Full sized bars for halloween

[chouchouu]

On another forum posters mentioned how they would be giving out full sized chocolate bars for halloween, it seems to be some sort of status symbol?

I'm Aussie so am a bit confused. Considering the candy stashes people are posting after halloween it seems a full sized bar wouldn't be so valuable and possibly even annoying if your bucket fills up so quick and your night is cut short. As a parent I think I'd be side eyeing the big candy bars, I dislike people giving my kids sweets. I dunno, just curious how this all works and what sort of stuff is given out. Also, what a mustachian halloween like?

[ash7962]

Yeah it is totally a status symbol.  It costs more money to stock up on full sized bars rather than getting the bag of bite sized.  I live in the US and I remember my friend's mom would take us to the rich neighborhood where you'd get full size bars.  This was when we were like 10-13 so we were past the "parents showing off their cute kids" phase and fully into the "get as much candy as possible in 1 night" phase.  I think our reasoning as kids was just that a larger bar meant you got more candy volume per house visited.

[JPinDC]

As someone who used to be a kid, I am pro full-size bars. Now I live in an apartment and no one comes around for candy, so I don't buy any.

Re: Mustachian Hallowen: I've come across the fundraising type boxes of full-size bars before at Big Lots stores and they were a great price there, but it seems like there are always sales on candy leading up to Halloween. The biggest money saver for me is being creative with costuming/decorations and DIYing it.

[Kwill]

There are great big bags of cheap candies that are not so exciting to receive but that are at least something to give out. I, too, have been living in apartments for awhile so I've not given away candy much.

I guess the real Mustachian thing to do would be to leave your porch light off and not give anything out. You can't make your own food to give away because parents would be afraid of poison or razor blades or something. As a kid, my parents made me sort through the candy and throw away anything with a torn or missing wrapper. I wasn't allowed to eat any candy during the trick-or-treating itself.

[nereo]

As someone who used to be a kid, I am pro full-size bars. Now I live in an apartment and no one comes around for candy, so I don't buy any.

hey, I was once a kid too!  And remembering back to those days I can say that the houses that gave out full-sized candy bars were like white stags or (for some neighborhoods) unicorns.  Everybody wanted to hit up the homes that gave out full-sized bars.
@ samusugiru: Kids don't consider full-sized bars to be annoying and don't worry about their bucket filling up.  Most kids I know utilized the "pillow-case methods" dumping the candy from the little plastic pumpkin into a regular pillowcase once it started to fill up.
Not once in my childhood did I ever hear a kid say "oh - that candy bar is too big, do you have anything smaller?"

[coppertop]

I guess I was a kid in the golden age of trick or treating.  There were no 'fun-size' bars back then; all were full size.  But we'd also get apples and cookies - not everyone gave candy, and that was okay with us.  That was before the poison and razor blades worries.  Stories like that were just not heard of.  Also, Hallowe'en was always on October 31; none of this messing around with the night we were 'allowed' to trick or treat or regulating the time of day or night we were allowed. 

[dude]

http://www.ifunny.com/pictures/im-not-wearing-costume-im-here/

[Dollar Slice]

I also used to be a kid, and I never took a container trick-or-treating that was in any danger of filling up. I think the equation was trying to maximize weight and quality of candy per total distance walked. Everyone tried to finagle an invitation to the neighborhoods which were wealthy enough not to skimp on candy, but not so wealthy that the houses were too far apart. Big bars were always a winner. (I remember a friend of mine lived in a weird neighborhood with no kids, and his next-door neighbor would buy one of those huge 8-oz bars for him every year because he was the only trick-or-treater that would come.)

My brother and I used to stop back at our own house halfway through and swap out the gross candy for good stuff that our parents were giving away, so my parents would give that stuff away in turn. In exchange for this service we were charged a tax of all Mounds and Almond Joy bars that we received :-)

[Roadhog]

We always buy full size bars to hand out at Halloween.  We live in a neighborhood that has very few kids coming by.  At most maybe 20.  So we go to Costco and buy a box of 36 full size bars of our favorite candy.  We end up eating most of it ourselves and for the few kids who come by, they love getting a big bar of the good stuff. 

