Stocking up and stashing Halloween candy. Do you?
We get around 125 to 150 kids trick or treating on Halloween. And since Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, I'm expecting the upper end of that number. Since we have so many kids, I usually go to Sam's Club and pick up three or four really big bags. I went at the beginning of the month and the kids were ticked that I wouldn't open one of the bags. But once one is open--temptation lurks and then the bag is only half full. So I hide it where they're least likely to find it. This year the stash in the front hall closet in a basket under my girly scarves and hats, ones the boys would never think of wearing. So peeps, do you stock upon candy ahead of time or just buy it the night before? Do you hide it from yourself or others?
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17 Comments:
You are so lucky to get so many kids! I don't buy candy till the last minute or it gets eaten in the house.
This is our first Halloween in ATL and it's a nice neighborhood with some young kids - we're hoping to get lots of trick or treaters.
I buy the fun size candies but allow each kid to get a handful.
therealchiffonade at 5:43PM on 10/14/09
We have about 10 pounds of Butterfingers and 100 Grands. One of the 100 Grand bags 'accidentally' popped open, so we had to make sure the 'candy wouldn't go bad', and polished that bag off. We're keeping the rest out of eyesight on top of the fridge.
wheatfoot at 5:50PM on 10/14/09
We went to a dollar store about a week ago to buy a few bags of candy.
We're in a new neighborhood and it's full of kids but I'm a little concerned, we're the only house with decorations up!
My last neighborhood we were always the last to get decorations up. I'll have to wait and see what happens I guess.
AyeEat at 5:55PM on 10/14/09
We have cold weather in our area, so I leave it in the trunk of my car in a bag....tucked behind other stuff.
CJ McD at 6:25PM on 10/14/09
We do not get many trick-or-treaters at our house. Besides, I am usually not home on Halloween night. My parents don't really bother giving out candy.
This year, I have the option of giving out candy from my dorm room to the city kids as a "Safe Trick-or-Treating" program. However, I will be away at a regatta so I won't be able to do it.
If I stocked up with candy this early, it would all be gone by Halloween. I couldn't hide it from myself because I would know where it is.
jo_wang at 6:26PM on 10/14/09
We don't get many kids in our neighborhood so we go a few miles away to where our grandkids live and we bring candy. I buy it ahead of the day and hide it from everyone (except me of course) but hiding is easy in my house. I'll put it behind the vacuum cleaner in the corner or under a blouse on the ironing board - you know - places where no one else will ever look. Also I bring a special treat with me to the grandkids. Last year was a graveyard cake decorated with modeling chocolate to make a falling down fence, gravestones, a dead tree that a skeleton hung from, and of course ghosts. One year it was a plastic fish bowl half filled with blue jello into which I suspended some Swedish fish. This year I'm making a pumpkin cake "carved". I think it will be very cool.
tapioca at 6:31PM on 10/14/09
I've already gotten 2 of the big Costco bags and 2 smaller ones as well as some Ritz mini crackers with PB. I love that they're selling pretzels and crackers in individual servings to give out now along with the candy. I also bought some favors like yo-yos and stickers.
But yes, I have opened 2 of the bags and started eating the junk. We get a lot of kids too so I may need more. I'm hiding the candy in the guest room and my 3 yr old has started calling it the "candy room" cause she knows it's there!
arm1970 at 6:32PM on 10/14/09
My taste for Halloween candy has kind of ebbed--I haven't bought it yet, hoping for sales.
I usually buy stuff for the kids I would have liked as a kid, and insanely expensive dark chocolate that is 87% by label for me and me alone, which I stick in the freezer and desperately try to make last as long as possible.
HeartofGlass at 7:07PM on 10/14/09
I buy candy about two weeks before and hide it somewhere in the kitchen but I buy enough for the people to have some too.
Stashing your own candy only around Halloween, though, is very amatuerish. I stash all year round. I only need one itsy bitsy piece to get me through the day and as the people got older and taller they found all my stash spots SO I have finally found the perfect place......my bra drawer!
