Brace yourself. If you have children of trick-or-treating age, you’re about to have more candy on your hands than you might want. In order to keep the kids (and you!) from overindulging, here are a bunch of ingenious things to do with all that tempting loot besides eat it immediately.
Save it for later holidays. As soon as the little monsters (they’re in costume, remember?) have done a first cut of their favorites, put the rest in the freezer. In a couple months, it’ll make great stocking stuffers or decorations for a killer gingerbread house.
Sell it to your orthodontist. Every year the American Association of Orthodontists encourages its members to organize a candy buy-back program. Although conditions vary, some docs pay $2 per pound for the leftovers. One dollar goes to charity, the other to you, and all the candy to overseas troops. Let’s see now, how much candy would you have to sell back in order to break even on those braces?
Play checkers or chess. Chances are, you’ve lost some pieces for these games anyway. So substitute candy. It’ll take some creativity to organize the pieces into darks and lights for checkers and entire legions for chess, but that’s part of the fun. Resist the urge to devour the captured.
Stash it in the glove box. The next time you’re in the midst of a road trip and the kids won’t stop screaming (or when you’re trapped in a traffic jam and you can’t stop screaming), you’ll thank us for this tip. A little car candy socked away for emergencies can make all the difference. Just skip anything that could melt.
Stuff a piñata. If one of the neighbor kids has a birthday coming up, volunteer to bring the piñata. Buy an empty one at a party-supply store and fill it up with all your candy leftovers. If anybody recognizes the stuff, plead the fifth.
Create some sand art. Instead of letting your kids eat all the Pixy Stix (what is that stuff anyway?), remove the labels from a few baby-food jars or other small glass containers and dribble in different colors.
Give it away. Banks, shelters, nursing homes, fire halls…any of these might welcome free morsels. Call first. And no, this doesn’t count as a charitable deduction on your income tax.
The 6 Things Men Are Most Sensitive About
