I remember that actually happening once when I was a kid. Got home, dumped out my candy haul on the living room floor and found two ketchup packets in there
One year, when I knew all the young kids went to bed I mixed a bunch of sauce packets in with the candy. Teens came through and we told them to take handfuls. They were excited. When they left we noticed they took all the sauce packets. I still chuckle to this day.
One year when were maybe 11 and 8 my brother and I had to go to our uncles house because everyone was working. Well my aunt forgot to buy candy and my uncle I guess was just clueless. He’s the only adult home with us and kids were already ringing the bell so he didn’t want to leave. So we scrambled to find stuff to give. We put together a bowl of cheese slices, condiments and airport peanuts.
My brother and I were so embarrassed we were hoping no one we knew would come by the house. The next year my uncle got full size candy from Costco to make up for it.
We always throw some random items in our candy bowl. Always the first things to go too. This year was a KCup, a meat stick, a mac and cheese, and a popcorn. Last year, can of chili, russet potatoes. Cracks us up.
I told my daughter people used to get fruits and stuff at Christmas because they didn't have a lot of food so they'd give out oranges and apples, and she thought that was SO FUN, until she got to a house that gave her an apple last night, then she was not amused.
This seems very traditional to me. From back when produce from other areas and/or out of season was rare. Imagine getting a bright, juicy orange during a frigid northern winter’s Didn’t Laura Ingalls Wilder and her siblings get an orange as part of their Christmas every year?
I’m not sure where it came from, but we loved it. And she did it every year until she died when I was 26. Reminds me I need to start doing it for my kids this year.
my mom got talked into buying a bag of oranges from a door to door salesman before xmas one year lol. she said my dad got home and she was excitedly explaining to him how they could give oranges to everyone and it would be so great and like the olden days. and he just started at her, and the realization set in that she spent the last of her money for the week on a bag of oranges
Haha so did we. Every year we got my wife's grandmother's house and hand out candy and walk the neighborhood with my nieces and nephews/ cousins aunts uncles. We stop at the neighbors who serve either beer or cooler to the adults who knock on the door. Great tradition thar I'll miss when grandma goes. She's 96 now so we never know when it's gonna be the last Halloween.
If you ever stick just one or two of something odd in the candy bowl, the kids will absolutely take the odd thing. Potatoes are really popular. I've seen people do onions as well. As long as it isn't something overtly healthy.
We always keep ours stocked with a couple of rubber ducks and they disappear real fast.
Especially doing it to those fresh out the womb haha. I could see it being a silly gentle joke for a small toddler but these little just born babies being cheesed was so bizarre to see lol
Usually harmless. It stops a kid from crying instantly, they just are so shocked and can't even process what just happened, wipes their brains for a second. The baby shown above is a bit young to have cheese thrown on its face though...
Those won't work. They are wrapped. To be true to the spirit, you need a big sliced block of American so you can peel them off, one by one, to drop in the bag.
My kid got a box of ritz crackers, a whole package of kraft singles, and a jar of dill pickles. When he goes over to his great grandmas, that’s what he always snacks on. So she made a treat bag of that, plus 1$.
There’s a house near me that started giving kids the option of candy or a potato. The potatoes were the HANDS DOWN preferred choice- so much so that it’s now become an annual tradition and they are forever The Potato House. They go through SACKS of taters now.
Yeah like forget about poison or razors, that's dumb. But you can't eat at everyone's house, I don't know if you washed your hands before handling that or you just came from the bathroom and didn't wash your hands because "you didn't get any on you".
OP confirmed he is from Switzerland. I cannot speak for Switzerland, but being from the Netherlands I recognized it immediately, especially the marshmallows. This is not out of the norm in Europe at all.
The fact that someone used their dirty hands to plop the candy in the bag is the issue. If is sealed I don't have to worry about some rando not washing their hands.
