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How much candy do you give each?

5K views 56 replies 43 participants last post by  Junit 
#1 ·
We usually spend about 70-80 bucks on candy which comes up to about 500 pieces and i just grab a hand full and hand it to them you know? What ever i can get in my hand they get. Is 5-6 pieces too much or not enough? We run out when the tots stop showing up and it works out fine. We start buying about now and get a few bags a week until we have about 15 bags and try to get a variety. Am i not giving enough?
 
#2 ·
That's PLENTY. Many houses we go to only give one piece of candy. I like to give out a little treat bag; there are usually 3-4 pieces in there. Sometimes I also give out a little novelty toy.

The other thing I do, if I'm not doing treat bags/goody bags, is just give out those large-size candy bars (one each). Kids LOVE getting those.
 
#5 ·
Let me first say that we do absolutely NOTHING, NICHT, NADA, PAS DE CHOSE, for Christmas. So we go nuts on Hallowe'en.

Those too frightened to venture down the Driveway (And there are a lot of those) get a Glow Necklace at a table set up by the street. Inside the Haunt we do a raffle, of sorts. Prizes include your choice of hard (Jolly Rancher) or soft (Wine Gums) candy, a full-sized Candy Bar, a bag of Chips or, the grand prize, a brand new DVD. This year we will have 75 DVD's up for grabs, with Horror and Family themes.

I figure, you go to so much trouble setting the thing up, why get chintzy with the Treats?
 
#6 ·
I usually buy the cello Halloween bags half fill them with sweets (candy) and tie them up with black and yellow curling ribbon, then I'll give them a glo stick each too. I spent about £100 last year and gained around 5lbs from eating all the candy I didn't give out!

Kids get touch much candy at Halloween anyway, my son pigged himself so much one year he threw up on my bed! :mad: lol had to spend the night sleeping on the floor! now he's very careful about how much he eats
 
#8 ·
we do candy,lollipops,pencils[these go fast] lil' creatures. most ppl come to see the house but now trick or treat starts so early we cant scare anyone.....ppl do come back after dark to see it all done up! i'm thinking that if kids were brave enough to go around back to the deck we could pass them out lil' drink packs!
 
#9 ·
We do the same Toetag, buying now and will end up with abot 20-25 bags of various candy, bars, etc plus a bunch of full sized bars. Give out a handful to ALL COSTUMED ToT's (no matter thier age, 1-80). No costume or a bunch of teens not dressed or wearing a football jersey get one piece. Little kids (around 8 and under, my best guess) get a full sized candy bar as well as a handful. I want the kids to remember the set-up, scares, fun as well as the great treats if your in the spirit!
 
#10 ·
This subject come up every year... :D

We give a handful - something like 5-10 pieces of candy and some sort of toy (glow bracelets or bat rings or the like).

Candy is a mix of Wonka, mini chocolates, sunburst and blowpops.

We usually have a small amount left covering the bottom of the galvanized washtub at the end of the night.

And EVERYONE gets candy - no matter if they are young, old, costumed or not. We give HUGE handfuls to the ones that went the extra mile and got really creative, but all of them get something. :)
 
#11 ·
And EVERYONE gets candy - no matter if they are young, old, costumed or not. We give HUGE handfuls to the ones that went the extra mile and got really creative, but all of them get something. :)
Heh heh...We always give candy to the parents! If the parents don't come to the door but are standing by the gate, I give a bunch more to the kids and say, "Split this with your parents later." As if they will, but...I want to encourage people to keep coming! We are right near a very busy corner and don't get a lot of TOTers because of it. :(
 
#13 ·
I think a lot depends on how many kids you get. We give out the fun sized bars, and while not big, we also get over 600 TOT's so we end up spending a lot on candy anyway. I'll be upping the candy budget this year as it's on a Saturday and we're thinking we could go over 800 TOT's, and like Frankie's Girl, we give candy to everyone. You make an effort to celebrate and come out to see the haunt, you get a treat.
 
