Trick or Treating - "Please Take One"?

we did this last year. All the chocolate was gone, the dum dums barely touched. discriminating customers.

I've seen most kids be respectful and take O..
I guess when it's gone it's gone, right? Not he end of the world!

I love that commercial!

My neighbor did that last year and it worked perfectly. Kids dont trick or treat without parents and parents aren't going to let them cheat. The big kids comeout after dark and they were home by then.

I guess it depends. In the area where I take my kids there are many bowls outside the door like that and it seems to me that most have been respectful of this set-up. However, I am sure some kids are greedy especially the older ones who are not under any parental supervision.

My parents used to set the bowl out with a video camera in plain view in the window. Of course, it wasn't on, but it made kids think twice!! My dad would also stick a sign up that said 'we're watching you!'... LOL

If you'r not going to be home turn the porch light off and don't worry about it.

We did it twice. Once it worked and once it didn't. I think when you go out with your guy early, it probably will work better. Smaller kids (who come by earlier) trick or treat with their parents and can't get away with taking the whole bowl.

Ha ha I saw that commercial last night. When I lived in PA my neighbors would do this and they never had a problem. You could put up a sign that says "I can't get to the door, please take one". This way you are not advertising that you are out and they might think you are watching.

I am not sure if it does or doesnt. That is what we do also. The only thing I can add it that if you leave your light on and a bowl of candy...even if it is empty people know that you tried. Good luck!

That doesn't work in my neighborhood.

We see kids bused in by the van loads from God knows where. I've gotten to the point that if I don't recognize them I just ask if they live in our neighorbood... then give candy choices accordingly. The kids I know get the better treats.

In our neighborhood, parents in the same situation give their candy to a neighbor to pass out. Sometimes the neighbor just says this is from us and here's from next door and sometimes we see a note that says something like "treats are next door."

We have a couple of neighbor friends who are new to our sub this year and were asking me about how many kids we get trick-or-treating so they knew how much candy to buy. Problem is, I don't really know, because the past 2 years I got stuck working on Halloween night and my hubby took our daughter. So he did the same thing - left a bowl of candy with a note asking that each kid only take one. And when I tried to ask him how many trick-or-treaters we got, he couldn't say - only that the bowl was empty when they got back.

So my suspicion is that there were kids taking more than one. Maybe a lot more than one. For all I know, some teenager dumped the entire bowl in their bag. Because we always buy butt-loads of candy and I know we don't have THAT many kids in our neighborhood. And this can happen anywhere (hubby seems to believe that somehow we had a ton of kids if all the candy was gone - normally he's not that naive about anything).

Maybe add onto the note that Santa is watching them. May still not work though. I would just figure on not having any candy left over. Maybe get a friend or extra neighbor who might be willing to pass out the candy?

We leave a bowl out. We usually have candy left over so it seems the children are behaving. Then again, we live on a dead end so I don't know how much traffic we actually get.

We have lived in our home for over 20 years, so I have had to do all sorts of things..

I have left a bowl with a sign, I have actually given my neighbors our candy to hand out for us, and I have just turned off the light till we got home.

Over all the bowl left out was fine.. One year, I got the feeling someone took all of it. (I whispered a curse on them)..

Ya'll have fun tonight!

I would leave it out earlier or not at all. You can turn your porch light off when you are not home.

We have put our candy in a big bowl the last few years and put it on our porch so we could take our daughter trick or treating. We don't even bother with a sign and we always have a few pieces left over when we get home. I think it just depends on how respectful the kids are and that can vary from year to year.

No[e the first group of kids one took one, the second dumped the whole bowl into their bag and the next one in their group got nothing. So I'd go at the start of trick or treating and then come home and pass candy.

I did this one year while hubby and I took the kids to neighbors houses. It was well respected, but we are not one of "the good" niegborhoods - you know the one that people bus their kids to - Oh yeah, it happens.
also, if you are just in the neighborhood, it should be easier to monitor - also, don't put out all your candy if you don't have to - put most of it out, then when you walk back by your house (assuming going up and down the street) set out some more and then use the last little bit for when you are back at your house:)

Never worked for us... sorry!

Dawn

That commercial makes me laugh! I love it. :)

We are not handing out candy this year, until we get home with our girls. We might put out the bowl I'm not sure. I don't really worry about if the sign will work or not, when it's gone it's gone. Less for me to "have" to eat later on. :)

My neighbors do it EVERY YEAR and they are 4 houses up from us. By the time we get to them, there is NO candy left at all. I won't do it. We live in a nice neighborhood, but 13 year olds still trick or treat and the parents don't go with them. I'll give our bowl to my neighbor until my husband gets home...kind of hoping he gets home before we go so he can take the reigns this year.

I usually leave a bowl. Last year it was empty. Not sure if i did not put enough or someone took it all. I only leave a little, we are the busier road in the start of a development. The kids are usually on the streets behind us.

I am the one that puts the sign out that says,
Take Two, Santa's watching you!
My bowl is usually empty when I get back though....maybe there's a lot of trick-or treaters!?
By the way, I think that commercial is funny!
L.

I used to live in a neighborhood where vans of kids would come in from the inner city. I would take my kids out trick or treating and leave a sign out that said "out trick or treating, come back later!" I may have put a time when they were really little and I knew we'd be back in 45 minutes.

I used to do this, in fact i did it 4 years in a row. The first two years there was always candy left over and it seemed that was a good sign. The third year the bowl was empty.....quite early(i checked out while out trick or treating) the 4th year the entire stand was knocked over and the entire bowl was gone!

Not happening this year, ill hand out candy before i leave, or after i get back.

Its a shame really.

We leave our bowl out while we go out, but we go early, before 5, so the only kids out are with their parents.