Think All Halloween Candy Is Good Candy? Not According to These Kids
For discerning little ghosts and goblins, trick-or-treat is more like pick-a-treat. With such a wide variety of candy to choose from in their always scarily large Halloween hauls, lots of kids turn up their noses at certain types and brands—or they just pawn it off on their sugar-starved parents. While each child has personal favorites, chocolate bars without nuts and candy corn tend to go over big, while hard candy ends up in grandma’s dusty bowl. And don’t even think about handing out raisins, apples or toothbrushes unless you want to ruin Halloween and suffocate under a barrage of toilet paper rolls. Here’s what a dozen kids across the country (and into Canada!) are hoping to fill their pails with on October 31—and a couple of terrifying treat tales from years past.
1/12Aeneas Perry, 6, Newmarket, N.H.
I like sweet candy. Not very, very, very, very sweet, just very, very sweet like candy corn and gum. My favorite is Kit Kat because it’s really crunchy. Do you eat all of the candy you collect? No. The Candy Witch comes and takes some of it away after I go to sleep.
2/12Caraline, 10, Middletown, R.I.
I love M&M’s because they look like Skittles. You think it’s going to be fruit, but it turns out to be chocolate. Yum! I avoid anything with peanut butter or peanuts because I’m allergic. If I get any of that stuff I trade it with my sister and my dad. Are you allowed to keep all of the candy you get? Yeah. But my mother puts it on the top of the fridge out of reach so I can’t eat it all at once. Is there any candy you absolutely hate? Yes: black licorice. It smells good but then you taste it. They could use that in the army for rope!
3/12Benjamin, 9, Riverton, N.J.
I like chewy candy like Gummi Bears, not hard candy because it’s not easy to break open with your teeth. I like chocolate, too, but not dark chocolate. It has a weird aftertaste that stays in your mouth for a long time. Are you allowed to keep all your candy? Yes, but my parents look through it first to see if there’s anything I can’t have, like jawbreakers or anything that’s not safe, like unwrapped stuff. One time, instead of candy, this family gave out little tops. I thought that was a little weird. It’s Halloween! We want candy!
4/12Mayla, 7, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Rainbow lollipops! They’re like cherry and orange and lemon and lime and blueberry and grape all mixed together. I like Kit Kats, too. I like that they’re crunchy and chocolate. Do you eat all of your candy at once? No, my mom makes me spread it out. Last year, I tried a chocolate bar a few months after Halloween and it tasted yucky and super-old and malty. You mean moldy? Yeah, that. So we had to throw them all away. This year I’m going to tell my mom I have to eat all my candy right away so it doesn’t go bad!
5/12Jillian, 8, Callicoon Center, N.Y.
Kit Kats and fudge are my favorites. There are these older people who always give out fudge that they make. I like it so much my tongue is hanging out right now. Do you keep all of your candy? No, because my mom steals it! And I’m not happy about that. She even steals the ones I like! But it’s okay because I get a boatload of candy at Halloween. Sometimes I even ask for extra fudge for Mommy.
6/12Kaia, 10, rural New Hampshire
I like any sort of chocolate because I don’t get much of that at home. I’m not a big gum chewer so if I get that I usually just give it to my dad. There’s a dentist family that always gives out toothbrushes. They’re not even fancy ones. Why do you keep trick-or-treating there? Because it’s a really normal-looking house and I always forget which one it is so it’s hard to avoid the Toothbrush House. Do your parents ever steal your candy? I caught my dad taking my Lemonheads once. I said, “What are you doing? Are you taking my candy?” And he said, “Yeah, this is Daddy Tax.”
7/12Maggie, age 7, Chatham, N.J.
I love Halloween. I get Tootsie Rolls and 3 Musketeers and candy corn and Skittles and Starbursts and lollipops and pieces of gum and all that jazz. Is there any candy you don’t like? Yeah: Raisinettes. They’re chocolate-covered raisins and they’re disgusting. My grandmother always gives those out. I eat them in front of her just to be kind, but whenever I see those things and she’s not around I never touch them.
8/12JP, 8, Wolcott, Indiana
I love chocolate when there’s a cherry filling inside. It’s like fake blood! The first time I tried it I got so freaked out I hid it under the table. My mom found it and asked who hid it, but I lied and said it wasn’t me. But she knows now.
9/12Nick, 10, Wolcott, Indiana
My favorite candies are Hershey’s and “Ree-cees.” I really don’t like dark chocolate. It’s sort of bitter and sourish. I don’t like gumballs, either. I have hurt my jaw many times trying to chew them. On Halloween, do you ever get treats that aren’t edible? Occasionally. One time we went up to this house and they were handing out fake Dracula teeth. Well we have like 90 pairs of them now and they’re all moldy. Everybody has had their mouths on them! It’s gross.
10/12Fiona, 8, Marietta, Ohia
I always look for Kit Kats and Warheads. That’s a really sour candy that you suck on. When I eat it I always have to drink a lot of water. Do you share your candy with your family? My dad steals most of it—especially anything chocolaty. That’s why I try to eat the Kit Kats while I still can. My mom likes the sour stuff. Basically none of the candy stays around too long. Usually I go up to my dad and try to get him to give the candy back. But I let my mom have some because she deserves it. She’s awesome.
11/12Emma 10, Long Beach, California
I love Twix, Milky Ways, and Lemonheads. Really anything without nuts since I’m not a big nut fan. What’s the oddest treat you’ve ever gotten on Halloween? There’s a Japanese family that gives out roasted seaweed. It’s actually really good! I’ve heard other kids complain that they wished it was candy but I like it. Some people give out rings or stuff like that. Sometimes I trade them for candy. What do you do with your leftover candy? Save it until next Halloween! Some manage to stay decent until that time and we usually keep them somewhere where they won’t get stale or chewy. And then we hand them out again.
12/12Max, 7, Bronx, N.Y.
Whoppers and Tootsie Rolls are the best. They’re very chocolaty. I hate the hard sour stuff like Jolly Ranchers. They’re just bad. What’s the worst Halloween treat you’ve ever received? Last year we went to this house with all this Halloween stuff up and knocked on the door and the guy gave us an apple. An apple! Not even a candy apple, just a plain apple. And it wasn’t even a super-old man, so he knew what he was doing.
