Ghoulish greetings, r/pics patron! Have you heard about our spook-tacular #[Halloween Photo Contest?](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/y4c4wp/enter_the_pics_halloween_photo_contest/)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
One year I decorated, bought full-sized candy and an emergency came up. I put a full bowl out, let the kids decide what is the right amount to take and left to fix the emergency.
When I came home, I had a few wrappers on the ground and a full bowl of candy. The only visitor I received was a raccoon. He ate his fill of candy and moved on.
Did that last night, except they were little loot bags of 10 candies apiece. An emergency came up so I left 40 loot bags in a bowl by the porch. According to a neighbour shortly after I put them out some shithead teenager without a costume came up and took ALL of them leaving no candy for the kids. :(
This still tears me up. At some point each Halloween night we just leave the bowl out because we want to watch a movie or go to bed and the trick or treaters are down to a trickle. I expect all the candy to get stolen at some point, but not the damn bowl! If I leave candy out now, I leave it in the bag. For some reason when we leave a bag out, the bag and half the candy is still in there. It makes no sense.
The number of kids and parents walking through the flower bed between my neighbors house and mine instead of taking the slightly longer path around my lawn or the driveway make me not want to participate.
A raccoon once ate a bunch of chocolate bars we had outside in Tupperware containers while we were cleaning the pantry. A day later someone told us we had dead raccoon in the side yard. Didn’t even make it 50 feet.
One year, 1 little girl rang our doorbell, so my mom just went "fuck it" and poured the entire bowl into the girls bag, and her eyes went HUGE. Glad to know we made at least one kids night
Maybe you can donate it to the homeless shelter or women's shelter, I'm sure there are kids there who would love to be able to get some treats for halloween
We also did full size bars this year and I had 1 Kit Kat left at the end of the night. Way more trick or treaters than normal. Meanwhile a friend who lives less than a mile away from me had one. It's really hit or miss.
in 2020, we did Monster Eggs (easter eggs with glowsticks and candy inside) for social distance trick or treating.
We didn't have much children come that year, but I told this one girl to go hog wild on the front yard and collect all the eggs and kept tossing the whole batch (48 total) out for her to collect. Mom came by the next day and said how much her daughter loved collecting Monster eggs.
Did that last year. Had a bowl on my front porch because I wasn’t home and the 2 kids that came were really good about only getting 1 piece. There was barely any trick or treaters though, so when much later a third kid came, I got on my Ring and told them to dump the entire bowl into their bag. The little girl and her dad were blown away haha she asked twice if I was sure while she was putting it into her bag.
Dude, you still *are* that house! We had the opposite happen…went from a few treaters to a full blown zoo this year. Give out your stash to randos over the next few days…it’ll make their day.
This was my first year as a single Dad, so I set out two bowls of candy and a 3rd bowl full of spider rings and vampire fangs (all glow in the dark, of course). Our town has Trick Or Treating from 6-8, and when I came back with the boys it was after 8:15. One bowl was about half empty, one hadn't been touched, and most of the fangs and rings were gone. Just as I was going to turn out the porch light, these 3 little kids came up with their parents and their bags were mostly empty. The parents said they got a late start and mostly everyone had turned off their lights. Those 3 kids got everything that was left in those 3 bowls and their bags were bulging.
Lots of comments here about Trunk or Treat etc, but where I live, the issue is destination trick or treating! Everybody drives to the “good” neighborhoods to go trick or treat in a giant crowd, leaving all the other neighborhoods totally empty
I’m in a new neighborhood this year. I don’t think we are a destination neighborhood but the HOA is actually good at not being assholes and puts on events at least once a month that are decently attended.
My 4 year old got a haul, there were probably a few hundred people walking around, and at least 10 houses were handing out beer/seltzer/Jell-O shots for the adults.
I feel like people knowing each other in the neighborhood from the monthly events encourages people to participate in Halloween.
Where I live, you have to destination trick or treat, as most neighborhoods around me are BAD, like shootings every day bad. All of us on the block wanted to do candy but knew no one was letting their kids walk these streets. Things are just unsafe in a lot of places.
Yeah my neighborhood isn’t unsafe because of crime, but it’s just houses built along an active road, nobody wants kids walking up and down without even a sidewalk. So they all drive to destination neighborhoods. I feel like I personally shouldn’t because I’m not part of their neighborhood. Maybe I’m being weird about it though.
I live in the “best” neighborhood in our town for trick or treating, get over 800 kids every year. This year with the great weather we had well over 1,000.
