The Great Halloween Fairy Cometh!
When did Halloween get to be bigger than any other holiday? The endless discussions, the endless outlays of cash; the decorating, the costumes, the parades and parties. In our neighbourhood it's all comsuming. When its all over what are you left with? A ratty costume, gross, matted spiderwebbing and a bag of candy heavier than your child.
That is where the Halloween Fairy comes in.
The Halloween Fairy comes a couple days after the big day, (or a week, or the next morning -- she's pretty flexible) and she removes the bag of candy and replaces it with a desired toy. The candy then goes to a mysterious place called "the office".
It is not too late to arange a visit from the Halloween Fairy to your house. Tell the kids you have heard about the Halloween Fairy from other parents, she's a new fairy, just starting out -- a cousin of the Tooth Fairy. You will send her an email to come to your house to trade the Halloween candy with a toy. And before the bags of candy are placed in the window, or fireplace or wherever the fairies in your house prefer, the kids can pick 10 (or 5, or none) pieces of their favourite candy to keep for their enjoyment. Important piece of information: the Halloween Fairy can tell if more candy than the agreed-upon amount has been taken and hidden somewhere.
Now, it is important that the Halloween Fairy does not forget to replace the candy with a toy (sometimes the Tooth Fairy forgets and then has to write notes to explain her absence), or your kids may not want to invite the Halloween Fairy back again next year.
The best thing about the Halloween Fairy is that she (or he) removes an object from the home that can become a point of contention. Most kids generally forget about their candy after a while, but until that point the constant discussion of the candy can be very irritating, sickening and create a lot of tooth decay.
The whole system was working beautifully in our house, until our oldest son found the bill from the toy store on the desk. But luckily, he has an understanding that a toy (Ok, it was a Wii game) has a lot more long-term value then some rockets... And since the Halloween Fairy only comes to those who believe, he believes...
If we had thought of it, we would have called it the Great Pumpkin, but we stole the Halloween fairy idea from another family, and there does have to be some community buy-in, so email all your friends and create a Halloween fairy community! Who know? It could be the start of a cultural trend...
« Cold Comfort for the Family Cold | Main | Books for Babes »
