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So there I was with four large bags of candy in a bowl, my black cat sitting by the door and not a single trick or treater showed up. I was shocked.
We moved last Spring so last year at our old place, the block (in the same neighborhood) was packed with kids walking up and down all day. I went downstairs a few times and there was no one out on the block at all.
I ran a few errands and saw a smattering of kids and their parents on the avenues going into stores but the side blocks were all empty.
The complex that we live in has at least 10 kids that I see playing outside occasionally but no sign of them yesterday.
So how did it go you for you folks? My office is stocked with chocolate for a while...
We always run out of candy and have to run to the store several times no matter how great we plan because word has spread about our neighborhood. But, we only went through two bags this year. Good thing I passed out the candy I didn't like first! Trunk or Treat gatherings seemed to be popular with the church crowd this year so maybe a lot of those kids didn't trick-or-treat? It was kind of disappointing not to run out of candy.
We got one 'sibling set' of trick or treaters. That was it. As my kids went door to door, people told them that they hadn't had any trick or treaters in FOUR YEARS. My kids got lots of full size candy bars that people pulled out of their own stash, special bottles of soda, and a couple people gave them HANDFULS of candy. About half the houses were dark. All in all, they still got more candy than I will let them eat in a month's time.
We thought our kids were the only ones their ages in the neighborhood. Turns out there are two other houses with kids - one had four and they were leaving to go somewhere else to trick or treat, plus the other set that came to our door. My kids are looking forward to "hooking up" with those kids this week.
We had a really weird day. We had stocked up and decorated the house and were anticipating a big turn out. My in-laws came down to stay at the house and my wife and I were going to take the kids out trick or treating. So, we get in the costumes around 4pm and step outside to...nothing. The neighborhood was completely dead.
So we ended up packing the kids in the car and took them to my parents house where we knew they could get some trick or treating done. They had a decent time there and we headed home. It was around dusk when we pulled in to our development and...all the houses were lit up and doors were opened. Turns out trick or treating is a dusk thing around there, versus the afternoon thing we were used to.
Took the kids around our neighborhood for a little bit, but only ended up getting about a dozen people coming to our house. The neighbors said it was a pretty light year and there were usually more kids.
My guess is the fact it was a Sunday may have had something to do with it.
Hardly any kids this year in our neighborhood. Last year and the year before there were tons of them. What do you think it could be, the economy?
I would think with a crappy economy MORE people would be heading out. I heard something on the news that while spending overall is down, people are actually spending more for holidays and other events. So, it seems like we may be more frugal overall, but are more willing to splurge for some fun. Since you can assemble costumes pretty cheap, I think most parents would have jumped at the chance for their kids to get free candy.
I really think it had something to do with it being a Sunday. Quite a few churches near me were hosting youth parties in place of trick or treating. I guess if you are the religious sort celebrating something secular, but with Pagan roots on the Sabbath is a bit of a no-no.
I took my 4 and 6 year olds with a large group. The youngest was barely toddling and the oldest was a junior in high school. He had his little brother with him. And yes, the older boy had a pillowcase for the candy. His brothers bucket would get full and he would dump it in the pillowcase along with his candy. My 7th and 8th graders went with a group of their friends. With pillowcases.
My hubby stayed home to pass out candy.
Some people gave a handful of candy. Some people gave 1 piece of candy. The kids got Zip-loc bags with several pieces. There were several families giving full-size candy bars. The kids were super excited by ALL of it! And yes, they sometimes needed a reminder to say trick-or-treat and thank you.
We have several families in our neighborhood that go ALL-OUT for Halloween. Lots of people dressed up to pass out candy. I saw Queen Elizabeth, Catwoman, Beetlejuice, Uncle Fester and a Ninja. These were grown-ups.
One house is a favorite for the older kids. The yard and front porch is transformed by glowing pumpkins, fog, cobwebs, tombstones etc. They have several people dressed up and hiding in the yard. After the kids get the candy, they come out and chase them. A HUGE guy was dressed in shaggy camouflage hunters clothes. The kids LOVED this. They didn't care about the candy, they wanted the Swamp Thing to chase them. Lots of screaming, squealing and giggling.
At the end of the night, some people were stuffing as much candy as they could into the kids buckets. My older kids had people dumping what they had left in the bowl/basket. And they know my kids and know how old they are.
It could also be the day of the week. I've notice Friday and Saturdays always would have a lot of kids but school nights have always been slow. But we took my son out last night and the neighborhood blocks off a cpl of blocks and the neighbors pass out candy. He got 4 full halloween buckets of candy. Thankfully he wants to do the dentist thing of trading in the candy for cash.
Last year we probably had 100 kids, this year maybe 50. I think part was due to it being Sunday and many area churches were having special events. Also here, in the Fort Worth area, we have our Rangers playing in the World Series so I imagine that kept things down some too.
My kids came back with plenty of candy even with low participation of houses! Then they had fun handing out candy to the last few kiddos.
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Trunk or Treat gatherings seemed to be popular with the church crowd this year so maybe a lot of those kids didn't trick-or-treat? It was kind of disappointing not to run out of candy. 
Lots of screaming, squealing and giggling. 
