The Grinch Meets the Great Pumpkin. And It’s Love at First Sight!

By Megan

A few nights ago the girls from my neighborhood all went out for dinner together, and inevitably our conversation turned to Saturday’s Trick-or-Treating and related festivities. We all really love seeing our kids and one another’s kids in costume, we love bundling up and trudging along with them, the herd of Star Wars characters, superheroes and assorted furry, fluffy, adorable animals followed by another, slower herd of us parents – the paparazzi – cameras, wagons, strollers and hot beverages in tow. It’s one of my favorite nights of the year and I’m really thrilled Bean and Peabody will have these great Halloweens to remember as some of the highlights of their childhoods.

What I’m not too thrilled about is getting left holding the bag. Of candy. Mounds and mounds of Mounds. And Tootsie Rolls. And Lemon Heads and Sweet Tarts and Twizzlers and ginormous Pixie Stix. “Uuuuugh… I really don’t want all that candy in my house for weeks on end after Halloween,” I lamented to the other moms at the table and Mama-heads nodded all around. And then my friend Jenn shared an idea.

My friend Jenn shared a wonderful awful idea!

Her children, both boys, make it a point each year to come home with PILLOW CASES full of candy. And she says they bring it home and make big piles of it on the floor of her family room. And sort it and stack it and trade it. And they eat it, lots of it. For a few days. And after those few days, Jenn has her boys pull out 20 or so of their favorite remaining pieces of candy, and the rest they package up in bags.

FOR THE GREAT PUMPKIN!

They leave the bags full of their remaining candy on the doorstep overnight, and that old Great Pumpkin? He rolls on by and collects the candy (assumably for next year’s supply for Trick-or-Treaters) and leaves each child, in exchange, a small gift. A toy, a book, maybe a few dollars? Nothing overboard, but something the boys will enjoy and see as special and fun enough to justify the “trade.”

I really thought this was an extremely clever idea and I’m going to do it with Bean (Peabody didn’t get any candy this year because he’s too little yet) tonight. Bean really loves getting new books, and I love having special seasonal ones to keep put away and just bring out for a few weeks each year, so I’m going to my local bookstore tomorrow to see if I can find some fallish and/or Halloweenish books on SALE to wrap up and leave for Bean to find Tuesday morning.

I’m so tickled with this plan, I just thought I’d share it with you other parents who might be looking for a way to get that candy GONE.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think need to go snag the Twix bars and Hot Tamales out of that candy bag before it’s too late!

Megan blogs at Fried Okra.

17 Responses to The Grinch Meets the Great Pumpkin. And It’s Love at First Sight!
  1. gretchen from lifenut
    November 2, 2009 | 10:16 am

    The Great Pumpkin idea is super cute. What does he do with all the candy? Does it go out with the garbage?

    My evil plot to get rid of the candy: I let my kids eat it, piece by piece, for the next month or so. Candy doesn’t upset me very much. Maybe it should.

  2. melissa
    November 2, 2009 | 11:51 am

    lovely idea!

  3. Anita
    November 2, 2009 | 12:20 pm

    Okay, so then what does the Great Pumpkin *really* do with all that candy?!????

  4. Marie
    November 2, 2009 | 12:26 pm

    Great idea! My little one does not care about the candy yet but when he does I think I’ll try this if I can wrench the candy away from hubby. 🙂
    What to do with all the candy left for the great pumpkin?
    http://www.halloweencandybuyback.com/index.html–Send it to the troops!

  5. Megan
    November 2, 2009 | 12:27 pm

    I don’t KNOW what to do with the candy! I could just throw it away – I mean, I don’t want it here because it’s unhealthy – so do I give it to someone else? Is that right? Hmmm….

    Any ideas, anyone?

  6. Megan
    November 2, 2009 | 12:30 pm

    Awesome. Thanks Marie! I’d heard about that but didn’t know how to do it. Thanks for the link.

  7. Michell
    November 2, 2009 | 12:33 pm

    I have friends that do this too and they take it to a local homeless shelter and a shelter for abused women and children.
    Some have taken them to an orphange.

  8. Melissa
    November 2, 2009 | 12:43 pm

    Fabulous idea! I’m gonna pass it on to all my friends. Have a great day! :o)

  9. Blessed
    November 2, 2009 | 12:51 pm

    This sounds like an awesome idea!

  10. Donna
    November 2, 2009 | 1:13 pm

    How about freezing some of the candy bars for a later date? Stocking stuffer or even holiday baking!

    I do like this idea though, but I am sure my 9 year old will be too smart for this idea…maybe we will try!

  11. Val M.
    November 2, 2009 | 3:55 pm

    The Great PUmpkin is a really neat idea!

    We don’t have kids yet, but we might do what my parents dis with my younger sister fater I was grown and out of the house. They would take her trick-or treating early before all the big kids were out. She would come home, they’d inspect the candy then let her pick out 20 or so of her favorites. The rest of the candy went into the big bowl for passing out. They recycled the candy so it didn’t go to waste and saved money because they would buy less candy for passing out.

  12. Kelly
    November 3, 2009 | 4:47 pm

    As far as ideas for the Great Pumpkin’s stash, I echo the idea to freeze some of it for later and/or take some of it to a shelter.

    One other thing I always do is take out as much non-chocolate (non-meltable) candy that I can, and then I pack it into the Operation Christmas Child boxes that we’ll ship off in a few weeks. Nerds, Laffy Taffy, suckers, Tootsie Rolls — they all work for that.

  13. Kelly
    November 3, 2009 | 4:47 pm

    Oh! And I should add that the kids know I take their non-chocolate candy for the Operation Christmas Child boxes. They like the idea of contributing some of their candy to kids around the world who might never get treats like that.

  14. Erin
    November 4, 2009 | 11:17 pm

    Give it to your favorite elementary school to re-stock her treat basket – we are always looking for candy! 🙂

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