[nereo]

My brother and I used to stop back at our own house halfway through and swap out the gross candy for good stuff that our parents were giving away, so my parents would give that stuff away in turn. In exchange for this service we were charged a tax of all Mounds and Almond Joy bars that we received :-)

Oh man, you just made me remember a family story I've repressed for many years.  My grandfather was a frugal dentist and my grandmother was about a miserly as they come.  When my mom and her two siblings were kids they would be sent out trick-or-treating really early.  My grandmother would take their candy, let them choose one piece (that wasn't caramel) and she'd give the rest away to the other kids in the neighborhood so she wouldn't have to buy candy!

When I was a kid I was threatened with this story whenever I wanted to keep trick-or-treating or attempt in any way to maximize my candy haul.  "if you don't stop right now I"m giving all your candy away to the other trick-or-treaters!"

[bacchi]

We get slammed during Halloween. I already spend $100 for mini-bars. No way I'm spending $1000+ for full size bars.

[nereo]

We get slammed during Halloween. I already spend $100 for mini-bars. No way I'm spending $1000+ for full size bars.

holy crap, where do you live?  I don't think we've ever spent more than about $20 on halloween candy, and we normally have half of it left over the next morning.

[okits]

My brother and I used to stop back at our own house halfway through and swap out the gross candy for good stuff that our parents were giving away, so my parents would give that stuff away in turn. In exchange for this service we were charged a tax of all Mounds and Almond Joy bars that we received :-)

Oh man, you just made me remember a family story I've repressed for many years.  My grandfather was a frugal dentist and my grandmother was about a miserly as they come.  When my mom and her two siblings were kids they would be sent out trick-or-treating really early.  My grandmother would take their candy, let them choose one piece (that wasn't caramel) and she'd give the rest away to the other kids in the neighborhood so she wouldn't have to buy candy!

When I was a kid I was threatened with this story whenever I wanted to keep trick-or-treating or attempt in any way to maximize my candy haul.  "if you don't stop right now I"m giving all your candy away to the other trick-or-treaters!"

This story makes my inner child so sad!

[partgypsy]

It is maybe a status symbol, but you earn the graditude of the kids and it gives them bragging rights (I got a full-sized bar!). Basically candy is a form of wealth to kids, so a full size bar is like getting a $20 bill. I remember one of my kids beaming, that the people in the house knew her, so they gave her a full sized bar even though the rest of people got regular sized treats. There are a few years towards the end that trick or treating is all about maximizing the amount of candy per hour you are getting so the more or bigger the better. Also, many parents have rules, like only 2 pieces of candy per day. Hey if you have a full sized bar I guess that counts as one piece. 

[MandalayVA]

We get slammed during Halloween. I already spend $100 for mini-bars. No way I'm spending $1000+ for full size bars.

This.  I've bought four 150-piece bags of mini candy bars.  I will likely hand out every single piece on Halloween.  I sit on my porch steps with my neighbors and we get so many kids I feel like I'm dealing blackjack because a couple of local churches bus in kids from the projects.  It's exhausting but fun.  :D

[Helvegen]

Our kid is trick or treat age still, so we aren't at home to give out candy. We go to much denser and higher income neighborhoods near our work to let her trick or treat. We do make grab bags for some of our neighbors's kids to give out before we leave because we like them. :)

Otherwise, I buy a Costco bag of fun sized candy for work because we have an annual trick or treat event here. I've never considered buying full-sized bars and I pretty much never got them as a child either. Probably part of the reason I never put much thought into it.

I NEVER BUY PEANUT BUTTER TAFFY. I'd just sooner not give out candy than that nasty, nasty cheap garbage. Hehe.

