Gerrard Kaonga
With Halloween quickly approaching, one family has sparked a debate after revealing the candy tradition they practice with their daughter.
A family in Utah divided social media users by explaining a tradition they have they call the ‘switch witch’.
Sharing a video of how the tradition works the family explained their daughter would go trick-or-treating for Halloween candy like millions of other kids with one twist.
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Rather than keeping all the candy, she is allowed to keep five pieces and puts the rest in a small plastic basket that is then placed on their front door porch. The next morning the sweets are replaced with a toy for their daughter to keep.
Instagram page Emilyxlevi, shared an explanatory video of the tradition on October 5 and the post has so far been liked more than 682,000 times.
“The switch witch is back! This has been such a fun tradition!,” the page wrote as a caption.
“Better yet, it’s been a way to let our daughter enjoy every bit of Halloween without eating tons of candy. You can get fun with it and give your witch a name! The witch who stops by our house is Wilda.”
Despite the well-meaning intentions to cut back on their daughter's candy intake, some social media users were less impressed with the tradition.
“It’s one day of the year. Give it a rest. You think it’s better to buy your kid toys than to let them have the bite sized candy?” one Instagram user wrote.
“Why not just teach moderation? Like it’s a great idea but it’s not really teaching her anything,” another added.
“Yes, the kids do not necessarily need the candy but the option to teach moderation is right there and instead you’re advocating a tooth fairy thing based on candy gotten from other people,” a user commented.
Despite the criticism, some Instagram users were delighted with the tradition and indicated they may adopt it themselves for the upcoming festive season.
“My 2 y.o has special medical needs and doesn’t want to/isn’t able to eat much by mouth,” a social media user noted.
“This looks like a great way to still have him participate in the trick or treating and get something he wants in the end. All these negative comments are crazy... don’t follow his advice if you don’t want to.”
Regardless of the heated debate raging in the comments section, some users joked that the parents just wanted to sneakily munch on their daughter’s candy themselves.