First of all, let me tell you, I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!

Let me count the ways:

1. I love dressing up, any reason to dress up! Even if it is only putting on a pretty mask or witches hat.

2. I love the crisp fall evenings and all the spookiness that the sound of leaves crackling creates.  Even the moon gets a hallow glow to it.

3. I LOVE the excitement and frenzy of the children’s infectious delight in trick or treating.

4. I love when the kids come running up to the door, requesting treats, and showing off their Halloween costumes.

5. I don’t even mind the older kids trick or treating, At least they aren’t out partying.  I do make them tell me what their costume is, and if they don’t have anything I tell them to make something up.

6. And yes, I even love buying the candy (I always buy my favorite, just in case there is snacking before trick or treaters come over, or on the rare chance that I have leftovers).

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I could go on forever … What I don’t love is all the extra candy we have leftover the day after. For weeks and weeks after the fun of Halloween has faded, my son will beg to have some candy, and then get sugar highs, and then sugar crashes, and then temper tantrums.

This year is going to be different. I’m going to have a Halloween Candy Plan.  Here are some ideas for you to make your own candy plan, that I came up with or scoured off the web.

I started by asking my husband, as I knew he would have an answer even if I didn’t want to hear it. And sure enough, he did, and sure enough, I knew my search had to go on.  Want to know what he said?  “Just throw all the left over candy away, it’s disgusting.”  While I can appreciate his practicality, I am never going to throw away perfectly DELICIOUS and edible candy.  Like never, ever, ever. So my planning continued and these are some of the sweet ways I found to utilize that left over candy without throwing it out.halloween-candy-1014629_960_720

Here are some ways to get your candy GONE!

  • Leftover candy can be donated to our troops overseas.  This is a great way to send some Halloween happiness and hometown love to our troops. To donate to our local Mom’s Support Club, contact via email stollfamily@suddenlink.net.
  • Freeze the candy and divvy it daily in school lunches. This way they get a treat, and you don’t have to buy it.  This doesn’t really get rid of the candy, just portion controls it, and maybe saves you some money on your grocery bills. Think about creative ways to hide it in the freezer!
  • Pay your kids to turn their candy into you. There are lots of different variations on this. You could set a penny per candy, a nickel per candy, or just a set amount.  Example: if you turn in all your candy you can pick out one Lego set at Kmart (warning: there are some very expensive Lego sets, you may want to actually set a limit before you go).  I loved the idea of having the kiddos turn in their candy for fictitious money.  Monster money is a great and is a Halloween themed way to give them something in return. You can then set the exchange rate ($4 in monster dollars = $1 etc.). Print cute monster money here!
  • Some dentists can have a buy back candy program.  I don’t know of any local dentists that do this, but please ask your dentist if they participate, or if they would like to do this.  Maybe we can start a new trend.
  • Have your kids help you create a Candy Concoction.  Round up all the candy and then make a candy dip. Start with cream cheese, and then start adding in cut up (or broken up, for little hands) chunks of Halloween candy.  Serve with a cookie and let them dip away.
  • Make a monster cookie pizza.  I know my son would LOVE this as anything called pizza is his and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s favorite.  Cowabunga!!  Take store bought (or handmade) cookie dough, make 1 large cookie and then add your leftover Halloween candy as your toppings.  Eat and enjoy!  And then your candy is all used up!
  • Along these same lines, make a Candy Cake. Bake any type you like (or have on hand), and frost as you normally would, and then top with all your leftover Halloween candy.  Since this would be such a sweet dessert, it would be lovely to slice up and share with neighbors.  Now you are spreading cheer and dispersing the calories.
  • Hide for Christmas projects. Put all the leftover candy in a ziploc baggy, and hide it in the Christmas decorations to save it for holiday craft projects.  It would work great to decorate all those lovely gingerbread houses. And this saves you from having to buy more candy just a few short months later!
  • Use it for a science experiment! You can use up the candy by sneaking it into a scientific discovery, by doing a sink or float experiment.  Grab a bunch of different candies, have your child guess whether they think (a starburst for example) will sink or float, then test them out, and record the data.  This would be great for many different age groups.  You could also see if your child’s teacher would like to do this in their class. To make it more fun I made a quick printable (with pictures for our younger kiddos). Just print it out, and get your science on! Do you think Candy corn floats?
  • Make it educational. Lastly, you could teach your child about calories, and how long it takes to burn them off.  There are a lot of different charts that tell you how long you have to walk, swim, or run to burn off a fun size snickers.  This could be a great way to teach math and moderation.

Here is a printable chart, or you could make your own. Hopefully this gave you some fun ideas. Please feel free to comment with any other thoughts or ideas.  If all else fails… I guess you could just throw the candy away.

P.S. Click here to download and print the entire list of candy-be-gone ideas for reference and planning later!