[MsPeacock]

I never thought of it as a status symbol. Aside from the kids at the door who would you be impressing? I Hardly get any trick or treaters because my house is buried deep in my neighborhood up and down a bunch of steep hills and up about 20 steps to get to the front door. Usually I am out with my kids for Halloween and just put out a bowl regular fun size Halloween candy. However, one year I was Home and gave out full size bars, because I too remember what it Is like to be a kid.  It was awesome to give them out.  The kids were so excited to get them. I think I bought a Costco type package of 20 bars, which were maybe .50 each on sale.

Some of my neighborhood is close to major roads and it is a good quiet neighborhood without much traffic and with houses close together.  People bring their kids from apartments or bad areas to trick or treat. Some houses have hundreds of kids come to their door. They aren't giving out full size bars at those houses. However, it is an awesome sight to see hundreds of excited kids in costume and some people really get into decorating their houses, and giving away adult beverages as well. It's a big huge fun party and if someone wants to drop $50 or whatever on candy because they like to participate that way, I don't really see the issue. It is once a year and you can leave your porch light off and opt out if you don't want to do it.

[Gone Fishing]

Growing up, it was known that one fellow in the neighborhood gave out full size bars.  He was usually out before it was even dark.

[bacchi]

We get slammed during Halloween. I already spend $100 for mini-bars. No way I'm spending $1000+ for full size bars.

holy crap, where do you live?  I don't think we've ever spent more than about $20 on halloween candy, and we normally have half of it left over the next morning.

Like others, kids from the projects flood the neighborhood. There's also a (walking) Halloween parade, which means standing near the street and handing out candy to the kid participants.

[jacksonvasey]

I remember some people would put out a bowl of candy with a sign that said 'please take just 1', which was always empty by the time I got there.

'Someone' cracked an egg in the empty bowl, wasn't me.

[Drifterrider]

  I think our reasoning as kids was just that a larger bar meant you got more candy volume per house visited.

Mustachian at an early age!

[Frankies Girl]

I do Halloween big - it is my anniversary, and I am an extreme decorator. This year it's a creepy carnival circus in our yard complete with a ghost pony carousel, a skeleton tightrope walker and a clown skeleton jack in the box... Doing full sized bars is not a status symbol in my (very large) home haunter community - it's a "I freaking love Halloween and I want all the kids that trick-or-treat to have an amazing experience" type of thing. Sort of a sharing the love as it were.

I still remember the houses when I was a child that gave out full sized bars, and decorated with more than just a pumpkin or a few paper witches in the window. This is the stuff that childhood memories are made of, and one of the few events that still get you out and visiting neighbors and having a sense of community.

We have too many TOTs to do full sized (well over 100 most years), but we do fun sized and other stuff including toys (usually glow bracelets).

[Gone Fishing]

There's also a (walking) Halloween parade, which means standing near the street and handing out candy to the kid participants.

Hedonic adaptation at its best!  When I was a kid there was 1-2 floats in the Thanksgiving Day Parade that threw out candy.  You would be lucky to get 2-3 pieces over the course of the parade.  Fast forward 20 years or so and every float disperses 20 lbs of candy over a one mile parade.  I think most of the kids got better hauls then than they did at Halloween!     

[chouchouu]

As someone who used to be a kid, I am pro full-size bars. Now I live in an apartment and no one comes around for candy, so I don't buy any.

hey, I was once a kid too!  And remembering back to those days I can say that the houses that gave out full-sized candy bars were like white stags or (for some neighborhoods) unicorns.  Everybody wanted to hit up the homes that gave out full-sized bars.
@ samusugiru: Kids don't consider full-sized bars to be annoying and don't worry about their bucket filling up.  Most kids I know utilized the "pillow-case methods" dumping the candy from the little plastic pumpkin into a regular pillowcase once it started to fill up.
Not once in my childhood did I ever hear a kid say "oh - that candy bar is too big, do you have anything smaller?"

Little plastic pumpkin? Those things are huge! I can't imagine a pillowcase of candy, that's quite something. There are some neighbourhoods in Sydney where trick or treating is done, a friend invited me but I'm not letting my daughters collect anymore than the pumpkin can hold. So glad they won't have any friends who can let them know to collect more...

