Friday, October 3, 2008

How to Get Your Kids to Give Away Their Halloween Candy

Halloween is a huge event in my kids lives' --I am betting in almost all kids lives (except those who do not celebrate which seems to be more common than you'd think in Texas). My kids love to dress up--this year Miley wants to be Nancy Drew so Sara wants to be Nancy Drew; Dino plans to be Michael Phelps and Spanky may very well be Spanky from 'Our Gang' if I can find the right golf hat and pants. And then they love to trick'r'treat and bring back bags and bags of candy.

After they trick 'r' treat, we go through the bags and they tell me what their favorite ones are. They each eat one piece of candy. And then they take their entire bag of candy, dump it on the foot of the fire place and excitedly run to bed.

The next morning, the candy, except for a few of the favorites, is gone and replaced with a toy.  

Confused? Let me explain. We have more than Santa, the Easter Bunny (they never fell for her), and the tooth fairy. We also have the Great Big Pumpkin. 

The Great Big Pumpkin as you Peanuts fans might remember, lives in the Great Pumpkin Patch. He comes out on Halloween and searches for candy. If you leave a little bit of candy for him, he leaves a little gift. If you leave all your candy, he leaves the gift you asked for in a letter earlier that month. (Naturally, the gift has to be in reason--he is not allowed to upstage Santa so nothing to be big or special. Santa gets mad when the Great Big Pumpkin gets more attention.)

And that candy? Well, it turns out The Great Big Pumpkin has access to the conference room at a real estate office. He leaves it there. And the Very Busy House with 4 is almost candy free on November 1.

So does the Great Big Pumpkin visit you?




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25 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 3, 2008 at 8:03 AM

    Oh my goodness I'm so glad I found this post that has got to be the best thing I've ever heard! Thank you!!

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  2. Munchkins and MusicOctober 3, 2008 at 10:38 AM

    That is a cool idea! Love it! I like the music on your blog too!

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  3. daniOctober 3, 2008 at 11:01 AM

    no, lisa, the great pumpkin has never visited us. but, it is a brilliant idea:)
    love,
    dani

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  4. AmandaOctober 3, 2008 at 12:20 PM

    No he has never visited us, but he just might this year!!
    Thanks for sharing Lisa:)
    l,
    Amanda x

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  5. AnonymousOctober 3, 2008 at 12:20 PM

    yes, yes, yes... i love the great pumpkin... callie has already decided what she AND lizzy want from the great pumpkin this year. last year daddy's work got a big bowl of candy in the kitchen, but I still keep a "few" of the good chocolates in the freezer!
    love, susan

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  6. AnonymousOctober 3, 2008 at 12:21 PM

    yes, yes, yes... i love the great pumpkin... callie has already decided what she AND lizzy want from the great pumpkin this year. last year daddy's work got a big bowl of candy in the kitchen, but I still keep a "few" of the good chocolates in the freezer!
    love, susan

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  7. AnonymousOctober 3, 2008 at 1:45 PM

    That sounds like a great plan. I haven't had mine trick or treat officially yet - he's too young, so I haven't had to deal with that yet.

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  8. Jackie October 3, 2008 at 2:18 PM

    Brilliant! I am going to have to adopt this. We have a hard enough time confiscating the candy from all the birthday parties we go to.

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  9. e.m.October 3, 2008 at 6:38 PM

    Yes! We actually started last year but since son was rushed to the E.R. halloween night, The Great Pumpkin had Mom run the kids to Target for a toy the next day. Hopefully, this year he will just leave a toy on the front step!

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  10. Brian and StaciOctober 3, 2008 at 8:29 PM

    I'm LOVIN' this idea!!! Last year was the first year we actually trick or treated in a neighborhood...a friend of our's was having a little party and then the kids did their thing...Connor had a GREAT time. He did get the most candy he'd ever gotten in previous years (in past years...we've only gone to about 3or 4 homes) so he was pretty excited...but we went through it and surprisingly...he wasn't too sad about tossing most of it ) My husband's office has a candy buy back for their patients...They encourage their patients to bring their Halloween candy in and then they weigh it and donate that amount of money to the National Diabetes Fund (or some foundation like that!) This has been a giant hit at their office :) Anyway, didn't mean for this post to be that long...I love your idea :)

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  11. OHmommyOctober 3, 2008 at 9:18 PM

    Dear Lord. Thank you sooooo much for allowing me the time to visit my sweet verybusymomwith4 tonight.

    That is all.

    Many thanks. My dentist husband is soooooo telling everyone about this. And we are implementing.

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  12. OHmommyOctober 3, 2008 at 9:19 PM

    Oh yeah, I just had to stumpleupon this so that EVERYONE would know.

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  13. StephanieOctober 3, 2008 at 10:08 PM

    This is GREAT! I dont have kids, but when I do we are so doing this! Along with the binky fairy from Mamasphere! I love this, so many good ideas!

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  14. AnonymousOctober 3, 2008 at 10:13 PM

    Love it... what a great idea! How ever did you come up with it?! Besides the obvious Peanuts reference?

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  15. Blessings From AboveOctober 3, 2008 at 10:42 PM

    I LOVE this idea!!! I wonder if my daughter, who is 8, would still by the Great Pumpkin? It is brilliant!

    Thanks for sharing.

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  16. AnonymousOctober 3, 2008 at 11:47 PM

    AWESOME!!!

    THANKS!

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  17. CarolOctober 4, 2008 at 3:25 AM

    Genius idea!

    Halloween isn't a big deal here at all. Last year we had a Halloween party for the kids and so we did get trick or treaters call by but most of them said that people had just been really rude to their kids. So I haven't braved taking the kids trick or treating.

    I must remember to get orgnaised for this year.

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  18. ginaOctober 4, 2008 at 1:29 PM

    It will be this year. Thanks for the great idea! :)

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  19. Lizz @ Yes, and So is My HeartOctober 4, 2008 at 8:14 PM

    That is a fabulous idea! Mind if I steal it? :)

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  20. Laural Out LoudOctober 4, 2008 at 9:10 PM

    Not before now, but I'm sure as heck going to try and get him here this year!

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  21. AnonymousOctober 4, 2008 at 11:25 PM

    it's late and honestly I didn't even read your post here. (promise to later)

    BUT

    I wanted to ask you....

    did you wet yourself during the game tonight? I did!

    MAN, was that a good game!!!!!!!!! So glad we came out on top...

    GO BUCKS!

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  22. UnknownOctober 5, 2008 at 5:09 PM

    Well whoever came up with this idea (was it you??) is BRILLIANT!!! He's never been to our house before but you can bet he may make a visit this year. BRILLIANT!!

    (have I said that I think this idea is BRILLIANT yet??) ; )

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  23. AnonymousOctober 5, 2008 at 8:04 PM

    Oh man...we want the Great Pumpkin to come visit us!

    Actually, we don't have one because there are no kidlets here at the Prepatorium, but we just *love* the premise. It makes eminently good sense.

    Grins and giggles for a wonderful week ahead!
    tp

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  24. mah-meeeeOctober 6, 2008 at 2:42 PM

    oh awesome idea, lisa! i think the Great Big Pumpkin is going to visit us this year too. (cross my fingers that it'll work...)

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  25. Becky WOctober 8, 2008 at 2:37 PM

    I think he is going to visit this year!!!

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I love your comments :)