While I enjoy taking my kids from door to door as they partake in the Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating, I dread the basket full of Halloween candy that accompanies us home. One year, my son ate on that bucket of candy from Halloween night up until Christmas Eve, with the help of his father and I, and no, I’m not exaggerating.
I’m not sure about you, but for me, I’m ready to dump the basket of Halloween candy after about a week. I mean, the holidays are coming up and most of us are trying to watch our weight anyways, right? Plus, what child really needs that much candy? Can you imagine what all the dentists, dental assistants and other similar professionals think about this holiday? (My mother was an oral surgeon’s assistant for years, so I have an idea of what they think about this time of the year.)
Over the last 5 years, I’ve gotten creative about making that Halloween candy dissipate a little faster than it used to. Here are a few of the things I do with it:
Trash all the hard stuff. The first thing I do is trash all of the hard candy, unless it’s a sucker or something like that. When I was 9 or 10, I choked on a jawbreaker and my dad had to do the Heimlich on me in order to get it out. Ever since then, I have had a fear of hard candies like that. Naturally, now that I have children, that fear has only gotten worse. I know I can’t control everything they put in their mouths, but at Halloween, I can. While it sounds harsh, to me, it’s a safety precaution…but it’s also one that helps whittle down that pile of Halloween candy too. Use it …