[Telecaster]

I just gotta say Halloween completely sucks garbage compared to when I was a kid!   All us kids would take a pillow case and go terrorize the neighborhood for a couple hours.   And if you weren't home to pass out treats, you got a trick.  Sorry, those are the rules.    Big fun.   

Nowdays parents take their kids around.  What fun is that??   

[The_path_less_taken]

It's my birthday, so as a kid I just assumed all of you people loved me, which is why I got so much chocolate.

I still do, somewhat.

Big bars are the bomb. But if I were in an area that had trick or treaters I'd probably hand them out to the kids who made their costumes...the ones who were creative versus off the shelf thinking. Even a poorly made homemade costume speaks to me, whereas off the shelf stuff is boring.

[Miss Prim]

The people in the subdivision across the street from me seem to mostly give out full-size candy bars.  But, they are all sitting on at least an acre of land, so trick-or-treating in that area is a lot of walking (or running as the case may be!).  They don't get a lot of kids, so I guess they like to reward the one's that come.

                                                             Miss Prim

[Giro]

I love Halloween, but I have some broken 'I don't like chocolate' kid.  She goes trick or treating with her friends and they are usually done after about 20 mins so she barely gets anything.  ugh.  I want chocolate...go bring me back some chocolate.  And yes, I buy bags of candy and pass it out and could eat that, but it's not the same as digging through a bag with 100 varieties of different candies.

damn broken kid.

[Camarillo Brillo]

I love Halloween, but I have some broken 'I don't like chocolate' kid.  She goes trick or treating with her friends and they are usually done after about 20 mins so she barely gets anything.  ugh.  I want chocolate...go bring me back some chocolate.  And yes, I buy bags of candy and pass it out and could eat that, but it's not the same as digging through a bag with 100 varieties of different candies.

damn broken kid.

That describes our neighborhood as well.  All the lots are large and the driveways are long. Takes the kids a long time to walk from house to house, so many of the kids seem to go trick or treat with their friends that live in more compact neighborhoods. The kids that trick or treat in our's get rewarded with big candy bars, and lots of 'em.

[Jack]

In my neighborhood (which does not have large lots or long driveways) lazy-ass parents often drive their kids from house to house. I'm considering getting full bars for the kids that walk, and the cheap non-chocolate candy for the kids that don't.

[Jeddy]

In my neighborhood (which does not have large lots or long driveways) lazy-ass parents often drive their kids from house to house. I'm considering getting full bars for the kids that walk, and the cheap non-chocolate candy for the kids that don't.

Jeeze - half the fun of Halloween was out walking in the dark with friends and/or family. I'm trying to think of the candy that we couldn't stand getting that would be a good option for the drivers - I'm thinking something that old ladies tend to carry in their purses - things like the no-name/no-brand butterscotch candies or those strawberry-ish flavored candies that the wrapping looks like a strawberry.

[Kwill]

You know, if everyone gave out full-sized chocolate bars, it wouldn't be special. The fun for me was more getting the candy rather than actually eating the candy. The bag of candy went down a little bit at a time the first few days but then the rest of it sat around until about Easter. I imagine a lot of candy just gets thrown away in the end, but maybe some kids really like eating it? Too bad you can't run electricity or cars or something on wasted food and trash like the Mr. Fusion on the Back to the Future car.

[MandalayVA]

I love Halloween, but I have some broken 'I don't like chocolate' kid.  She goes trick or treating with her friends and they are usually done after about 20 mins so she barely gets anything.  ugh.  I want chocolate...go bring me back some chocolate.  And yes, I buy bags of candy and pass it out and could eat that, but it's not the same as digging through a bag with 100 varieties of different candies.

damn broken kid.

I see your broken child and raise you my younger older sister (next one up from me), who actually PREFERRED crap like Mary Janes and Bit-O-Honeys over chocolate.  At least when I got that stuff it never went to waste!

