Thread: Passing out candy?

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This year, I was debating how to pass out candy to the TOT's. Since I am usually out in the yard controlling props, fog machines, timers, etc., my parents usually stay in and pass out candy. (I'm only 16..not a 30 year old living at home.) They're not too big on this, esp. since we get over 200 TOT's, and they're always running to hand out candy. (I usually make up bags of wrapped candy, and pass them out.) I am debating whether or not to keep passing out bags of candy, or just fill a box or coffin with wrapped candy, and put out a sign that says "Help Yourself," or something. I figure kids will take a little extra, but I dont have to take the time to wrap bags of candy or pass out the bags. What do you guys think? Is it a bad idea? Does it take away from the experience of Halloween? Thanks for any response.

Can you recruit some friends to help? That's what I do - have some people come over and help pass out candy - make it into a little get together. Have a movie, some food, etc.

Who knows..theyre usually trick or treating (a little too old, right?) and stop over for a minute, but dont stay long.

Candy must always be monitored or handed out we tried that one year with just putting candy and help yourself which they did. Taking as much as they thought they could get away with

Last season I had small cauldrons of suckers in several places in the house. In the kitchen where the parents & kids go to get their popcorn bag along with the goodie bag & parents munch on brownies & such I had bought all these cool halloween dishes at Michaels & wanted to display them along with the candy dish that has the singing skeleton in it, so to make them all look good I filled everything with these real cheap hard candies & 2 of the bowls had fake eyeballs in them.

I remember one time while standing in the dining room taking pictures of the tot's & watching these real little ones taking handfuls of candies out of those dishes as Jerry turned his back for one second to grab them a goody bag & a bag of popcorn off the kitchen counter. So all the candy in all of those dishes disappeared & all the cauldrons of suckers were gone. Thats usually the stuff I use as back-up if I run out of treat bags. Man they even took all my eyeballs that I had just bought & was using for decoration!! We laughed about it but in all sincerity I think its better to control giving out the treats.


Muf

I wouldn't. The problem is, it only takes a few greedy ones to clean you out completely, leaving everybody else empty-handed.

If you decide to give it a try, just put a few in the bowl at a time and replenish it after each group--say ten or so pieces at most. That way you won't get taken by a single larcenous tot'er.

I agree with most of the others. The candy honor system outside the front door will be abused.

With H'ween on Friday this year, why not have a Haunt party for few of your friends - an "invitation only" party. Very exclusive. Make some changes to your Haunt design to include some features / scenes that would make great use of live actors. If you can structure this party so that your actor / guests are taking care of what you usually do while scring the crap out TOTs, you can pass out candy and supervise / host. The last significant TOT volume should be through by 9:30 - 10:00.

A month before the party, write each Haunt roll on a slip of paper. Separate Male from Female rolls. Require your invitees to RSVP in person. Confirming invitees draw for the rolls they will play. They can trade if they like.

Have your "guests" come early enough to eat and have some fun walking the haunt and talking about how they'll scare the devil out of the TOTs. Once quiet, bring everyone in to relax and encourage them to tell about some of their "scares."

At the end of the evening, have a ceremony to pass out Computer generated "Certificate of Completion" to each guest:
Horor Actoring 101
Intermidate Screaming 201
Advanced Bleeding 301
... etc. Make the "courses" fit the Haunt charaters so as to assure everyone gets a certificate.


Yours is a tough Halloween age. Essentially, you need to make your friends believe they will have more fun spending the evening at your house than walking around getting dirty looks at every door they knock on. By the way, they will have more fun at your Haunt.

Originally Posted by slightlymad

Candy must always be monitored or handed out we tried that one year with just putting candy and help yourself which they did. Taking as much as they thought they could get away with

Definitely. You can't do self serve with the kids today. Besides, part of the fun is seeing the little darlin's in their finery.

I had a neighbor who tried the honor system thing because she and her husband both wanted to take their little girl trick-or-treating. She put the bowl at the door with a sign, went back inside for a few minutes to gather up hubby and daughter and, yep, you guessed it - the bowl was empty by the time they came out the door.

You know what the kids liked better than candy last year?? Those little containers of playdough!!! I had candy too, but most of the TOT's wanted the playdough!