Halloween has come and gone for another year. My kids sure had fun even though it was a little cold this year. My six year old filled his bucket and a little of his sisters. And no I didn’t pass out toothbrushes, toothpaste, and apples. That’s a lame idea plus I didn’t want our house to get TP’d. There is nothing wrong with the kids (and the parents) eating a little candy in moderation. Just brush and floss those teeth before you go to bed so those tooth bugs don’t eat away at your teeth. It’s usually not the first month that we see those cavities, it’s usually a few months down the road.
I don’t know about you, but we’re going to have lots of left over candy. So I went to a website call Mom On Timeout and got some ideas for all that leftover candy.
•Donate it. There are many opportunities to donate your Halloween candy. Here are a few that I know of:
-Ronald McDonald House Charities-accepts candy donations for kids. You can search for a local branch here.
-Many churches and other places of worship have candy drop-offs or accept candy donations.
-Operation Gratitude-sends care packages to troops overseas.
-Any Soldier-sends packages to individual volunteers who then pass them on to soldiers who don’t get much mail.
That soldier then shares his package with his troop.
•Other places to donate would be food pantries, pediatric wards, and nursing homes.
•Another option is to freeze your extra candy. Chocolate freezes very well and can be stored for up to a year in an airtight container (I use a ziploc bag.) This is also great because when you want a piece you have to wait for it to thaw 🙂
•Christmas is coming up and advent calendars are a perfect use for leftover candy. Make your own advent calendar or chain and count down to Christmas be enjoying one piece of candy a day. (You might want to let your kids take turns instead of having a piece every day.)
•We enjoy cookie decorating parties during the holiday season. Pull out the candy that can be used to decorate cookies and save yourself the expense of buying them later on.
•Use it for crafts. Have your kids make a candy wreath by gluing packaged candies onto a wreath. Fun and decorative at the same time!
•Use the candy to decorate your gingerbread houses. Twix bars could be used for the logs on your log cabin gingerbread house. Snickers would make cute benches. Lollipops make perfect trees. Just use your imagination and your gingerbread house this year will be better than ever!
•Use the candy to bake with. There are lots of recipes that call for candy. You can use M&Ms and pretty much any chocolate candy bar to make delicious cookies. Just chop them up and throw it in your favorite cookie recipe or top your cupcakes with them. Yummy!
•Leftover candy is perfect for ice cream toppings as well. Almost every chocolate candy can be used as an ice cream topping. Just chop them up when you are ready to use.
•Share that candy! You can always take the candy to co-workers or send in with your spouse to his office.