Do you have WAY too much Halloween Candy from all of the Halloween parties, Trunk-or-Treats, and Trick-or-Treating? The struggle is real at my house! I don’t want all of this candy laying around because I will want to eat it! (Don’t judge me.) Here are 15 uses for leftover Halloween candy. I know I will be doing a few of these! Hopefully, these will help you out too.
1. Donate to a Women’s Shelter.
More than likely if kids are in a women’s shelter with their mom, they didn’t get to get out and go trick-or-treating. Donating some of the leftover Halloween Candy will make a kids’ day so they weren’t “left out” of the fun.
2. Operation Christmas Child.
Operation Christmas Child is right around the corner, and you can send hard candy in the shoe boxes! Go through and pick out the lollipops and other hard candy to add in with the goodies in the shoe boxes.
3. Operation Gratitude.
Operation Gratitude is a program that sends care packages to troops deployed overseas. One of the items they collect to include in their care packages is Halloween Candy! Before donating your candy, be sure to remove all Pixie Sticks (per their instructions). See the shipping address and more information here.
4. “Sell it” to the dentist.
Many dentists will “buy” Halloween Candy from kids, so if you are close to a Dentist Yuma in your area, you may want to take your leftover candy to them. They will usually “pay” for the candy with cash, toothbrushes, or other coupons for the kids. Please ask your local dentist if he does this first before turning up at his dental practice with a massive bag of candy! The reason the dentists are buying this candy is because consuming lots of candy is not good for children’s teeth and can lead to problems like tooth decay, which often ends up with children requiring an emergency dental appointment. If these dentists can purchase some of the excess candy, then there is less of a chance of it all being eaten and damaging teeth. After the dentists “buy” the candy, they will then donate the candy to military organizations. Find a list of participating dentists in your area here.
5. Ice Cream Toppings.
Save the Snickers, Reese’s Cups, and other chocolate candies to use for ice cream toppings next time you have ice cream sundaes.
6. Christmas Cookies.
Keep the M&M’s and use them for to decorate Christmas Cookies or a Gingerbread House. Get creative and use other candies from the Halloween Stash to decorate!
7. Stocking Stuffers.
A lot of Halloween candy doesn’t have a different wrapper on the outside, which makes is perfectly acceptable and OK to use it as a stocking stuffer. Of course, I would skip any that has ghosts or witches on them, but most don’t.
8. Gift Baskets.
Use the candy to stick in gift baskets for neighbors and friends around the holidays.
9. Birthday Goody Bags.
If your child has a birthday coming up and you’re planning on having a party, you can use the candy to stuff in the goody bags you send home with all the kids. I mean, isn’t that what all parents love? Taking their kids to a birthday party to get hyped up on ice cream and cake, and then have candy sent home?
10. Take it to Work.
The day after Halloween is a gold mine at so many offices! If you don’t work at an office, send Halloween candy to work with your spouse to get rid of the candy.
11. Recipes.
There are so many yummy recipes that call for leftover Halloween Candy. For example, did you know there is a Twix Cheesecake Pie? Or Leftover Halloween Candy Blondies? They sound delicious! Check out these recipes here.
12. Share it.
Put it in a decorative bowl/dish in your home to share when you have guests drop in for the holidays.
13. Give it to a family member.
My youngest sister hasn’t had the pleasure of taking kids treat-or-treating yet, so she doesn’t get any Butterfinger Candy Bars. Since I’m a nice older sister, I save all of my kids’ Butterfinger Candy Bars for her since it is her favorite candy.
14. Easter Baskets.
Save the candy to stick in the kids’ Easter Baskets. A lot of the candy doesn’t look “Halloween” and doesn’t expire for another 6 months or so, it will still be good for Easter and your kids won’t even notice! Plus, your checkbook will thank you.
15. Movie Night.
Have a movie night with your kids. Pop some popcorn and hand out some Halloween Candy to enjoy.
