We love Halloween and we love how much our kids love Halloween. That's why we don't want to sound like the fun police, but we do want to make some sense of the excess (read: the sugar excess). Here are 12 simple and subtle ways to manage the candy rush -- including tips on how to curb our own temptations.

On top of loving to dress up each year, Halloween is my favourite holiday because it's the most dependent on how we design and build our communities. In city planning and design, there's an old saying about the "Trick-or-Treat Test." It's often brought up in the context in suburban home design: Can kids easily find the front door to your house, or must they poke behind the huge multi-car garage, past the parking asphalt, to ring your bell?