Halloween Treats

The good, the bad, and the ugly

It's that time of the year again, leaves begin to fall and there is a chill in the air. Fall is dancing around us, which means hayrides, sloshing through leaves, and pumpkin carving is surely on its way. Although these activities are more than fun, Fall brings about something else...something a little more special. That's right, Halloween has made its way around the calendar again, to jump around the corner and scare up some fun. Halloween has become the only time of the year, where it is acceptable for kids to take candy from strangers...and we always did...well the strangers my parents approved of anyway.

As stores have stocked their shelves high, frantic candy givers grab bags of treats for the excited spooks that will surely fill the streets on that long awaited October night. As a kid, I always looked forward to running home and checking the goods I had collected that night. It always seemed like I categorized my treats in three distinct categories...The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Even though my tastes have matured, let's explore my childhood candy pail for ol' times sake.

.::THE GOOD::.

As I dug through my plastic pumpkin pail, it was custom to grab my favorites first. The variety wasn't as extreme as it is today, but we had our assortment. It was always great to pull out a few Reese's peanut butter cups.

Even though the pumpkin shapes came a little later, Reese's peanut butter cups were always a treat, for there was no wrong way to eat them. If you were feeling crazy, you could even pop in a pair of vampire teeth and attempt to recreate the old Reese's commercial. Either way, they were a treat, just like they are today.

We all know that kids shouldn't smoke, but we can make an exception on Halloween, right? Well, the smokes I am talking about are candy cigarettes! It was always exciting to get a pack or two of these sugar powder coated sticks, that looked nothing like cigarettes, but more like worn out chalk. None the less, candy cigarettes came in realistic looking packages, but have long since been remodeled. Now known as candy sticks, candy cigarettes were Halloween rarities that were never under appreciated.

Now here is a candy that seemed to only appear on special occasions. I am not sure why I only ate them around Halloween, it just ended up that way. It was always exciting to see that you had collected Whoppers as a Halloween treat, but when you got a little carton of Whoppers...it was a good night. To make things more exciting, it was always fun to act like you were eating chocolate coated bugs, as Whoppers always delivered a good crunch.

While Trick-or-Treating, you had to have some fuel. If you were like me, you didn't want to waste time unwrapping large candies, but reached for something quick and efficient. Insert bubble gum. There were many different varieties of bubble gum handed out on Halloween, but we will stick with a classic. The yellow and blue Dubble Bubble kept me going from Halloween night, way into the heart of November. Bubble gum is a must on Halloween, and while Dubble Bubble is one of the most familiar, veterans like Bazooka and Rain Blo still hold dear to my heart.

I don't think I could consider Halloween valid, until I rip open a few bags of M&Ms. From childhood, until now, M&Ms are a staple on our beloved spooky night. Although they do melt in your hand, just as fast as they melt in your mouth, M&Ms are a timeless classic that could put a smile on the scariest monster's face. With their candy coating and chocolate centers, M&Ms always deliver during the holidays, not to mention they have great commercials!

When summer is wrapping up, and the stores are receiving there first shipments of fall time goods, candy corn and autumn mix are always first to show up around here. Rightly so, they should be first, for these candies signal a change in season, and provide a great snack throughout the fall months. I can remember getting individual packs of candy corn while Trick-or-Treating, and was always excited to snack on these as the night came to a close. I believe it is time to fill the pumpkin dish on the kitchen table...

I suppose I could list a million other candies, but here are a few for honorable mention. Tootsie Rolls, spider rings, and bottle caps were a dime a dozen as a kid. Although they are all equally as good, these treats seemed to lurk about the bottom of the candy pail, but they are foundation treats...they serve the higher ups. These are the treats that were common at school parties, carnivals, and pre made Halloween treat bags. Every pail needs its foundation treats, these were mine.

.::THE BAD::.

Although there weren't as many bad treats given out, there were a few that sent shivers down my spine. I am talking about the treats that old ladies took pride in, and parents fully approved of.

Popcorn balls are just bad. When I saw one of these babies being tossed in my bag, that house got a permanent x put on it, for future Trick-or-Treating. I am not sure why I have such a hatred for popcorn balls...I just do. While they may be festive, popcorn balls are not candy, and they never will be. It was a common trend among older people to hand these things out. Most likely, it helped them to feel better about the treat giving process...I call it an old fashioned rip off.

