Last year I purchased approximately 350 full sized pieces of candy. I say pieces because they weren't all candy bars. I had lots of Skittles, Starbursts, M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, and the biggest crowd pleaser of all. . . .
Nerds.
Actually any of the "Willy Wonka" candy is always a huge hit.
The reason I'm sharing this bit of information is because I bet most of you are thinking, "wow, I bet she had a lot of candy left over".
Well if that is what you are inclined to think I'm afraid that you would be
WRONG!
WE RAN OUT!!!!
I could NOT believe it.
Fast forward to this year.
Halloween 2009.
As usual I started hording candy around the second week of August. To my dismay the typical sale price of 3 for 1.00 from past years, was no more. I wasn't really surprised given the economy and all. In fact Don hinted that maybe it was time to go back to handing out fun-size.
Fun for who?
I ignored him of course. In fact I ignored him to the tune of approximately 550 full sized pieces of candy. I really didn't know how many I had amassed. I had promised myself that THIS year I was going to keep track of them all as I went along.
That didn't take long to fly right out the window.
The Scene:
Halloween late afternoon:
I dragged all of the bags of candy out of my closet to count it all.
I got a little sloppy in the counting so I don't have an exact count. But I know it was slightly more than 550 pieces.
Well 5:00 comes around and our first customer shows up.
Ten minutes later, one more.
Things were getting a little boring.
I found myself wondering if I was going to be left with several hundred pieces of candy.
I told Don that if that happened I would have a blog contest and have all that left over candy as the prize.
Don thought that sounded like a really good idea.
5:30 rolls around.
Nothing.
Donald and Lisa and the girls showed up shortly after that.
That was a real treat.
The girls were so cute.
Alexandra was a Sorceress.
I had put some tattoo's on her face and bought a tube of florescent blue lipstick for her, to compliment her costume.
She looked amazing.
Lorelai, whom we all agree is the spitting image of Emma Watson, was dressed up as Hermione Granger.
The resemblance was incredible.
My sweet little Elisabeth was an adorable "glasses wearing flower".
Sadly, they couldn't stay very long.
They were on a pretty tight schedule.
6:00
A few more T&Ters.
Not many though.
The likelihood of getting rid of all that candy was looking somewhat grim.
It was about that time that I reminded Don that every year we went through this and that the crowds didn't normally show up until closer to 7:00.
Boy was I right.
Like clockwork.
6:45.
The first van rolls up the street.
It parks and hordes of costumed kids jump out.
Halloween 2009, the Trick or Treating has officially begun.
For over an hour and a half we were
SLAMMED!
I still felt quite confident though that the candy would hold out.
WRONG AGAIN!
Shortly after 8:20 I handed out the last two pieces.
Did the kids accept the fact that we were out?
Hardly!
Even after I told them that that was it for the candy,
they just stood there waiting for, I don't know what.
Did they expect one of us to jump in our car and drive up the street to Yoke's Fresh Market and buy more candy?
Yeah right!
And while we are doing that maybe a few pigs will fly by as well.
I thought about putting up a few
WE ARE OUT OF CANDY SO BE ON YOUR WAY! Signs.
I didn't bother.
They've never worked before.
I am kind of upset that the numbers of T&Ters seem to be doubling in size every two years.
It's due to all of the "IMPORTS" from other neighborhoods.
It makes me a little angry that I am giving out candy to kids that don't live anywhere close to us.
Ironically, I know several people who have stopped buying candy because they don't ever have any Trick or Treaters to speak of.
We have the exact opposite problem.
I know that I will still go full sized next year.
I just wish there was a good way to only hand them out to my actual neighborhood kids.
I figure a few years of only giving out Smarties, Dum Dums, or Pixie Sticks to the imports would probably solve the problem.
I just don't think I have it in me to do something like that. I would feel bad because for the most part they are always very well mannered and pleasant.
For the most part.
I guess I'll probably accrue 600 plus pieces next year. And hope for the best. Because really, what else can I do?
I love seeing the excitement of kids acting like they've never seen a full sized Butterfinger Bar before.
Oh, one more fun thing.
About a week ago Don told me that he did NOT want to give candy to teenagers that come carrying a bag but for some reason forget to wear a costume.
I didn't agree with him.
I did however come up with a great compromise.
I simply told them that it was No Costume No Candy.
UNLESS. . . . .
They wanted to sing a song for me.
Oh boy was that fun.
I gave them the choice of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Eencey Weency Spider or Happy Birthday.
For the most part they were super good sports.
I noticed that the boys, as a rule, had no problem with the idea of belting out an old, almost forgotten, childhood song, to the strange lady with the good candy.
The girls on the other hand were a lot more hesitant.
