<p>I give out stuff that I can take into work for our candy snack drawer or for lunches because there are bound to be leftovers and I’m NOT throwing away candy. I buy snack size peanut M&M’s, Almond Joys and small bags of raisins and pretzels. I let the kids choose two or three items of anything. This year I got some Laura bars on sale and will add them to the collection too. It seems that raising kids to actually like healthy snacks works. I’ve had little ones exclaim with glee when they see the raisins! We join our neighbors in their driveway along with one or two other neighbors and the kids get three stops at once!</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>Jonri- you are awesome. One of my kids is severely allergic to nuts and Halloween was painful! We had neighbors who knew about my child’s allergy and were sweet enough to buy a special nut free snack for her. Made her feel a little better!</p>
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<p>Definitely the latter. I just returned from the store with 2 huge bags of assorted candy including M&Ms, Twix, Smarties, Tootsie Roll pops, etc. Not at all tempted. We ran out of candy last year so have to stock up big this year.</p>
<p>I used to love Heath bars and Reece’s PB cups; both have seriously declined in quality in the past 40 years.</p>
<p>Like HImom, we give out glow necklaces. Everyone loves them, we’re not tempted to eat them, and if (as in recent years) we have a very light year of trick or treaters, we can stuff them away for the following year. </p>
<p>The spouse and I have thought about how much fun it would be to give out Trader Joe’s Pound Plus chocolate bars. :D</p>
<p>We do the Wonka Giant Pixy Stix. Kids love us, parents hate us.</p>
<p>Razors in apples may be an urban myth, but my brother actually got dog food one year. </p>
<p>We give big bars to big kids and have suitable alternatives for the very little kids. Thanks for the reminder about peanut allergies. I think I will be sure to have something safe on-hand this year. </p>
<p>Pixy Stix - loved them as a kid, hated them as a parent.</p>
<p>I always took my own children when I purchased the Halloween candy figuring they would know better what kids like. We always ended up with a mixture of Reese’s peanut butter cups, kit Kats, snickers bars, milky ways, thousand dollar bars and chunkys (when we could find them). Starburst was another popular one along with Rolos.</p>
<p>H was always big on getting those paper bags to put a few pieces of candy in and wrapping them up tight and taping them shut. I told him kids don’t like them because they can’t see what’s in them. I prefer the big bowl of mini-bars like Snickers, Junior Mints, random Starbursts, Reese’s and whatever else looks good at the grocery store. He says kids will take too much.</p>
<p>Now all H wants to do for Halloween is watch the parade in Greenwich Village. Does anyone else on CC want to do this? Can I hook you up with him so I don’t have to?</p>
<p>Seeing little kids in costume in one of my few remaining links to my children’s youth.</p>
<p>You don’t have to let the kids stick their hands in the bowl… I get mini candy bars (2 kinds) and give them one of each. I drop them in their bags. Then they don’t take too much… pretty simple.</p>
<p>One mini candy bar per kid? And they come back next year?</p>
<p>No, two… one of each type. 
They hear two thumps, they are okay.</p>
<p>I just hope we have Halloween in NJ this year!!! Last year, Hurricane Sandy. The year before, the Snowtober Blizzard. Halloween canceled both times. I’ve lived in NJ for my whole life–never, ever even dreamed of the concept of no Halloween.</p>
<p>There are young kids in the state who must think it’s a myth.</p>
<p>I can’t believe no one has mentioned candy corn! I had a hard time finding the small individual bags this year, and when I did they only came in a pack of 70! It looks like I’ll be eating the leftovers for a while. I also have a couple of big assorted chocolate bags from Target.</p>
<p>I love candy corn, and like to give it out because every once in a while some kid will be super excited! Of course this is followed by the question, “can I have two?” Its just fun to see the occasional kid get excited about something different.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned trinkets from Oriental Trading; that’s a good option too. When my daughter was little I would save the leftover goody bag items from her birthday party and give them out at Halloween along with candy. I remember one little girl on the step yelling back to her dad on the street, “Daddy, I got sunglasses!”</p>
<p>We give out full size bars. I did a cost analysis about 12 years ago; it’s cheaper for me to give every kid 1 full size bar than 3 mini bars. Costco has the 30 packs with an instant mfr rebate right now and the cost per bar is 34 cents each. Our subdivision gets hit HARD; last year was slow and we had 224 kids (it’s easy to keep track when everyone gets 1 bar.) </p>
<p>Not to mention that it engenders amazing good will And I will admit that I love hearing “I told you they give out full size bars” and “this is the house! this is the house!” </p>
<p>On a side note: when we lived in NJ, trick or treating started as soon as school was over. When we moved to TN, I was really confused that all the neighbor kids were out playing. Trick or treating doesn’t start until the sun goes down and ends by 8pm. And adults walk around with adult beverages. I hated Halloween in NJ; I love it in TN.</p>
<p>I also used to save unopened Happy Meal toys over the course of the year and throw those in a basket (I am embarrassed by how many chicken nuggets D2 used to eat) and offer those as an alternative to candy for the younger kiddos.</p>
<p>Stickers, beanie babies, sour skittles or gummy worms.
Jr mints, Reese’s, and fruit juice sweetened gummi bears for the smallest kids that come at dinner time.
(The beanie babies only lasted a few years, but even the middle school kids were thrilled)</p>
<p>RobD–when I was growing up in NJ, trick or treating also started at sundown till 8. That’s the way my kids also trick or treated, except the town we live in does not have a Halloween curfew like I grew up with, so it can linger on later (I’ve had “kids” show up past 9.). The little kids will start after school, but there’s almost no one home then, so I don’t see the point. So I guess it matters what town.</p>
<p>I buy a couple boxes of full size Hershey bars at Sam’s every year, with the intention of chopping up the leftovers for baking. Not that that’s ever happened. (Leftovers, yes. Baking, no.)</p>
<p>We used to have a good number of trick-or-treaters on our street when my kids were of the age. No more. The houses in our neighborhood are a bit farther apart, somewhat hilly, and we have no street lights. The last two years, we’ve had zero. Even the kids who live here go to the brightly lit flat streets with more houses per square inch. I really miss it.</p>
<p>One neighbor gave out hats last year. That was the biggest hit!!! I am guessing he purchased them in bulk. I am guessing they cost more too. But we love them still, even now, months later.</p>