Switch Witch Saves Family from Candy Overload

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Every Halloween parents everywhere face a daunting problem: what to do with all that candy???

Here's how we handle Halloween in our family.

Our children collect obscene amounts of candy trick-or-treating. When they return home, they may eat 3 or 5 (there are often negotiations) pieces of candy right then. I am aware that they snitch candies while trick-or-treating or even back at home. I am just trying to contain the deluge. I also try to steer them away from what I consider to be the most disgusting candy because it pains me to watch them eat it.

All the rest of the candy gets left near the fireplace for the Switch Witch, usually right in their trick-or-treat bags.

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Sweets and Treats I Let My Kids Eat

Halloween is just a few days away and I've been making my preparations for the Switch Witch's visit. My children leave all their candy for the Switch Witch on Halloween night, and in return she leaves them a gift and a small quantity of better (less bad) candy. I've resigned myself to the fact that my children will get lots of extra sugar on many occasions and holidays throughout the year, but I'd like to avoid feeding them the food additives and other weird ingredients that often accompany the sugar. Ingredients such as:

• artificial colors (lots of lots of these in your garden variety Halloween candy!)
• artificial flavors
• artificial sweeteners
• preservatives
• high-fructose corn syrup
• hydrogenated oils
• GMOs

I also like to avoid chocolate produced by child slave labor (pretty much all chocolate in mainstream candy, sadly). Yes, I do realize, I'm sucking all the joy out of eating candy.

Here are a few of the treats I let my kids eat:

• Annie's Organic Gummy Bunnies
• Fruit Chews by Wholesome or Torie and Howard
• Organic Lollipops (we often buy the Trader Joe's ones)
• Unreal candy (unjunked versions of old favorites -- this year I was able to buy them at my local Target) 
• Theo's chocolate (or other chocolate certified by Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance)
• Homemade healthy-ish chocolate chip cookies
• Treats from a local bakery or the Whole Foods bakery (I may give them a coupon to pick out their own next time we go)

I actually have some of these treats on hand at all times, because I've learned that people love to throw candy and treats at children at all times of the year, and I always need to be ready to make an exchange.

But I wonder how long I'll be able to keep this up. 

If you have older kids or teenagers, how do handle Halloween and other occasions filled with candy (Easter, Valentines, etc.)?

And on a related note, there is the dilemma of what to do with the conventional candy I collect from my kids. If you have a solution for that, click over and comment on this week's Green Phone Booth post.

Related Posts

• Switch Witch Saves Family from Candy Overload
• Things I Avoid Eating
• This Halloween Get Yourself Some Unjunked Candy
• Healthy-ish Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Your purchase via these links helps support my blog. Thank you for your support. Read my full disclosure policy here.

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This Halloween Get Yourself Some Unjunked Candy

Unreal Candy: candy without the junk

Ah, Halloween. Possibly my least favorite holiday.

I've been dealing with candy overload for over a week and we haven't even gone trick-or-treating yet! All year I studiously avoid feeding my children foods with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, excessive amounts of sugar, or food additives (non-food ingredients added to packaged and processed foods including artificial colors, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives). And now they are eating all these things by the fistful. I can't seem to stop people from giving my children candy, handfuls of candy, everywhere we go. I take some candy and toss it every chance I get, but I have to be very sneaky and subtle now that I have a 5yo who is not so easily fooled. Every night my little candy monsters cry and scream and plead and whine for just one more candy. 

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