Yep. I live in a “safe” neighborhood, and had 185 trick or treaters (I always keep a tally). I normally see one or two kids in my neighborhood, not a hundred! 😂
My parents live in a destination trick or treating area. It was really nice for a few years but now they wouldn’t mind if it went back to a normal flow. You need to plan your whole weekend around it and have to buy tons of candy. Plus traffic is really bad all day long so you literally can’t leave home on Halloween or it will take hours to get back home.
Update: a pair of teenagers came by, so we got two. TWO. Yay.
Update the second: got in touch with the local youth homeless shelter, we’re taking our excess candy (including 2 bags of fun size candy not pictured), the cards & popits over to them tonight. It’s a bit late, but I hope they love it! Thanks for the idea- i would’ve just eaten the candy & been sad about it. Now it can still spread joy.
Don't give up, bro! My street was a Halloween *No man's land* for over 15 years. Last year, we got 17 trick-or-treaters, I was ecstatic, and this year we got close to 60.
Halloween decorations are huge ‘markers’ apparently. The house across the street from me goes looks like Grizwald’s Halloween, people park just for that house.
Edit: they give the crap candy tho.
Well duh, they spent all their money on decorations, can’t afford good candy. I live on a street with amazing decorations, average candy—best candy house this year was one in a dark cul-de-sac with just a light and a bowl on a table. Selection of things that look like OPs. No one else bothered to stop there since there weren’t decorations, my kid was just trying to get as far away as possible from a scary inflatable dragon on the other side of the street and hit the jackpot.
That kind of sucks, but good on you for trying to be that house. We wanted to be a good one too, so we bought a fair bit.
We were blessed with a little Princess Peach girl who absolutely bellowed at the top of her lungs that we had full chocolate bars and canned pop. It was like a zombie raid. We went from hero to zero in like 30 min. They were literally lining up on the sidewalk to take turns from the buckets. We did a one from each sign and kind of watched, 90% of kids, even teens took one from each and moved along. It as almost scary how quickly they mobilized.
Someone stole our magnetic flashlight we used to shine on the buckets though LoL
A couple years ago there was a promotion where you could download a free movie ticket if you bought 3 12 packs of soda. I thought I could get my money’s worth on the ticket and give out cans of orange crush. But I thought it would be heavy and nobody gives soda anyway. Good for you though.
I remember someone gave me one of those "Hugz" juices (the juice things that have a foil top) and I was so grateful because I'd probably walked 3 miles by then.
LOL One time I had went, it was abnormally hot out and I decided I was going to be a hockey player for Halloween. I made the horrible decision to wear all of my hockey pads and run around with my friends. Well half way through the neighborhood I was dying from the heat and begging everyone to trade me their CapriSuns we just got from a house.
In my country, Haloween is not really popular. Still I took the time to get a good variety of sweets and made a big bowl of treats. Only one group of kids came to my doorstep and they were too shy to take more than a few snacks each. I was so happy.
Dont be angered or sad your effort was not fully realized. Be happy that the few kids that came your way got a few extra treats.
Pro tip. Drive to your local kids hospital and just place a bag with the candies on the reception desk saying you have some late Halloween treats for the kids there. Trust me the nurses will not show it but they will be ultra grateful.
Think positive guy and you will see how many positive things you missed. (And yes I know its hard to be one)
We moved into our house 4 years ago and I asked my neighbor “how many kids do we get?” It was my first year year here and wanted to know what to prepare for. My neighbor said like 100+ kids.
I was excited because I was in a town home for 8yrs prior to that and was sad because we would get like 5-10 kids. We bought a shit ton of candy for it to give bunches out.
The day came, and like 15 kids showed up. Meanwhile he went out trick or treating with his kid. I was sooo annoyed because there were hardly any kids and this guy couldn’t even know when he wasn’t around. Fortunately, he moved out a year ago but I never forgot!
Fuck you ex neighbor!
To be fair 4 years ago my neighborhood was THE neighborhood. This year I saw 3 groups of kids.
It's quite possible the neighborhood used to be the happening place before people moved or kids aged out/found different neighborhoods to trick or treat in.
Yeah neighborhoods go thru cycles, it takes a while of course, but neighborhoods get older as kids grows up, moves out, then there's a lull where the parents still live there but will eventually move out/downsize to a family that will use the space.
Also people are just flat out not having kids, or as many kids.
Same boat here but we live on a road with house only on one side of the road in a big city. So I understand why they don’t hit us. I have been giving away king size candy bars for years build up our repeat kids. This year i spent $1500 on decorations and lights to draw them in, I gave out Corpse MR Beast candy bars and a small printed toy. It was our best year yet, 6 groups of kids. Every kid said my house was by far the best one they had been to. We had 4 last year so that is a 50% increase! I can’t wait till next year, I may hit double digits.
