Well, as mentioned in this post, I was going to tell you about our family tradition for dealing with the massive amount of candy that my kids come home with each Halloween. This is a tradition that we started when Matthew and Alexander were 3 years old. It has been going strong and looked forward to every year since.The Candy Fairy
So, like her close cousins, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, The Candy Fairy dispenses gifts to our children in exchange for a little something. In her case, it's candy!A few days before Halloween we start talking up the Candy Fairy. The kids are always excited about the whole idea and have never once had a problem with it or even questioned the real existence of the "Candy Fairy" (given that no one else we know seems to know about the "Candy Fairy").
When the kids get home from their trick-or-treating, they come in and dump out their candy into one big pile. They each get to keep 30 pieces of candy . The 30 pieces represent one piece of candy for the 30 days of November. The kids are allowed one piece of candy each day of the month OR they can choose to eat it all in one sitting. I don't care...as long as the candy is gone.
All the leftover candy (including the candy we didn't give out) is put in a bag and each of the kids writes a short note to the fairy. We place the bag outside our front door, turn out the lights, and go to bed.
Then, I sneak back downstairs and exchange all the candy for small gifts. The gifts always change. This year they each received $5 in cash. In years past they have received gift cards (only a $5-$10 value), coloring books, Lego's. or whatever was age appropriate for them at the time. When they wake up the next morning, they are thrilled to know that the "Candy Fairy has visited our house and left them each a special present. This year they were all pretty happy with the cold hard cash!
So, what happens to all the candy? The "Candy Fairy" comes and takes the candy to poor children who didn't have a costume to go trick-or-treating. (okay, don't get on my case for not telling my kids the truth). Then Mike takes it to work for his "needy" colleagues during the afternoon slump. At least it is out of my house. However, this year we told the kids (the older ones) that the "Candy Fairy" was doing something different with the candy...and she, I mean "I am". I recently found out that you can send the candy to American soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am going to wrap it up and write a note narrating our Halloween experience and telling them about our tradition of the "Candy Fairy" (http://www.anysoldier.com/). My kids might even get a thank you note back.
So, that's it, our tradition. Amazingly, Alexander and Matthew haven't even questioned the reality of our fairy friend. I love the Candy Fairy!
