# Alternatives to candy - OTC



## MurrayTX (Nov 4, 2011)

The Halloween catalogs are starting to arrive. One of my favorites is what saved me last year. My neighborhood gets around 1,000 TOTs. I love that, but candy runs out fast and gets very spendy. So last year I bought $90 worth of Halloween novelty stuff like rolls of stickers and all that plastic junk from our youth. Turned out to be about 1/3rd the cost of candy and many TOTs preferred the junk when given the option of "candy or toy?". The company I use is the most popular... Oriental Trading Company. At the very least, get some rubber roaches to give out unawares, on the hope of the kids wigging out when they dump their candy out later. And again, a roll of hundreds of stickers are good as back-up or bonus treats. I think I bought a pack of 500 and spent en evening cutting the rolls to make singles while watching TV. Just watch for shipping promos so you avoid my regret of getting my order in the day before free shipping last year. They do that often.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

You can't beat their prices when it comes to little spooky tchothckes


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Yep, they are a good company and have some cool stuff.


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

Several times I have gotten the toys I give out, from their oops sale. This year I'm giving out the little pumpkins filled with candy to fit with my pumpkin theme.


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## SMR (Aug 4, 2013)

I do both too, but I usually get my toys after Halloween. Some stores go 75% off on the toys they have left and I just stock up. I got a cute little ToT dressed as Batman several years back who was diabetic and couldn't eat any of the candy, but loved going door to door anyway. I've had non-candy options for the kids ever since and they are really popular with them.


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## Sblanck (Sep 13, 2007)

@SMR nice of you to do that. My daughter is T1 and she TOT's but my wife spends hours looking up the information so she can dose for the candy she gets.


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## MapThePlanet (Nov 12, 2010)

I've used US Toy company (ustoy.com) for the smaller "prizes" before....It is the same stuff, for the most part as OTC...Have never failed me in customer service....


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## CrazedHaunter (Nov 18, 2012)

A few years ago I had some plastic cups with Skeletons on them for our own use for drinks while giving out candy. The Tots started asking if they could have one. So the next year we but a bunch of cheap toys ( spider rings etc.). And started giving them out also. The ToTs loved them and the Parents thanked us for not just giving candy. I should do that again this year!


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## wormyt (Aug 29, 2005)

I do both. We give candy bags and also glow in the dark bracelets. We also have a sucker pumpkin that the kids can pull a sucker out of. For several years I had a small coffin I built and filled with small toys and alot of folks donated toys as well. But the kids could go to the coffin and choose a toy. Last year some mom kept coming back taking advantage of it and kept taking toys. Made me mad that an adult would do this. So may not do the coffin toy box this year.


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## Troll Wizard (May 3, 2012)

wormyt said:


> I do both. We give candy bags and also glow in the dark bracelets. We also have a sucker pumpkin that the kids can pull a sucker out of. For several years I had a small coffin I built and filled with small toys and alot of folks donated toys as well. But the kids could go to the coffin and choose a toy. Last year some mom kept coming back taking advantage of it and kept taking toys. Made me mad that an adult would do this. So may not do the coffin toy box this year.


It's really too bad that there is always someone that will take advantage of those, like us that go out of the way to have these tokens along with candy to give out for free. I had someone last year do the same thing and I finally had to put a stop to it because she was taking the toys and no candy. The odd thing was that when she would come back, she always had a different group of kids with her. So I don't know if she was bringing them to the neighborhood from somewhere else or not. But I had to tell here not to come back.

You do have to be careful on how to approach these people because they can get very angry with you. She told me she didn't see the problem because it was free. I told her that is correct it is free, but not free to abuse it. I told her if she was contributing money for these items them I probably would have problem with her. But because she didn't I asked her not to ruin it for the other kids. She just kind of gave me a look and left and never came back.

I was hoping that she didn't come back later and try to destroy my haunt or better yet try to take some things. Luckily she didn't. :jol:


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

NO CANDY!!!! Your houses truly are scary!!!



Actually, though I go to Costco, buy a bunch of those huge bags of assorted candy, and a few bags of the good stuff (mini candy bars) and then get a few bags of Halloween toys from Oriental Trading and mix it all together in a big cauldron. Then I just dole out a handful to each kid. Goes over big.

I always have a few boxes of full sized candy bars for the teens as bribes. I figure if they know I give good treats they are less likely to ravage my props. It has worked so far.


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## strynite (Jul 28, 2013)

I usually buy individual bags of Animal Crackers or Teddy Grahams for the little ones but I think I will give OTC a look this year for toys and stickers. Great idea!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

I believe they also carry the glow sticks/bracelets that everyone likes.


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## Death's Door (Mar 22, 2006)

My go to always is the bags of candy from the Sam's Club and I do stock up on full-size candy bars. I also give out glow bracelets and small toys too. I also try to hit some after-Halloween sales to stock up for the following year for the toys and bracelets.


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