The Great Candy Give Away

Halloween is the official beginning for The Great Candy Give-Away. It starts after sunset on October thirty-first and goes until February fourteenth. This season spans Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Kwanza, Christmas, Winter Solstice, New Years Eve/day and Valentines Day. This season also coincides with the least availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, the shortest hours of day light, and in most areas of the country the coldest weather of the year. Blended together, this season encourages us to stay inside, visit with friends, and eat lots of sweets. Unfortunately, our bodies don't seem to realize that we don't need to build up an extra layer of fat to stay warm, most of us have central heating and wool socks for that.

So how do we avoid all the sweets this season brings? I recommend a combination of moderation and creating new traditions. Let me show you how this works using Halloween as an example. Instead of passing out candy bars (or boxes of raisins that few kids want) hand out one small individually wrapped candy (like Hershey Kisses or individual Star Bursts). If you are worried about looking cheap add some other small toys or prizes such as key chains, colorful mini tissue packets, stickers or brightly colored markers. You could even eliminate the candy all together and just give out the gifts. When your child comes home with too much candy, let them keep a few pieces and leave the rest for The Great Pumpkin. The Great Pumpkin comes at night while children are asleep and exchanges their candy for a gift.

For most kids, the costumes, decorating and Trick or Treating is more fun than the candy. Create a few new traditions, making a visit to your house memorable. Invest in some reuseable decorations, lights, scarry music or skeletons to place on your walkway or porch. Add on each year until you have the best display on the block. Better yet, have your kids help create a haunted house effect for your entrance way with appliance boxes, tin cans, or anything else you can think of. Stuff old worn out clothes to make people and let your kids figure out how to make them look spooky, place them in your yard with flashing lights around them.

You can have a lot of fun coming up with new, candy free ideas, if you give it a try. Halloween is a great tradition, so lets keep it alive with a heathy twist. Try your hand at moderation and tradition for other holidays. Let me know your ideas so I can share them with others.