Has your city or town announced Halloween plans yet? Will trick or treating take place in your neighborhood?
My town has not announced any plans. I admit to being a little anxious to hear the decisions. I read somewhere that 80% of parents (of young kids?) want trick or treating to proceed as usual.
In a snowy or rainy year, we get 50+ trick or treators. In good weather we can get just over 200. If I was in an area that got <15 or so, I wouldn’t have a problem maintaining the tradition this year. I haven’t been a hermit, but in this pandemic, potentally greeting 50 to 200+ revelers in a matter of hours seems like a lot.
Leaving a basket out so kids can help themselves isn’t a viable option. A past experiment with this resulted in one ill-bred brat emptying the whole basket in his bag. The creative suggestions I have read about, including pushing the candy down a PVC pipe or having kids sitting costumed in their front yards while adults walk around the neighborhood and throw candy to them all seem more hassle than I personally want to be bothered with (YMMV).
I asked my family how they feel about keeping the porch lights out and hanging a friendly “see you next year” sign on the door (for those who don’t get the porch light hint). While we feel like curmudgeons, DH and DD don’t have any problems with going with that plan, though DD asked for a bag of candy of her choice as part of the bargain. Deal!
We were just talking about this as we get hundreds of kids every year. Our town has not said what they are doing but we will be keeping the porch lights off and the curtains drawn.
I’ve just started worrying about this. We have a lot of kids in the neighborhood, and while I don’t want to disappoint, I also don’t want to deal with a hundred people at the door and grubbing around in the candy bowl. I honestly don’t know what to do. It’s still early- and I’ll see what our town and maybe even our neighborhood decide to do. I sort of like the idea of the sign “See you next year.”
DH & I were just discussing this. We live in a brand new subdivision that’s only about 50% complete… lots of little kids though! He doesn’t want to decorate, but I do.
I saw online someone built a sort of slide chute going from the top of the yard, to the sidewalk. Just have the kids put their bags underneath. Our yard is so short, and very sloped so I think we could pull off something like it!
The littles dressed up is the best part of ToT, so I don’t want to say no. And I do love an excuse to decorate!
Our town hasn’t said a word yet either, nor have I discussed it w/ the neighbors. We will see, I guess.
While driving around on Friday on our weekly just-get-out-of-the-house excursion, we noticed that the empty SteinMart near us is now being used as one of those pop-up Halloween Superstores. Both DH and I said, “Huh? That’s happening? You’re kidding me.” We don’t have school-age kids in our community, so we usually return to the old hood and sit in a driveway among our old friends and help pass out candy to the hundreds of kids who roam that night. I just assumed that wasn’t happening this year, but I guess I’ll ping the neighbors to find out and let them know we’ll see them next year, treatment and vaccine willing.
I have seen the chute idea and think it’s adorable. If you have a porch railing you could totally use that and top it with your chute. Think a long empty wrapping paper roll decorated on the outside for Halloween and then you send the treats from the top of the porch down the chute to the kids basket. .
Many cities are not going to be able to officially “cancel” Halloween. Nothing can really stop a neighborhood from having families go out and walk the neighborhood. While a city might designate hours for Trick Or Treat it is not a government run event. As long as people follow any designated Covid guidelines for outside no one can really say anything.
I’m looking forward to seeing the kids dressed up as various political characters. And someone as that round COVID germ with the sticking-out pieces. (When I was a child, my mother made me a costume that was Sputnik. I was adorable.)
We usually have 5-10 kids max. Some years we’ve had 1. We live in a 1950’s neighborhood so houses aren’t too far apart, but not many little kids around here.
Because Halloween is a Saturday, numbers could be up.
When my kids were young we always did a commercial street that closed for trick or treating at the stores and businesses, then went for Chinese food, then trick or treated at the houses near their school, including the convent and the priest’s house. The Priest gave out free homework passes, and the nuns gave out holy cards. Some years it was 85 degrees, others snowing. Always fun.
