It’s supposed to storm in Dallas tomorrow. I have a big Costco bag of candy ready, and now something has come up and we won’t be home. What can I do with this candy, which DH will eat if it stays here?
ETA, can’t hand it out at school, there’s peanuts in the mix.
I live on one of our city’s great halloween streets…we’ll see between 200-300 trick-a-treaters when Halloween is on a weekday…and all bets are off on weekends.
We (me, mainly) used to have a big Halloween, with strobes, fog machines, speakers, etc. and drinks for the parents As D18 got older, I tapered down some on it. For the last two years we had a killer Stranger Things display. With D18 gone to college this year I’m not into it as much. I have candy and some new lights but don’t plan on going whole hog. We get 50-100 kids.
Reading this thread has gotten me more interested.
BTW, there has been a big generational turnover in our neighborhood. Most of us old timers moved here in our 30s with small kids (it was a new neighborhood in the 1990s that reached ~500 homes). They’re all off at college now and the old timers are moving out. New 30-somethings are moving in with little kids. It’s been fun to see little kids in costumes again.
“What can I do with this candy, which DH will eat if it stays here?”
Food pantries/banks.
My neighbors know I’m the crazy Halloween lady who carves complicated pumpkins and hands out goodie bags filled with a variety of treats as well as little toys like plastic skull rings and sticker sheets. Keeps me young. I do try to mostly buy candy that I won’t want to eat myself, like fruity stuff. This year I found mini-bags of veggie chips in the shapes of pumpkins and bats. I was unreasonably thrilled.
When I was a kid we HATED the people who kept the lights off and/or didn’t answer the door. I don’t want my place to be one of those houses.
My only negative feeling regarding Halloween is about the high school age kids who come by. I think if you’re old enough to get a job and buy your own candy, you’re too old for trick-or-treating.
We have been getting fewer and fewer trick or treaters each year but have full size bars, animal crackers or glow necklaces, awaiting those who come! S3 mans our house while H and I head over to see our granddaughters.
The kids live on THE Halloween street of a big planned community. The first year in their house, the neighbors and I had warned them to be prepared for an onslaught of trick or treaters. I had a feeling they would underestimate the magnitude and walked in with a bag full of candy-400 pieces. S1 and DIL were polite enough not to say anything but I could tell they thought I was nuts since they had a big bowl of candy and a few extra bags. Well…an hour and a half later we were out, having handed out over 700 pieces! It looks like a parade going down the street door to door. The police close down the street to traffic and everyone just hangs out on their porch steps handing out candy. It’s crazy and fun all at the same time. There are some incredible costumes (including dogs!) and it really is a huge social event.
H and I will be handling candy duty tomorrow while the girls go around. We love it!. The weather forecast is perfect and we have 1200 pieces ready!
In Hong Kong this year. We’ve seen tons of young kids on outings with their schools in costume. There are displays in the supermarkets too. We’re staying in an international house/hotel associated with the university my dh is visiting in Hong Kong, and I don’t think the other people here (students on the lower floors, important people like us (LOL) on the upper floors) are going to be trick or treating. If I were home I’d have candy. We don’t get a lot of kids because we are on a cul-de-sac just across a busy street. The other side of the street is crazy though! We’ve had several young family move into our side, so we are getting more kids. If I am not there - I just leave out a bowl and hope some teenager doesn’t think they need to take all of it.
There is one street in the neighborhood that all the kids trick-or-treat on, and it isn’t ours. We still buy candy, on the off chance that someone will ring our doorbell. Sometimes we get a small group of college kids from the local college. We are happy to give away any candy to them.
If we get younger school aged kids at our door, it just means that they just moved to the neighborhood and have no idea that everyone heads to the one street. We direct them down there (after giving some candy) so they don’t miss out on the fun.
I’m really glad I don’t live on the trick-or-treat street. My favorite memory from taking my kids down there years ago was the homeowner that was pretty much looking for random donations of candy from kids to tide him over until his wife returned with more candy to give out. He simply had no idea how much he should’ve bought.
Yes. If the rain holds out we should have a good number. I dress the dog up and hand out the goodies. Tonight I pour painted a pumpkin. It is so warm a real one rots. Our porch light is out and husband won’t fix it but I have lights plugged in so I hope they see it.
Speaking of pumpkins, people in my area have had problems this year with the squirrels eating them. After several years of bumper crops of acorns resulting in larger populations of squirrels, it is a bust year for acorns this fall. The squirrels are going nuts trying to forage for the winter and are eating things they normally leave alone. Many squirrel deaths on roads and highways as well.
I’ve declared a moratorium on Halloween until such time as I have grandchildren (which looks like never.). I handed out candy all the years my kids went trick-or-treating and for several years after but you know I just don’t enjoy it so the lights are off and I’ll be out.
We have candy but only get about 60 kids. We will give out some and then help the neighbors a few blocks away. They have 1.200 hallow weinies read to roast for the hungry trick or treaters. H has been helping them set up for their MaryChrisMess open house.
We hand out full-sized bar so we know exactly how many we give out each year by how many we have left over. Our lowest year was in the low 400’s, the highest in the low 800’s. We’re expecting our number will be around 600 this year.
I love Halloween on our street. My only regret is that we’re so busy we don’t get an opportunity to see all the other houses.
The squirrels (or maybe racoons) always attack our pumpkins eventually. Sooner if it’s carved - I assume it smells good. We put them out on the compost heap when they start getting eaten.
As I posted on @abasket’s Halloween thread, we will be driving up to our old neighborhood to gather in the driveway of one of our neighbor’s houses to chat and pass candy out to the kids (and beer to the adults) from 6-11PM. I bought four large grocery bags of candy, and it probably won’t be enough. I don’t know the exact count of trick-or-treaters, but it’s in the hundreds for sure. So much fun. 
zip, nada, nothing. I live on a street that has a very low Candy to Effort Ratio so we do not get any kids. I used to always have some ready by the door, but I end up eating it all myself. So this year I’m going to turn out the lights and give up. Unfortunately I kind of live in a glass house and it’s hard to ‘hide’ becuse any light on inside the house is visible in some way down below on the street.
We do the same thing every year. Decorate the porch, with pumpkins, carved jack-p-lanterns and lights. Two kettles with nut-free and non-nut-free treats. I love meeting the neighborhood kids, so I hope it continues. If it ends, and I’m afraid it will, I guess we’ll keep decoraring, and keep a small supply of candy.
My mom will wear my witches hat with twinkling stars and hand out candy. She loves it! I do have to open and close the door all night, but we enjoy seeing the kids in costume. I used to create and sew our kids’ costumes and miss the excitement they felt, getting all decked out as their favorite characters.
Even though we are now empty nesters, we sure do! Our neighborhood is aging out so the numbers have been dwindling, but I have full-size candy bars waiting for those who come! DH carved the pumpkin tonight, but it won’t go out until shortly before the trick or treaters, any earlier and the squirrels and various other wildlife go to town.
If you have leftover candy, consider donating it to our troops. Last year our local hospital was a donation site and I hope they do it again this year.
I have not vetted this site but here is an organization that you can check for a donation site by zip code https://soldiersangels.org/Donate-Halloween-Candy!.html. Another site: https://www.operationgratitude.com/express-your-thanks/halloween-candy/
One of my neighbors has a son who is career army. The kids who are deployed eat it but they also hand out candy to kids while on patrol.
I googled candy for the troops, my hometown and found where to drop off my candy.