#14 ·
We live in an older neighborhood where people hand out pennies and tootsie rolls ;)

We've only been here two years and didn't know what to expect. The first year we had to leave so we left a big bowl of fun size candy bars, gum, spider rings and erasers (I know... I know...) The bowl wasn't even empty when we got home. :eek:

Last year we handed out regular sized candy bars and got about 75 TOT's.

We figure we better start doing King Size candy bars or something... :p


There are actually a couple people in the neighborhood who do homemade caramel apples and cookies and stuff so that's nice. I want to be like my Grandma when I grow up and have a giant cauldron of hot chocolate and trays of pumpkin cookies. She's the best :)
 
#18 ·
We usually give out big handfuls of candy. Last year was our first year in this house...we had about 23 TOT. Not a lot, but not bad for a street with only four kids and the rest retired folks. Believe my, I had to so some serious recruiting. So each TOT got a handful of candy, a glow necklace, and a bag of small novelty toys. Here is my dilemna...I really want to make sure people will come to the haunt every year, so I am thinking about handing out full sized candybars...something to remember. But one thing that makes me the happiest on Halloween is to see a big orange bowl filled to the brim with a variety of things...snickers, m&m bags, bubble gum, crunch and hershey bars, starburst, skittles (and better variety for me at the end to munch on :) So what to do, what to do?? If i do the small fun size, I have a variety of items (at least 10-12) but full sized bars are much cooler to the TOTs. Maybe I will do full sized bars to the older kids, and smaller ones for the little kids! (what two year old needs a large sized snickers??) Whew.....crisis averted:D
 
#19 ·
We got a little over 550 TOT last year and we give each one a big candy bar. We go to Costco and figure we actually spend the same giving out the one candy as we would a handfull of the little ones. We just have to keep a good eye out for those TOT that try to come by our house more than once.
 
#21 ·
We do get "double dippers" returning for a second time through the haunt, usually a stern yet friendly questioning from the keeper of the candy ("didn't I bury you just an hour or so back?) followed by a single piece of candy rather than the 4 or 5 is enough to put them on the spot.
 
#22 ·
I love giving out candy! We buys tons every year. I give out handfuls, or tell them to grab a handful. I'm always telling them to take more. That's such a blast. I usually have a lot left over and when it starts to get late, that last, lone kid comes by, you know the one. Getting older, not a little kid anymore, maybe he's feeling nostalgic- (or maybe I'm just projecting, here :) ) And I tell him to take it all. That's soo much fun.
 
#24 ·
Toetag: I think you're giving out a very generous amount indeed! I'm sure the kids who come to your door leave very happy. Myself, I give out 5-6 pieces of fun-size candy (mini bags of M&M's, hershey's stuff, one or two sour-type candy, a little toy all wrapped in individual bags) plus a glow stick once it gets dark out. We also do a big tub of mini water bottles and juice boxes in a cauldron full of ice. I think the kids appreciate that most of all, especially if it's a hot day.
 
#26 ·
Dang, I will be toting at everyones house this year! Used to give out handfuls, but now just a few pieces, unless the end of the night is slow and theres fewer toters out, we give more to get rid of it. Toetag- you give a lot more candy than most houses. All the ones out here have been doing the 1-2 pieces per kid thing.
 
#29 ·
I was thinking of the glow stick thing too this year but then I remembered something bad about them and I got scared of a lawsuit. My sister begged to get glow necklaces at the Spice Girls concert and on the drive back home she was nibbling on one unbeknownst to my mother and me.

Next thing you know we hear this escalating moan and crying and I look back and see her entire mouth filled with the liquid and it was over here eyes somehow. Was really scary because it was pitch black on the highway and she was the only thing lit up. We managed to find an exit and a gas station quickly but mom almost crashed the car trying to get the liquid off her while driving.

I rinsed her face and eyes in the sink at a gas station but that memory is still pretty vivid more than 10 years later. Mom was super scared she would be blind.

Anywho, people can be sue happy nowadays and I just didnt want to have someone get injured with these things and it get traced back to my house. If you put on a prominent display its only a matter of time before they figure it out. ><

I took my cousin out last year and the year before, so she was supervised and warned about eating on them, and we always use glow sticks in our displays and inside table decorations. My sister to this day wont touch 'em though...
 
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