New way to treat Halloween

I love most of Halloween.  I love the dressing up and the going from house to house.  In our neighbourhood there are several houses that have wonderful decorations, and some of them also keep a little something for any adults who bring a shot glass with them, so there is a real feeling of community, even when the weather is as bad as it was this year.

The part that I hate is the candy. I wouldn't mind a bit of it, and I wouldn't even mind a bit more if it was good quality treats or homemade goodies, but it's really just parents giving other people's kids the kind of terrible multicoloured sugar that they would never give their own. The children eat it for months, and the parents dole it out piece by piece for months, and the only people who win are the candy companies.

One way I combat this is by handing out homemade goodies at our house, something different every year.  We know most of the kids, and almost all of them have adults with them anyway, so they don't have to worry about safety.  We even get a number of the adults coming to ask treats for themselves.

This year, for the first time, we also gathered food for the foodbank as well as candy for the kids, and it was good to see our children begin to take this job seriously, encouraging their neighbours to give to people who don't have enough good food to eat.

We also instituted a new rule. The kids were allowed to eat as much as they wanted when they got home, but anything that was left after they went to bed got thrown away. They gorged themselves, of course, but not as much as you might think, and I haven't had to fight over candy a day since.