Halloween, candy, trick-or-treating, great pumpkin, crunchy moms, holidays, crunchy, gingerbread house, dentist, crunchy mom

Let’s face it, if you go trick-or-treating, you will end up with loads of candy. Even if you don’t, candy is everywhere around Halloween. Here are a few things you can do with your kids stash to cut down on the amount of candy consumed.

  1. Trade-in for money. Let your kids keep a few pieces of candy, then let them trade in the rest for a quarter (or ten cents) each and head to the dollar store for some shopping! You can do this all month or year long too.
  2. Trade-in for an experience. If your kids have been wanting to go to the zoo, an aquarium, etc., let them trade in their candy for a fun day at the location of their choice!
  3. Leave candy for the “Great Pumpkin.” Have your children put their candy on the front porch for the “Great Pumpkin” to come and take. In return the “Great Pumpkin” can leave them a new toy or game.
  4. Build a candy city or gingerbread house. Turn your candy into a masterpiece. Get some glue and create a mini city or gingerbread house.
  5. Participate in a dentist buy-back program. Find a dentist who participates in the Halloween Buy-Back program. Dentists either pay your children for their candy or give them goody bags (full of non-candy items). They will send the candy to Operation Gratitude who send it on to the troops.
  6. Send your candy to the troops. Operation Gratitude organizes package donation to the troops. You send in (or drop off) your package and they will send it to the troops.

What do you do to cut down on the amount of Halloween candy in your house?