I love Halloween. However, I really don't like scary movies, the only haunted house I've ever been to was at my city's children's museum and I really don't like dressing up. What I love about Halloween is all the candy.
I literally overdose on candy from about Oct. 27 to the 31st every year. I'm not much of a candy-eater during the rest of the year, but when October rolls around, I'm ready to indulge. I'm not really picky either. While my favorite candy is Reese's peanut butter cups, I pretty much enjoy everything and I am not afraid to give a new Halloween candy a try.
I think this obsession with all things Halloween candy started out when I was a little kid. I grew up on 45 acres of land and my only neighbor was my family's 3 acre greenhouse and my grandma, so my trick-or-treating was limited. We used to drive to my Aunt Annette's house and my Aunt Dory and Uncle Bob's, but that was about it.
So needless to say, my Halloween candy stash was much smaller than my friends' at school. Their moms would pack them a few pieces for weeks afterwards, while my lunch only contained salami sandwiches or leftover pasta.
I was so jealous of their candy hauls. Kids would have full pillowcases and whole kitchen drawers set aside for that year's Halloween candy. To me, a huge amount of Halloween candy was like the ark of the covenant — I knew it existed but I could never find it. Then, in the 4th grade, my friend Olivia Bruns invited me to trick-or-treat in her neighborhood. It was my first real, walk around a neighborhood, trick-or-treating experience. And I was psyched.
Olivia and I dressed up as renaissance princesses that year, and our parents took us trick-or-treating. I got to carry a pillowcase and as the night went on, that pillowcase got full of candy. I was always under the impression that getting Halloween candy was pretty simple. Walk up to the door, ring the bell, say something cute, collect candy and leave. Well, I was all wrong.
That night, I learned there was a pretty complex method to ensure the best Halloween candy haul. Certain houses gave out King Sized candy bars, while other houses only gave out granola bars or candy leftover from last year. However, even though I was a Halloween novice at ten, my friends quickly got me up to speed. I came home toting what seemed like a 100 pound bag of candy.
My parents were amazed at how much candy I got. While I ate my fair share, I barely cracked the surface of that pillowcase. It was just too much for me. All the different flavor combos of peanut butter and chocolate, sour patch kids and caramel were just too new for ten-year-old me.
And that's my theory on why I now eat so much candy at Halloween. At ten years old, I couldn't handle all the candy I got on my first real Halloween. So basically, 11 years later, I'm still making my way to the bottom of the bag.