[align=center]Healthy, low fat, and anything that states "good source of" has no place in a candy pail. Ok, ok, fruit snacks are fully acceptable, but pretzels are not! These wholesome snacks, although enjoyable now, were not appreciated back in the childhood days. Perhaps the awesome bag they come in gives them a little credit, but past that, they had little to no appeal to them. I felt as if I was giving in when I opened a bag of pretzels on Halloween; and there is definitely no room for the weak on Halloween...only the strong and sugar bound survive!

Oh boy, the dreaded "black and orange things". That is what my sister and I came to know them as. Every year it was guaranteed that I would get a handful of these things. Better known as Mary Janes, black and orange things were simply peanut butter candy that stuck to your teeth and mouth alike. Even though I hated these things, my dad would begin to light up as we shoved our discard pile toward his way. He loved Mary Janes, and I never understood why. As I have grown up, I can admit that they are ok, I just hope I never turn into that old man who hands these things out on Halloween.

.::THE UGLY::.

Now, let me explain the category of ugly. These were the candies that weren't necessarily hated, they just had certain quirks that made them less appealing. Sure enough, I would gobble these candies up, they were just not in the first string line.

Dentists have to love the Sugar Daddy. These cavity pulling, teeth sticking candies almost made me dread eating them, even though they tasted good. Milk Duds and Sugar Babies are not too far behind, it just seemed like the worst was the Daddy. These were common in my candy pail, and for the majority, I never finished them off. The Sugar Daddy keeps its reputation as one of the most feared and respected candies around. After all, he is the head of the household.

I truly do like Pixie Sticks, I really do. However, these powder tubes were so tasty, that I had a little problem of eating more then one at a time. Thus, creating a throat full of choking and hacking up the powders until I could breath again. So, does this qualify Pixie Sticks to be in the ugly category...? Probably not, but that's where I decided to put them, not for anything else other than there amazing choking abilities. It was always a treat to get pixie sticks on Halloween, even though they were a summer staple as well.

Now when it comes to hot stuff, I am definitely a Halloweenie. I can't handle anything hot or spicy, thus creating a dilemma when it came to Fire Balls. They had such a strong, good, cinnamon flavor...but they were too hot for me. I would be doing good if I could keep one in for over a minute, and after much debate, I would usually pop it in again. Fire Balls were simply fun to look at too, for they almost taunted you through their dangerous looking packages. Fire Balls always graced the candy pail, and usually gave it a good scent too!

There you have it, a few of my Halloween candy memories. If you feel cheated by my failure to mention other classic candies, cheer up, there is always the comments section for further discussion. While Twix, Junior Mints, and Hershey bars hold dear to my heart, it's just more fun to talk about Whoppers and Candy Corn!

.::HAPPY HALLOWEEN::.

Thanks to those I borrowed pictures from, you helped make this article possible!

Comments

Atomic Fire Balls are amazing! I agree with the pixie sticks and the Mary Jane's ...ew. For me I hate Whoppers, they taste like chocolate covered chalk.
But popcorn balls are good if they are homemade with candy or carmel sauce on them and then hardened!! YUM!
Gotta love those candy ciggarettes!!

Great article! And those dreaded "black and orange things" LOVE EM!! Im going to Wallyworld right now to get a bag!! LOL, since they are orange and black, they were always thrown from the floats at our home coming games, our school colors!!

I agree Fishher I also feel pity on them. Great article def thumbs up!

Thumbs up on this article.
I agree,
I feel pity for some of the older couples that spend hours putting together little bags of assorted "non-candies" and retarded sugar free treats.
The kids never really eat them anyway.

The worst were those peanut better treats in black and orange wrappers. Awful.

Awesome article! Loved halloween. I live in a shitty country now that doesn't celebrate it. -_-

But that's life. As a kid, I'd pretty much gulp down everything in my little pumpkin head bucket. Loved all candy, but candy-corn was one of the ones that I'd save for last. Never my favorite.

I love candy corn and whoppers!

Great article. I love those candy cigs. I trick or treated for my last time when I was 17, and I am 6'4", so I had to crouch. Man I miss it... this article brought me back.

Great, great article. I still lament that, since 2001, I've been unable to go trick-or-treating. Well, maybe I could've done it one or two more years, but by the time I was 13 then I really didn't look it, at 6'0 and 200 lbs. That was when a friend and I started decorating the front yard to scare all the trick-or-treaters... it helps fill the void and still makes Halloween a blast each year.

