Question re Halloween Candy

This is probably going to sound so LAME, but in South Africa we didn't do Trick Or Treat 'cos it was too dangerous. The last few years I stayed in a really remote place, and only 3 or 4 neighbour's kids came round for candy. BUT this year I am staying in a much bigger compound, and there are LOADS of kids. So I am a bit worried about passing out the candy - I mean, is there some kind of "etiquette" to this??? (You see, I TOLD you it was LAME)

I have:
mini-bags of M&Ms
Chupa lolly-pops
Small packs of Fruit chews
and these other long stringy strawberry chews

- do I give one of each to each kid that comes? Do I just drop a handful into each bag? What happens if I run out?

I am SO pathetic (my kids are laughing at me):rolleyes:

That is not a lame question at all:

Not sure about etiquette, but for safety reasons
candy should be sealed wrapped such
as the ones on your list are.


P.S. make sure that before you open your door
those are trick or treater out their.
During Halloween their have been home invasion
robberies reported on the news where I live.

(I forgot to answer you original question. :eek:

It is up to you, their is no set rule how much!

For me:
Young children in custome,
I use to give out 2 candies per child and latter
on, more if thier were not very many kids comming around. :)

I don't know about etiquite...

but I would give the first few kids only a few pieces of candy and kind of judge how heavy the flow of trick-or-treaters will be... then you can give out more or less.... but two or three pieces of candy per kid is plenty. I hope you have fun... I don't think we will get any trick-or-treaters this year... cause we don't live in a neighborhood... I loooove to see the kids dressed up in their costumes.. they are so cute!!!... and too bad too cause I work at Nestle and they give us soooo much free candy!:rolleyes:

I give a few pieces per kid....but ONLY if they say "trick or treat"! Just holidng out the bag isn't good enough.

Once upon a time I would give myself a piece for every group of kids who came to the door -- a practice I no longer endorse :D :rolleyes:

Towards the end of the evening I give more away as I don't want too many leftovers!

(The questions is...do you get candy you like so you can eat the leftovers or candy you DON'T like so you won't eat the leftovers!)

I envy those that get trick or treaters. Kids don't trick or treat at apartment complexes around here, so Andy and I are heading out in costume to hit some contests. :)

But when I lived at home and helped pass out candy, some years we'd just let the kid take their favorite out of the bowl but would stress politely that they could only have one. This would work for the young kids, but for the slightly older crowd, I would put the candy in their bag so they wouldn't be grabbing a handful. :)

Have fun!!

Thanks guys!

And HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!

Living in the heart of Los Angeles I am very busy this evening! The kids start coming at around 5:00 PM and it will continue until 10:30 PM. They bus the kids in to our neighborhood, so most of them I have never seen before.

Because there are so many, usually I only give ONE per child. And this year I bought wrapped M & M's, Hershey's Chocolate bars, Babe Ruth's. Towards the end of the evening I will give away more per child, because it is deadly for me to have it in the house.

Sara, YES, I buy the kind of candy I like. You think I would learn.

I even get women with newborns in their arms - and it always irritates me. I also get a pack of kids and ADULTS. The adults have their bags open too. If I am running out of candy, I won't give any to the adults.

Your question isn't lame........sounds like you just want to make the kids happy.

When I lived at home with my parents, my dad use to set a bowl of candy out on the porch and he would sit out there as still as he could. (Which when I would come walking up he would scare the daylights out of me. On the bowl of candy there was a note that always said 'only take one' Some little punk teenager came up and started poking at my dad they didn't know if he was real or fake, they decided he was fake and grabbed the bowl of candy, at that point my dad jumped up and let out a very loud high pitched scream. The kids dropped the bowl and ran away. It was the funniest thing I ever say. I was walking up to the house at the time.

If my dad wasn't home when trick or treating began, I would pass out a one piece to the older kids and a small handfull to the smaller kids. I live in an apartment now, and they do not allow trick or treaters on the property. I kind of miss it but it saves us from buying candy which I know hubby and I would probably get into. We also have a time limit on trick or treating. Young kids start at 5 and can go until 9, older kids start at 7 and go until 10. Alot of older kids start at 5 so they get more candy. Alot of teenagers still go around here. Alot of them are very rude about it.

