The Cool House
You may have been wondering why I have been so sporatic in my postings lately. Well, I’ll tell you why. I have been so preoccupied with an incredibly important issue and I just can’t seem to think about anything else. And since I have not come up with a solution to this pressing problem, I have decided to take the issue to you kind folks out there in Cyber Land and see what insights you can offer me.
Today is October 7. That means there are exactly 24 days until Halloween. And I cannot decide what kind of candy to give out. I mean, its killing me. It seems trivial. It seems a waste of time. It seems an easy question. But, oh how complicated the art of buying the perfect Halloween candy can be. And it is especially complicated this year because this is our first year in our new house. This is our first impression we’ll make on many of our neighbors. The candy selection is critical.
I am definitely NOT giving out homemade popcorn balls because no matter how good they look, no decent parent will let their child eat a popcorn ball from a new neighbor. And I’m definitely NOT giving out Dum Dums. Those are just a waste of space in a Halloween candy bag. Pixie Sticks are a toss up. The grape ones are always a winner, but if you get a green one you’re out of luck. Candy corn just screams, “Hi, I’m cheap,” and caramel chews are along those same lines – maybe a little more of a “Hi, I’m cheap but I do wonders with my limited budget.”
At first I thought that I’d go with the whole candy bars. Its a little pricey, but worth it when I think about how the neighborhood kids will be talking about the “cool lady on the corner who gave out the big candy bars.” But then I started thinking harder, and I think the whole candy bars are a little much. They could either send the message that we are cool, hip neighbors or it would send the message that we are pretentious and that we are trying too hard to impress them. If I had lived in the neighborhood longer, I would be willing to take that chance. But this is our first year! Our first impression! I just can’t take that kind of risk.
Then I had to choose between the novelty candy, like Ring Pops and Pop Rocks, or the good, old fashioned, always a winner, fun sized chocolcate bars. I just can’t decide. I want the candy to be the candy that the kids trade for when they go home. I want there to be bidding wars over my candy selection. I want friendships to end because someone wouldn’t trade for my candy. I always traded for Reeses Cups. God, I love those. I promised my sister all kinds of empty lies in exchange for all of her Reeses Cups. But is that enough? I mean, are chocolate and peanut butter really enough in this kind of situation?
So you can see my dilemma. I am paralyzed with fear. One wrong purchase and my reputation in the neighborhood is shot. And don’t get me started on whether I should dress up to hand out candy or not…
THE STRESS IS KILLING ME!
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9 Comments
Colleen
I know exactly what you mean! We did the big bars last year (also newly married and new homeowners) trying to be the cool, new, young people on the block. But one of the sad understandings we came to is that Halloween isn’t how WE remember Halloween. Kids don’t go to strangers houses to get candy anymore and it KILLS me. We live in an AWESOME neighborhood to get dropped off at, run from one front door to another yelling ‘THANK YOU” as you’re already climbing up the stairs of the neighbors! We had about 5 kids at our hour last year. We’re going to be telling our kids, when we have them, and we’re not rushing, ‘When we were kids, it always snowed on Halloween AND we would go up to strangers houses and trick or treat and come home with pillowcases filled with candy.’ and our kids will never believe us.
I hope your ‘hood is way cooler than ours and you get loads of sugared up kids. I wonder if we will, now that we are the house that gives the big candy bars. I sure hope so. We just need to train kids these days.
Camille
Too many kids are allergic to peanuty things these days. I about died when you mentioned Pop Rocks. That is absolutely the way to go. So exciting…so fleeting. People will love you.
Chris
My vote is for a grab bag of three-musketeers, milky ways, and snickers. But not the small square bite size kind, the slightly larger rectangle kind. That way we are the cool house with out being pretentious . And in my personal Halloween experience, the houses that had this type of candy would not get toilet-papered. It’s like a law in the toilet-papering handbook! 🙂
HeJo
Mini three- musketeers…..delicious, chocolate, and mothers will love you because its lower in fat. Solved.
Heather
I have five kids and these are my observations.
They never care about the little goodie bags with two or three candies and a pencil. I think of all that work to put them together and they just tear it open dump it into the mix and move on.
They love the chocolate.
One year someone gave out little juice boxes, loved them. Not to mention it came in handy about half way into the treating. Another year it was tastycakes.
They mostly like when the people offer them the bowl to pick as they like and they only have about three choices. I don’t know about other kids but if you tell mine pick just one they usually can do it without a fit.
One year I dumped plastic spider and skull rings into the mix and some mini glow sticks. Another year I made little black spiders (from pipe cleaners and googly eyes) around Tootsie Roll pops. They went to the school party and the kids loved them.
We have a little party store nearby, visit it to get even more inspired! And good luck!
(Are you sure the gas didn’t get to you?)
Amber
Whole candy bars? I think that’s a little much. Last year we’re also were in the newlywed, new home-owner boat. The experience? Most of this kids that come to the door are not very polite & HALF OF THEM DON’T EVEN WEAR A COSTUME!!!! One thing you said was right on – it’s not like it was when we were growing up.
emep
You can’t go wrong with peanut butter cups. Those are the things dreams are made of. I usually go with the laffy taffy/nerd combo bag, however. It’s just for selfish reasons, really. I love laffy taffy.
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Carrie T
I wish I had this problem. My husband I live out in the middle of the country and in the 4 years I’ve lived with him we’ve had trick or treaters one time. I still buy candy each year cause you don’t want to be “that” neighbor who doesn’t have candy. But now I buy candy we like…starbursts and chocolate!
I just found your blog and I LOVE IT!!! My husband and I have been married almost 2 years and I swear you must be writing about us. 🙂