Halloween Hangover

Halloween seemed to go on for weeks this year, what with the marketing at stores, the festivals and the build-up at school. Now that the costumes can finally be put away and the fake graveyards are beginning to disappear from suburban front yards, the real question becomes what to do with all that candy the kids collected.

One option is to dole it out a little at a time to the kids until it eventually becomes hard and tasteless months later. Meanwhile, adults have a dangerous hoard and nobody to tell them when to stop. Despite the best of intentions, I’m going to raid that candy bag. The kids don’t even like the Hershey’s Special Dark chocolates, so I’m doing them a favor, right?

If you’re really feeling evil, take the kids’ candy to your office and put it out for your co-workers. This strategy works if you want to see your office mates gain weight and you have enough discipline to not eat too much of the candy yourself.

A better alternative that several of my friends use is the “switch witch.” Think of her as the tooth fairy for Halloween. She shows up the night after Halloween, takes all the kids’ candy and replaces it with a toy.

I’ve heard of other friends having a “store” where the kids “buy” things they want in exchange for the candy, like little toys or gummy erasers or silly bands. This allows the kids to feel that they are in control of the process of trading away their candy and is good for their math skills too.

You could also save the candy for a future kids’ party and use it to stuff a piñata. It takes a lot of candy to fill one of those things.

Last year, I gratefully took all my kids’ candy to a friend who was collecting for a program called Operation Gratitude that sends all kinds of care packages -  including candy -  to U.S. service members who are deployed overseas. They also ask for letters and kids’ drawings as well as toothbrushes and toothpaste to go along with the candy. Dentists around the country participate in this program and many act as collection sites for the candy. Watch Patch later for a note about a Moorpark dentist who buys back candy to send to the troops!

The real fun of Halloween is running around at night in costume and being bold enough to knock on strangers’ doors and demand tribute. For kids who are usually not allowed to go anywhere without their parents and are taught to be wary of strangers, that's an incredibly powerful reversal of norms.

As for the candy? While most kids like it, they are usually not too sad to give it up a few days after the holiday.