Halloween Candy Distribution Rules

Halloween night has come and gone and so have the trick or treaters and most of the candy.  This time last year I was recovering from saying goodbye to an old friend and accepting that I now owned a minivan.  We got home too late and didn't have any trick or treaters.  But this year I picked up some candy on the way home from work and we were ready for the kids.

I wanted to make sure I had enough candy to last and if I'm being honest, I wanted to make sure I had candy leftover for us too.  So I came up with some rules for how I was going to pass out candy.

1 piece - Under the age of 3

2 pieces - You look like you could have access to eggs or could smash my pumpkins or mailbox 

1 piece - If I can see your parent's tail lights at the end of my driveway regardless of how old you look.  And if I was sneaky enough I would take candy from you as a reverse parent candy tax, but I'm not sneaky enough so my only recourse is to be stingy with my candy.  (I think I'm going to buy raisins for next year and if I see tail lights, your kids are getting raisins!)

2 pieces - If I know you or you live on my street 

2 pieces - When you're about 3 and I let you pick a piece and you take two anyway, but you are so cute in your police uniform that I don't say no. 

-1 piece - If you complain about the candy I give you.  Not really, I will still give you a piece but I'm not happy about it. 

1 piece - For taking your little sister who is dressed up as a princess trick or treating and you aren't doing it for the candy.

And I'm happy to report there was the perfect amount of candy left over, not too much but enough to try one of everything.

Dixie even dressed up for Halloween.  Yes, she was as irritated with the costume as she looks in the picture.  

Last night we had a spooky dinner with Daulton since he is with his mom tonight.  We had mummy dogs, fingers dipped in blood, brains, and dirt pudding.  Also known as hot dogs wrapped in breadsticks, french fries and ketchup, mac and cheese, and dirt pudding.  I lit some candles, slapped a sign on the ketchup bottle that said blood, turned off the lights, and it was spooky dinner time!

Spooky dinner was a huge success!  The boys loved it and I think it will be a new Halloween tradition. It was funny to hear them to "pass the blood" when they wanted more ketchup.  Daulton wanted to know if we were going to have a spooky breakfast this morning.  I told him it was a great idea but I do not get up early enough to make a spooky breakfast.  Me trying to cook in the morning would be really scary.

So Happy Halloween from our family to yours!!  (I look like a zombie nerd in this picture.)

Do you have rules for distributing candy to the trick or treaters?  When did it become acceptable to just stand at someone's door with a pillow case and not say "trick or treat"?  Do you have any Halloween traditions you follow?