Getting ready for Halloween is exciting! Planning costumes and buying candy is fun, but what about when it’s all over? You can put away the costumes for siblings to wear another year, but what do you do with all that candy? There’s a mountain of it and you don’t want to keep all of it around because your kids have had enough junk food to last them until next Halloween, and you certainly don’t want it around to tempt you. Here are some clever ways to use up that candy:
- Bake candy into cookies and cupcakes. You can freeze candy to keep it fresh longer- and to keep it out of your sight- and then use them throughout the year as special add-ins to your favorite homemade cookies and cupcakes. Just use your regular recipe and add the candy to the batter right before baking. Smaller candies like M&M’s and Reese’s Pieces are perfect as it, but you can chop up larger candies and throw them in.
- Homemade mocha. Enjoy an indulgent treat and save money at the same time with those bite-size chocolate bars. Melt one (or two) into a cup of hot coffee for a mocha that costs way less than what you’d get in a coffee shop.
- Use it to create new treats. Here’s a recipe for Milky Way Caramel Apple Dip and here’s one for Halloween Candy Bark.
- Make your own flavored vodka. Try this fun idea from Parenting.com: drop the candy of your choice into a bottle of plain vodka to create your custom flavored vodka.
- Put it away and save it. Collect your kids’s stash and put it away. Dole it out when you think it’s appropriate. You can use it for treats, and even the occasional bribe.
- Donate it. Some dentists have candy exchanges after Halloween; you bring your candy and they’ll pay you for it. Look for one in your area. Or send a treat to a soldier; donate it to organizations like Operation Shoebox or Operation Gratitude and they’ll send it to U.S. troops.
- Fill a piñata. A piñata is always a fun party treat. Make your own and fill with leftover Halloween candy. Here are instructions for basic piñata making, and Pinterest is full of creative piñata ideas.
- Make math fun. Use small candies as a sweet way to practice addition and subtraction.
- Make art. Check out this post and make paint out of Skittles.
- Do cool candy experiments. Science experiments are always fun, but how much cooler when they use candy? Here are a bunch to try.
What are your favorite ways to use leftover candy from Halloween? Leave us a comment!