PoorOldMama at 8:09PM on 10/14/09
REESE'S CUPS!
I'm with CJ. . .Halloween candy goes into the trunk. (Christmas and birthday presents go to a neighbor's basement.)
I only buy good stuff, meaning candy bars that I like, just in case the weather's awful and only 10 goblins show up. I'd rather be stuck with Reese's Cups, Butterfingers, Almond Joys and KitKats than suckers, smarties and individually-wrapped bubblegum nibs. I do like Mary Janes and bull's eyes and those banana taffy things, too, and I am lucky to have kids and now grandkids who will share with me their entire bounty of those candies. I cannot get them to share their chocolates, though.
One Chicago Halloween (I think 2002) was 33 degrees with 20 mph winds. My 8-year-old granddaughter, her mom and I lasted about a half hour. When we got back home, my sons said hardly anyone came, but the candy bowl was half-empty because, they said, they gave every trick-or-treater a handful. Right.
betteirene at 8:31PM on 10/14/09
...We've never had more than 5 trick-or-treaters, so we usually just buy a bag the night prior..
When I was younger, it was awesome, because most of my neighbors knew they'd only get about 5 kids, so they'd buy the whole candy bars (no mini's!) and I'd make out like a bandit! It was just a bummer that there were no kids around
machellebelle at 8:49PM on 10/14/09
In the 12 years we have lived here we have never had a single trick-or-treater, but that doesn't stop me from buying some candy (my favs of course) "just in case". Every year I say I'm not going to do it, but I always do. I have the same problem with candy corn that I have with Peeps at Easter, I can eat enough to make myself feel sick and then could do the same thing all over again the next day. I know, it's a problem:{
mrsmoosie at 9:13PM on 10/14/09
i am sad. we are in an apt so kids never come here... :( we usually bag or 2 just in case, but disappointment every friggin year.
blizcheetah at 9:14PM on 10/14/09
Halloween was always my favorite holiday as a child. We would start trick-or-treating right after school and stay out until 9:00 PM, or until our pillowcases became so heavy that we couldn't carry them anymore.
I feel sorry for kids nowadays, with the tiny, cheap-ass, mini candy bars, so I still hand out full size Hershey bars on Halloween (although they seem to get smaller every year). This has resulted in our house acquiring something of a reputation amongst the area's children, and we get more and more trick-or-treaters every year. Some even comment to their friends after they come to the door, "Wow! you weren't kidding about this house!".
Last year I bought about 120 candy bars but ran short, and had to make a run to the store. This year because it falls on a Saturday, I bought 180 candy bars, but, unfortunately, I could not help myself, and already cracked into it. Next year, I will wait until the very last minute before buying the candy.
salpico at 11:44PM on 10/14/09
Some years I get 50, and some years none, which makes it kind of hard to plan. I get something I wouldn't mind having left over, and or that will keep a long time. Strangely I don't have a real problem eating ahead, and may eat one or two bars (good thing it's not mini bags of potato chips). It's not unusual for me to throw some out mid-spring when it's gotten too old and/or I know it's not going to get used. Last year I bought little boxes of white and orange pop rocks. They lasted a looooong time. When it looks like I'll only have a few kids I let them take hands full.
lemonfair at 7:09AM on 10/15/09
This is our first Halloween in this apartment. There are definitely kids nearby, but we live on a pretty busy road near a very busy intersection, so I'm not sure we'll get trick-or-treaters. I really hope we do, though, since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.
We were never allowed to open the Halloween candy when I was a kid and my mom usually hid it. This is my first year buying candy and I've been holding off because I'm not sure about my self control. I'll probably get it next week, though.
emgroff at 10:00AM on 10/15/09
i never get trick or treaters....someday.
i usually wait until after halloween to buy up all the leftover candy on sale.
personal stash. lol.
gastronomeg at 11:05AM on 10/16/09