I always carried a pillow case, even though I never fulfilled my dream of filling it to the brim. After a few times around the neighborhood, I'd start to get tired and would wanna go home, watch The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror and dig in to candy. This happened even quicker the year I was Freddy Krueger and was sure that my makeup was melting off my face. I don't really recall any specific favorites as far as candy goes; Milky Way, Snickers, Twix, Three Musketeers, M&M's, Hersheys... it was all good. I suppose I was a bit more partial to the fruit-flavored stuff like Skittles and Starburst. These days I go nuts over M&M's peanut variety... gotta love the taste of that crunch.

For those mentioning getting cans of pop, I had that experience too. But this guy wasn't out of candy or some other excuse... next to the door he must've had four or five 24 packs, all Coke. I thought it was the coolest thing, especially when it came to eating candy later and needing something to drink.

I don't remember getting Sugar Daddies ever, but one thing we got all the time around here (in school and while out trick-or-treating) were those candy-apple suckers. For those unaware, they were basically a green apple-flavored lollipop covered in a caramel coating. They were so good, but I swear, every time I was in the middle of eating one, the caramel would ensnare my teeth and I was sure I was going to lose them if I pulled them out too quickly. Good times.

Awesome article!

And hey, I love popcorn balls! lol.

i love candy corn ! it is the best candy ever, everyone hates them but i don't get why

Ugh, popcorn balls. That's an insult on halloween night.

Did you ever get anyone who tossed pennies into your bag? I went to one house and this old lady dumped something in my bag, and ater a while it felt heavy. I thought, "she must have given me a BUNCHA candy!" But when I got home it turned out to be $3 in pennies.

I puked after eating a popcorn ball once and could eat them ever since.

Two things to say: first, that giant crappy popcorn ball would take up half of your intsy little pumpkin pail, and it is for that reason alone that the pillowcase was a must have. In our day, it was much more likely to fill up than now, because it seems like the hours for trick-or-treating just keep dwindling away as years pass. I remember going out from like 5 to 10 or something insane. Is that right or am i making it up?

Secondly, no one has mentioned those magical homes that gave out FULL SIZE CANDY BARS!!!!!!! Those people were out of their minds, but in a good way!

Oh yes, the famous candy cigarette. Here in Canada the kind discribed here are sold as Popeye Candy Sticks. I always liked them. They're still avaliable to this day and are sold very cheeply, for around 10 to 20 cents. Around the late 90's I noticed a different kind of candy cigarette that both shocked and impresed me. They were packaged like the ones shown in this article, pacakged like real smokes. There's a few different kinds, each named after a different place, like there's Chicago candy smokes, Paris candy smokes and London candy smokes. It's all the same candy but they have a variety of packages to chose from I like the London one most. The attention to detail doesn't stop on the outside, on the inside the candies are cigarette shaped chocolate sticks covered in wrapping paper.

Here in Canada I don't recall any black and orange wrapped generic candy but I remember a variation I actually liked. They were all wrapped in light orange with a haunted house cartoon motif on them and on the inside was a half soft/ half hard thing that tasted like a cross between molasses and sweetened peanut butter. I always liked getting them as long as it was mixed in with a lot of fun sized chocolate bars (Mars and Caramilk were my favorites and in later years Cookies and Cream minis,) mini packages of nibs licorice and rocket candies.

I remember a few years ago I went out to a party and my sister stayed home to give out candies. She chose the candies herself, she chose the worst crap. Get this, apple cinamon tootsie rolls instead of the better regular ones and orange tic tacs. You heard right, tic tacs. I was blown away when I got home that our house wasn't egged.

I can't believe you discussed the "good, bad, and ugly" spectrum of Halloween treats and didn't mention raisins. I have always hated being given raisins on Halloween. I think everyone does. And yet people continue to give them out.

You're partially wrong about popcorn balls, however. I can imagine that the packaged "low fat" thing in the picture you showed probably tasted pretty nasty, but when they're home-made (which means not low fat) they are extremely sweet, buttery, sticky, and delicioius. That makes them a candy in my book. And they can do just as much damage to your teeth as a Sugar Daddy any day of the week. =D

I remember finding candy from Halloween underneath your bed that was a year old, along with chocolate eggs from Easter...you always had your rations. I definitely remember Reese's Cups being a hot commodity, and you know me, M&Ms and Junior Mints will always be number one on my list. By the way, is that picture of the pumpkin above taken on a toilet seat? Gross...

