Candy is one of the biggest attractions for kids and adults that starts with Halloween every year. Big events like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. New year Eve till valentine’s day, are all about candies.
No doubt, the fun of going trick or treat down the neighborhood is much awaited all year long. Some of the big stores and schools follow the tradition of trick or treat and distribute candies. In the end, it’s going to be A LOT of candies.
Of course, it is a lot of sugar, and kids do not want to think about it as they are too young to understand the ‘TOO MUCH SUGAR” thing.
As a parent, you may want to avoid too much candy for your kids however, at the same time, you do not want to deprive kids of Halloween fun.
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Ideas on what you can do with candies post-Halloween
Going trick or treat may pile up heaps of candies in your household and as a parent that would be the last thing you want your kids to eat all of their candies at once.
Find out Kids costume and Fun ideas for kids this Halloween
What parents should do with all candies after celebrating Halloween
These are the ideas you can avoid your kids from eating all that candy.
1. Save some candy for Birthdays
You can save candies for kids or family birthday parties if their birthdays are coming up in a couple of months.
Ideally, you should be saving some of the candy for party favors for upcoming birthdays, baby shower, bridal shower, any event that is coming up in your family or friends in a few months.
You can use mason jars or party favor bags or boxes to create cute looking party candies.
2. Save for shakes
Moreover, you can save chocolates like snickers, Twix, Milky way candies for chocolate shakes as a morning breakfast or evening drink for kids, or to serve guests for a random weekend get together.
3. Save some candy for ice cream sundaes
If you are having a game night or a random party over the weekend, you can make ice cream sundaes in this mini dessert cups.
A couple of scoops of your favorite ice cream served with wafers and top it with a tiny piece of chocolate candy or m&ms.
4. Bake candy in cookies
You can look up some ideas of making M&m or chocolate candy cookies with Twix or Snickers etc. Either you use ready to make cookie mix or make your own from scratch, you can add whatever candy you like.
That is going to be a perfect snack with a cup of coffee or tea.
5. Bake some candy in brownies Or cakes
Use candies like M&Ms or other chocolate candy to make brownie mix and bake.
6. Decorate cakes
You can bake a store box cake mix, top it with whipped cream and spread candies on top or fill in cake layers with your favorite candy.
KitKat, Twix or M&Ms would be the best option for cake decorations.
For kids’ birthday cakes, get a sheet cake from Costco and decorate it with leftover chocolates and candies with a cute cake topper. Kids are going to love it. It’s a win-win.
7. Make desserts
Chop crunchy or hard candies in small pieces and mix them in the cream or not-too-sweet ice cream. Let it cool and enjoy the dessert with a little bit of whipped cream.
Mix Oreo cookies with cream or a corn starch milk pudding. Toss in some chopped candies and let the dessert cool in the refrigerator.
You may want to try Candy corn dessert recipe if you have a bunch of candy corn from Halloween leftover candy stash.
8. Make a Trail mix of m&ms with pretzels and nuts etc
A delicious healthy snack for Thanksgiving gift for your loved ones. Toss in some candies with a mix of cashews, peanuts, pistachio, almonds and fill up mason jars with a lovely thank you note.
9. Donate excess candies
You can also donate excess candies to schools or donate to anyone who is accepting candies.
10. Take it to the office
If you are a working mom, you can take it to the office or send it to your partner’s workplace.
11. Send it to the troops
Many families send the extra candies to the troops and you have to figure out who is collecting candies to send to troops.
12. Ask your doctors’ office if they accept candies
Moms may need to call the doctor’s office or dentist office and find out who is accepting candies so you can ask your kids to donate candies to their doctors’ office.
13. Save some for thanksgiving dinner
You may want to save some candy for the thanksgiving party. A candy buffet can be set up for any dinner or party and you can use these candy jar with scoopers to set up extra candy for the guests.
14. Save some for holidays desserts
Besides you can make candy desserts for holidays, you may want to fill up cute boxes with candies and send it along with your gifts to your family, friends, and teachers.
15. Make goody bags and distribute on upcoming events
Filling up goody bags with leftover extra candies with a tiny toy is a cute goody bag for kids.
16. Take out the candy that may trigger allergies
Although moms know what kids are allergic still you need to be vigilant. When you are using candies like peanut butter or something similar that people are might allergic too, you would want to take those out before you use in food or add an ingredient note.
17. Trade candy with toys
Your kids might be interested in giving away all that candy for their favorite toy. This is indeed an awesome idea to bribe kids not to eat too much candy.
18. Offer a healthy Snack or Protein bar
Next time when you open the doors for kids, you may want to give them a healthier snack like a protein bar chocolate-dipped fruits instead of a whole bunch of candies.
Last but not least, you need to be super careful about the expiration dates and best before dates on the candies before using and saving.
Have a sweet holiday season with an idea of making it sweet for others too.
