If you love candy, get ready for one of the three best days of the year. Yes, it's true: the day after Halloween, the day after Easter, and the day after Valentine's Day are a candy lover's dream come true.
That's when stores mark down all of their unsold seasonal treats.
My astute and sweets-loving brother alerted me to this fact just this morning. And that reminded me of a visit we'd made to a Publix grocery store in Florida a few years back. It was right after Valentine's Day. I didn't realize the stop was timed so strategically, although I do remember vividly the big bag of super-cheap chocolates, marshmallows, caramels, and other goodies that made its way back to the car with us. (You'll notice I did not say the bag made it back into the house.)
Aside from doing our civic duty to help grocery stores reduce their inventory, you may be wondering if there is another purpose for all that leftover candy.
Check out Halloweencandybuyback.com. Dentists who register their practices on the website invite kids to trade in their treats for small gifts or prizes, then the docs ship the candy overseas to military personnel.
Individuals and groups who want to send their leftover sweets to the troops directly can find instructions at operationgratitude.com. Another program is operationshoebox.com.
(If you're feeling ambivalent about causing possible cavities, the groups encourage you to donate toothbrushes and dental floss, too.)
Of course, you can always recycle your candy into recipes and dispose of it one monster mash-up at a time.
But with so many places to share your surplus, isn't it much sweeter to spread it around?
