I was thinking about holiday-related candy lately. Which do you prefer, Halloween candy or Christmas candy? I guess it depends on whether you're the type of person who would want to eat a chocolate Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer or something called Nurse Hatchet's Body Parts Gummy Candy.

The latter is available at Candy Crate, an online store where you can get a ton of Halloween candy, including Pumpkin Whirly Pops, Boneheads Fruit-Flavored Skulls, Halloween Bubble Gum Coins, and Oozing Eyeballs. Sure, it's too late for tonight's Halloween activities, but that doesn't mean you can't have them delivered next week and gross out your friends and family then.

Does anyone give candy apples to kids on Halloween anymore? I remember getting one once when I was trick or treating. I think they gave it to me either wrapped in a napkin or maybe just by itself, just thrown in the bag. Not sure what I was supposed to do with it after the other candy got on it. I'm talking about the sugar glazed coating, not the caramel variety.

Today is National Candy Apple Day, which fits nicely on the schedule since we're doing Candy Day all day at Slashfood and it also happens to be Halloween.

I like caramel apples more. They're one of those foods you eat a lot less of when you become an adult, but I think this fall I'll make them again.

Any kid can tell you that some candies are much more desirable than others when it comes to Halloween booty even though they're all free and most know that they're not supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth. But even though the kids can be polite when receiving the candy, they ruthlessly categorize and consume it according to what is known as the Halloween Candy Hierarchy. The Hierarchy is based on "years of research and debate, on thorough testing and re-testing...and whatnot" and ranks all Halloween goodies in from top to bottom.

• TOP TIER - Chocolate based: Milky Way, Snickers, all M&M's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Junior Mints, Kit Kat, Twix, milk chocolate Hershey bars
• SECOND TIER - Lesser chocolate based: Nestle Crunch, Almond Joy, Mounds, Tootsie Rolls, Dark Chocolate Hershey Bars, Fair Trade Chocolate
• THIRD TIER - "Upper Chewy": Milk Duds, Starburst, Jolly Ranchers (if a good flavor), 100 Grand Bar
• BOTTOM TIER - "Lower Chewy", gummy and crunchy center: Dots, Lollipops, Nerds, Whoppers, Swedish Fish, Gummy Bears, Licorice, Anything from Brach's, Hard Candy, Gum, LaffyTaffy, Jolly Ranchers (if a bad flavor), Bottle Caps, Smarties
• "Tier so low it does not register on our equipment" - Anything healthy, anything inedible

Obviously, the results are open to some interpretation and some candies Skittles, for example, are not included. Toothpaste should also be included as well-meaning, but lame, in the lowest rung. But perhaps all this is something to keep in mind when you want to know what will make the kids happy next Halloween.

[Thanks, Bob!]

This Halloween, parents across the country might try to limit their kids' intake of candy from their Halloween haul, forcing them to limit themselves to one or two pieces a day. But does this teach children the wrong lesson about food? Some experts say that it does. This practice raises up the candies above the level of normal foods and they become something special, something coveted, something to sneak pieces of and hide the evidence. Such habits can set a precedence that will last for the rest of kids' lives and lead to problems with compulsive eating in the future.

Instead of making candy into this exotic and much-desired item, some parents let their kids eat as much candy as they want on holidays like Halloween. They eat fairly balanced meals the rest of the time, but on those few special occasions the kids can go all-out if they want to. This teaches kids to regulate their own intake (especially if they accidentally eat themselves sick once) because they know that indulgence isn't something to constantly be sought out. The kids aren't focused for the whole day on that one piece they will be permitted after dinner and are much less likely to binge eat when they actually do have free-access to treats.

And we're talking literally - painted fingernails and everything.

Gael over at Pop Culture Junk Mail made these ladyfingers for her book club. Pretty easy instructions. You just shape dough into finger shapes (see pic), poach it in simmering water with baking soda. Drain them and sprinkle with rosemary (I love rosemary), use almonds for the fingernails, and bake them. She doesn't say what to bake them at or for how long, but you can probably figure it out and keep an eye on them. Or leave a comment for her and see what she did.

Anyone else making Halloween treats shaped like body parts? Maybe eyeballs or ears?

