Trick or treating?

[Rogar]

I've generally had fun handing out candy to the neighborhood trick or treaters, but am considering going dark this year. Maybe there will not even be many door to door trick or treaters? It does seem pretty low risk, though. The CDC is recommending that the traditional door-to-door handing out of candy is higher risk and is recommending to avoid. Other thoughts?

[razz]

I have waffled on this as well, spoken to neighbours who had one in favour of t or t'ing and the other going dark. I don't want to be stuck with the treats so will go dark this year as the numbers have been going down over the past few years anyway.

[Alan]

We're going dark as well. Most of the residents in our 25 year old neighborhood are original owners whose children left home years ago. As a result we seldom have more than a dozen or so kids patrolling our cul-de-sac on Halloween and they seem to be from elsewhere. I think we'll just sit this one out.

[happystuff]

We are still discussing it. We will either go dark or try to come up with a hand-out plan. So far, we have come up with leaving the candy in the bag and - while masked and gloved - put a piece into each bag, which we will ask the kids to "hold out so we can drop it in". Again, IF we do it, there will be no big bowl with candy for kids to just reach in and grab.
Again, we are still undecided and could go either way at this point.

[iris lilies]

Some people here are sliding candy down long tubes.

We always go dark, have no interest in it, although I may put up a few items of decoration.

[SteveinMN]

We almost always go dark; this year won't be different for us.

Interestingly, though, I do check in daily using an app called How We Feel, which is intended to document a more local presence of COVID-19 symptoms and its physical/behavioral side effects; today their poll asked whether people in our area planned to go trick-or-treating this year. 80% said no; 11% said they were undecided.

[Teacher Terry]

When we moved 8 years ago we lost trick and treaters. Where we lived before we got tons and I would dress my dogs and my sons so 6 dogs. Then I would put a gate up so the kids could see the dogs but they couldn’t escape. The kids loved it.

[Simplemind]

Halloween used to be huge for DH in his former marriage and when his kids were small. They did up the whole house, they dressed up, they had a party the Saturday before etc. His kids are about 15 years older than mine and had stopped by the time mine started. Once mine stopped we stopped doing the door. Even though my DH loved it, all kids had grown up. We might get a couple of grandkids from the neighbors but it wasn't worth buying candy that we ended up eating and the dogs went nuts every time somebody came to the door. We hung it up and it became a date night.
It is sad to note that also back in those days the neighborhood was know (and mentioned in media) as one to drive by for Christmas lights and decorations. DH went all out on that as well. Slowly one by one neighbors started doing less and then some not at all. We still do it but not to the degree he used to.
I am a person who really clings to traditions and it saddens me to see things change. We don't decorate the inside of the house much anymore because there isn't grandkids to enjoy it. We still have our nativity scene which must go up for a reason that has absolutely nothing to do with the religious aspect but has become a family game as far as the set up. My mom passed it on to me and God forbid should it not go up and one of my siblings pop by and not get a chance to mess with it.

[frugal-one]

The last few years we left and had a date night too. Not many or enough kids to warrant staying home. This year will be dark and we will be home. Our village is having Treat or Treat even though the COVID numbers have hit records for the past 3-4 days with a positivity rate of 90%. Seem moronic to me.

[JaneV2.0]

The week around Halloween contained my beloved's birthday, the Day of the Dead (friends have always had a party), and Halloween, but life and COVID have made hash of it. I like the Day of the Dead vibe better than I do most holidays, so I miss it.

[rosarugosa]

We never see much action, but I will be ready and willing to hand out candy if anyone stops by. Lights on!

[mschrisgo2]

The last family here in this (very small, 100 homes) community that had daughters 7 and 11 moved away in September. All the rest of the kids are grown up now, so there will not be trick-or-treating here this year.

We are also still being very protective of the elders against COVID-19. So far, so good. Not a single case, and several people had to be tested before medical procedures.

[happystuff]

Well, I bought 1 bag. IF we leave the light on and IF we get trick-or-treaters, we will only be doing it for as long as the one bag lasts. And, again, we will hand out wearing gloves and masks - no little hands grabbing at candy - lol.

[KayLR]

We're going dark for the first time. We had too much leftover candy last year and I anticipate WAY fewer T-or-T'ers anyway. Our local HD has implored everyone to skip it this year.

[iris lilies]

Oh god forbid the little dears don’t get their candy and dress up experience.


My neighborhood, which used to be pretty much child free with rare exception, is now full of little rugrats. This is of course the goal we were heading towards 30 years ago. It is what we wanted! Young families. A neighborhood school! Well now we are there and lots of mommy voices are expressing concern that child centered activities have been curtailed.

So trick-or-treating in some form is happening in my immediate neighborhood. But as I said before, I’m not participating. We don’t participate in normal Times.

[Rosemary]

I'll leave a basket of treats on the front porch as usual.

[Tybee]

My grandson is going to a family party with my son's girlfriend's family and their children. The usual costume and fun stuff, but not trick or treating that I know of, although his mom might be planning something like that where she lives.
Have not asked my other son--they love Halloween, so I hope they get to do something.

[jp1]

We put out a bowl of candy but everyone seems to have followed the guidance not to do it. Personally I think SO just wanted to justify buying himself a bag of candy...

[SteveinMN]

Personally I think SO just wanted to justify buying himself a bag of candy...
That's why when we did TorT we always bought candy we didn't like -- just so we weren't tempted to finish the bag ourselves.

[ewomack]

Condo living makes the tradition difficult to follow. But my parents, who usually get hordes of kids, said that they didn't have a single person ring their doorbell this year.

[SteveinMN]

I saw about eight kids walking down the street with parents in tow. That was it.

[iris lilies]

My neighborhood hosted for many years an event in our city park where neighborhood residents brought containers of candy and lined up shoulder to shoulder while kids from the area walked down this line and put candy in their own bags.

It was also a day of hayrides and some kind of entertainment, I don’t remember what. I only went one year. This is not my thing.

This year that event was canceled due to Covid of course. A “new “event was organized where houses put up Halloween decor and children went door-to-door saying trick-or-treat for candy. This is funny because one of the moms in the neighborhood said her own children did not know the traditional trick-or-treat efforts because they had never done them.

The word on the street is that this traditional “new “way of trick-or-treating was far more intimate and fun. I’m not sure we will gear up for the giant event in the park anymore.

The problem with that is that that event served many many children from the area. We literally had 500+ kids sometimes. Because our neighborhood has in it’s charter an obligation to improve nearby neighborhoods, that was one of our “outreach “efforts. In other words to put it baldly, children from the housing projects down the street came to this Halloween candy giveaway in the park and we count that as a social service effort for a nearby neighborhood. Now we won’t be able to count that and that concerns me a bit. To me that was a painless way to get our obligation out of the way.

[happystuff]

Dh did the porch-sitting this year. He came back into the house with about 1/3 of the bag left so I would guesstimate about 40-50 trick-or-treaters.