Welcome Switch Witch!

Every family has traditions, and the Switch Witch is one of ours. I first heard about this concept from my sister-in-law, who lived overseas at the time. I immediately fell in love with the idea and adapted it to meet our family's needs. In our house, we don't eat artificial food dyes and colorings, and that used to be problematic for my daughter around Halloween, when there is candy, candy everywhere. So after I heard about the Switch Witch, who comes and takes candy and leaves toys, I found a book at the library called "The Sugar Witch Switch." We read the book together and she loved it! Over the years, she has developed her own ideas about the Switch Witch, and the accepted belief in my house is that she melts down all the candy to help build her sugar city. My kids have great fun deciding what she will build with the different candies they put in the boxes, with ideas ranging from castles to libraries!
My daughter was around 3 when we first started the Switch Witch, and my two boys have never known Halloween any other way. When October rolls around, the kids get super excited to decorate their Switch Witch boxes.

It's just an accepted fact that all the "dye candy" goes into the Switch Witch box. Even my newly-turned 3 year-old will show me candy and ask, "This candy for Switch Witch?" I rarely have trouble or complaints about not getting to eat the candy. Although I do occasionally "trade" them for an organic piece of candy, they really just accept that candy is a "sometimes treat" and not something to eat all the time, even during October, and that in our family we don't eat dye.
So, instead, they enjoy preparing for the Switch Witch and sorting their candy as they get it. On Halloween night, they sort their candy into a "Switch Witch" pile and a "good" pile. Out of the "good" pile, they each choose 5 pieces to keep, and the rest of it goes into the boxes along with the Switch Witch pile.
They leave the boxes by the front door on Halloween night, and in the morning the candy has been replaced with presents from the Switch Witch, as a way to say thank you for the candy.  She usually leaves us art supplies and books.

Where does all that candy go? Well, in our house, it goes to my mom, who drives a school bus, and she mostly hands it out to the kids on her bus route. There's plenty of places to bring your candy, though, if you think the Switch Witch is right for your family. In our neighborhood, there are a couple of dentists who accept leftover Halloween candy, and then send it to American troops overseas. You can find a dentist near you that participates or send it yourself through Operation Gratitude.