<p>Every year I just go into a Target or CVS and buy bags of some kind of Halloween-y snacky things to give out on Halloween. With the rampant paranoia these days, I understand that parents want their kids to get Halloween treats that are prepackaged (that is, nothing homemade). So, I guess my question is whether there is anything more original than the typical bags of mini candies. If not, what are the favorites of little kids these days? Still chocolates?
What do you like to give out on Halloween?</p>
<p>Personally, we don’t get too many kids. I usually go to Sam’s Club and buy the 36 pack of original Hershey Chocolate Bars. Does the trick.</p>
<p>Mini chocolate bars,M & M’s, sour patch kids,etc. and Utz Halloween snacks( mini bags of bat and pumpkin shaped pretzels).</p>
<p>I have been doing snack sized bags of pretzels for many years. Some of the companies make Halloween shaped pretzels.</p>
<p>Just don’t be the house that gives out “bad” candy, like Bit O’Honey (does that exist any more?). kiddie, I think pretzels are chancy, but maybe that flies in your neighborhood.</p>
<p>My kids used to pitch the pretzels and the starlight mints and loose candy ( Hershey’s kisses, etc). Their faves…snickers, kit Kat, skittles. These days the sour patch kids and any other sweet/sour candies are very popular. Btw, it’s sweet ( pun intended 
of you to think about this.</p>
<p>I always let kids pick the candy they want. I give them one pretzel bag and then also have a platter with little chocolates (peanut butter cups, Hershey bars, M & M’s, skittles, sour patch kids, Snickers,etc.) and let them take one of those.</p>
<p>I give Butterfingers, Hershey’s, Kit Kats, Reese’s pieces, tootsie pops (the youngest Halloweeners usually go for those), Mars bars, licorice, etc. I have nut free pretzels in snack packs as an alternative and they always go. Granted, i usually buy just one box of the snack packs but it goes. Lots of kids with nut allergies these days and some of the candy has peanut oil in it. Have also had some diabetic kids. Some kids tell me mom won’t let them take the candy for lunch, but will allow pretzels. </p>
<p>I don’t just hand out pretzels to kids; I give them a choice between candy and pretzels and some choose the pretzels.</p>
<p>“bad” candy, like Bit O’Honey…</p>
<p>Hey - that’s my all time favorite! You bet it still exists, but it takes some work to find it. I feel like I am introducing a new generation to an old delight.</p>
<p>Seriously, we get 250+ - bags and bags of the bite size does nicely.</p>
<p>I have often gone to Costco and bought a big box of microwavable popcorn packs. Or Goldfish. Haven’t seen it this year yet but Costco often also had tiny cans of Playdoh - like 40 (?) of them - big and small alike loved those!!! (I always asked parents of the very little ones before I gave it to them).</p>
<p>We have a bowl of “big kid” candy----snickers, milky ways, et al, and a bowl of “little kid” candy----candy necklaces and super hero themed candy. We get about 100 to 200 depending on the day of the week Halloween falls. We also have hot cider for the kids who know us and mulled wine for the exhausted parents. It’s a fun social night for us.</p>
<p>And for those of you who are interested…I will post my address for any “bad candy” that you care to forward to me. I LOVE Bit O Honey.</p>
<p>Another popular choice is the caramel apple suckers that are only available this time of year…though honestly, hard candy - even suckers - scare me with young children.</p>
<p>Our subdivision is really popular. We usually ended up with over 200 treat or treaters. My husband keeps count each year. lol. The max so far was 378. Anyway we don’t give out a lot of candy. We give out little containers of play doh, temporary tattoo’s,glow in the dark bracelets and spider rings. We let the kids chose which one they want. We do keep a supply of tootsie pops but most kids pick the other stuff.</p>
<p>When my kids were little we lived in a neighborhood where a family grilled hot dogs to give out to kids and parents alike. They grilled them in front of you, and you got to pick if you wanted a bun and what condiments you wanted. It was nice to have something besides candy for dinner (trick or treating was from 5-7), even though hot dogs aren’t that much healthier…</p>
<p>Candy loving kid here- I recommend giving out anything on this list: reese’s, kit kats, hershey bars(small or big), hershey cookie’s n creme(So Good), lollipops are a classic, or twizzlers.</p>
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<p>LOL- my wife used to comb the sacks and confiscate the BoH and Mary Janes- for herself!</p>
<p>Ugh, Mary Janes. That’s one of the other bad candies. And what are those dense, striped peanut butter things called?</p>
<p>Have Mounds bars become bad candy, too? I love those things, but the Targets and Krogers around here don’t seem to stock them for Halloween!</p>
<p>Yes, I love BoH and Mary Janes – just save them and send them to me! 
I also love those peanut butter taffy things wrapped in orange or black paper.</p>
<p>We don’t get many trick or treaters, so this year with an empty nest I will buy what I like and eat the leftovers. Probably mini Heath bars and mini Butterfingers.</p>
<p>When we lived in a busy neighborhood, we used to go through the kids’ candy bags when they got home and pull the stuff no one wanted or that we wouldn’t let them eat (bad situation with a filling and Laffy Taffy one year, so that was one item we wouldn’t allow). Then we would give it back out to the older kids who came later (not in costume) after the little kids are gone – they are too old to trick or treat anyway, IMHO.</p>
<p>When I was a kid there was a nearby family who would server donuts and apple cider on their porch when you came by. I always thought that was a great idea and would like to do the same. I remember the adults chatting for a while, it was a nice stop. But our old neighborhood was too busy (hundreds of kids, many we didn’t know), and our current one is too quiet (lucky to get half a dozen kids in an evening).</p>
<p>Ugh, our first Halloween as empty nesters! No one will be around to eat the leftovers :-(. I will buy Skittles because that’s the one I know I won’t be tempted to eat.</p>
<p>The thing I don’t get is giving out Halloween-themed “tokens” like pencils or stickers. By the next morning no one wants that stuff!</p>