candy faeries

One of my all time favorite pieces of advice early on was about the Halloween sugar faeries.  In case anyone does not know them, particularly if your children are younger, I'd like to introduce you!  If older, this will be much more challenging to pull off.  In our house it is the Sugarplum faeries that visit on Hallow's Eve after all the candy has been collected.  The kids all get to eat as much as they like on the night of collection but that night they put out their candy to the Sugarplum faeries, who gather all the candy for the sugar to begin making all the sweet treats for Christmas time.  The faeries need a lot because there are all those gingerbread houses to be decorated, candy canes to be made, cookies for the tree, the list goes on.  So they need all those little helpers on Halloween to help them do the gathering or they would never be able to meet the supply for Christmas.  

Luckily, we started this on the big sister's very first Halloween so she knew right from the get go that the candy was not meant for her.  She could eat pieces while she collected, but it was all meant for something more important than her own satisfaction.  She really took pride in gathering as much as she could for those faeries.  And still to this day they know the candy is for them.  Last year the little sister hid little piles from the faeries that she wanted to keep for herself and was quite happy to trick them, which is completely consistent with her personality and temperament.  She's phlegmatic, loves food and definitely has tendencies towards hoarding.  The big sister is of course mortified by her sisters tricky ways and tries to guilt her about it yet at the same time wishes she had a little stash of candy as well.  But that is consistent with her personality and temperament as well. 

And our faeries are always kind enough to leave a thoughtful little note and small gift behind for the girls' hard work.  She usually brings a much wanted book or handmade item made especially for them.