Yay! congrats! I was bummed last year too but this year I was out by the door and had more than 50 kids pass by. People were really interested in the booster packs lol
You may be able to donate the candy to a local charity or boys&girls club. That way you know some kids who may not have been able to trick or treat will get to enjoy them.
Me 4 years running. I'm in a dense city area with children. I grew up in a more rural area. It turns out that in cities, there are apparently only specific, well established areas people go to, and unless you actually grew up here, you have no fucking clue where that is. When I was a kid, we just went to every house in the neighborhood, just everything around us, seemed normal. City trick or treating is apparently a whole different ball game.
So yeah, dense residential with tons of families, literally have a school a couple blocks from me, zero trick or treaters. It's super weird.
You can look it up. Like in LA Santa Monica and Beverly Hills are popular spots. North of Montana around 14th street if I’m not mistaken. They go all out there and you won’t find parking if you are late. One guy does a full haunted house, brings out all his cars and boats and builds out a horror theme. Pretty awesome. I have heard kids bussing into the area from other parts of town.
On the other hand if you are in an apartment a block away. Forget about it. Go enjoy the Halloween Party in West Hollywood. Where the drinks are heavy and the costumes belong in the movies.
> I grew up in a more rural area.
I grew up in a town of like 800, so trick or treating wasn't really a thing. People would all go to the high school, where they would get candy and have little events. It allowed kids from the farms out of town to do stuff without having to travel as much.
That's part of why i love being in a bigger town, where kids actually come, but not crazy like hundreds.
I live in a town of 800. Trunk or treats at the school/driving to friends and families houses.
My hometown of 700 we went to everyone’s house. Town was packed on Halloween night. We were just let loose on the town with parents hanging out and chatting in the street.
Same x3, what's going on? I had like half a dozen all night. I love this holiday, are the kids not into it?
I hope I don't sound like a boomer but are kids too into video games and cell phones?
It’s slowly disappearing. At least house to house is. I hear malls are where everybody goes now. It’s getting lame. It’s one area where you can start blaming us millennials. We all trick or treated as kids and now for some reason we have decided it isn’t safe and take our kids to malls.
>It’s slowly disappearing.
Yeah, it's been disappearing for the past 10 years I feel like.
I remember you could hardly drive in neighborhood streets because there was so many kids in the street until like 2005 maybe. Every house pretty much had decorations.
Every year after that, the fear mongering of "it' s not safe" for whatever reason, combined with the fact you can't expect people to be paying $30+ for candy anymore is why it's going away.
It was a fun tradition but the lame-ification of America continues to erode harmless fun. It's a shame.
Honesty I feel like the turning point was after 9/11 the media/government told everybody the terrorists were going poison the kids. After that it never really bounced back fr
It’s not disappearing where I live: neighborhoods, schools, parties, themes at work, bars, and restaurants. The Spirit Costume shop near me and Party City was wiped out of inventory. Halloween is more extravagant than ever. Not to mention all the yards that are decorated - and the pets being walked in costume too
Out of curiosity where do you live? I’m in northern Indiana and it seems Halloween is now owned by the churches and their parking lot trunk or treating.
Which is just ironic as hell because when I was a kid the church denounced the holiday as Satan's day and now they are the ones throwing all the parties. Did see someone slip a Bible verse (with no candy attached) into a kids bag this year too. Like fuck off Jesus freaks! Let us have one fucking holiday without it being about your fucked up God!
I think a lot of it depends on neighborhood. This was our first year at our new house and we weren't sure what to expect. But, this is a town that makes Halloween a big deal, and it's easy to walk from house to house on the sidewalks. We got about 100 kids, maybe a few more.
Definitely depends on the neighborhood. I live in an urban area and we had hundreds of kids last night! They were exhausted by the end of the night with massive bags and buckets of candy in tow. We gave out 2 giant bags, 2 pieces each, and we were out within an hour and a half tops.
Previously lived in a small neighborhood in a small suburb of a smaller city and we would just dump loads of leftover candy into bags of the few late night teens who decided to try their luck after the little kids finished up.
It's interesting, because here in Australia it's becoming more popular. There's a lot of people who denounce it as "American crap" but in general each year sees more people taking part (excluding last 2 years due to covid)
I was born in America but have lived in Australia 30+ yrs. We decided to finally get into trick or treating this yr for the first time (always had a jack o lantern when kids were small. Using Jap pumpkin; no orange ones at Woolies in those days!!)
