Is the Switch Witch Brewing Up Some Controversy This Halloween?

This spin on the holiday tradition is casting some furious debate among parents.

First came Elf on the Shelf . Now, there’s the Switch Witch, a new Halloween tradition that involves kids trading in candy for gifts. Just like the Elf, this “fun” ritual creates more work for us parents—when we’re already scrambling to pull off intricate costumes and coordinate trick-or-treating with scores of friends and family. But plenty of Switch Witch critics say we’re also robbing children off a rite of passage: eating way too much Halloween candy.

If you haven’t heard of the Switch Witch, an Instagram video created by user @emilyxlevi explains it pretty well. Basically, a kid goes out trick-or-treating on Halloween . Then, when they get home, they get to pick out five of their favorite pieces of candy. What happens to the rest of their hard-earned bounty? They leave it outside for the Switch Witch, who magically replaces it with a toy the next morning. According to the creator, this tradition keeps little ones from eating too much junk, and makes Halloween all the more exciting!

Some Wicked Reaction

Thousands of commenters are taking issue with what they see as an eye-rolling idea for many, diverse reasons. Chief among them is that kids have been gorging on Kit-Kats and Starbursts for decades, on this one day a year. So why are we taking this time-honored cultural birthright away from today’s children? And, the prevailing logic seems to be that if you don’t want your tots to get sick on Pixy Stix and Reese’s Peanut Butter candies, then Halloween presents the perfect opportunity to teach them moderation and self-control —not to force them to give their candy away to the anti-Tooth Fairy.

Those who want to burn the Switch Witch at the stake didn’t hold back their strong condemnation of the “tradition,” with one person simply saying, “This sucks.”

Someone else groaned, “Just let the kid have fun once a year,” while another person echoed, “What happened to parents just letting kids be kids and enjoy Halloween?”

One angry commenter blasted the creator, accusing them of “literally cheating your kid out of a childhood.” And yet another unimpressed observer said, “Glad you were not my dad.”

Dozens upon dozens of commenters weighed in calling the Switch Witch "the Grinch of October 31". And speaking of which, Christmas is right around the corner, and we parents are already stretched thin budget-wise. So why are we shelling out money for toys now—especially if you’re like me, and have multiple children?

“Way to waste people's money on the candy they bought for your kids,” noted someone else in the vein of cent squandering.

Beyond just taking away your money and your kids' joy, one commenter shared a very personal reason why the Switch Witch may even lead to problems regulating oneself later in life:

“My parents did this and it was so detrimental to my relationship with food . Everything was monitored and restricted so when I had a chance to have some ‘unhealthy’ food when they weren’t around, I went wild with it.”

The commenter went on to warn, “Don’t do this to your kids. Teach them that the candy will always be there so they don’t have to eat it all at once. Build a good relationship with food rather than restricting the ‘bad’ food.”

It's Okay to Keep Your Spells to Yourself

To be fair, there were a lot of parents who liked the idea of the Switch Witch as well. (Are these the same people who embrace Elf on the Shelf with a passion—and create Instagrams devoted to showing off the elf’s obnoxious daily feats?)

One person writes that they have a toddler who doesn't need the candy, but they want him to experience trick-or-treating, calling it a "cute tradition to start."

Other fans of the toy trade-in tradition wondered why this concept enrages people who aren’t affected by what some parents choose to do for their own families. Fair enough. No need for full-on parent shaming.

That said, the Switch Witch is not welcome to park her broom anywhere near my house. Ditto to the Elf on the Shelf, who can keep his striped tights and mocking grin as far from our Christmas tree as possible. Because this mama doesn’t have enough time (or the budget) to go out and buy a bunch of gifts just shy of the biggest splurge season of the year.

Besides, in the end, dressing up and asking neighbors for candy seems like one of the only traditions left that is still simple, pure, and just like it was when we were kids. Can’t we just leave it this way?

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