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Peanut-butter cups

sour patch kids, gummy bears, warheads, twizzlers

PB cups for the win. The end.

I do a Snickers mix because Snickers are my favorite. The mix also has Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, and Twix, all delicious.

I am all about the Snickers mix. It is a little ray of chocolaty sunshine in my life.

If you want to try doing something a little more moderate (if not healthy), maybe buy a Costco pack of mini-bags of baked Lay's and give them out?

Some children have allergies, especially to nuts. If you are planning to give out Reese's, Hershey bars with almonds, Snickers, etc., please provide an alternate choice.

I've stubbornly clung to my past, giving out full-size chocolate bars every Halloween, but they have gotten so small, and expensive, that I switched to the snack packs of Oreos last year. The kids seemed happy with them. I bought 16 cases x 12 packs each this year, so I don't run short.

We have an assortment of minis to give out--snickers, kit kats, whoppers, 3 musketeers, milky way, hershey's, almond joy, butter fingers, pb cups, skittles and starburst. I give them out by the handfull (shame on me), and the older kids know that if they hit us just before I turn out the light, they get whatever I have left, which sometimes is a fair amount of booty.
Healthy snacks that my kids like are mini bags of pretzels or cheddar popcorn. And there's always the toothbrushes from the dentist down the street.

Look, I'm a runner and a vegetarian but--NO 'healthy' snacks, NO moralizing treats!

I am still making up my little bags. So far I have Hershey's peanut butter pumpkins because I know they are popular and the orange Kit-Kats. I would have loved to have gotten cookies or cakes as a kid, since I loved them more than candy, but getting them pre-bought can be expensive, especially since my trick-or-treater volume varies.

For non-candy stuff, I liked stickers and pencils.

I may be flamed, but I'm afraid kids who don't eat chocolate will not be happy with my house. I don't like pure sugary Jolly Rancher, Skittles and such. I realize some kids have issues, but I hope between all of the houses, every kid gets something. I mean, there is an argument against EVERY candy--sugary candy is worse for your teeth, spikes your blood sugar more than candy with a bit of protein and fat than pb cups, for example.

I always liked the more unusual bars as a kid like 100 Grand and Butterfinger (which was more rare then) plus anything in a Halloween wrapper. People used to also wrap the bars in white tissues, tie them and make tiny 'ghosts.'

But once again--no tiny boxes of raisins, toothbrushes, and plastic spider rings!

The single-serve packs of Oreos (6 regular-size cookies) are packed 12 to a box for just $4.25 (on sale at my local supermarket this month). I don't think this is extravagant, even though we get upwards of 150 trick-or-treaters every year.
I can't imagine just giving each child one tiny, bite-sized chocolate bar, and if I were to give out a handful of those to each kid, I would need a truckload, and it would be mayhem.

From my many years of Halloween candy obsessing, I've noticed that people can be broken up into two categories: those who love super sour/gummy/hard candy (freaks) and those who like yummy chocolatey things (the enlightened). People like my boyfriend and brothers go crazy for Sour Patch Kids, Starbursts, Warheads, etc. I go crazy for anything chocolate, but my all time favorite has got to be Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. I avoid them all year because I know that I'll buy a huge bag for Halloween, get no trick-or-treaters, and then spend the next week scarfing them down. The year-long avoidance evens it out, right?

Also, my boyfriend is weird and southern and calls Reeces Peanut Butter Cups "Reesey Cups," has anyone else heard of this? He told me that's just how they said it when he was growing up and I just dismissed him as crazy, like I always do.

@PumpkinBear: We laugh when we hear ppl call Reese's "ree-seez" also. It seems to be on an upswing, as we've heard it a lot more the past few months than previous years combined.

I suppose it depends on the delivery method. We used to package candies in little bags when we gave them out -- so each kid would have a couple of candy bars (Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Krackel, 100 grand, or plain chocolate), Sixlets, Sugar Daddy or Sugar Babies, M&Ms (plain or peanut) with the hope that there would be something they would like. We realized that you can't please 'em all.

One year, we gave out Chupa Chups lollipops. I wanted the huge milk tin and didn't want the candy. They aren't bad, but how the heck can 2 people go through eleventy billion lollipops? I don't even know where that silly tin is. I must have thrown it away...?

The candy corn was for us.

I don't know if a kid would like receiving granola or Milk 'N Cereal bars. I didn't have much of a sweet tooth growing up so I would have preferred that over chocolate or hard candy.

I only buy name brands because if it's pouring rain here near Seattle, I don't want to be stuck with candy that I won't eat. I buy stuff that the grandkids like, which is anything that begins with "gummi," Reese's, Butterfingers, Snickers Almond (formerly Mars Bars), Hershey bars, KitKats, Snickers and Almond Joys, and M&Ms. The son I live with buys one of those giant bags with SweeTarts, bubblegum, suckers and I don't know what all else. I don't give out the chocolates until the mixed bag is gone.

Last year, we went through 11 bags of candy, but we let kids pick two pieces each, and we had four bags left over. I remember one year in Illinois when the weather on Halloween was almost like summer and we had so many trick-or-treaters that I ran out of candy and used some of the kids' bounty until someone came back from the store with more. The boys "donated" their least-liked candy, which was mostly suckers, the taffies and Hershey Kisses.

Okay, either Snickers or for a regional item, I would easily choose either Pearson's Nut Goodie or Pearson's Salted Nut Roll....great, now I am drooling again...

Kids are masters at trading and wheel-dealing, so to those who worry about disappointing the peanut-allergy types, let go of your worries. Their parents wouldn't let them out to collect free random candy if it was that serious an infraction.

When all my kids were young enough to go out trick-or-treating, they'd come home, dump out their bags, and the trading would begin in earnest. Kids are pretty capable of managing their wants and needs.