[Johnny Thunder]

Anyone planning on giving out different candy in 2006 as opposed to the candy/treats given out in 2005? We always have a lot of TOT and we do a lot of different candy bar/treats/coloring books/toys and I think we'll stick with the same. :jol:

 

[DeathTouch]

I just started giving out little Halloween toys last year. It was a big hit. And it didn't cost much. I bought them from here.

http://www.orientaltrading.com/otcweb/application?namespace=main

 

[Zombie-F]

I did the same DeathTouch. We made up about 40 treat bags, each with about 3 pieces of candy, one largish toy, one smallish toy, and a few miscellaneous rubber bats/skeletons/etc. Wound up giving out all 40! Seemed to go over very well so I think we'll stick with that again, just preparing more bags as I expect more kids this year.

 

[HibLaGrande]

Hey Zombie, those treat bags were cool!, I still say the gummy skeleton didn't taste very good though.
I just got my oriental trading co. catalog today along with my buckys boneyard catalog. was thumbing through it they have a bunch of cheap-o toys to chose from.

 

[Lotus]

Gave out 450 glow stick necklaces and then a lot of candy

 

[Vlad]

We went with a mixture of Capri Sun juice packs, small bags of chips, and candy bars, and let the kids pick one. The juice really went over well.

 

[grapegrl]

I make up goodie bags every year. Last year's bags contained treat-sized Doritos, candy and a couple of bug/creepy-crawly related toys.

This year, I'm going to make pirate-themed loot bags to go with our phantom pirate ship haunt theme. I was looking at the latest Oriental Trading catalog and saw that they had some pretty cool pirate-related goodies. I'm looking at getting some eyepatches, mini skeletons, and bubble gum coins for the TOTers this year.

 

[Hella]

I usually have an assortment of things to give out, last year we had juice boxes, bags of chips, full size candy bars, coloring books and crayons, glow neclaces, assorted halloween items like bat and spider rings, skelly key chains and other things like that. we get a lot of TOT's so I pick up things thru the year to add to the cauldron.

 

[Rocky]

I always buy the same borring candies so no wonder why I only got 4 TOTers last year!! LOL!!

I think this year I'm gonna try something new and little toys seem like a good idea.

 

[Frighteners Entertainment]

We stopped giving candy out 4 years ago. Everyone was coming for the Haunt not the candy (we had lots of candy left) and we don't get the ToTs much anymore, most the kids are teens and the rest are adults. The teens just throw the warppers all over the place.

Jeff

 

[TipoDeemin]

I like to switch up what I'm giving out each year, but I like to try and out-do the other houses when I can.

Typically, I'll buy a bunch of different bags of candy bars and let the kids pick two or three when they come for candy. Last year, I ended up running out of candy and giving away Capri Suns from the house (and Vlad is right; they're a great idea!). I also gave away little tubes of bubbles I had left over from my wedding, and those were a huuuuge hit. Makes me suspect I need to throw something other than candy and drinks into the bowl this year--and that I need to buy a lot more than I did last October.

As a matter of fact, the treat bag thing sounds great to me, and I think I'm going to give it a try.

 

[Merlin (The Quiet One)]

I fill treat bags to hand out and then have a bowl filled with rings, whistles, etc and let the TOTs pick one. We usually have at least 75 TOTs but have had over 200, depending on the weather. Having bags lets me keep track of how many have gone thru the haunt. Merlin (TQO)

 

[Johnny Thunder]

I have so many bags now of items like rubber plastic spiders/monsters/rings and other little things to throw in the TOT basket I'm running out of space.

 

[widowsbluff]

We are planning to give out retro candy this year: necco waffers, lickum sticks, slow pokes, wax bottles, wax fangs, poprocks...all the stuff we used to get on Halloween. I hope the kids like it, we will still have some "regular" candy but thought the retro stuff would be fun. It kinda goes along with reason we started yard haunting in the first place, to bring back the glory (or gorry) days of Halloween.

 

[Torgen]

oh man, I remember that stuff! Where do you get it?

 

[widowsbluff]

Torgen,

This is the cheapest site I have found:

http://www.groovycandies.com/

You might also try a local bulk foods company we have several here in town that carry some retro candy in bulk quantities and also sell to the public, not just wholesale.