buying rewards with Halloween candy

[myniyer]

Mods: I'm not sure if this thread belongs here, feel free to move it.

So my kids LOVE to trick-or-treat (what kid doesn't?) and we live in a great neighborhood for it. The end result is that my kids come home with their pumpkins bulging with stuff I'd rather they didn't eat. This year I thought of opening a little storefront, selling special activities and nonedible treats for them, merchandise payable in candy. For instance: a night out with Mom or Dad, 50 pieces. A trip to the movies, 30 pieces. A half-hour extension on bedtime, 20 pieces. And so on. Does anyone have any great ideas to add to my list?

[lil_earthmomma]

I bought some temp tatooes, spider/bat/pumpkin rings, etc that I'm going to put together with some other fun goodies.

I think this is such a great great GREAT idea!!!

[snowbunny]

We do the candy fairy - DS leaves his candy in a special place and the candy fairy comes at night, takes the candy and leaves a special toy in its place. That way it's gone in one fell swoop. We all love the candy fairy in our home.

[tbone_kneegrabber]

we just bought a fish tank. and ds will be trading his candy for fish!

[SandyMom]

Originally Posted by snowbunny

We do the candy fairy - DS leaves his candy in a special place and the candy fairy comes at night, takes the candy and leaves a special toy in its place. That way it's gone in one fell swoop. We all love the candy fairy in our home.

We do that also - only it's The Great Pumpkin who comes to our house
He lets each lo keep 3 pcs. Nice guy!

[Magelet]

Lol, after hearing this, and talking about it with DP, the Great Pumpkin will most certainly be making visits to our house when we have kids. but I'm curious,

even though DP says that the lore will be that the great pumpkin uses the candy to turn into pumpkins, what do you do with the candy? Throw it out? I feel like I'd feel slightly bad dumping it into a landfill, but what else do you do with huge mounds of candy.

[staceychev]

This is the first year I considered this, but this is what I did: I let DD pick 10 pieces of candy that she wanted to keep. The rest we're getting rid of through a candy drive the local Friends School holds after Halloween. In exchange, I let her choose a reasonably priced toy she wanted. (She picked a Tinkerbell doll, $10.99, since she was Tink for Halloween.) I didn't do a magic being thing because (a) I wanted her to know her candy was going to kids who didn't get candy on Halloween and (b) I don't think I have the energy for another imaginary being! Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are about all I can handle.

[myniyer]

My local Weight Watchers meetings have a deal where you can box up the candy and send it to soldiers overseas.