Candy Dilemma

[Jack Batty]

I've got a big-ass bag of mini-Snickers sitting in front of me and not a single trick-or-treater yet. Whatever will I do?

P.S. - That friggin' "Band Names" thread has got me spotting them all over the place.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest band since The Beatles. Please welcome - CANDY DILEMMA!!"

[Jack Batty]

Honest to God, I meant to put that in MPSIMS. Oops.

[Silver Fire]

Suuuuure you meant to put this in MPSIMS. Uh huh. Okay.

Hehee... Eat 'em. All of 'em. But if you do that, just as you are enjoying the last delicious Snickers, you'll hear a knock on your door. And it will be a trick or treater.

[jessicala]

So, in your opinion, is it better to buy candy that you like so that you can eat the leftovers, or candy that you don't like so that you aren't tempted to break into it ahead of time? It's a real dilemma.

[Czarcasm]

That WAS feeble!
Moving this to MPSIMS.

[Kat]

I get candy that I like because I'll have to eat the leftovers, but buy it the day before Halloween so I don't have time to eat it. I also plan to bring some of the leftovers to work; everyone's got candy jars at their desks.

[absoul]

Originally posted by Jack Batty
I've got a big-ass bag of mini-Snickers sitting in front of me and not a single trick-or-treater yet. Whatever will I do?

P.S. - That friggin' "Band Names" thread has got me spotting them all over the place.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest band since The Beatles. Please welcome - CANDY DILEMMA!!"

Maybe you should turn on a few lights in your house, instead of sitting on the couch in the dark with a bag of mini-snickers.

[Jack Batty]

No, no no, you got it all wrong. I'm in the Laz-E-Boy, not the couch.

[techchick68]

Do what I do....I don't buy candy for Halloween anymore. Since I don't eat candy it's a waste. I still have Jolly Ranchers left over from Halloween two years ago. I only had 2 small groups of trick-or-treaters, not worth the expense or the time waiting for the few that come around.

In our town, they do so many community events so trick-or-treaters don't come out in force like we did as kids.

So Jack, pawn a few of them off on friends, family and your neighbors.

< kicking back, enjoying a scary movie on TV and drinking a cold beer -- this is Halloween techchick style >

[Shadowfox]

Last year, we must have had 50+ kids come to the door and ended up running out of candy, so this year we bought a lot of candy. As of 8 p.m., we had only maybe a dozen kids all evening, so now we have way too much candy in our house. The kids love the candy, but neither my husband nor I are big candy eaters, so it will probably be Christmas before we finally run out.

[Hanna]

I don't get many trick or treaters, last year I got four, and this year I got five. The last kid that came asked me if he could have a lot of candy since he was the last trick or treater. I gave him the rest of my stash ( I had "lollies', suckers that are like big sweet tarts).








Wait a minute. How did the kid know he was the last? If any more kids come they're getting cans of Campbell's chicken noodle soup.

[GraceTX]

I had a lot of candy (Twix, KitKat, Nerds, Snickers, 3 Muskateers, Starburst) and fortunately, we had a lot of trick-or-treaters. I usually gave out 4-5 pieces of candy except for the big kids who didn't bother to dress up. I figured it was time to turn out the light when 2 teenagers came up to the door and held open their backpacks for candy.

I did have to say something to a little boy who came earlier in the evening. He was in a group and I gave everyone candy from my basket and after I was done, he reached in and took a big handful out and started to put it in his bag. I leaned over, looked him in right in the eyes, and said very softly "Now that wasn't very nice." His hand stopped halfway to the bag and he looked up me, put the candy back in my basket, and said "sorry." I was tempted to let him have the candy but I figured it wasn't a good thing to reward him for being greedy.

[Persephone]

I've lived in this neighborhood since 1991, and I've had a grand total of TWO trick or treaters, in nine years (like techchick, lots of community events).

Until tonight.