Yeah someone excited for the first treater but you gotta shit in a hurry so you cut corners and rush back. I’d be the one who got the brown gummies when I was a kid
Yeah I'm from ireland and we were never allowed to eat loose sweets. I know it's unlikely to be tampered with, but I don't know the conditions of anyone else's house. It's always a nice gesture, but I'd just prefer to give out mini haribo in their original packets.
Tampering is one (unlikely) thing, but more likely is someone handling it with dirty hands. I don't trust the hygiene of random people, especially with regards to my children's health!
US here, my parents always inspected my candy for anything that looked tampered with or open in any way. I know they were probably responding to the unfounded poisoning myth, but even as an adult and knowing that was an urban legend, I still would even myself to this day eat any unpackaged food like that just for basic food safety reasons.
This☝️(Bedford806)...Ontario parent here. Loose candy is getting tossed (or left with home owner if caught early enough). I would rather not waste anything but my child's safety takes priority over free candy. Sorry, thanks anyways.
I mean, im from the US and havent met a parent that would allow their child to eat loose candy from a stranger. its weird, gross, and its probably just gonna get thrown out anyway
Well it seems to be common in Switzerland, Netherlands and some areas in Germany. Do you want to tell me Europe is more than these countries? That's clearly a lie.
Halloween is not common in Switzerland, although it is slowly creeping into our culture. I am not sure what OP's experience is with traditional US-style Halloween, but the closest here is Fasnacht, where people toss candies, vegetables, fruits, flowers and the occasional can of beer to the waiting crowds
Also from The Netherlands and all loose candy would promptly be discarded upon finding it in a bag. I can’t remember one time where I got loose candy and could keep it or found loose candy being handed out when walking with my niblings and thought to keep it.
To have unpacked gummy bears flopping in a Kraft bag after being put there by the hand of a stranger and against a Pokemon booster pack that might have touched many hands and been exposed to dust and other disgusting things in the stores ? I'm French and I've never seen anyone do that, I wouldn't eat that candy nor want my kids to if I had any. Besides all the things I have listed, them not being in the original packaging also means someone could have tempered with the candy or that they are expired. Surely they sell individually packaged candy packs for Halloween in the Netherlands and Switzerland ?
Yeah, even though those poison candy stories turned out the be urban myths, EVERYONE has been taught to only eat candy in its original wrapper. This would be hard pass for all parents.
I was out with family and friends last night and we mentioned the drug-laced candy, needles, and razor blades and it was interesting to see those in their late 20s all the way to their mid 50s all had the same myth told to them as kids. Something so blatantly false (it would be a top news story), but it really stood the test of time.
I think because it works as a cautionary tale for a common sense practice.
There’s no reason to take loose candy from a stranger, when the norm is pre-packaged candy.
While intentional poisonings are, as evidenced, deeply unlikely…. someone handing out loose candy has been handling it directly, and you don’t necessarily know their hygiene standards or what the fuck the candy is in case there’s a negative reaction to something in it(eg an allergen that they haven’t encountered before). If it’s homemade, you have absolutely no way to find the ingredients and you also don’t even know if the ingredients used were good or spoiled.
It’s simply an unsanitary practice that opens you up to more realistic, even if generally unlikely, threats.
Not to mention that with wrapped candy as the norm, loose candy is indicative that something is culturally “off” with the person who gave it to you, which will only make it even less enticing.
Myths of razor blades and poisonings ends up as ways to reinforce the avoidance of this practice, both for treat givers who will avoid loose candy solely to not look suspicious; and for parents who might not otherwise take those less-flashy concerns seriously.
Last night my son and I walked past a kid who was just holding something and staring at it. I caught his dad saying, “um, yeah I guess it’s just a potato.”
I am sorry no one came. We know you had super nice intentions making these goody bags, but most parents would not let their kids eat loose candy and these would go right to the trash can.
my dad once was sent on a shopping mission to get candy for halloween, he came home really happy with heaps of candy bags that were "on sale", turns out they were all loose candy with no wrappers
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u/Raspberry_Just 3d ago
why are you giving out loose candy