Stash the Stash

Do you wonder how to keep your kids (or yourself!) from downing candy bar after candy bar after Halloween? I have been hearing some great restraint ideas from other moms that I couldn't help but share. The Great Pumpkin/The Sugar Witch Let your kids pack a small sandwich bag of their favorite treats from the evening (pack one for yourself too!) Put the rest of the loot in a bowl by the front door/the fireplace/the kitchen table and tell your kids that The Great Pumpkin (or the Sugar Witch) is coming tonight to take all the extra candy to a local food bank to share with other kids. In exchange for their 'generosity,' The Great Pumpkin leaves a small toy for each child. Thanksgiving Countdown Calendar Create a countdown calendar similar to an Advent calendar. As you open the door for each day leading up to Thanksgiving to eat the candy that day, talk about what you are thankful for and what your kids are thankful for. This will help to spread out the sugar consumption over many more days. Unload! When we were kids we would plan our route so we could stop back home and unload our loot, lighten our load and run even faster to each house. While we were gone, my mom would sort through the candy and use the kinds that we didn't like as much to give out to other trick-or-treaters. We all know that if it's around, we're going to eat it, even if it's not our favorite... so why not be the house that gives handfuls of candy to the kids and get rid of the pieces that you don't like as much. Ask your kids before they go what their two favorites are, keep those and give all the others away (like jawbreakers - I mean c'mon, who wants a jawbreaker?!) Do you have any good ideas for decreasing the candy consumption for your little ones or do you overlook the extra sugar because Halloween is only once a year? What did your parents do when you were a kid?