Top Ten Weirdest Halloween Handouts

I have a complaint about the one concerning candy leftover from previous holidays. Since when do candy canes go bad? I have candy canes that I put up on my tree every year that I bought over five years ago. I eat a few every year and just rehang the ones that didn't get eaten or given away each year.

When homemade treats such as fudge, apples, popcorn balls were still common Trick or Treat handouts, my husband's uncle would wrap ice cubes in foil and drop them in the treat bags. They were heavy and sounded like they could possibly be fudge or something else really good. By the time the kids got home, the ice cube would have melted and ruined the other goodies.
Weird and cruel!

We make treacle toffee and cheesy bats (cheese straw recipe cut out with a bat-shaped cutter). The toffee is a bit of an accquired taste - some kids come back for more, some chuck it away and we find it days later gently deliquescing and looking remarkable like a dying slug.

My neighbors gave out small cans of V8 when I was a kid. No one ever went to their house, except for me. I was apparently the only kid in the neighborhood who liked V8, so I'd go to their house last and come away with an armload.

ahah... there are tons of acorns in front of my office... i was just thinking today that i should collect some.. dress up like an old man and hand them out to trick or treaters..

Oh yah. One year my little bro poured out his bag of candies and found (among the usual) a penny, a walnut and a plastic Easter egg filled with pastel-colored malted eggs.

I remember when I was little and would take my little sis out for halloween, the first house we'd go to was immediately next door where Mrs. Polovcek lived. She would give her a clove of garlic and a length of twine with 15 knots in it along with her candy. When asked, she explained that it was a mingling of American and Slovakian traditions, that in the area of Czechoslovakia where she grew up, you gave these things to people traveling at night as wards to protect them from malicious spirits. The garlic was blessed and kept weak spirits away while the twine was something you gave a spirit to distract them while you ran away – as apparently spirits cannot leave a knot untied but can also not break a loop, so the spirit would try to undo the top 14 knots while leaving the 15th on the end tied.

I really don't remember a lot of the things I got during halloween. The only thing that I can think of are the pennies. Seriously... if you don't have anything, just turn off your freakin light, or post a note on your door. Geeze

I just don't give out anything. Stay off my lawn, kids!

My disappointment in halloween was how boring my friends were. From 11-18 they either ignored the holiday altogether or dressed as "punk rockers" basically short skirts and colored hair spray.
I on the other hand would be Diana from V, A pirate wench, an astronaut in dress blues, a dead cheerleader.

Steve Sax from the LA Dodgers gave out toothbrushes when I trick or treated at his house in the mid 80's. They weren't even name brand toothbrushes, just some flimsy dime-store kind you use on your grout. Mine was blue.

This article reminds me of the no toothbrushes allowed trick or treat bags you can get on zazzle.

Love the ice cube TRICK idea, thanks for that. I always give out ketchup and mustard packets. The kid's only see the pack of twinkies in my hand, but I eat those after they all leave and my condiments are gone. Sometimes, I merely THUMP their bag and they walk away convinced they scored big. Kid's are so gullible...