Our first Halloween with The Littlest E was easy breezy. He was 15 months old and didn’t really know or care about pumpkins, costumes, going trick-or-treating, or eating candy. We stayed home that year and answered the door whenever the bell rang.
For the past few years some friends of ours whose son is The Littlest E’s age, have held a Halloween potluck. They live in a great kid-friendly neighborhood with lots of children going door-to-door. We starting going to their house when The Littlest E was a little over 2 years old. That first year attending their party, we lasted 10 minutes trick-or-treating. Our little guy was too scared of adults in costume and he didn’t even like being in his own costume. It was all a bit too much for him.
Now that he’s five, it’s quite a different story! Somewhere along way, he stopped being afraid of adults in costume. Something else that may have helped get rid of his fear, he wore a costume he was comfortable & proud to wear. Last year he went as Pelé, the famous Brazilian soccer player.
However it happened, that Halloween our son lead the way with his friends, excited to ring bells, and say those magic words “Trick or treat.” It was awesome walking with him, his friends and the other parents. He had sooooo much fun that night and received well over 100 treats. Now that’s a lot of sugar, and my son does love his candy – though he doesn’t get to eat it as often as he’d like.
So what to do with the excess chocolate bars, Starbursts, Twizzlers, candy lollypop rings and other delicious Halloween treats? Someone told me about The Great Pumpkin, and I don’t mean the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin. I was told to have my son pick out 20 (or less if you’d like) of his favorite Halloween treats, and those would be his. The other treats would be left out for The Great Pumpkin who comes while we are all sleeping, like Santa Claus, and takes the candy away. In place of the candy, The Great Pumpkin leaves a little present.
We did this last year, and it worked out beautifully! The Littlest E got his candy, and in my opinion, plenty of it, and he got a little gift. It’s a win-win for all concerned. He’s happy and my husband and I are happy to not have the candy eating go on and on and on and on.
Now, The Great Pumpkin is a philanthropic pumpkin. He doesn’t eat the candy all by himself. He takes the excess candy and uses Operation Gratitude (www.operationgratitude.com) and mails the candy directly to the troops because they have a great Halloween candy program, or he contributes to the Halloween Candy Buy Back (www.halloweencandybuyback.com) program where he drops the excess candy off at participating dental offices throughout the United States and the dentists are kind enough to ship the candy to our troops. Either way, The Great Pumpkin knows he’s done a good thing by giving away the excess Halloween Candy.
Wishing you all a Happy & Safe Halloween!