We never went in the townhouse complex we lived in because, again, no kids. They’d often put on their costumes the next day and go visit the neighbors we knew, who would give them candy any time, with or without a costume.
I love trick or treat! Loved it as a kid (costumes/candy/ running around after dark were the great trifecta).
Haven’t heard yet, but I plan to buy candy and put it out. I have a bench out front I can set the candy bowl on and still sit 6-8 feet away on my front steps. We typically get around 100 kids and give full size candy bars which they love.
Just looked it up. A 10 ft long by 4in diameter PVC pipe from Home Depot will cost you less than $12. If our neighborhood ToTs, I’m getting one! Cover it in some Halloween wrapping paper, or maybe a couple paper table cloths, and it’ll be adorable!!
Buy a few caps and some spray paint & I can cut them down to use for storage “cups” in the pantry, garage, etc.
We are not participating and it depresses me. Halloween is my second favorite holiday after Christmas. I love handy out candy to the kids and giving them memories like those I grew up with.
I also saw the tube idea, and I would totally do that - our property is perfect for it - if we got a normal number of kids. However, we get over 1000. My neighborhood is the place everyone in the city and county comes to. Cars are lined up parked on both sides and it’s a traffic jam the entire evening. In addition, I am all but certain the City will cancel their event party sending more kids out to the neighborhood. I normally buy a minimum of 20 pounds. I sit on my porch right after work and hand out one piece at a time. there is a line of kids from the street, up my steps, to my house the entire time until I run out, usually in 1:30.
As much as I love Halloween, that is just too much risk for me. And it irritates me those who gripe and say I should suck it up. (Not online here, but I’ve heard rumblings IrL) my comment is that they are free to buy their own supply of candy and sit on my steps to hand it out. They are not interested in that.
I’m thinking I may just do some small bags of candy for the next door neighbor kids and the kids across the street and then text their parents for them to pick the candy bags up before dark. Then, lights out and nothing handed out. I imagine our city is going to cancel trick or treat anyway.
I saw the thing with the chute as well and thought it was genius. It would work well for my front steps for another year. While I only have about 6 steps, little kids in princess dresses, etc. are always tripping over their costumes trying to get up the steps.
There are some good ideas here. It still seems like a lot of people approaching my front door. I’ll have to give this some thought. We do have a raised front porch area and could do the tube thing.
You should do what is right for you and your household of course. But if it’s something you enjoy I think this is one “event” you can work around to be safe if you really desire to.
You could prepackage treats in a little baggie and set them out on a folding table 6-8 feet away from your porch - still monitor kids as they come up, still enjoy them.
Then kids only need touch one package rather than grab into a big pot of it.
If I was a parent of a trick or treater I would probably get some special candy to have at home for my kids to eat AFTER TorT and then let their collected candy sit for a day or two.
It can be worked out! If you have an over abundance of kids (1000, wow really?!) buy an amount you are comfortable with enjoy giving it and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Hopefully people understand.
Our subdivision is talking about having a trunk or treat event. I would feel more comfortable passing out candy to a couple kids at a time outside my house than I would feel with a bunch of kids mobbing me at once (you can’t leave the candy unattended in the trunk & expect kids to take the amount I would hand out). I live in the land of Covid-deniers, so that worries me. Maybe we’ll go visit my in laws then, so we won’t feel bad about not participating in any sort of trick or treat this year.
I’m excited about seeing all the neighbors come by. We usually have about 100 kids so I’ll probably put a couple really big bowls on a 6’ table on the walkway while I sit on the porch with a drink. As long as I’m sitting out there, no one will walk away with all the candy. Unfortunately last year I left the candy out while taking a 10 minute bathroom break and some teens took it all.
Our little cul-de-sac never has many trick-or-treaters, but nearby neighborhoods have lots. And, our Main Street businesses have sponsored T&T. I hope our area finds a way to let the kids have some fun. We’re doing remote schooling, and it’s very isolating.