LANCASTER, Pa. —

As Halloween approaches, Pat Foy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is preparing to hand out potatoes to trick-or-treaters, a unique tradition that has been gaining traction on social media.

Videos of homeowners offering potatoes instead of candy have been sprouting up online, leaving some puzzled but many ecstatic. Advertisement

Pat Foy, known locally as "Potato Man," said, "I say to everybody, candy or potato? And they say things like 'Potato all day,' the little toddlers look at it like stunned, and they end up taking the potato because, frankly, it's bigger."

Former longtime NBC News correspondent Kevin Tibbles has been handing out potatoes for two decades.

"It started out as a joke. If you want to come back and get second helpings of candy, you're going to get threaten

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