It’s cold and rainy here. We had a grand total of two kids. Some communities in our area are doing a second TOT tomorrow night when it’s expected to clear up.
Two Jedi and a ghoul just now
3 more - we are on a roll now. Girls who looked to be in 4th grade or so all in pink tule and face paint.
At 80 kids just now, with a real LL baseball catcher uniform. Middle schooler-by himself? He said he didn’t have a costume. He didn’t have much candy, so I gave him two bags.
We also give out the concession sizes of bars. This year we gave out fun dip, lemon heads and snickers in each bag. It’s only once a year and the kids get a big kick out of it!
We have had quite a few more than last year . . . still hoping for more. I’ve got lots of candy still to off load.
We can easily spend over $100. And have in the past. My husband gave out 300 pieces of candy in 1hour 45 minutes and out by 8:00pm.
He gave out one piece of candy per kid. It’s a mad house sometimes. Most are not from our neighborhood.
3 more
I was shocked at how few- less than twenty. None of the neighbors who came last year, either. Not many who drove cars to our upscale (think- more to spend on candy) area. One family group’s two out of three “princess” and “ballerina” looked like their ordinary dresses. Also- none until well after dark. I guess parents did not do the get it over with after a hard day’s work with their young ones.
Good weather- not too hot (in FL now) or humid, no rain, a weekend- no school tomorrow. Made sure I had a lot of candy in anticipation of people bothering to drive like a couple of years ago. The HOA clubhouse front desk workers are getting the leftovers (again).
I wonder if there were more activities for kids so the parents could say no to the door to door bit.
I get how there are far fewer kids now. But even when my son was young we had enough traffic. I quit. Have paid my dues, done my duty, for my childhood and parent experiences with others’ generosity of time and candy. Next year (it will be a Monday- leap year) I may or may not be home, have candy. I would have enjoyed seeing costumes. I asked the ages of the two tall boys after 9 pm- 17 and they had great costumes!- the best all night. They got handfuls of candy to get rid of it. Not worth being available and not totally involved in something in case the doorbell rang (H did some).
Such a disappointment. Good to hear the custom hasn’t died out everywhere.
btw- no one decorated in our neighborhood. The families with young kids who came last year- wonder why they didn’t bother this year. It would have been fun to see neighbors.
Doing it on the last Thursday in October is a weird central PA thing. Some communities say they do it to leave time for a rain date.
What- a “rain date”??? In Wisconsin we always planned a costume that could fit over a winter jacket/hat/mittens… The weatherman here in Tampa stated no umbrellas would be needed this year… On Sundays in sacred football places they never changed the date- only the time perhaps to avoid traffic in that part of town if I remember correctly.
I guess if you make it on some random Thursday your chances of meeting the devil roaming at large are diminished. It sort of makes it into a random costume thing and divorces it from the actual Samhain celebration. My kids always thought our Catholic neighbors were lucky as they had All Saints off from school so never needed to get to bed early on Halloween. 8-X >:) 
Gah. Too many. I hate the disruption. I have no decorations and keep my lights off. Just now I thought it was done, so I sit in the front room with a book.
Then a little kid, about 3, comes to the door, and there’s a window, so he sees me. I cannot just ignore him. I open the door and tell him it’s too late. I have no candy. A plausible lie. His dad is hanging back. When I’m done, he calls me a bad name, the kind you won’t hear on network TV.
I don’t get this at all. I know I’m antisocial, but calling me a **** in front of his kid? I’m seriously upset. I know I did nothing wrong. I see how dad must have sensed his kid’s disappointment. But still I have feelings. I’m gonna replay this for days. Why bring your kid to my house in the first place? Gah.
Er, I’m really not asking for hugs. Just venting.
Have just hit 150+ DD is home and turning lights off, willing taking extra candy to church on Sunday
Here in Kansas trick or treat ended early. Just in time for first pitch of the world series! We had a good turnout considering no one came after 7:07.
Wasatch- my sympathy. No outside lights means no trick or treaters everywhere I’ve ever been or heard of. In my childhood there were no time limits- we waited until dark, after supper and my mom’s birthday cake. Then there were hours where we raised our kid, most before dark. Now- no hours but no outside light means no.
Kansas- and next year it skips Sunday so no disgruntled football fans missing a play…
9:40 pm and haven’t had anyone in about a half hour. I will leave the lights on because I am up watching football anyway.
We are in the living room, next to the front door. We will stick around with the porch light on until we decide to go to sleep.
H has a very tender foot and can’t bear weight on it. We believe it’s bursitis. I’m hoping it heals before we fly out in 60 hours. Sigh! As of this moment, he doesn’t think he will be up for Epcot, which we were planning for all day Wednesday. Oh well, another time. At least we didn’t put any money down toward it. The other great thing is our hotel will shuttle us from the hotel to anywhere within 2 miles and back. We may make more use of that shuttle than I had planned if his heel remains tender. Dang–he was fine until this morning! Sorry–don’t mean to hijack the thread, but this has put a damper on our Halloween enjoyment.
We live in a huge suburban neighborhood and always used to get tons of trick or treaters. Six seniors on our street graduated last year. There are fewer small kids. My S16 said last weekend we all had to pumpkin hunting at the farm we go to " because it’s my last Halloween." Tonight he was going out with friends and said, “sorry to leave you on my last Halloween.” Last year we only had about 20 trick or treaters. I bought boxes of full sized candy bars this year. S18 sat on the porch with the Lab and handed out candy. Someone rolled up in a tractor pulling 30+ kids in a 30’ wagon and wiped us out at 7:38 p.m. We gave out 72 candy bars. They are not even neighbors. These kids can’t walk? We’re going out to dinner next year.
@thumper1, I was asking whether Halloween is Friday evening or Saturday evening. I think I saw kids in costume on both days.
No one knocked on our door. There are supposedly a lot of young kids in our Apartment Complex. Most kids seem to be too young to do trick or treat though (a lot of strollers pushed by young mothers/fathers on weekends.) I could only guess that very few parents want their kids out in this apartment area.
We now have a box of candies, not sure what to do about it. Luckily, we did not buy much.