Last night I received an e-mail from my mother-in-law that shed an interesting perspective on the real challenge of Halloween...the greed that it encourages in our children.
"Getting" as much loot as possible is the focus. Children gleefully try to acquire as much as possible, then come home to count it, horde it, hide it, consume it. It is tradition. But is this really the type of behaviour we want to glorify and celebrate?
We had a terrific time yesterday parading around at school, trick-or-treating downtown in our small town, then going on a neighborhood hayride for door-to-door residential trick-or-treating. We made it home just in time for the children to pass out candy to 4-5 sets of 'customers' as R called them. My heart was warmed as my precious P chose to fill visitor's bags with candy from his own bag as opposed to the bowl of candy I had purchased. He was extremely generous leaving only 1/4 of what he started with after only 6 children. Watching them get so excited about giving to others made this Mama's heart very happy.
So, the combination of this observation, the article from my mother-in-law and the fact that we had three gallon-sized Ziploc bags completely filled with candy led to a new post-Halloween tradition.
This morning we allowed each child to choose 20 pieces of candy to keep. Each sibling gave the others 2 more pieces from their own stash. I replenished our after school treat basket and we gave the remaining 2 gallons to a food pantry. There were no tears shed. Everyone still has plenty of candy and I feel a bit better about the lessons the children have gotten from this holiday.
7 comments:
Ooh, I like this idea! It will be a great tradition to start in the future...our little guy is only 9 months old...no candy this year! (:
Here's an idea I just heard about recently:
The Halloween Fairy -
A creative twist to minimizing the sugar intake.
When the trick or treating is all over, spread the candy out on the kitchen table and have your child choose a few goodies he/she would like to keep and eat. Leave the rest of the candy in the middle of the kitchen table for the Halloween Fairy to take away. When your child wakes in the morning, the candy is gone and a surprise is sitting in its place.
We lived overseas when our children were "trick or treat" age so they never really did that except for the year we moved back to the states. The boys were eager to go trick-or-treating and we let them. They had a blast but it was the ONLY year they ever did that which in some ways is kind of sad but in other ways good - we didn't have the candy/greed issue! :)
Overseas at the American/International schools they attended, they could wear their costumes to school and had activities there so at least they did have the joy of dressing up and "being someone else" for a time. I think the nationals thought we were totally crazy!
We've always had the kids pick out a certain number of pieces each year. Plus we let them decide when they are ready to stop vs. encouraging them to go on and on and on...Of course, this only works because they are usually ready to stop after only a handful of houses.
I was appalled last night at the teens and pre-teens that came to the door and then had the audacity to complain because I was only giving out Smarties!
When I grow up, I want to be like you.
Brand new reader here, by way of Boo Mama.
Our local orthodontist does a FABULOUS thing: they buy back candy on November 1-4. They offer a price per pound to kids willing to turn over the goods. Then they donate all the candy to the armed forces overseas. I love that.
Great blog - I'll be back!
what a GREAT idea!! i struggle all the time with finding ways to teach my kids to give instead of getting all the time. praying that their hearts would overflow with Gods generosity and that they in their own little ways would understand what that means!
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