"trick or treating" news and stories

When I was in the fourth grade, my mother handed out travel-sized tubes of sparkly, bubble gum flavored toothpaste on Halloween instead of candy. That night, several kids turned her down flat and one particularly outspoken ghost picked up a tube, took a look at it and tossed it back in the bowl, shouting, "Hey! That's not candy!" After that, she returned to mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and snack-sized candy bars (in the days before "fun" size). We spent years using up that awful toothpaste.

During my adult years, I've never lived in a place where trick or treaters come to the door, so I've never had the fun of picking out candy and opening the door to decked out princesses and eye-patched pirates (sadly though, I've consumed more than my share of Halloween candy in those same years). This year, I'm hoping to live vicariously through the Halloween experiences of Slashfood readers.

What kind of candy are you handing out this year? Has the tightening economy impacted the contents of your Halloween bowl? Do you typically buy the same candy year after year, or do you like to mix it up?

Tonight the kids (and more than a few adults) will be trick or treating, and our friends over at Mahalo have a guide on how to trick or treat safely. It covers everything from what you should do before you even head out the door (make sure you have a flashlight and a cell phone!), where to go (don't go to homes that don't have any lights on), and what do to with the candy when you get home (make sure candy is wrapped, and cut into all apples - I'll go one step further and say don't eat apples at all).

I don't have kids so I don't know how kids trick or treat nowadays. Do they still go all over the place to all houses or just stick to their neighborhood? Or do you take them to a party instead?

I'm not quite sure why this list is up at ESPN, though it's part of their Page 2 and pretty much anything goes there.

They want to know what your favorite Halloween candies are. Are you a chocolate person, or do you like things like Twizzlers and Air Heads? For the record, I checked off Almond Joy, Dots, Goobers, Heath Bar, Hershey Bar, Hershey Kisses, M&Ms, Milk Duds, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and Riesens.

Of course, this does have a sports twist to it: check out the Candy Bracket, various candies and candy bars going up against each other like it's March Madness. Call it Fall Madness. The candies are separated into four categories: Classic, Convenience, Movie Theater, and Trick or Treat.

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.

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