I plan on taking my nephew out tonight, his dad always brings thier dog kodiak, so if any of the older kids try to mess with my nephews bag of candy they are more affraid of the dog. Which is does help. Around here alot of the older kids will try to take the little kids bags of candy. Which is why I get the dog. His dog is harmless to people. But the dog is HUGE I was afraid of her when I first seen her.

Katie

When I was growing up we used to collect all kinds of home-made stuff like candy apples, bags of popcorn and peanut brittle. We never worried. But now because of the idiots out there who contaminate stuff and put razor blades in apples, only bought packaged stuff is acceptable to most mothers. It's really sad.

We used to give out 2 per person, big or small.

I usually give two pieces per kid. I'll hand them to the older kids, but sometimes I let the real young ones choose which kind they like best. Their faces are so cute!

I just give them a handful. We don't get very many kids over here.

Do the kids even celebrate Halloween in Bahrain.......or you just want to give them candy anyway? :confused:

So far we haven't had a single *ding dong*. :D :o

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Originally posted by popcornbird


So far we haven't had a single *ding dong*. :D :o

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Here either Poppy. This is the 4th year in a row with no *ding dongs*. After the 2nd year, I quit buying candy at all.

Can you tell we live in the boondocks? :D

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Originally posted by Cookiebaker


Can you tell we live in teh boondocks? :D

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Maybe you do, but I don't! I live in a pretty decent sized city in a very large neighborhood...........that happens to have a lot of kids. We got one ding dong now, but I didn't open it. Its funny.........we used to get like 10-20 knocks on Halloween. Since last year though, its like people don't care for it though. None of the houses in our neighborhood have decorations, and none of the kids are gone trick or treating! :eek: Oh well........they wouldn't get candy if they came to our house anyway! We don't have any! :D :p

We get tons. We usually start running out so the next kids only get one piece... I love trick-or-treaters... :D

The candy you got is great, and will probably go over well.:)

I agree with alot of the others and there is not a real etiquette to giving candy. I go by the flow of kids and tonight it was real slow. I've already wraped up an it is only 9:00. I did get the kids on my street and some others, but I was suprised at the number. I don't worry about leftovers, the Admin for my department has a candy dish at work and I give it to her. I should give her the leftovers, I take enough from it.:rolleyes:

I can't believe what ramanth said about apartment complexes. When I was going out that was one of the first set of places that we hit. You get get alot of candy in a short amount of time.:D

I was also suprised about being rural and not getting any kids. We lived in the country for a time when I was a kid and my mom or dad would always take me out and I would get all sort of good stuff. Of course, that was while we were still getting homemade items.

I'm sure it will go fine.:)

It went fine! I didn't have much candy left, and it quickly got shared out by my kids when they got back. (A whole load of the "older" kids in the complex got branches which the gardener had trimmed off the bushes, buddled together, and went as a FOREST:rolleyes: ). Mine were in the middle somewhere!

The younger kids were so cute! There were a few fairies / princesses; and some witches, but most of them were just dressed in black with a mask on. OH - I also had one David Beckham!!! (He was cute - around 3 years old). A few of the older ones tried to grad handfuls, but I then just started giving the older kids stuff instead of letting them choose. The younger kids were really well-behaved - they asked how many they were allowed and then they took AGES to choose their favourites!

I had a whole load of candles outside too, but I decided not to light them as I was worried about a costume catching fire etc!

One nice thing - the youger kids came around with their Mums - so I got to meet a few of the neighbours. We had a chat about maybe having a BBQ at the pool when it gets a bit cooler - should be nice!

PCB - I think it's mainly the expat kids here who celebrate halloween (although I could be wrong - we just dont have any Bahraini families living on our compound)

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(A whole load of the "older" kids in the complex got branches which the gardener had trimmed off the bushes, buddled together, and went as a FOREST ).

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That is hilarious!!! :D