Less Sugar? Try the Halloween Candy Trade-In

In our house, we try to moderate the amount of sugar that we all consume. I bake often, so there is never a lack of sweet treats in this house. But in my head, these sweet treats are a little better since they contain higher quality ingredients. So, we don’t really limit the baked goods like we limit the candy. In fact, it was a long time before my kids were allowed to have candy. I know it seems overly strict, but we wanted to prolong it as much as possible.

Now, each kid has their own bag of candy. On the weekends, they are allowed to dip into the stash. The candy stash accumulates from holidays, gifts, birthday parties, and care packages from my mother-in-law. Its definitely more than what we prefer them to have.

When Halloween rolls around, we do what we call the Halloween Candy Trade-In or Swap. Seeing as how my kids have more candy than they can consume before expiration dates hit, I do not feel guilty for taking their Trick-or-Treat loot. The kids are used to it, they get rewarded in the end, and we’re happy because they aren’t overloading themselves with too much junk.

Here's How it Works

The kids go trick-or-treating on Halloween night like any other kid. When we return home, they dump out all of their candy and check out what they received. Then, they pick out the ones they want to keep. Each kid is allowed to keep the same amount of pieces of candy as the age they will be turning on their next birthday. For example, the seven year old will get to keep 8 pieces of candy.

After they pick out the ones they want to keep, they put the rest back in their buckets. Then, the remaining candy goes to my mom as a trade-in. She then takes the candy and gives them small presents in return.

NOTE: These presents could be anything from books, to stuffed animals, small toys, or clothes. Nothing extravagant, but enough to warrant the swap.

The Bonus Round

Recently, we started doing a taste test round. Since my kids don’t eat a lot of candy, there are still a bunch of candies out there that they’ve never tasted. So we let them do a taste test round before making their elimination decision (on what pieces to keep for their stash). The kids enjoy this because it allows them to make informed decisions and not “waste” one of their pieces on something they don’t like. It is also that much more candy that they get to consume, so they’re very happy.

Fun While It Lasts

I am not sure how much longer we can get them to go along with this. So far, they’ve been very cooperative. I am hopeful it holds out until they no longer go trick-or-treating. In the meantime, I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

The Mom Touch