Coping with the stash

Despite a near-meltdown over the kids in scary costumes last night, our Mary Poppins came home from trick-or-treating with quite a stash in hand.

Which leads us to a common dilemna: What to do with the Halloween candy. For most, the hunt is more exciting than the reality of overwhelming results.

From what I've seen over the years, parents seem to be grouped into three camps on this:

• Let the kids gorge, spin in circles and race around for hours until they collapse in a diabetic coma.
• Drag it to work, tormenting their stress-eating and chocolate-craving coworkers for a week until the candy is gone.
• Toss it in the trash.

Let me throw in a fourth option, one I've heard from many a registered dietitian: Everything in moderation.

No, I'm not advocating a candy a day, though if it makes you happy and fits within your diet, you're welcome to do so. (I do wonder about encouraging a habit of daily candy for children, though.) But there are other options for families coping with bagfuls of candy that they suddenly don't want.

• Bake. This afternoon, my daughter's chocolates are becoming reborn as chocolate-chunk cookies for a pitch-in we're attending. (The cookies are staying there, by the way.) And those lollipops can be crushed for the "stained-glass" cookies we'd make as a child.
• Toss the candy in the freezer. Christmas is coming, and you'll save yourself the costs and the hassle of a trip to the store for chocolate for your cookie recipe next month.
• Save it for stockings.
• Share it with an organization that gives Christmas stockings to children in need.

Other ideas?