Illustration for the post, "Am I giving away too much candy for Halloween?" Illustration of a young girl dressed in a princess costume with a huge hefty bag in front of her asking, "Trick or treat?"

Am I giving away too much candy for Halloween?

Not if every parent only allowed small, cute containers to put candy in

#0038

Each year, Handsome and I take turns answering the knocks at the door to hear enthusiastic calls of “trick or treat” from princesses, superheroes, mummies, and more.

I give out four snack-size candies to each child with a nice mix of sweet chocolates and sour gummies. Whereas Handsome doles out handfuls of candy which is impressive because his hands are not small. Trick-or-treaters watch in awe as all that candy slides down into their bags, making them quite a bit heavier than they were before they came to our door.

When we first moved here, our neighbor kindly let us know that our block averages about 250-300 kids visiting for Halloween night. Having lived in mostly apartments my whole life, with only a few, if any, trick-or-treaters each year, it seemed hard to imagine.

To all parents – don’t carry your kids’ candy containers! Please! Let their inability to lift it be your signal to take them home for the night. Otherwise, kids will soon be arriving with hefty bags to fill with candy. That would be bad.

That first year, I bought a few extra candies just in case, but that many kids didn’t seem possible. At the time, I preferred to buy too little than too much because I didn’t want to be stuck with leftover candy. Yes, I would eat it all.

On our first Halloween, we ran out of candy in only an hour! Then we had to turn off our porch light and apologize to any kids that arrived. Never again! Because it is heartbreaking to explain to Princes Moana and Baby Shark that we don’t have any candy for them because we didn’t buy enough.

Now, we stock up on candy. Large bags of miniature candy bars and snack-size skittles go into the grocery cart weeks prior in preparation for Halloween. Although, honestly, this year, we started a little too early on the stockpile and found ourselves snitching a lot of Twix and Snickers out of the candy cauldron. Next time we go shopping, we will need to grab another bag…or two, maybe three.

We spend anywhere from $60-$140 on Halloween candy each year. That is a lot of candy.

Should I be concerned? Are we just contributing to child obesity in America by giving away all this sugar? Oh, the guilt is pouring on now, along with visions of plump children begging for more candy in between mouthfuls of M&Ms.

Thankfully, most parents control quantity with the size of the treat-or-treat container. I’ve seen plastic pumpkins, small reusable cloth bags, and a few pillowcases (most often used by middle school boys).

The container size rule of thumb appears to be – the kid needs to be able to carry the container. If it is a three-year-old princess with a tutu and tiara, she may carry a small, cloth unicorn bucket with sparkles. Just enough candy can fit in it to be more candy than she has had all year, enough to make her slightly sick if she eats it all in one night, but not so much that she can’t carry it around when full.

This is brilliant! I don’t need to feel guilty about handing out all that candy after all. Because they can only take what they can carry. Whatever parent thought of this deserves a medal. And to all other parents – don’t carry your kids’ containers! Please! Let their inability to lift it be your signal to take them home for the night.

Otherwise, kids will soon be arriving with hefty bags to fill with candy and expecting mom and dad to carry it for them. This would be bad for us all! We would have to get even more candy (as Handsome starts shoveling it into their bags) which is even more money that should be going to things like bills and food. Parents are lugging around those large bags and messing up their backs with improper lifting forms. And kids would be sent to emergency rooms for sugar overdose and early-onset diabetes. Not good.

So we will keep providing the candy as long as parents keep the quantity under control.

No hefty bags needed.

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Honey Madison

  • MiniPost #0047

    Mint.com categorizes counseling under “Alcohol & Bars.” They may have a point.

  • MiniPost #0046

    Just about anything, if it is shiny, I’ll be attracted to it. I won’t buy it of course. That would be impractical and a house full of reflective objects would be too much stimulation for my highly sensitive self. But if I’m in a store and I see sparkles, I’m all happy smiles and sunshine.