This Tuesday, as the sun sets and parents sit in an annoyingly sluggish commute because everyone leaves work at the same time that night, children across the country will don costumes and 93% of them will head out to trick-or-treat. We already know that their primary goal is to collect as much candy as possible, but what kind of candy will they end up getting? The most often handed-out candy is of the bite-sized (or snack/fun/treat sized) chocolate variety, mostly miniature versions of popular candy bars. For those that are lucky enough to live in generous neighborhoods, 26% of candy-givers pass out full-sized candies, not the minis. A rare few will get king-sized bars, the most coveted of all Halloween candy. Half of all kids say that chocolates are their favorite candies to receive, followed by non-chocolate (24%) and gum (10%).

Let's not forget the parents, though. They are the other group of big Halloween candy eaters. The parents get the leftover candies that were not passed out by the end of the night, and 90% of parents "admit to sneaking goodies from their kids' Halloween trick-or-treat bags." Like the children, the adults go for the chocolates and nearly 70% of them reach for the mini candy bars, too.

So kids, let this be a lesson to you to hide or count your candy to keep track of it. And parents, buy yourself and extra bag when you're at the store so you don't have to take it from your kids.

What are the best and worst fillings that you'll find in your Halloween candy this year? Cracked.com investigates.

Naturally, they pick "caramel" for the best category, and they're OK with nougut too. But don't even mention the words "peanuts" or "coconut." Not only do they believe the peanuts don't belong in candy bars, they wonder "why would anyone voluntarily eat coconut?"

Hey, I kinda like coconut in my candy, within reason. In an Almond Joy or Mounds or in a Whitman's sampler? Thumbs up! But when they start adding it to candy bars that have peanut butter in them...ugh.

But I think we can all agree on razor blades.

Moonstruck Chocolate Co. usually focuses on making some of the most beautiful confections that you're likely to see, with creation designs and precision artistry, but for Halloween, they do something a little different. In the spirit of the season, some of their seasonal offerings look more scary than sophisticated, which we love because it seems a little more appropriate for the holiday. The Halloween Horror Pizza is milk chocolate topped with a chocolate truffle eyeball and some gummy goodies that you wouldn't expect to find on any pizza. The Ivory Skull and Wormy Jack are both filled with gummy candies to give anyone who bites into the chocolate a Halloween trick, as well as a treat.

If you can't make up your mind as to which one you want, you can order a combo pack that contains one of each.

If, for some reason, you aren't familiar with the practice of giving candy out to costumed children on Halloween, you might want to take a look at the guide put together by Stuff Magazine explaining the best and worst things to give out. Eager trick or treaters look forward to participating in the ritual every year and we wouldn't want to disappoint them. The worst "treats" include:

• Apples -- They're tasty, but they're not candy. They're "disappointing as hell for a little kid expecting a Snickers."
• Marshmallows -- Yes, they're candy, but they don't usually come individually wrapped -- a must for Halloween treats.
• A bag of pennies -- "It's like giving away a gift certificate for a piece of gum." Save up all those pennies and buy a bag of the real thing.
• Smarties -- The U.S. Smarties are chalky and kids don't even seem to enjoy them, despite the fact that they sometimes eat them on the grounds that they still constitute candy. Try to get U.K. Smarties (similar to M&M's) or avoid the candy mixes that include these.
• Anything homemade -- "This one is alright if you only give them to kids with neglectful parents." Any responsible parent is going to dump something unwrapped as fast as possible. Save your energy.
• Raisins -- "People generally give them out under the pretense that they want to make kids healthier. In reality, they give them out because they hate fun." The boxed raisins never taste all that fresh anyway.

The best options would include "anything made by a real candy company," preferably king-sized versions.

After all, any resulting cavities aren't going to end up on your dental bill.

[Thanks, Patrick]

The house that gave out Hershey's Kisses on Halloween was inevitably considered to be the "cheap" house, the one that wouldn't spend the extra dollar to upgrade from the tiny chocolates to miniature candy bars. As Hershey's developed lots of tasty new varieties, the prospect of getting Kisses began to seem a little more palatable to candy-hungry kids. Hershey's new Costume Kisses are something that just about any chocolate-lover (kid or not) would want to get for Halloween. Sold in sets of two, the chocolates are decorated by hand and packed up in an attractive gift box.

At the moment, they only appear to be available on the online Hershey's store and, because they are hand-crafted, they might not make it into retail stores. They're still plenty of time to order them and, though you might want to keep them for yourself, think how popular you'll be with the neighborhood kids if you gave these away to trick-or-treaters!

[via Candy Addict]