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I lived in my previous neighborhood for 32 years. When the neighborhood was new, we had lots of kids and everyone would sit out at the ends of their driveways to distribute candy to the trick or treaters. As the years went on, the number of young kids declined and there were fewer and fewer willing to walk up the hill into my short cul-de-sac. Also, fewer houses kept their lights on. I would still keep my lights on and sit on the porch, but I did not have many takers.
Now, I live in a new (for me) neighborhood. Halloween night starts with dinner in the clubhouse and then the kids disperse to trick or treat. I am told it is a well-attended annual event. I live right across from the clubhouse and on the side of the street with sidewalks, so I expect many kids to ring my bell. I understand we are also popular with families who don't live in a subdivision and want a safe place for their kids to trick or treat. I am actually looking forward to Halloween this year! In contrast, I have a friend who turns off all of the lights in her house and hides (her term) in a backroom watching TV until trick or treat hours are done.
Do you find trick or treaters fun or a bother? What will you be doing on Halloween?
We love to see the kids coming in costume, the little ones are the best and they make our night by just being so wide eyed and happy to be getting free candy. It's one of those traditions that allow for some real costume innovation and a good excuse for a party. Yeah, we love it!
When I first moved to my last neighborhood in Portland where I lived for nearly thirty years, we had lots of kids trick-or-treating. I loved it.
As time went by and my neighborhood became gentrified, fewer and fewer kids showed up until there where none for the past ten years of so. I missed them and I had to eat all the candy I bought myself.
Where I live now, in a large secure senior apartment building, kids don't bother. There are mostly homes in the neighborhood so they go T-O-Ting there.
I don't like Halloween, never did. I did take my kids out trick or treating when they were little and they had Halloween parties a couple of times, but that's about it. Our city closes five or six blocks near the middle school and the homes there are elaborately decorated and they get hundreds of kids. As for my house, in another part of the city, just a few groups of kids go down our street, and I don't turn my outside light on that night (and neither do most of my neighbors).
There is a street perpendicular to ours that is known far and wide as the Halloween party street. Every house has an elaborate ghoulish display in front that it takes weeks to set up, the booze flows freely and people are openly drinking alcohol and moving from house to house. As you might imagine, it draws a LOT of teenagers under legal drinking age.
Families come from miles around. I have no idea how they all find parking. Our vehicles take up all the on-street parking on our side. We usually just stay home and watch TV, as neither of us wants to deal with drunken revelers from down the street. Sometimes a neighbor decides to close our street to vehicular traffic, so might as well stay home.
We're fans of "Trunk or Treat" parties. It's held in the afternoon the Saturday before, in community center parking lot. People decorate a truck or a van, which is a lot easier than decorating a house. Some of them are really creative! Some clubs sponsor trucks, others are from individuals.
The kids are local kids (this has become a real issue in recent years), and the people handing out candy are known, too, so there aren't issues with tampered candy. It's in the late afternoon, so you can see all the details in the costumes and take fun photos, and taken photos.
It runs until sunset, so that lit pumpkins etc. can be appreciated, but then it's officially over and you don't have to hang around waiting for the last few trick or treaters. Instead, everyone cleans up the party area and then we have a party.
I always loved having children come to our door on Halloween and at one time we got a lot but it's been many years since we had any. It stopped even before moving to a retirement community. I found out last year that most now go to Church's and other Halloween get together's instead of going door to door. I personally think that's the safe option.
Families come from miles around. I have no idea how they all find parking. Our vehicles take up all the on-street parking on our side. We usually just stay home and watch TV, as neither of us wants to deal with drunken revelers from down the street. Sometimes a neighbor decides to close our street to vehicular traffic, so might as well stay home.
Our old neighborhood started having this problem, too. We didn't even have a show house with a display drawing the crowds, our street apparently just had a rep as a place to get free candy.
It was great fun for about a decade, then people started driving van loads of kids from other communities. Sometimes from communities in completely different parts of town. Often teens who really didn't have a costume, and were prone to grabbing handfuls of candy and indulging in petty vandalism. It was getting out of control and a big annoyance. Meanwhile, we had fewer and fewer kids in our neighborhood, so we didn't even have the same fun of seeing neighborhood kids in their costumes.
The worst was you had to stick around until they decide not to show up anymore. When you have carloads of kids coming from other parts of town, they sometimes arrive later than the neighborhood kids. And god help you if a carload of kids drove a long way to get to your street and then they don't get their candy.
We put a big bowl out at the foot of our front steps filled with candy bags prepared by either the wife or I and a sign that reads take one please. Doing this the last 20 years or so and we've never ran out and the kids walk away happy. Usually between 40-60 total trick or treaters.
Lots of youngsters when we moved here 20 years ago. They grew up and moved away. Young families can't afford this neighborhood.
We couldn't have kids - but no matter.
We did notice a couple of years kids being trucked into the neighborhood.....
We stopped answering the front door about 7 years ago. Hide out in the family room.
Safety - ours and theirs - is a concern and kids go to the local rec center or mall to do their trick or treating. And the local churches have their own Trunk or Treat activities.
I'm glad to not have all that candy in the house.... and now that I will be retired - less exposure to candy people bring in to work that they couldn't give away.
All good.
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