I remember the disappointment of getting a bag of those pretzels, but they did come in pretty sweet packaging and I actually really like pretzels now haha. I'm surprised that you didn't mention "the odd" those candybars were always my favorites just because you never really saw them anywhere, except on halloween. 5th Avenue bars stick out to me the most for some reason which is odd because now I think of 5th Avenue as just being a less tasty version of Butterfinger.

I Love to get chips and popcorn, it was my fuel for going house to house.
I'm going out this year but I have to take my neices and nephews, but I'm treat or treating too its the perk for looking young!

Candycorn was nasty! I could never eat'em.

"I too graduated from a plastic bucket to a pillowcase. But I never filled it all the way even though I liked to dream about it...:-D"

I did. The Halloween after 9-11. NO one was trick or treating that year (and haven't been since really....) so I took advantage of it and went out. At every house I went to, I was getting almost the entire candy supplys unloaded onto me because only a few people were going around. The candy lasted all the way until past Thanksgiving!

Yeah, it sucks to be too old to trick or treat, but at least you're never too old to dress up.

I love Halloween. It sucks being too old now to trick or treat. Great article! Halloween pretzels lol

I'm suprised you didn't mention getting fruit for halloween under ...::TheBad::.... I used to get Apples for Halloween. I'd be delighted to get them when I was younger and my sister would give me hers since she was about the candy. Great article

Wow, I never knew the those orange and black thing actually had a flavor.

This is a great article and I swear I thought of all of the same stuff when I was a kid. I don't think I've seen or thought of those mary jane things since I was a kid, but I remember them and always wondered what they heck they were!
I noticed nobody mentioned Mounds or Almond Joys. Well, I hated those (I don't like coconut or almonds) but of course I always ended up with like 50 of them. I begged my friends to trade me for more twix, 3 musketeers, reese's, anything! Oh and had the plastic pumpkin bucket too, before switching to a huge bag! Ah... memories.

I too graduated from a plastic bucket to a pillowcase. But I never filled it all the way even though I liked to dream about it...:-D

The "mary janes" as you call them... i dredded them when i was younger... i always though "what a waste of space!" but as I got older I started to like them... they just are hard to chew.

MY FAV CANDY'z - Reeses pieces, anything gummy(except those fish) & those wax lips candies/bottled wax flavors.

I have the exact same pumpkin pail as you and still do from the late seventies. It worked great for my 2 year old (easy to hold, not too much candy, not too heavy). As I got older I always used those plastic trick or treat bags they used to give out and as they filled up we transferred the loot into a pillowcase. Sometimes I'm glad I am allergic to peanuts because I could get awesome trades for butterfingers and reese's peanut butter cups. I always pawned all my orange and blacks on mom and dad.

I prefer Halloween themed candies like the orange,black, and purple M&Ms and The Halloween themed packaging for the candies.

Yes!!! Candy cigarettes!! I'm 23 and I'm glad to say I'm old enough to remember some sick and twisted individuals handing these to lucky children and therefore harboring future nicotine addictions by showing them its ok and cool to smoke...

...My most treasured candies as a kid were pretty much anything chocolate but I loved the rare and obscure chocolate bars like 5th Avenues, Clark bars, Oh Henry!'s, Maple Buns, and What-Cha-Ma-Call-It's. The most sought after chocolate bar for me anymore is the Sky Bar. It's Chocolate Creme, Caramel, Peanut Butter, and Marshmallow Fluff all in four separate pieces of the same bar. I've only seen it at two stores in my whole life one of which is a Retro shop (which specializes in that sort of thing and I'm sure they keep their stock by the freezer full...) and an old Drug store in my town which was bought out by Walgreen's...

My favorites have always been Skittles and Starbursts. I also loved Now and Laters. As much as I loved chocolate candies as a kid, my heart belonged to the fruity chewy candy. I could not stand candy corn and would always leave that at the bottom of the bag and fireballs were way too hot for me to withstand.

I remember stuffing my face full of candy until my gut ached. My parents always told me to not eat too much candy. I have never learned my lesson.

Oooh Skittles. I had forgotten about Skittles. Love those things. I used to swallow bags whole when I was a kid. I still do. o_O

I've never had anything as bad as apples (I guess because of the poisoned/razor rumours), but I did get brownies once. They were from a friends mom, so thats why I got to keep them. They were really good, actually.

I love Snickers and Twix. No, let me rephrase that. I FRIGGIN LOVE Snickers and Twix. But wtf is up with the "fun size" deals. I don't call something 1/4 the size of a normal bar "fun". Though there was a house who used to give out full sized Snickers and Twix. I worshipped that house.

