7 Creative Uses For Halloween Candy (That Don't Involve Eating It)

The scariest thing that you will likely experience on Halloween may be right in your child's trick-or-treat bag.

Each October parents are faced with the same dilemma: How can my child participate in Halloween festivities without turning into a sugar-crazed maniac?

A candy bar here, and a gummy bear there hardly seem like a big deal. However, between school Halloween parties and trick or treating, the average child consumes nearly three cups of sugar on Halloween alone! Not to mention the amount of GMOs and artificial food dyes going into their little bodies. Health-con scious parents silently cringe as the Halloween bags begin to fill.

While forbidding your child to celebrate Halloween altogether will likely cause a revolt, there are ways to limit their consumption while still having fun. Agreeing ahead of time on the amount of candy that they are allowed to eat on Halloween is one suggestion. Once you've decided how much to keep, if any, the next step is figuring out what to do with the rest.

Giving excess Halloween candy to soldiers, your office colleagues, or the homeless may seem like a kind gesture on the surface. However, it may not be in your value system to do so. After all, if the candy isn't good for your family, why would it be s uitable for anyone else?

Today we offer seven suggestions on what to do with extra Halloween candy. The best part is that none of the ideas involve anyone consuming it!

1. Turn candy into a science experiment.

STEM is all the rage these days, so why not turn your excess Halloween candy into a lesson in science? There are numerous online resources to give you great project ideas. Little Bins for Little Handshas some excellent suggestions including candy corn toothpick structures (photo above). One cool M&M science project involves emerging the popular candy into a cup of water and watching the letter m separate from the candy and float to the top.

2. Transform candy into holiday decorations.

Make good use of your leftover hard candies, such as Life Savers or sour balls, and turn them into ornaments or holiday decorations. Science 2.0 has a great tutorial on how to make these sweet crafty works of art. My Blessed Life offers instruction on a colorful gumdrop pomander ornament (photo above). I can't promise you that your kids won't try to eat the decorations off the tree come Christmastime, but by then hopefully the sugar high from Halloween will have worn off.

3. Save the candy for holiday gingerbread house decorations.

Let's face it, the candies that comes in the standard gingerbread house kits are kind of lame. How cool would it be to decorate your gingerbread house with a variety of chocolates, gummies, licorice, and lollypops? Simply stash the candy in the freezer until you are ready to make those gingerbread houses. The photo above was taken fromOver the Big Moon's site, and is a great way for your little ones topick the pieces of Halloween candy they want saved for gingerbread making. Who would have guessed that your kids would willingly hand their candy over?

4. Enlist the help of a candy fairy or the switch witch.

Christmas has Santa Claus; Easter has the Easter Bunny; Toothless children across the globe wait for the Tooth Fairy. Parents everywhere rejoice, there is also a Switch Witch (photo above)! Legend has it that the Switch Witch has a naughty cat who loves candy. The Switch Witch will come to your home after the children go to bed and swap their candy for a toy or gift of some sort. There is even Switch Witch (photo above) that you can read to your children ahead of time. If a witch isn't your style, you can adapt the story suit your needs, such as a candy fairy or the magical pumpkin.

5. Create your own candy paint.

Art supplies don't come cheap unless, of course, you make your own. One of the reasons that candy is so attractive to little ones is due to the bright and vibrant colors. While not so good in the body, they are great on paper! Mama Papa Bubba shows you how to make glossy skittles paint (photo above). There are also some fun recipes for Starburst Fingerpaints and Nerds Watercolors. If your kids lick their fingers, it's probably no more toxic than paint.

6. Trade the candy in for cash.

In 2005, dentist Chris Kammer had an idea. What if he paid children to hand over their stash of candy? He offered $1 for every pound of candy that children handed in, and thus the Halloween Candy Buy Back Program was born. The program caught on quickly and has now grown to include thousands of dentist's offices across the country. What kid wouldn't want a few dollars?

7. Throw the candy away.

Gasp! Yes, you read that correctly. Simply throw the candy away. Some might argue that this last step is both drastic and wasteful. However, sitting in the dentist's office waiting for cavities to be filled or dealing with illnesses brought on by an influx of sugar is not exactly fun either. Halloween has become big business, with consumers spending 9.1 billion dollars on this holiday. Maybe a little waste in wouldn't be such a bad thing.

The post 7 Creative Uses For Halloween Candy (That Don't Involve Eating It) appeared first on Mothering.

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Justin R. McNeill