It's that time of year again, and the stuff has hit the grocery shelves with sparkly orange and black wrappers. Value-sized bags! Great prices!

I'm not going there. I don't even WANT to go there! Unless somebody molds a little pumpkin out of 90% dark chocolate, I ain't eating it.

Will you be ignoring it, resisting 100%, or making room for a few scary treats?

I plan to resist it this year, as I've done for the past several years. I pledge not to steal any of my kids' halloween candy. It's not TOO difficult for me, because the stuff isn't the high-quality gourmet junk I prefer.

As an aside, I'm also hoping my kids will FINALLY stop going out for halloween this year. They're 16 and almost 15, but these days kids seem to keep going out much longer than when I was growing up. My stepson's girlfriend still goes out at 24!

F.

I will be ignoring it !

For me the harbinger of doom is the big box of little chocolate bars. I should not hand those out for Halloween as I know that I will tear into the first box if I buy them in advance (and I tend to do everything well in advance).

I think I will compromise as that seems to work best for me. I will buy one bag of 12 choc bars and know that I will consume them all in one feeding frenzy and feel like c*ap. Better than eating 30 (my record bar binge) of the big box of 98 or however many there are nowadays.

And I will hand out bags of chips and rockets and tootsie pops candy, which I really don't like any more.

Dagmar

I'm in. And that includes the new obscene Candy Corn Oreos, which I haven't nor intend to try.

I gave Kit Kats one year because I find them despicable. Mini bars of dark chocolate would never make it out the door. I continue to look for a non-food handout that fits my neat/cost niche.

I will join the pledge. I haven't indulged in several years but if I don't make the pledge, I might feel like I have permission to indulge. Don't even want to go there.

I'm not going to say no to all Halloween candy, because I always say that and then cave, but I'm going to try like the dickens to avoid it. I won't buy any for my house, I won't take any from the candy jars of my co-workers, which I try to avoid anyway, and that should take care of the majority that might come my way. If I'm tempted I will remind myself/allow myself to have a bit of the higher quality dark chocolate I keep in small amounts at home. It doesn't come in an orange wrapper. I have already been doing the dance around the center aisles of CVS.

No trick or treaters come to my street. Though I miss the fun of seeing costumes, I'm not even tempted to buy candy to give out, which is great for my waistline. Bill, my old roommate used to buy a package of mini play-do to hand out. Maybe walk down the toy aisle of the $ General to look for non-candy handout ideas?

I'm in! I've already had some, but I can take the pledge from here on out.

My block isn't safe enough for trick or treaters, I'm upstairs, and the downstairs neighbor (as some may remember) is HATED by everyone on the block anyway.

I cannot pledge to eat none, but I am sure not going to buy any big bags of it for myself.

We live in an apartment and don't get trick or treaters, so I will commit to not buy any bags of candy for personal consumption this year. My daughter is going to trick or treat this year (she is only 4 so will only do 1 or 2 streets), so I will probably have 1-2 pieces of hers.

Abstinence isn't realistic for me, but moderation certainly is.

Depending on the economic status of your trick or treaters' parents some small toy items from the dollar store might do the trick. The kids in my neighbourhood would probably like stuff like that but the kids from the wealthy parents I work for probably would not. The other hard thing is age - if your tricksters are mostly younger kids this idea would work a whole lot better.

One year, when DH and I lived in a really economically depressed neighbourhood DH bought a bunch of cheap masks from the dollar store and gave one to each those kids who didn't have money for a costume but were out hoping to get some candy. I gave them quite a bit of candy and told them to come back around 8 p.m. for more when we were closing up. Probably not much $$ for candy in their homes.

Dagmar

Playdoh and bubbles are great things to hand out.

I'm in, and I'm also not going to be tempted to get the after-Halloween clearance candy for my kids- they don't need it, and I certainly don't either. I think I'll get non-kosher candy to hand out to the neighborhood kids this year (we keep kosher), so we won't dip into it before Halloween or have left-overs tempting anyone.

I'm in; going for both ignoring and resisting. And that goes double for the Pepperidge Farm pumpkin cheesecake cookies I saw on display next to the Halloween candy.

No candy in the house except for some dark chocolate that we wouldn't part with.

Too far out in the boonies for any trick or treaters here. We always talk about putting a pumpkin out by the road to see if anyone will come up the drive.