“Many cities are not going to be able to officially “cancel” Halloween.”
Several years ago Halloween was postponed in our neighborhood due to a massive snow storm. The really good news was that our town and the nearby town of a friend of a daughter’s rescheduled it to different days, so that they went out together in our town one night and then went out again in the friend’s town a different night.
This year my expectation is that it will just be cancelled. I have not heard anything yet however.
I haven’t heard anything about Halloween yet where I live. We never get more than 40 kids. If our neighborhood decides to do it, I imagine they will come up with a plan for doing something safely. They don’t normally come to my door in groups larger than 4-5, so I most likely will make individual baggies with a few different types of candy. I can put a table out and just sit on my porch replenishing with a few baggies after each kid(s) stops by.
As long as they get the real Peeps all set by Easter…that’s what matters!
Our neighborhood is small and we have not had anyone trick or treat for a few years. Everyone gave out full size candy bars…when you only have 10-15 kids, that’s no big deal to do.
Our neighbors were talking about this just last week and we expect the town to cancel any public events that have been held in the past.
In over 20 years of living there, we’ve never had a Trick or Treater come to our farm. Each year we buy candy - the good stuff, no less - and each year we have to make sure it doesn’t get wasted.
I am usually not a big fan of Halloween and I participate somewhat begrudgingly each year, but I’m going to fully embrace it this year for the kids. With all they have lost and all the changes they are dealing with, they deserve a night of (safe) merriment and I will be happy to participate. I think treat or treating can generally be done safely in neighborhoods where there aren’t massive amounts of kids (can’t even fathom 1000 trick or treaters!!). We usually get about 30 kids kids, mostly toddlers/pre-schoolers/elementary age, walking with their parents. I think I will do full size candy bars or treat bags, and put them out on a table in our driveway for the kids to pick up. We’ll don our masks and sit a safe distance behind the table. We just bought a heater for our patio so we can use that if it’s too cold.
For those who don’t like trick or treating, I want to ask - did you T.O.T. when you were growing up? Or your kids?
Part of the reason I do like it is because I loved it as a kid. It just seemed to be sort of magical to me. Even though my kids grew up very differently than I did and had a lot more, they always loved it too. Now that they are grown I want other people’s kids to have the fun we did.
@FallGirl Yes, I did TOT as a child, and also took my kids around when they were younger (now both young adults).
I have come to dislike it - where I currently live - because we get too many TOT-ers overall, and too many teen TOT-ers that do not respect the lights are out, we’re not participating (this year, right now, we ran out of candy, etc) signals. I’ve had teen TOT-ers pound (POUND) on my door and yell (YELL) through the door when all decorations have been brought in, and all the lights are out. It’s not a safe feeling when that happens.
We love to see the little ones grow up over the years - what we’re trying to figure out for this year is how to (a) participate (or not) in some way and (b) have our decision, one way or the other, honored by any visitors.
DH really enjoys carving pumpkins - and does a really nice job (not just my opinion, but of visitors that ooh, and aah over them each year) so I’m hoping we can figure something out so he has a chance to carve some this year.
That’s unfortunate @TdoesCollege - I have not had any negative experiences. We do get some teens but they have always been respectful- I don’t really care if they do costumes or not. If i run out of candy, I turn off the light and go inside. Have never had anyone pound on the door! I wouldn’t like that either.
I enjoyed ToT when I was a kid, but I was not into it as an adult. We never went to Halloween parties or dressed up when the various offices we worked in allowed costumes on Halloween day. When our son was born, DH started taking him out when he was four and accompanied him through second grade, and I stayed home and passed out candy. After second grade, we let him go on his own, and DH and I started the tradition of hosting our neighbor parents in our driveway with a keg and a bottomless pot of chili while we sat in a circle around a fire pit and passed out candy. It was great for the kids as they got to hit about six houses in one driveway. Even after we moved an hour away five years ago, we continued to go back and sit in the driveway of the couple who took over from us, but that isn’t happening this year. I miss the adult comaraderie, but I never pay much attention to the kids.