I moved earlier this year, but I'm still in the same neighborhood, just 5-6 blocks north of my old house, on the other side of the elementary school. Apparently they trick-or-treat on this side of the school, because there were a bunch of them. I felt really bad, because I didn't have any candy. Had to shut off the porch light. SO, next year, I'll buy candy, and take my kids trick-or-treating.

Not that my daughter still didn't make out like a little bandit, though. Her babysitter (the daughter of fellow Doper xploder) took her to a Halloween party. Good Goddess, the child brought home a buttload of candy. You know those medium-sized paper bags that you get apples in? The kid's got two of them, chock full. At least she's got school tomorrow--hopefully she'll forget she has that much candy. Sheesh!

[Gunslinger]

I went to the store to get Cool-Whip for the pumpkin pie. At 6:00 tonight, the place was packed with people buying candy.

[Rosebud]

A group of us went to the Rite-Aid near our office at lunch, to pick up some Halloween candy. The mission was almost thwarted, however, because, the employees had already dismantled most of the Halloween display, and were setting out the Christmas stuff.

[absoul]

Jack, I think you had better throw that bag of snickers in the freezer before they start to melt from the pressure of your clutching hands.

[Mirth]

You could always make a snickers cake. *drool*

[halloween nostalgia]
I'm from a small town and when I grew up we went door to door trick-or-treating. I think I can count the number of houses that didn't participate on one hand. In retrospect, I feel for my parents. Four kids getting candy from an entire neighborhood really adds up. My brothers and I would trade candy afterwards like baseball cards. I swear we had enough candy to last us until Thanksgiving. *ponders* And yet somehow, it was always gone before the week was out. Darn sneaky parents! One of these days I will have to ask them what they did with it all.
[/halloween nostalgia]

[tatertot]

Background: We live in US Military Housing, aka "Stairwells". Regulations prohibit trick or treaters from going up the stairs (safety concerns), so we are all supposed to pool our candy and give it out at the front entrance. Well out of eight friggin families in our stairwell, we were the only one who bought candy. I bought quite a bit, but wound up running out around 5:45. And then, one of my non-candy buying neighbors had the nerve to stand there and watch me give out candy and tell me "Oh, don't give any to them, they're too old, or German or whatever". Shut up, wench, this is my candy and I'll give it out how I please!

We did get a lot of trick or treaters, and I got out the Lepre-Cam and took pictures of the cutest little ones for their parents. And I was happy to see that a lot of the German children from around the neighborhood participating, even if some of my neighbors decided that only American children deserve candy. They did a really good job of pulling costumes together and had the whole "trick or treat" "Happy Halloween" and "Thank you" down.

[Feynn]

We live in a townhouse and the entire complex numbers 90 units. We get a lot of kids here every year and tonight I figured that we handed out candy to about 100 kids, we have had 200 in the past so tonight was a little slow.

We were overprepared and I have no idea how long it will take us to go through the bucket load of gum and suckers that were left over. Our own kids made out like bandits so there is no lack of sweets in our house.

The sweetest thing was seeing our three year old daughter go Halloweening for the first time, she was dressed in her Winnie the Pooh costume and as she walked along she sang the theme song... "Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, willy nilly silly all stuffed with fluff..." She was exceeding polite and was effusive in her thanks to all the nice people who gave her candy. She was so tired when she got home she barely had the energy to eat any of her treats and zonked out in no time.

[Munch]

Originally posted by Persephone
You know those medium-sized paper bags that you get apples in? The kid's got two of them, chock full. At least she's got school tomorrow--hopefully she'll forget she has that much candy. Sheesh!

I'd like to direct everyone to the SDMB's biggest Pipedream of the Week, brought to you by our very own Persephone. Do you REALLY believe that the only thing she is NOT thinking about today is that mound of candy?