Alas, you have touched upon a peeve of mine, which I see quite frequently--using your kids as your personal candy pusher.  I don't care how adorable that baby bumblebee or toddler Tinker Bell is, I'm not giving it anything other than compliments and admiration.  NO REESES FOR YOU!

/Candy Nazi

[MrsPete]

The biggest money saver for me is being creative with costuming/decorations and DIYing it.

When my kids were small, I used to get Disney's Family Fun magazine.  It always had GREAT costumes made from stuff you already have around the house.  My daughter was talking just the other day about the year I made her a Cyber Power Princess with an idea from that magazine:  It was just a denim mini-skirt and shirt she already had, a short bright blue wig from the party store, and aluminum foil "bracelets" around her wrists and ankles.  She remembered that from 12+ years or so ago! 

Of course, today Pinterest has the same type of stuff, but the internet wasn't quite so full back then. 

I guess the real Mustachian thing to do would be to leave your porch light off and not give anything out. You can't make your own food to give away because parents would be afraid of poison or razor blades or something. As a kid, my parents made me sort through the candy and throw away anything with a torn or missing wrapper. I wasn't allowed to eat any candy during the trick-or-treating itself.

Short of not participating, here's something cheap I've done:  After Halloween when everything's 1/2 off, I've bought Halloween rings or bubbles or pencils or similar stuff.  Those things will last a full year without any loss of quality (and my family won't eat up spider rings), and when paired with a piece of cheap candy, that's a pretty good score for a kid! 

[MonkeyJenga]

I'm visiting family in their new house in a wealthy gated community. We asked about Halloween candy and joked about how people here probably hand out full bars. My mom replied that a neighbor spent $700 last year!

Seven hundred dollars.

People bring all their friends to the neighborhood, and shit gets crazy. Homeowners have brought in gourmet pizza, ice cream trucks, insane stuff. It got so hectic last year that a girl was run over by a freaking golf cart.

What is this, Walmart on Black Friday? I love me a good pillowcase full of chocolate (my condolences, Giro), but damn.

[CupcakeGuru]

We get slammed during Halloween. I already spend $100 for mini-bars. No way I'm spending $1000+ for full size bars.

We get slammed here too. Last year we went through 12 pounds of candy! But my kids always beg to go the "Full Size Candy Bar" house!

[crazy jane]

Don't forget to have plastic shot glasses and a bottle of an adult beverage to offer to the grown ups. I get more adults than kids at my house.

[sol]

We are always "the Halloween house" in every neighborhood we have lived in.  Full sized candy bars are a minor expense compared to the rest of the decorations.  We have lighting and sounds effects and always answer the door in costume.

I budget about $500 per year for Halloween, mostly spent on Nov 1 and stored for next year..  It adds up after a while, but I have a folder of letters from kids and parents thanking me for providing unique childhood memories over the years.  I don't really go in for Christmas or Easter, but Halloween is a holiday that speaks to my soul.

[Gone Fishing]

We are always "the Halloween house" in every neighborhood we have lived in.  Full sized candy bars are a minor expense compared to the rest of the decorations.  We have lighting and sounds effects and always answer the door in costume.

I budget about $500 per year for Halloween, mostly spent on Nov 1 and stored for next year..  It adds up after a while, but I have a folder of letters from kids and parents thanking me for providing unique childhood memories over the years.  I don't really go in for Christmas or Easter, but Halloween is a holiday that speaks to my soul.

Ha, ha, ha!!  Now we know your weak spot!

[brooklynguy]

You can't make your own food to give away because parents would be afraid of poison or razor blades or something.

I once received a homemade candied apple from a kindly old lady and, in a tragedy of overcautiousness for which I will never forgive them, my parents made me throw it away.

I do Halloween big

We are always "the Halloween house"

You folks are heroes of the highest order.  The inspiring homeowner who performs this valuable public service in my neighborhood maintains a blog on which she memorializes her annual efforts with photos.  This year's theme is "Twisted Charlotte's Web".

