Not One Piece of Candy for Halloween

Perhaps the decision to not pass out even a single piece of candy for Halloween sounds brutal, or even Scrooge-like, however, let me explain. First, you have to read 400 Watts' entry on childhood obesity. Second, you have to know that in an effort to complete a Computer Science class in record time - like three weeks? my fitness suffered. By the time Halloween rolled around, I looked at the two huge bags of candy I bought at Costco, and thought about the many times I have downed an unruly amount of chocolate while handing it out to cute little kids. Once a bag of candy is open in the house, it runs through your mind like the plague until you have consumed it all or made it disappear in some other way. And then I thought about my Grandma passing out apples for Halloween and how lame that was. Finally, I cracked. I ran to Walmart, loaded up on toys and non-edible trinkets, emptied them into my Halloween bowls, and returned the candy to Costco.

The first trick-or-treaters were a five 12 year old boys. I started to explain that instead of candy this year we decided to hand out. . . "PRIZES!!!" One of the boys shouted, and after an eager scramble through the bowls, each walked away proudly with their selected "prize." Our non-conformist approach went quite well, not only with the children, but also with the parents. Not once did I see a disappointed face, nor did I hear anyone ask where the candy was, with exception of C, who thought the response with the older kids might not go so well. (Secretly, though, I think he really missed the excuse to down a few Snickers bars and Kit Kats.) I even saw a few of those prizes clutched in the hands of the kids at church today. So there it is, one for prizes, zero for candy, and all is well.