Every year about this time, it hits me.
Some of it is sports related, as it just seems like we started playing football a few weeks ago and it’s finally gotten cold enough to be football weather. I notice Virginia Tech has already played seven games, and just as I’m getting to the point of really enjoying it, I also realize it’s going to be over very soon.
Some of it is homeowner related. With it now getting cold, do I put up the mower, clean the barbecue grill and wrap everything up for the winter? Or by doing so will I cause it to be unseasonably warm in early November and I’ll end up having to drag all that stuff back out again?
But the one that has occupied my thoughts this morning is Halloween. It’s in less than two weeks from today on a Thursday night, and every year I face the same dilemma.
I am a recovering diabetic who loves candy, and I deal with that situation by not buying any and having it in the house. When Halloween rolls around, I try my best to NOT buy my favorite kind because it’s like a ghost comes into the house when a football game starts and by the time it’s over, there are empty bags and wrappers all over the place.
But it still needs to be good candy. There is a pride you have as you grow old that the kids regard your house as if it was the cool kids’ table in the cafeteria. Over a decade ago one of the kids mentioned how a neighbor’s house was noteworthy because they gave out the full-sized candy bars you buy are the warehouse club, and no other words needed to be said.
Gone were the days of getting candy at the grocery store. Hello, Costco.
So on weekends like this, I find myself compiling my personal list of top five candy, with the strategy being I will buy numbers 3 and 4 for the neighborhood. This way if we end up with leftovers, it’s stuff I’ll enjoy, but not stuff I will treat like a hostage and hide in a secret passage somewhere in my office.
Those rankings for 2024 (much like they are every year) are as follows:
- Reese Cups. The normal, regular size, not the miniatures, and not the Big Cups. They need to be gently chilled, but not frozen. A fresh Reese Cup properly chilled beats a filet mignon for me. I will note when I consume either, it’s rare I eat 27 filet mignons. For the other, that’s not always true.
- Kit Kats. Have always loved them. When I sing the theme song in my house, it’s not “break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar.” It’s more like “break me off a dozen of those kit kat bars.” Companies use to say “bet you can’t eat just one” about potato chips, but that’s a losing bet for me with Kit Kats.
- Snickers. The perfect candy for me because it’s my wife’s favorite candy bar, but I don’t really care for it. Snickers and Baby Ruth are both in that genre of chocolate, caramel and peanuts candy, but if I want a candy bar with peanuts in it, I’ll go get a Payday.
- Butterfinger. Kids seem to like them, Bart Simpson has made them popular with a new generation of kids and they are just good enough to me that I’ll eat them. They are, however, a tad sweet and they mess up your dental work enough that I don’t yearn for them.
- Nestle Crunch Bar. Ever since someone came up with the idea to pour milk chocolate all over their Rice Krispies, they’ve been a good solid staple of the candy market. Good, not great, but good enough everyone likes them.
There were others I considered. M&Ms are always good, but if you’re trying to give out full candy bars, the closest you’re going to get to satisfying everyone is giving everybody a $3.99 half pound bag of them vs. those tiny, smaller “single serving” bags. Milky Way and Three Musketeers are well known, but they’re kind of “blah” to me. It’s like somebody came up with a way to pack a bunch of chocolate and caramel into a wrapper, slapped a name on it, then said “here kid. Go gain 5 pounds.”
Then there’s also the dilemma of having enough or too much. Here in Ashburn, I either get 40 trick or treaters or 3. Nothing in between.
As I always do, I’ll bet on a big turnout this year and odds are my purchases will be 80 percent Snickers, Butterfinger and Nestle’s Crunch bars, 10 percent Kit Kat and 10 percent Reese.
For security purposes, I’ll have the 80 percent sitting out and easily accessible to my front door, and 20 percent will be stored under my watchful eye in my office. But be advised, if you decide to do an audit, don’t check my office too closely.
Some of that 20 percent may be missing 😊