I loved Halloween as a kid. My friends and I would coordinate costumes and plot our attack on the neighborhood in order to maximize our haul. I think I liked it when my kids were younger, but I don’t remember too much about it, honestly. I am not a big costume person, and didn’t love workplaces where we were expected to dress up. We do get invited to a Halloween party every year which is outside on a big piece of property (probably a no go this year), and I always struggle to come up with costumes.
I handed out candy to all the trick or treaters for all the years my kids were out trick or treating. Now that they are adults I have declared a moratorium on participating in Halloween. I don’t like it and I don’t want to do it anymore. I will revisit Halloween participation only in the unlikely event that I ever have a grandchild.
I’d trade another Halloween for Christmas ANY DAY. Love Halloween! I put up with Christmas.
I think I dressed up as a gypsy for 85% of my childhood Halloweens - LOL - it was probably because I couldn’t make up my mind and my mom could always raid her closet and costume jewelry for a gypsy outfit!
I also loved every one of my kids Halloween years - fought their school when they decided to stop Halloween celebrations except for the kindergarteners. I’m not someone who sews but we always managed some pretty good costumes.
If our neighborhood holds it, I’ll be there. With precautions.
When my kids were little they loved costumes so I made a lot of them, not just for Halloween.
Saddest day when they both said “We want our costumes from a store this year.” The both happily went back to Mom costumes the next year as the store stuff was crappy.
It”s on a Saturday night and I was planning on going out before Covid! Personally, I’m tired of Halloween. Hopefully some restaurant will have outdoor seating with heat lamps…I’m counting on it. If not, I’m going outback to my fire pit.
As a kid, I loved Halloween for the candy - not the dressing up. I hated dressing up, but I had to and would for the candy. I grew up in a typical middle class neighborhood where one parent would walk us around and every house seemed to participate. That’s what I wanted for my kids.
In my city, very few neighborhoods are safe for trick or treating, and the county is too rural. Our old neighborhood was one of several that could be safe; however, they tend to be filled with elderly people who don’t participate. Many of these neighbors would drop off little bags for my kids. They said they didn’t participate because they say they were afraid or the kids ringing their doorbells were not from the neighborhood. I tried to walk my kids around, but it was 1 participating house every ~10-20 - and the neighborhood was really hilly! Finally, at age 4/7, we gave up and went to THE neighborhood. My favorite pic is of my kids all dressed up beaming in front of a cool old stone wall. We were all completely oblivious that in 6 months we would live next door.
When we moved, it was awesome. A large church a few doors down would have a lawn party with booming music. They counted kids - usually 1200-1500. All the streets were jam packed full of kids. My kids’ friends would come over and they’d go in a group (with 1-3 parents) and have a blast. The remaining parent would be left with the constant swarm of kids. There was no break. When you got towards the end of your stash, you would walk to the street shouting you were out and give the remaining pieces to those who had already mounted your steps. You always ran out. There could never be enough. And everyone was nice about it.
As the years have passed, the church stopped their gig and many houses are vacant, but the streets are still packed. The last couple of years, I’ve grumbled a bit about not wanting to get mobbed, but in the end I’m always glad I did. I love seeing the kids and now both H & I can be out there. Many of his students show up and are so excited to see “Mr H!” Those kids either get extra pieces or are allowed to choose their piece. It is fun and I will hate to bow out this year, but I don’t see how it can be safe. It’s a constant mob surrounding you at all times.
We did T or T when I was a kid…but only in our own neighborhoods.
I started to not like it in our old neighborhood where believe me, there were plenty of kids. It was fun to see our neighborhood kids (and a parent…most kids had a parent with them). We knew them?
What I hated was we had van and carloads of kids dropped off in our neighborhood. These were not our neighborhood kids, and most often this crowd didn’t have a parent with them. Plus, it increased our candy purchasing probably 4 fold.
Also, once we had to start going through all the candy, not allowing homemade baked goods, or fruit…the holiday lost its appeal. When I was a kid, getting that homemade brownie or cookie, or a crisp apple was a huge treat.
Where I live, most towns had a town wide trunk or treat event and costume parade. I don’t think those will be happening this year. Neither will private parties at homes (well…some folks will continue to have them).
