stayed in and welcomed tricksters, hence we had loads of visitors AND got to go to a halloween party!
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Mom Unplugged Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Excellent question! Sometimes one parent will stay home and the other takes the children out. Often though, people will just leave a bowl of candy by their front door for kids to help themselves. Plus I think there are enough older people without young children in the home (in our community anyway), that there are still plenty of occupied houses to visit.
You might be interested in one other Halloween custom that is gaining popularity (and that probably sounds very odd to anyone not in the US): Trunk or Treat! The trunk of the car is what you call the “boot” in the UK. A town will get businesses or interested people to bring their cars to a large local parking lot. People decorate the trunks of their cars with spooky decorations which sometimes get quite elaborate, and pass out candy. It is rather like a giant Halloween party that is particularly helpful for people who do not feel their neighborhoods are safe for trick or treating. (Americans are very car-oriented!)
I’m secretly stashing some in a baggie in the freezer for myself…for, well, you know, those monthly chocolate/sugar emergencies.
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Mom Unplugged Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Excellent idea! :-)
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I loved your ideas. I am hosting a weekly blog carnival called Playing with Our Food. I mentioned your post. :)
Adriana´s last blog ..Playing with Our Food- Leftover Halloween Candy
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I am so glad you like candy experiments. You mentioned gingerbread houses as a way to use up candy. My daughter made a gingerbread house this year-then she did experiments on the candy a month later. Double candy use, without eating it! It was great.
I love your plan of keeping your kids unplugged. I can’t believe they still haven’t asked you for TV or video games-it gives me hope. Thanks, and best of luck.
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