I give you the Halloween Rules from a Former Fat Kid:
As a former fat kid and ambassador for chubbyness throughout my early pre-teen years (my pants size was Husky), I feel I can attest to the wants and needs of kids around the world when it comes to Halloween and more importantly Trick or Treating.
Many parents want to make Halloween healthy and about not having candy that’s terrible for you. But that, my friends, is the very principal of Halloween as a kid! When else are you going to get tons of candy (for free) just for wearing a silly costume?
As an experiment, tell your child that instead of candy you are going to give them something healthy or something lame like granola bars (and they’re not even that healthy!). See how well that goes.
So here are some Candy Rules for Halloween:
1: No weirdly wrapped candies because kids cannot even eat those, half the time if you go through the trouble of making fancy Halloween treats, the kid’s parents are just going to throw them out, so stick to something packaged.
2: If you have healthy treats, just save them for yourselves. As well intentioned and correct your thinking is in that we need to change our diets, giving out healthy candy is akin to giving socks and boxers on Christmas (or Hanukkah or anything else you celebrate). Do you need socks and boxers? Absolutely. Do you want them on the one day of the year where you receive gifts for no real reason? I don’t think so!
3: Having the just take one bowl with a card on it is a sure fire way to get all your candy taken from your house on the first go around. If you’re not going to be there to dole out candy, just don’t bother.
4: Do not give out any sort of old timey candy, or anything not from the big candy companies (Mars, Nestle, Hershey). Most kids hate it, so you’re not making any friends here.
5: If you want to be king of your court/street/block whatever, dole out some KING SIZE candies. You will literally go down in the minds of those children as the coolest house on the block.
6: Don’t just give one piece, that’s lame. Unless you are following Rule 5 (or have budgetary concerns, in which any candy is better than no candy). If you are going the Fun Size route, you need to be prepared to hand out at least 3 pieces per kid.
7: Gum is not a Halloween Candy.
8: Pennies are not a Halloween Candy.
9: Peanut Butter anything is always a great choice (unless kids have a peanut allergy, obviously).
10: You can never go wrong with any of the following: Reese’s, Snickers, Milky Way, Twix, Kit Kat Bars, M&M’s, Starburst, and Butterfingers.