I remember one Halloween where I went to this guy's house, and you know what he gave me? APPLES!! I shit you not HE GAVE ME APPLES!!! I just couldn't believe it that I actually got apples.

P.S: In case you're wondering Skittles and Starburst's are my favorite candies.

excellent article.
Unmentioned candies that I like to get on Halloween are Kit Kats,Snickers,Crunch bar,Butterfingers.
My favorite candies are M&M's and Reeces so thanks fo mentioning them.

Thanks for the comments guys, let's hear more of your favorite Halloween treats!

Yep the I had plenty of "bad" candies too my parents always got their own bowl of candy after me and my sisters eliminated the gross stuff. which was The mary janes, Bit O Honey, candy corn and of course the lame bags of pretzels.
There was even this lady on my block that gave out toothbrushes every year. She tried to make up excuses by saying her husband was a dentist.
good article though

Great Article, keep writing.

BB bats and Skittles. Those are my favourite halloween treats.

Ew, I didn't like those "dreaded black and orange things" either, awesome article!

LOL, "the dreaded black and orange things", who didn't hate them? Cool article, thumbs up!

So THAT'S what those black and orange things are! I hate those things. I also used to foist mine off onto my dad. XD

Very good article!

You had a tiny little plastic pail? Sucks to be you, I had a BIG cloth shopping bag for my loot. >=D

Popcorn balls are just plain gross. Regular popcorn is good (though cheese is the best), and kettle corn is good too. But once I see it rolled into a ball, I'm not touching that shit.

....I liked the black and orange peanut butter candy things. They were yummy.

Once someone gave me a can of coke when I was trick or treating! Because the woman only had one little candy left and felt bad, so she gave me that as well. Awesome.

The houses I loved the best though were the bowls people would leave out with a note to only "take 3" or whatever. In fact, if someone else had come before me, I'd be amazed if there was any left. Once I was actually the first person to one of those bowls. Needless to say, there was few candy left when I was done. Because I felt generous. XD

Fun article! Here's my thoughts...
The Good: Sweet Tarts, Milk Duds and fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls!
The Bad: 1 Nickel(Crap), Stickers(Double Crap), Paper Dolls (Ultra Crap!)
The Ugly: Milky Life Savers Suckers, Raisins, old Butterscotch candies

I agree with you 100% on this! I've got a Halloween article in the works right now, so watch for it!

I actually have an interesting story about a Sugar Daddy candy. I had one back in the early 90s and it got one of my baby teeth out. I had several more in efforts to get more baby teeth out, but it didn't work. My parents were reluctant to let me have sugar of any sort. They thought it had something to do with my behavior issues. We got to the root of those in the late 90s and around that time I was able to start having sugar at any time.

Good article. I especially love candy corn myself. Sometimes at work, I'll buy a bag of it as a snack. It tastes great, especially with milk.

This is a great article! I love getting Warheads when trick or treating, and I believe I only got one when trick or treating, and the rest were recieved by school activities. I actually got money once (a quarter) when trick or treating when a nice lady ran out of candy. I hate getting tootsie rolls, probably due to the fact that I got so many and never really liked them (my dad was there to help me eat the candy, so I give those to him).

Man, my brother crushed an entire bag of Pixie Sticks and he flipped out. I mean he didn't stop laughing for forty five minutes!

I'm glad to see that there is someone else out there who likes candy corns!!!! Personally I love the things, always have. But most people I know make gagging noises at the very mention of them. I'm glad to see them placed in the "good" category for once.

I gotta disagree with you about the popcorn balls. There was an old lady in my neighborhood who gave out popcorn balls and we couldn't wait to get to here house. I know they aren't as good as candy but I think I just appriciated the novelty of it. I also have to disagree about the bottle caps. I loved em' and usually ate them up pretty fast. They never stood a chance of making it to the bottom of my Halloween bag.

And of course no Halloween treat article would be complete without addressing the Mary Jane issue. I remember each Halloween I would start out with bright and colorful bag of assorted candies and 4-5 days later I'd end up with a bag of "those black and orange peanut butter things." They were just awful. None the less, I think I'd be sad if they ever stopped making them because they are so notoriously bad that they have become a halloween tradition.

Just as a point of interest I think the strangest thing I was ever given as a halloween treat was a can of Pepsi. We got to that house pretty late that Halloween and I guess the guy had run out of candy so he just handed up all a can of Pepsi.

black and orange candy is oral chaos! aghhhhh my teeth are getting nervous!