DIY Halloween Candy Chute!!!!!!
We are officially three days out from the most frightful night of the year, and if the moms in my neighborhood facebook group are any indicator, people don’t know what they’re doing for Halloween this year. And for good reason! We’re approaching the 3rd wave of a seemingly never-ending global pandemic, and I understand the hesitation to send children out to to collect candy and maybe a deadly virus from a bunch of strangers.
But where there’s a will, there’s a way. And this is mine.
We’re making a candy chute, y’all!!!!
This is a super quick, easy, and affordable DIY that you can do entirely by yourself — the best kind!
And! It will increase the safety of you and the little ghouls and goblins and tiger king impersonators that arrive at your doorstep.
So for today’s project, I’m asking you to go to a place you probably don’t spend a lot of time...
That’s right! I’m talking about the plumbing aisle at your local hardware store!
🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
But before you go, there are things you need to consider.
***FYI This is the hard part — making decisions. I’m terrible at making decisions and even I blew right on through this, so the rest of you should be set 🤣
Where to mount your chute
I placed our candy chute alongside the railing on our front porch steps. I’ve also seen people attach them to gutters and front porch rails. If there’s no obvious spot, you get to pick whatever location suits you!
How to mount your chute
I attached my chute to the railing with zip ties. If you don’t have a rail, it’s ok! You might just need a few extra materials. The chute will need to pitch at an angle for the candy to get to the trick or treaters, so keep that in mind.
How long you want your chute
I recommend at least a 6 foot chute for safety and dramatic effect. Ours is 7.5 feet. Measure the area you’re working with and don’t worry about being too precise because these kids are probably thrilled to even be leaving their homes.
What kind of candy you’ll be “chuting”
This is obviously the most important question. If you’re trying to flex on your neighbors and go for the full size candy bars, you won’t be able to do it with a 2 inch wide chute. Also, I wasn’t planning on using a 4inch wide chute because it honestly seemed kind of aggressive, but it was the cheapest??
What you want your chute to look like
I don’t know why, but I immediately knew I wanted mine to look like a pipe with slime coming out the end, so that’s what I’m going to show you how to do. You could also do blood splatter, flames, spider webs, decorate with festive lights, attach spiders or skeletons or eyeballs. The options are limitless!
Okay! So now that we’ve done some light math and decision-making, we’re ready for our adventure in plumbing to begin! Go to your local hardware store and check out the PVC pipes. At our store, there are different diameter options in 10 ft lengths. I went with the 4 inch diameter because — again — it was the cheapest and also I got those Sour Patch Kid bags that seem like they could definitely get stuck with anything more narrow and I didn’t want to end up pelting the neighborhood children with candy in a fit of rage after my measurements were off #perfectionisttendences HAHAHA anyways! 🥴
Determine which diameter you want and someone will probably offer their assistance to you because you don’t look like you belong there BUT IF THEY HAVEN’T, find an employee and ask them if someone can help you cut a pipe. They will say, “yes, of course!” and you will tell them the measurement and bam! You have your chute! (You can also do this yourself, of course, but I can’t fit a 10 foot pipe in my car or my husband’s.) Then, you get to wheel around the store and try not to hit anyone in the face with your fancy new pipe. Fun!
IT’S YA GIRLLLLL
Depending on how you plan on attaching the chute, you may want to purchase an extra pipe or two to make a base and/or fittings to angle the chute. I used this elbow joint to attach to the end. This is not necessary, but because I was trying to create a slime effect, I figured I would rather experiment on a smaller piece than possibly mess up a whole pipe and have to go back to the store and start all over again. In this area, there are lots of different kinds of fittings, so if you need to make a base, you can play around until you have a setup that works.
So assuming you aren’t reading this post for the first time from the hardware store, I would actually get the PVC pipe last and grab whatever materials you need for your design and attachment first. If you need spray paint, tape, zip ties, or anything else, get those items first so you don’t have to navigate the whole store with a giant PVC pipe in tow. Trust mEeEeEe.
