I moved to a house (my first) recently and we bought full size chocolate bars and beef jerky sticks to give out (in case someone doesn’t want chocolate).
Not a single child came. I didn’t see or hear anyone under 20 the entire night. We all stayed out on the porch for hours.
The only chocolate bar we gave out was to the pizza lady.
Does nobody trick-or-treat? We have kids in the neighborhood. I see them rising bikes during the day.
How was everyone else’s Halloween?
Edit: We got one! Long after trick or treating hours were over, a little cowboy knocked on our door. I gave him like 5 candy bars and 2 jerky sticks. He was very happy. His dad stopped in a car and he got out to knock on our door. I reckon it had to do with the fake neon LED “trick or treat” sign we hung on the porch.
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That’s a bummer but at least you made that one cowboy’s night!!
My first year at my current place I went to work in costume with full face makeup (Jack Nicholson’s Joker). I came home a little after dark and waited with my bowl for about an hour and a half; but at that point the makeup was getting itchy and I was done with it. Got in the shower and within maybe 3 minutes the doorbell rang! Then it rang again a couple minutes later while I was still in there! Nobody has come by for candy since then and it’s been several years.
First year after we moved in, we decorated, bought candy, the whole nine yards. No one came. Next year we bought a smaller bag of candy, and ate it all ourselves. Left a bowl of candy out about 6 or 7 years later, after more kids started appearing on the street. Still not a one.
There’s a bunch of kids on the street, and a few people do put up some nice decorations, but we found out that everyone either does this trunk or treat thing at the church at the front of the community, or goes downtown, where they block off the streets and all the big houses decorate and have movies in their yard and stuff.
I’m usually the pass-out-candy parent, but my kids wanted to split up this year so I got to experience exactly why my street gets only a handful every year (and barely any this year). Four blocks down is practically a street-long block party. At least 50% of the houses are not just active but decked out. We saw cars dropping kids off, and we saw a family from school that doesn’t live in our neighborhood. I get it but I’m kinda sad my mostly-retiree street doesn’t see any action.
Tons of families out in North Beach, SF tonight! Was really cute
We often only get a couple trick-or-treaters every year, and this year was no different, except we left the front door open all night, which means we heard and saw kids walking past our house.
I’m one of the few groups that came to our porch, I heard one girl whisper to her friends, “that’s the creepy house”
So, I guess our house is the haunted house of the neighborhood. I’d be ok with that if we actually had any ghosts.
We’ve been here for over 140 years, and I’ve never seen a single ghost.
The only thing you can do is lean into the creepiness. Only the bravest trick or treaters will make to the door alive to get some candy. And oh boy will they be rewarded.
We’ve been here for over 140 years, and I’ve never seen a single ghost.
Any chance you have a copy of the “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” lying around? You’ve been at that house a pretty long time.
We’ve been here for over 140 years, and I’ve never seen a single ghost.
The call is coming from within the house.
I think parents are telling their kids to only go to houses that have decorations up now.
I’m too old for trick-or-treating and was never really into it as it’s not my culture, but I’m on the receiving end of trick-or-treaters every year. I don’t know if they’re what one would consider a tough crowd or what, but they really, really haven’t liked what I handed out. One year it was fruit and I guess that’s a no. Last year it was cotton candy and I got complaints because it took up peoples’ Halloween bags to carry cotton candy around. This year I gave out candy canes and they complained again, this time because they thought I was adding to the feuds surrounding premature Christmas products.
After trick-or-treating was all done, I also stepped outside to sort through the trash and discovered someone threw up on the side of my home. Was it a kid who ate one candy too many? Was it an adult who was drunk on cider? Was it an animal who tried to get involved in the holiday too but got carried away? Who knows. I just know I have something to clean up before sunrise.
I originally cosplayed as Stephanie Dola for the day, but it rained for the first half of the day and I got soaked, so I cosplayed as Yoko Littner (another anime character) in a way that was as presentable as possible without looking out of character. At one point I put some warm clothes on over the cosplay because it was cold but didn’t take off my cosplay, knowing people might still recognize the character underneath a green sweater and a jean shirt and jeans. A young autistic boy came by and recognized the character I was and noticed I was wearing clothes over it and asked if he could take a picture of me and him without the clothes, but he asked it in a way that made his family and peers, who didn’t recognize the character and/or may not have known it was a cosplay at all, think he was being “inappropriate” thinking he was just asking me to get undressed, and it would be an understatement to say I can tell he felt bad when he was scolded in front of everyone, but I didn’t know how to step in without it backfiring. I still feel bad for him and I’m hoping he shows up again somewhere so I can grant his request.
It was noticeably quieter this year in my neighborhood. I blame the election and the unseasonably warm weather.
The FB group for my local area shared a map marked with houses that were giving out candy. It was through some website I think, you could mark your house and even if you had decorations. Your neighborhood might have something similar, you could be on a bad road for walk-bys.
It’s Nextdoor that does those maps. But it depends on people in your neighborhood using it.
I’m saying if OP’s neighborhood does, and they didn’t mark their house, that could explain why they didn’t see anyone. Refurbished if there aren’t any other marked houses nearby, kids may just not go that way.
This thread is sad.
As a kid, my parents(read: mostly my mom) would see 400-500 kids over the night. Was really fun, you’d see everyone out having a great time.
In my last place it was mostly childless renters in the neighborhood but we’d still get a good ~100.
Wow, that’s a lot. We had 119 last year and thought that was a lot. It’s still only 8:25 here but we’re on pace for maybe 80 this year.
It’s always neighborhood dependent. We live in a kid-heavy town but trick-or-treating just sort of naturally condenses into certain streets/neighborhoods, and the town even shuts down Main Street for it. So the kids on your street might go to other neighborhoods to team up with friends, etc.
The only way to know is to ask neighbors who have been there for a while what the vibe is usually like on your street.
Our kid is 2 so tonight was his first time trick-or-treating. Our street always has some houses with candy but we went to a different neighborhood to go with friends. One of the houses we went to said they weren’t prepared because in 20 years they’ve never had anyone come! They were excited to see people, though.
For us this is exactly it. My street is full of kids (I think my husband and I are the only ones without them) but the last few years neighborhood block parties several blocks down have become the thing and everyone, kids and adults go there. Lots of fun and we now go there too but it does make me sad that we don’t really get trick or treaters. My husbanded gave out pretty much the whole bowl to one group at the end of the night
This year, we had the most kids we’ve had in years. I think the weather helped; a couple years ago we even had a few inches of snow on the ground while it’s been unseasonably warm this year.
By the way, I would have been over the moon to get jerky sticks for Halloween as a kid. Love that shit. Maybe I’m weird, but I didn’t even really like chocolate much until I got older.
There’s always swarms of kids trick or treating a couple blocks from here (NYC). The houses usually have decorations up, and one of them usually goes really hard with music and stuff.
It probably helps that it’s a very walkable neighborhood.
I live in a small town where the local businesses on the two main cross streets hand out candy as well as have trunk-or-treats in the parking lots. Hardly any kids go around the neighborhoods anymore. It’s a bummer
We used to prepare for Halloween when we first moved to this house. Gave up after we only got 2-3 kids a year. No one seems to go house to house anymore, they all get funneled to the sanctioned downtown street party or the school parking lot event. Now Halloween is just about the only night of the year we turn the porch light off, just in case those 2-3 kids come by on accident.
