I know what you’re thinking. Leftover Halloween candy? Really? But let’s be honest. If your kids are like mine, their trick-or-treating efforts have left them with more sugar than they should ever have. EVER!
There’s no reason to let all that excess candy go to waste. Try some of these ideas instead!
10 Ways to Use Leftover Halloween Candy
1. Freeze it for later. Chocolate freezes well, and you’ll be less tempted to break open the bag and eat it until you have the proper occasion for it!
2. Use it for ice cream mix-ins. Save the candy to mix in to ice cream for a tasty treat.
3. Use it for baking. Use hard candies to decorate cakes and cupcakes. Bake chocolate or peanut butter cups into cupcakes or cookies.
4. Trade it in at the dentist. Many dentists across the country do a Halloween Candy Buy Back. In exchange for kids’ Halloween candy, dentists give out healthy rewards like toothbrushes, stickers, small toys or even small amounts of cash. The dentists then donate the candy to members of the military.
5. Donate it to the troops. If you aren’t interested in stopping to see the dentist, you can send Halloween candy to U.S. troops through an organization like Operation Shoebox.
6. Use it to make holiday decorations. Leftover candy corn can be turned into cute little turkeys for Thanksgiving. We save leftover Halloween candy to decorate our graham cracker houses that we make in December. Tootsie Rolls make great chimneys and Sweet Tarts make good walking paths. You could also use hard candies to make an adorable candy wreath. Create a special advent calendar with the leftover candy.
7. Make your own trail mix. Turn your leftover candy into a fun, creative trail mix.
8. Drink it up. Melt chocolate in warm milk for a yummy hot chocolate drink. Or add the chocolate to coffee for a tasty mocha.
9. Use leftover Halloween Candy as an educational tool. Candy can be used for learning addition, subtraction, or mastering fractions. It can be used to create writing prompts or substituted for game pieces.
10. Celebrate! Find fun uses for leftover Halloween candy. Fill a pinata, use it for prizes for family game night, or give it as a potty training reward. Leave random pieces of candy for your kids and spouse to surprise them. You’re only limited by your imagination!
You can find more ideas for leftover halloween candy at Parenting.com.
In our house, we typically save the non-chocolate leftover Halloween candy for our graham cracker houses we make in December. Of course, all of the chocolate candies go straight to my thighs.
The day after Halloween is also what I affectionately designate as “Cheap Chocolate Day.” Use whatever coupons you can find to take advantage of the Halloween candy clearance and stock up on candy for stocking stuffers. Just toss it in the freezer until the guy in the red suit is scheduled to arrive. If you stick to candy that isn’t in Halloween-themed packaging, your kids won’t suspect a thing.
What do you do with your leftover Halloween Candy?
One of our local hospitals is doing a candy buy back from the kids where they can sell back candy for $1.50/lb (up to 3 pounds) and they are also giving them healthy treats and toothpaste & toothbrush back in addition to the money.
We freeze it and use it for gifts later. The Twizzlers to go teachers at Christmas (Twizz the season to be jolly), the blue candy goes to teachers on autism awareness day, the nice stuff goes into stockings at Christmas, and we even save some for birthday goody bags. We open all the small bags of m&m’s and make cookies that go out on the Christmas plates as well as saving the hershey’s bars for s’mores kits as gifts. We really stretch our supply!
Very clever, Melanie! Thanks for sharing!
We set aside a bunch of colorful candies to use for gingerbread houses. Then I don’t have to buy more candy for that. And I also pick out stuff to put in the kids advent calendar – they don’t even realize I have taken those 50 pieces out for their calendar since I do my sorting when they are not around.