It’s the day after Halloween. If you have small kids who went trick-or-treating or if you bought a whole bunch of candy to pass out to trick-or-treaters, you likely have leftover Halloween candy on your hands. What can you do with all this candy? Lots!
Each year I get over-excited about Halloween. I go to Sam’s Club and get copious amounts of fun size candy bars to mound in my black cat bowl. Unfortunately, we live on a dead-end street that goes up a hill, so we are not in a prime location for trick-or-treaters. I refuse to reduce the amount of Halloween candy I buy every year (just in case) and my kids are getting old enough to gather a significant amount of candy from trick-or-treating, so I am ultimately left with a ton of leftover Halloween candy.
My leftover candy typically stares at me from its bowl on the foyer table for weeks, tempting me. It then gets moved into the sink in our wet bar to rot until I clean it out months later. Needless to say, this is not the best use of leftover Halloween candy. To keep my leftover Halloween candy from haunting me (and yours haunting you), we need better options for what to do with it.
What To Do with Leftover Halloween Candy
Eat
At the risk of stating the obvious, you can eat your leftover Halloween candy! I feel like no one ever thinks about actually eating it, but it’s a good option, especially if you don’t have a ton left. Your kids will enjoy this option, and it will bring a small amount of joy to you too. If you choose this option, just remember to be like Ben Franklin and enjoy the candy in moderation. If moderation isn’t in your vocabulary, maybe choose another way to get rid of the candy to avoid an upset stomach.
Take to work
Another obvious and super popular thing to do with your leftover Halloween candy is to take it to work (or send it to work with your spouse). I worked in an office for years and can confirm that November 1st is a good day in the office. The break room is suddenly flush with candy. You walk into your colleagues’ offices and there is candy on the desk. It’s a great day. Every office worker loves a little sugar hit during the workday. It adds a bit of joy to what can be a joyless day. Might I even suggest that office workers get more joy out of leftover Halloween candy than kids? I don’t think it’s a stretch. Make your coworkers’ and/or your spouse’s coworkers’ days and bring your leftover Halloween candy to work.
Bake
It’s also a great idea to bake with your leftover Halloween candy. There are so many fun recipes that use leftover Halloween candy available on the internet. In the past, I have used this recipe for candy bar blondies and I’m really interested in this recipe for peanut butter nutella candy bar brownies for this year. My advice is to pick a recipe that sounds good to you and get your kids involved. They love to bake, especially if there is a chance they can sneak a bite of a Snickers bar while they’re doing it. If you need suggestions on how to successfully bake with kids, I’ve got you covered.
Donate
If you’re super flush with leftover Halloween candy, might I suggest you spread the wealth? There are so many places that you can donate leftover Halloween candy!
- Organizations that help the homeless would love to brighten the days of the community they serve.
- Deployed servicemembers also would love a little candy surprise.
- You can drop off your leftover Halloween candy at your local nursing home or assisted living facility to jazz up the lives of the residents.
- Meals on Wheels is another great way to bring joy to people who might need a reason to smile.
- Call your local children’s hospital and ask if they could use some candy to distribute to their patients.
- Your local fire station may also accept leftover Halloween candy donations. They often like to offer candy when they participate in parades or other community events, and donated Halloween candy is a great way to fill their candy coffers.
Wherever you decide to donate your leftover Halloween candy, feel good knowing that your donation is bringing joy to others and saving your jeans button from popping off.
Leave for delivery drivers
A less obvious way to use up your leftover Halloween candy is to leave it out on your front porch for delivery drivers. Let’s face it, the delivery drivers are about to stop at your house on a near-daily basis. At least they will at my house. What better way to say thank you than to leave them a little candy treat? Just make a simple sign (either handwritten or printed out) expressing your thanks and inviting the delivery drivers to take a piece or two. If you really want to be awesome, you can also leave a cooler stocked with beverages on your porch alongside the candy bowl.
Add to Little Free Library
If you have a Little Free Library in your neighborhood, it would be such a nice surprise for people to find a little treat inside next to the books. If you have a Little Free Library nearby, take a small dish or Tupperware and fill it with leftover Halloween candy and place it on one of the shelves in the library. Try to stick to non-chocolate candy if you go this route so you don’t leave a mess of melted chocolate for your neighborhood to deal with.
Fill stockings
If you want to indulge in option 1 and eat your leftover Halloween candy, but you don’t necessarily want to eat it now, you can keep it and have your family eat it later. First, you’ll want to pop it in the freezer to keep it fresh. Then you’ll want to pull it out at Christmas and use it to fill your stockings. Of course you can use it to fill your family’s stockings, but you can also buy some inexpensive felt stockings, fill them up with the leftover candy and distribute these adorable stockings as presents to neighbors, teachers, service providers, etc. You’re planning ahead, people!
Make ice cream
If, like me, you never made homemade ice cream this summer as I suggested in my Summer Bucket List for Moms, now is your chance for redemption! I don’t know about you, but I love ice cream with mix ins. My absolute favorite ice cream flavor is Heath Bar Crunch. It doesn’t matter if it’s a vanilla base or a coffee base, I love both. But my love for candy mix ins in ice cream doesn’t stop at Heath Bars. Any kind of chopped up candy bar is delicious when thrown into your ice cream maker toward the end of the churning process. So go ahead and chop up some leftover Halloween candy, dust off your ice cream maker, and get to work!
Other posts
Now that Halloween is in the rearview mirror, check out these posts to start turning toward Thanksgiving:
I hope you found these ideas for what to do with your leftover Halloween candy helpful. I also hope you indulge just a bit. You deserve it! What are you doing with your leftover Halloween candy this year? Let us know in the comments below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.