[Kriegsspiel]

I always had full size candy bars once I graduated college. I just felt like it was... giving back, you know? I wanted small children to have a happy childhood. I also had a sustainablely harvested human corpse in my front yard, to let them know that I was green. I don't want these kids thinking I'm polluting their future.

[ltt]

Plenty of years we've given full size candy bars or cans of soda pop.  We live in an area where the homes are more spaced out/larger lots, so we've never really had more than 2 dozen kids.  And that would be on a really good year.  An average year is around 12 kids.  We don't mind spending a little extra.

[MayDay]

Last year I bought what I thought was enough candy.  We gave it all out within a half hour, so then I took about half of my kid's candy and started giving it out. 

You would have thought I murdered someone.  I still hear about it.  But no way was I just shutting out the light when i knew they would end up with wayyyyy too much to eat. 

I hate all the sugar but I hate the allergy trend of giving out plastic junk even more.  At least the candy gets eaten and out of the way. 

[RWD]

One year I decided I wanted to be "that house" with full sized bars so we bought a box or two from Costco. It was an interesting experience. Most kids were surprised, excited, and grateful to get a full size bar. One kid complained that he didn't like the type of bar we gave him... At least one pair of kids came back for a second round. I don't think I'd do it again, but I'm happy to have done it at least once.

[Mr Dumpster Stache]

Slightly off topic, but my favorite Halloween anything ever is this:

[sheepstache]

On another forum posters mentioned how they would be giving out full sized chocolate bars for halloween, it seems to be some sort of status symbol?

I'm Aussie so am a bit confused. Considering the candy stashes people are posting after halloween it seems a full sized bar wouldn't be so valuable and possibly even annoying if your bucket fills up so quick and your night is cut short. As a parent I think I'd be side eyeing the big candy bars, I dislike people giving my kids sweets. I dunno, just curious how this all works and what sort of stuff is given out. Also, what a mustachian halloween like?

Uh-huh, "Australia." Nice try, Zorblax.

[Samala]

I hate all the sugar but I hate the allergy trend of giving out plastic junk even more.  At least the candy gets eaten and out of the way.

Yes!  I'm really torn this year whether to continue handing out an allergy nightmare like Reeses Cups (my favorite when I was a kid) or gummi worms or Nerds, something less likely to be objectionable.  I really don't want to give out plastic trinkets - I never liked getting them and they're wasteful.

I once worked the Halloween event at a large Orlando theme park.. we gave out lots of gummi-like candies and even small lady finger bananas and apples!  I guess you can get away with fruit if you are a huge corporation that people nominally trust.

When I was small in early 90s there was a house on my block that would give out McDonald's Happy Meal toys.  We could never decide if the parent(s) worked at a McD's and the toys were extras or if they actually ate there all the time and simply saved the toys for Halloween.

[K-ice]

Just the other day we wondered when the "pin the house with the full size bars" app was coming out.

[BeanCounter]

We get a ton of trick or treaters. It's non stop from 6-8. My approach is this- I buy enough full sized bars to give to the kids on our block, I buy a ton of fun sized bars plus a big bag or two on non-chocolate candy and some tootsie rolls. Kids we know get the full sized bars, cute costumed kids who are under the driving age get their choice of the fun sized or other candy. Too old to trick or treat with no costume- I give tootsie rolls. I know, I'm no fun.
My biggest pet peeve are the houses where both parents take the kids out truck or treating, leaving their house dark with no candy. That's BS.

[chouchouu]

On another forum posters mentioned how they would be giving out full sized chocolate bars for halloween, it seems to be some sort of status symbol?

I'm Aussie so am a bit confused. Considering the candy stashes people are posting after halloween it seems a full sized bar wouldn't be so valuable and possibly even annoying if your bucket fills up so quick and your night is cut short. As a parent I think I'd be side eyeing the big candy bars, I dislike people giving my kids sweets. I dunno, just curious how this all works and what sort of stuff is given out. Also, what a mustachian halloween like?

Uh-huh, "Australia." Nice try, Zorblax.

Zorblax? I'm not sure why you'd think I'd lie about being Australian, not much point to that but meh.