So truth be told, I love Halloween. I love creating fun costumes for my boys, attending Bettijo’s All Hallow’s Eve dinner party, decorating our home to look spooky… there’s so much to love. But I do NOT like all the candy associated with it. (Yes, we are one of those healthy families.) This year alone we were invited to THREE pre-Halloween “Trunk or Treat” parties. Had we attended all of them, we would have had an exuberant amount of candy BEFORE trick-or-treating our own neighborhood!!
A few years ago our family friends introduced my family to the Switch Witch concept, and since then the Switch Witch has stopped by every year! Here’s how it works: On Halloween night after trick-or-treating my boys carefully count their candy and place it back into their pumpkin bags. Before they go to bed they write a note telling the Switch Witch how many pieces of candy they collected, and then they leave the note with their pumpkins in our entry way for the friendly witch to switch their candy into something FUN! Some years it’s Pokemon cards, and other years it’s been small Lego sets. Who knows what the Switch Witch will come up with this year?
To simplify the process I made a printable note for the Switch Witch. After a long day of fun, your little ones simply count how much candy they collected, fill in the note, sign their name, and go to bed dreaming about what FUN the Switch Witch will make of the candy.
Of course, my boys have a theory that the more candy you leave out for the Switch Witch, the more FUN she’ll leave for you the next morning — so don’t eat too much Halloween night. My boys usually eat a few pieces of candy after trick-or-treating, and we typically hold back 5 pieces (to pack in their lunches for a week after Halloween).
When friends ask about this tradition they always want to know if my kids are sad to see their candy magically changed into something else. The answer is NO! They both are so excited to see what their candy gets switched into.
Rumor has it that the Switch Witch is quite flexible. Perhaps you (or your kids) love having candy accessible for a few days so she stops by your house after a few days of indulging in it?
I love this idea. We have traded our kids’ candy for toys in the past, or have traded it at the dentist, but I have never heard of the switch witch. I love the idea. Thanks for sharing. That’s a great tradition.