Now that you’ve purchased your items, it’s time to get to work!
The guys at my store cut the pipe with a handsaw, so I used my neighbor’s circular saw that I still haven’t given back yet (sorry, Nick??) to make a smoother cut. If you’re doing this, wear a mask and glasses/goggles! Then, I sanded the whole pipe as well as the end I just cut with a sanding block. Again, wear a mask for this part and do it outside if weather permits! Once you’re done sanding, dust off the pipe with an old tshirt or swiffer (or your yoga pants if you’re lazy like me) and then you can paint! I spray painted my pipe matte black because that’s what I had on hand and it matches my railing. I sprayed the inside of both ends, and it didn’t even look like a PVC pipe! I did this in a few rounds, and it turned out even better than I anticipated. Make sure your spray paint adheres to plastic, and you should be good to go!
Next, I burned through a record number of glue sticks trying to create texture on the end of my elbow joint. I actually went through so many that I broke my glue gun and had to grab my neighbor’s. OOPS. I just kept layering on glue and turning the joint in different directions to create this effect. There might be numbers or hard to remove stickers on your fitting. Just keep going over them until you can’t really see them. Once the glue hardened and cooled down, I snapped off any stringy parts and painted it with this amazing fluorescent green spray paint.
Isn’t that color so good?! While I waited on the elbow joint to dry, I wrapped the chute with purple LED string lights that I found in the Christmas section. I attached the joint to the end of the chute, popped some zip ties in the front of my hoodie pocket, and carried my project to the front of the house. I didn’t have zip ties that were long enough, so I connected 2 zip ties together to create one extra long zip tie, and attached both ends of the chute to the rail. Don’t do it too tight at first in case you need to adjust!
If you look towards the top middle of this pic, you can see the zip ties. These won’t be noticeable at night, but if you’re painting your chute, paint the zip ties the same color if they aren’t already for a seamless appearance.
This is the part I’m probably most excited about: I wanted the tube to glow from the inside but didn’t know how. I woke up in the middle of the night one night this week and my brain was like, “GLOW STICKS!!!!!” So I went to Party City, picked up a few packs of green glow sticks, and used electrical tape to attach one to the inside of the chute. I really geeked out over this. I have 3 glow sticks left for Halloween, and let me just say, the trick or treaters will probably see the glow of the candy chute from the next county over because it is BRIGHT.
I finished this up last night and gave it a test run to make sure everything worked. I was running all over the yard like a maniac trying to get pictures and videos for this post as the sun was setting. It’s raining for the next few days and time was of the essence! So I’ll try to update this post with better photos after Halloween, but suffice to say, this candy chute is LIT (LITerally) and I think the neighborhood kids will be pleased!
Some things I’m still working on:
I got the idea too late in the day yesterday, but I really want the slime effect to be a liiiittle more dramatic. I want to get another elbow joint and experiment with spray foam to see if I can really amp up the slime factor.
I want to figure out a way to direct kids to the chute. Maybe some fun signs or path lights that send them to it?
I need to come up with a creative way to block off the front steps. While I think their eyes will be drawn to the chute (because how could it not be??), I want to create a barrier so they don’t instinctively walk up the steps and get too close. Halloween is always fun for us because it’s the only time we get to see some of our neighbors, and we’ve usually done some sort of house update that serves as a conversation topic with the trick or treaters’ parents! Still, we want to make sure everyone is safe!
The way the elbow joint is angled in these photos will actually be reversed. In testing out the chute with the neighbors last night, some of the candy fully cleared the chute, and some hung out at the end of the chute. I think I initially angled the joint that way so the glow from the glow sticks would be visible and you could see the candy coming out. But just the one glow stick was pretty bright, so I’m sure 3 will be incredibly bright and they can see the candy when it falls into their buckets!
This was such a fun project to take on, and I really hope you decide to make one, too! If you do, tag me using #NSScrafty so I can see your spooky creations!
