If you happened to ask us about how much Halloween candy we brought home last night, we would answer you with the following statement:
We have enough candy to cover the dining room table.
I wish I was kidding.
I can’t believe it either. And this doesn’t include what we scarfed down last night! Oh man.
3 | Yoni Freedhoff
Andrea….if you’re bored (yeah I know, not likely), crack out a calculator. Would LOVE to know the caloric score of that haul.
3,500cals is the caloric equivalent of a lb.
5 | andrea
Yoni – I don’t want to know!!
Mary – I take a whole heap of it and it becomes my Emergency Candy Stash for consumption in February. ;)
I know it looks rather alarming, doesn’t it? They don’t actually eat a lot of it all in one go. They get a bag of chips in their lunch, a couple small candy bars after school… you can imagine how long that lasts around here.
November 1st, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Doesn’t seem to be as much variety as I remember when I was young, eh?
7 | Lynn
I think it’s adorable and hilarious that they sorted it by type. As soon as I show this to my kids, that’s what we’ll be doing – laying it all out for sorting!
8 | kaitlin
I used to sort my candy in all different ways: By brand, colour of wrapper, favourite to least favourite.
It’s amazing that I never became a statistician, with the stats I kept and analysed on my candy.
9 | Javamom
November 2nd, 2011 at 12:14 pm
I removed the Twizzler type candy from my kids loot when they weren’t looking. I did an analysis once of what is in Twizzlers (see here:
http://javaline.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/candy-crap/) and decided to only them them poison themselves with the candy I haven’t analyzed (pretty much all the rest of it). I know it’s not logical…lol
Our favorites are anything chocolatey with nuts inside, especially peanuts.
Happy candy eating…! We often end up having some left over at Easter…
10 | Susan
November 2nd, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Someone I knew had a good idea to deal with the amount of candy… the “Halloween Witch”!
Basically, you were allowed to eat as much as you want on the night of Halloween but then if you left the rest of the candy out on the doorstep, the Halloween Witch would come and replace the candy with a gift (e.g. a book, a nice dress). Seems a small price to pay to avoid eating all that stuff.
I almost had my daughter convinced to try it out this year…
11 | andrea
Javamom: I’m afraid to read your post!
Susan: I like the Halloween Witch idea! It’s a trendy idea and it’s getting a lot of traction. It’s kind of the PC thing to do I guess.
Perhaps this seems ironic considering how much I talk and write about healthy living, but we’re a little old school about Halloween. Our kids rarely get grocery store candy/chocolate during the year, so I’m of the mind to let them collect as much as they want and we let them have it over a period of many months. I am not really concerned. We eat really well during the year and no one in the family has weight-related issues… so I’m not worried about destroying their health. :)
12 | Chrissy
My 5yo has serious issues with sugar, but I can’t deprive her completely, so we do “The Great Pumpkin”. This year the girls were allowed to keep 10 pieces of candy each (I also let them keep the chips) and the rest we left out for the Great Pumpkin. The next morning they woke up to great gifts – Harry Potter Lego and new dinosaurs! I had 2 very happy little girls. But sadly, Daddy is going to have a sore tummy this week unless he shares with his co-workers. ;)
13 | Mari
Absolutely beautiful photo. I remember organizing my candy as a child, after trick-or-treating. The organization = beautiful!
14 | Carla
My kids came back with a huge haul. Even after we took out the dairy/egg things they are allergic to, each had a large bag left. We keep it in a tall place (only adults can access) and they can have one a day if they ask during the daytime. Sometimes they don’t ask. It lasts for a looooong time. I don’t mind some candy, we eat quite well otherwise.
As for the Great Pumpkin or Halloween Witch, etc. I get that in this way, the kids don’t eat all the candy. But I worry that this is just another way to promote over-consumption. It creates, I think, high expectations about what is ultimately a silly day – really, you dress up in costume and go knock on doors, and the houses are decorated scarily, and they give you candy. Try explaining that to someone who has never seen Halloween before, it is completely non-sensical. Which is fine.
But why add a toy into it? I wonder if we overthink this idea that kids may feel deprived. So what if they have too much candy? Why not have a conversation about how having too much candy is not great and decide together what to do with it? I think it’s important to go through these discussions with kids, sometimes (often I find), they surprise us with their knowing and wisdom.
15 | Ingredients for Life
November 3rd, 2011 at 10:47 am
I love how it’s all organized but saddened by the lack of Cheetos. :-) We got a lot of candy too. I was surprised because we only did one street but people were VERY generous. My kids are allowed to pick a treat per day. Like you, we eat well and move around plenty so I’m not feeling too guilty about allowing this kind of pleasure.
16 | Steph A
November 3rd, 2011 at 11:50 am
That’s too funny! I love how it’s sorted, just what I would do.
Since my boys are a bit younger we only get around the block, the little guy gets tired…or is it we do? Probably. And you know, they forget about it! We still have candy left over from last year. A couple of little bars or a bag of chips once in a while is a nice treat. We also edit the contents and remove all hard candies, they don’t miss it.
My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.
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