And to propose a solution that is a good 24 hours late for everyone, let me tell you what a co-worker does with her children's candy each year. She makes them divide it up into two piles, equal number of each candy in each pile. The kid gets to keep 1/2, and the other half goes to the Great Pumpkin in exchange for a gift. The GP then distributes their extra candy to all the children that didn't get candy that year.

How sweet is THAT idea?!?

[malaka]

Originally posted by Jack Batty
P.S. - That friggin' "Band Names" thread

Thought you were referring to this thread.

[Persephone]

Connor: Yeah, I know. But a parent's gotta have hope.

[rundogrun]

Well..we got exactly 0 kids last night...usually we get about 10. When I took my son out, all the neighbors were anxious to get rid of their candy, so he was collecting by the handful.

Most of our leftover stuff (and most of his, since he got WAY to much) will be saved for gingerbread houses at Christmas...an excellent way to use up leftovers!

[flodnak]

tatertot, sounds like that neighbor of yours is doing a great job of promoting peace and goodwill between the base folks and the locals

Last night as fella bilong missus flodnak was driving flodjunior home from all-sports club, the two of them saw their very first trick-or-treaters ever. I didn't know anyone did it in Norway. We live reasonably near the International School, so I'm certainly not the only American around, but still. So from the time they got home until bedtime, flodjunior was waiting and waiting for somebody to ring our doorbell. Nobody did. Strangely, that upset him more than not getting to go out himself.

I figure that it's because we live along a very busy street with a fairly narrow sidewalk, plus we didn't decorate and our porch light is currently burned out. Maybe next year we'll make a ghost or something and make sure the light is on, to lure the neighborhood kids.

[whiterabbit]

I wasn't home, so I didn't stock up.

HOWEVER, all that candy is now going to go on sale!

[Jack Batty]

Events and geography were conspiring against me last night. Or for me, depending on how you look at it.

We have one of those remote control doorbells, which apparently died at some point in the recent past. For all I know there was a line of 50 kids outside my door waiting to get their grubby little mitts on my precious Snicker bars. The little bastards.
However, this probably wasn't the case as I live about three blocks from the Castro in SF. For those of you not familiar with this area and its customs, Halloween in the Castro makes New Year's Eve in Time Square look like a quilting bee. The place looked like the dregs of war-zone this morning.
Parents would have been wise to steer their kids clear of the Castro last night.

[jessicala]

Grrr ... I bought one bag each of Snickers, Milky Ways, and Three Musketeers and we got 5 trick-or-treaters. Anyone want some extra candy? At least it's chocolate and will freeze.

OTOH, all the stuff I had left out at work is gone this morning. (whew.)

[Xploder]

I bought 16 POUNDS of mixed candy this year because I run out EVERY year. Split one four pound bag between my son to take to school for his class and Mrs x to take to work for the kids from the Michigan School for the Deaf. That leaves twelve pounds right? Should be enough right?

I made the horrible mistake of letting my fifteen year old daughter pass out candy. I don't mind giving two or three pieces to each kid or even more to the really little ones, I mean, hey, they gotta go home to THIER parents, ya know? But then I noticed something...I had to open the third bag when less than an HOUR had passed...she was giving FISTFULLS to EVERYBODY!!!

From then on, good old Dad (me) passed out the rest. I even ended up with about three dozen flavored Tootsie Rolls left over!

I hate holidays.....

[Persephone]

Aw, face it, xploder, you've just got good-hearted kids.

How long does candy keep, anyway? If I buy the sale stuff now, will it still be good this time next year?

(yeah, right--if I've gotta ask how long candy keeps, no way in hell it'll keep 'til next year...)

[SeaDiver]

Originally posted by Jack Batty
For those of you not familiar with this area and its customs, Halloween in the Castro makes New Year's Eve in Time Square look like a quilting bee. The place looked like the dregs of war-zone this morning.
Parents would have been wise to steer their kids clear of the Castro last night.

Jack, as I'm sure you could hear, it was pretty crazy. Sorry about your neighborhood, man.