Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
At the last minute, I picked up several bags of various candy on my way back from work.
It was a lot, but was kind of concerned it wouldn't be enough.
I may not be much of a "kid-person", but I'm not that much of a hard nose to not want to give out candy on a Halloween night!!
Anyways, between 6pm and 9pm last night, I only got a total of maybe, ten trick'or'treaters at the door.
Still plenty of candy left over and a pretty quiet night.
So, are there actually more parents scared of taking their kids out?
Or are there more churches and school, and such putting on Halloween events to kind of counter those safety concerns?
That's cool if they did, but it just seems the "trick or treating" thing didn't seem very strong-willed last night.
I think it depends on the neighborhood. We have moved quite a bit over the years. Some places we lived we had tons of kids. Other places, not so much. When we lived in the suburbs outside of Detroit we had a lot of kids that came in from Detroit because their parents wanted a safe place for their kids to trick to treat. I never cared although some people did gripe about it. As long as the kids were respectful, I could care less where they came from. It's Halloween! We did live in one neighborhood where two years in a row it was a bit unnerving as around 8 pm, the older teens would come out and could get a bit obnoxious at the door. Rude behavior and so forth that scared some of the older residents on the block where they stopped handing out candy.
We moved to a different state about 7 years ago and they do things different here. It's a pretty conservative area so trick or treating is between 5 pm to 7 pm only. It is still daylight out and one of my favorite things about halloween was carving pumpkins. I used to really get into it with a variety of designs but part of fun of that was lightening them so they were pretty amazing in the darkness. With it still being daylight, kind of a waste. I don't bother carving pumpkins anymore.
We live in a sub of about 100 homes and there are lots of kids here. So we had a pretty steady steam even though the weather was horrible. It rained heavily most of the day. We bought about 5 bags of candy, the large kind and we only have about a handful left. I tend to hand out handfuls though.
I am going through a phase currently. My son graduated from high school last year and I just don't seem to enjoy small children like I used to. I think because my son is grown and I'm just into a new phase in my life of doing what I want, when I want to. The kids that came to the door were respectful but some of the smaller ones in the 4 to 6 age bracket were a bit picky. I was handing out candy and a few would tell me they didn't care for my candy (I buy the good kind). :roll eyes: I know its just kids being kids but they annoyed me. I actually enjoyed the kids in the 11 to 14 age bracket more because you could tell they put a lot of creativity into their costumes and some of the costumes were just really amazing. They were the most polite and they were more into showing off what they created vs the candy. I tried giving more handfuls to them and they said things like, "Oh no, that is quite enough miss. Thank you very much!"
We live on the outskirts of our small borough, where the houses are farther apart. There aren't any small ones in my vicinity. The kids go trick or treating closer to "town" where you get more candy without having to walk so far, but there are still many of them. 20 years ago we lived in a city back east, in an area of congested row homes. We would get 100's of trick or treaters, many who car pooled from other areas. We bought "good" stuff (fun size chocolate bars, M and M's, Reese's) for the small kids, our kids' friends, and older kids who put efforts into their costumes. Then we would get the BIG "kids" (17/18 year old hood rats) in hoodies and saggy pants with no costume or mask who would shove a pillow case in my face, not say trick or treat, please, or thank you. We gave them cheap crappy candy (starlight mints, stale year-old lemon heads bought on clearance, etc.) saved just for them.
Another thing of the past is "Mischief Night". Kids too old for trick or treat would go around playing harmless pranks (some were destructive, unfortunately). We'd soap windows, string toilet paper, throw dried field corn at storm doors to make noise. In this age of security monitoring, it's a misdemeanor or at least summary offense.
My community has 208 houses and maybe 30 kids and we were slammed last night even more than usual. We usually have about 300, but last night they were dropping off their kids by the carload. I gave out over 300 pieces of candy and ran out at about 8. I went inside and turned out the lights and they were still coming strong and ringing the doorbell. It was a deluge.
We just about ran out of the designated to be given out candy (I reserved the Milky Ways and 3 Musketeers) which were all in the super sized bags and had to resort towards the end to stick on tattoos.
So I would say we had a fair number of kids this year. It has depended historically on whether the Sheriff does a press release outlining the dangers of Trick or Treating. He didn't this year.
We also are somewhat of a "stop" for adults because of the pumpkins:
I did notice many of the trick or treaters being driven and then getting out and walking a selected area of the neighborhood.
I would also say it was getting a tad chilly for some as well and that might've put some of the crowd off.
At the last minute, I picked up several bags of various candy on my way back from work.
It was a lot, but was kind of concerned it wouldn't be enough.
I may not be much of a "kid-person", but I'm not that much of a hard nose to not want to give out candy on a Halloween night!!
Anyways, between 6pm and 9pm last night, I only got a total of maybe, ten trick'or'treaters at the door.
Still plenty of candy left over and a pretty quiet night.
So, are there actually more parents scared of taking their kids out?
Or are there more churches and school, and such putting on Halloween events to kind of counter those safety concerns?
That's cool if they did, but it just seems the "trick or treating" thing didn't seem very strong-willed last night.
I haven't had any trick or treaters for the past 10 years! For 4 years I lived in a small 55+ mobile home park. No kids came around. For 6 years I lived in my mom's guest house behind hers, and no kids. There weren't any at her house in front either. Now I'm in a new neighborhood and asked my neighbors what to expect. One said "maybe 2 or 3" and the other said that everyone takes their kids to the 'town parties'. So, no kids last night either. I always buy candy anyway. The stuff *I* like because I know I'm going to eat it all! lol My town and the small one next to us put on spectacular parties for the kids AND the adults so who wouldn't want to go?
We live on a street with not many children, it was embarrassing when our two new neighbors showed up last night and all we had were Hershey Kisses..............for the rest of the night not one child luckily as we did not disappoint. Broke the record of 14 years and not one child.
My daughters went with their mom to another neighborhood and it was packed with children and she mentioned the generous portions given out. The twins don't like candy except for lollipops so I now have enough candy for the rest of the year
I do know that there is a tremendous amount of churches in our area that do bounce houses and trunk or treat activities on Halloween night and these places are packed. It seems a lot of parents are avoiding the neighborhoods in favor of the organized activities.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As long as the kids were respectful, I could care less where they came from. It's Halloween! We did live in one neighborhood where two years in a row it was a bit unnerving as around 8 pm, the older teens would come out and could get a bit obnoxious at the door. Rude behavior and so forth that scared some of the older residents on the block where they stopped handing out candy. 
(If I had known, I would have given them more each)