Poor teenage girls.
It's kinda sad to see them lacking the confidence to be silly and just have fun.
My favorite was a group of boys and just a few girls. Half had costumes and half did not.
The uncostumed boys were loving it.
The girls not so much.
But those dear boys grabbed the girls and drug them up front and sang so loud that the girls were no longer too self conscious to join in.
I loved that.
Way to go boys! Way to help those girls build up their confidence.
All in all we had a GREAT time. In some ways I have to say that I enjoy Halloween more than Christmas.
A lot less stress.
No big dinner to prepare.
No worrying about what to buy for who.
No presents to wrap.
Just a couple hundred dollars on candy. Really, no more than we would spend on a weekend away. Add a bunch of super happy, well mannered and grateful kids and we end up with one guaranteed super fun night every year.
Yeah. I'd have to say that around here, Halloween has got Christmas running scared.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here are some pictures that my DIL Lisa (the camera bug) took in the short time she was here that night. And a few that she took later that night at their house.
Enjoy!
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15 comments:
That is A LOT of candy!! No wonder you get so many imports!! I tell you, I wouldn't feel bad at all about buying half and half full size and fun size candy next year and only giving the full size ones to kids from around your neighbourhood! They're not going to know that you're discriminating :)
I LOVE that you made the un-costumed teenagers sing for their candy!
I have a big almost-still-full bowl of bubble gum left....we probably missed most of the trick or treaters since we were out trick or treating ourselves until about 8pm. So we had one set of trick or treaters....What am I going to do with all this bubble gum????
our trick or treat is scheduled. It's the Thursday before the 31st because there's more emergency service people working at that time. It's also just from 6-7 pm, which people who aren't used to that think, UGH only an hour! But let me tell you! You can get a pillow case of candy in an hour! Plus you don't have the hassle of some kids ringing your doorbell after you've gone to bed!
Wow, I would totally drive the extra miles to trick or treat at your house!!!
One of these days the Tri City Herald will probably run an article about you....The Halloween House. Oh boy....then you would have thousands importing in!
In all actuality though, I think that you should just stick with 500 and some odd candy bars. If you run out, you run out. You have to draw the line somewhere.
I loved this post. Especially the line about Christmas running scared! ha! That was hilarious!
The girls are looking great, and i love your face decorations too!
I would love to dive into that bowl of chocolate and eat my way out LOL ~ there's a few in there that we don't get over here. But I did notice the Skittles ~ I craved them when I was pregnant with Andrew!
That candy looks soo good! I'd be all over that. Especially the Dove bar hiding in there!
I think you're CRAZY. But, I LOVE it! You are possibly the reason people come to your neighborhood by the van fulls, you know? Due to a death in the family we didn't get to trick or treat in our own neighborhood and had to make do with a family memebers and I was amazed at the number of people who WEREN'T giving out. Of course, they're will always be the childless or antisocial home or two, but this year they were the majority. Several of them even had pumpkins carved and decorations, so what gives? I think part of it may be so many churches and such offering Trunk or Treat type activities. Now that people don't know their neighbors they way we used to it's promoted to be the "safer way." Anyways, I love how much you love Halloween! Until next year....
Susan, you look amazing! That face tatoo just adds to your awesome hair color!
I love it..."Fun for who?" Your writing just got me in big trouble I was so caught up reading it a while ago that I was late picking up Sydney! I hold you completely resposible. :)
I second that. Susan you look amazing!!!!
NOt to mention what a kind lady. Full size candy. You will always have a million trick or treaters. The house with the best candy has a reputation!.
Just an idea: You could make a little goodie bag for those kids that you know and give out the fun size ones to the kids you don't... Just an idea :)
That's just insanity. I think you should have some way of singling out the real neighbor kids.
Like the face tattoos.
The Ladybug costume actually came from Cracker Barrel. I bought it about 2 days after she said she wanted to be a lady bug because I loved it and just prayed that she wouldn't change her mind. =) They had some great adult costumes too, maybe I'll dress up next year!
holy moly that's alot of candy. The dentist should send 10% of his income to you. You look so fashionable with your tattooed face~ and as always the girls are adorable.
In love all of the photos. I am glad you did something about the teenagers coming in their everyday clothes. That is my pet peeve. Very creative!
how stinkin' fun, and you all looked awesome!!!
that's pretty amazing that you went through 550 pieces of candy in basically less than 2 hours. this was the first year in 19 that we had a single trick-or-treater here on the lane. we had 6, and i was NOT prepared:/ so, john handed out packages of microwave popcorn, fruit roll-ups, and a 2 ltr. bottle of coke, ha!!! no kidding:P
much love,
dani xxx
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