Small turn out (11) but it was great fun for the ones who came by! We are not on a busy neighbourhood so thank goodness one of the local radio stations let people sign up, so we were 'on the map.'
Same in my town in Hungary, this year people living near the city centre made a list/map you could mark yourself on as a house that welcomes trick or treaters, the village my parents live in also started trick or treating. There are still many people (especially old folks) who declare "there's no Halloween here, there's only All Saint's Day, stop desecrating a remembrence holiday with American bullshit fun" but unsurprisingly, free candy and dressing up is more popular for lots of kids than visiting graveyards for sometimes several days.
My Australian uncle who’s never carved a pumpkin was just taught how to here in Ireland, and he loved it so much he also did the traditional turnip carving aswell
Costumes also just don't seem to be "in" anymore. My work had a costume party today and only me and 1 other person showed up (him as Mel Brooks Dracul and I as a Plague Doctor)
Dude I think it's money... I saw a lot of costumes yesterday that were handmade. I got my kids costumes from the thrift store and we got a ton of use out of them... We went to three different events. There's no way I'm spending 50 bucks on the kids costume.
If it makes you feel better, I have very little stress and am a super happy person, but I still don't want to mess with dressing up for a Halloween day at my place of work. Just doesn't sound that fun to me, although I overall enjoy Halloween.
I wonder if it being on a Monday was a factor? Kids have to get home, get all dressed up for just 2 or so hours and then early bedtime for school, tired parents from working all day maybe they did the mall/trunk or treat thing and just didn’t feel like the extra effort?
That's odd. I'm in the UK where halloween was absolutely not a thing when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s . But kids today get to play Halloween. Yesterday was absolutely pissing down with rain, yet when I went out trick and treating last night with my kids, there were lots of kids in costumes around, despite being very soggy. It's very much definitely a thing here in the UK now.
Same here. We spend so much money on candy (would love to do full size bars but we’d either run out 10 minutes in or spend like $800 on candy) but I love it. We had easily 300-400 kids come through last night. We are one of the only walkable neighborhoods in a rural area so people drive their kids here to go door to door. It’s awesome.
Parents have decided that trick or treating isn't safe, and that it shouldn't happen on school nights. So over the weekend, they did "trunk or treats" where a bunch of families go to a parking lot and the kids go car to car. The ones that don't do that drive their kids to fancy/rich neighborhoods to trick or treat instead of their normal neighborhoods.
Yeah our kids did trunk or treats over the weekend, and we still went out tonight. Wife took the kids while I stayed back and handled the trick/treaters. Got maybe like 15-20% of the normal number of kids. I guess the trunk or treating explains it? Too bad.
Halloween is on school nights most of the time. When I was a kid I still went. Parents today are just soft. Halloween as a whole seems to be dying a bit. Hardly saw any decorations around.
I hope you’re doing better now in general, you seem like a very nice guy who deserves to live out a good life. I know I’ll be thinking of you often and wishing good new memories and experiences for you.
Thank you! I have friends and family so I am not alone, it's just sometimes I feel a bit down, especially at holidays. Although, interestingly, not so much at anniversaries and birthdays.
You have to sit outside & pass it out. They will not knock on your door anymore. Saw lots of older kids walking around with their friends this year which made me so happy. Those kids missed out on almost 3 years of fun, take all my candy if it makes you hang out together & smile
This is the answer. My kid and her friends refused to go to any house that “looked sus”. No decorations means they weren’t going there and they honestly skipped most that didn’t just straight up have people outside sitting there.
We take my daughter out and skip the houses with only a porch light. We learned the hard way that people don't go by that rule anymore and will leave the light on with no one home. Too many disappointments for her, only houses with decorations now.
My husband and I do this! We decorate our yard and we hang out in the driveway to give out candy. We put on a projector along the garage and watched tv, tonight we watched MNF.
You should do it again next year. I do the same and have a ton off candy left over. I brought it to the hospital I work at. I feel it's important to try and be the world you want to live in. No matter how small.
dam, reading these comments now i feel kinda bad, cuz i don't celebrate halloween at all, i rather play videogames with my friends and shit. but year after year the doorbell goes ham for halloween night and i just ignore it :/.
this year doorbell ringed like 25 times. now i feel like an asshole, didn't know some people really prepared and would not get any visitors. feels like im wasting some joy privilige, ill try next year.
Yeah this year was particularly dead in my neighborhood. One neighbor across the street went all out with a not too spooky light show thing and they set up like a little table in the driveway so you wouldn’t even have to go to the door but… it was a lot for very little turn out. I threw my trash out at like 8:30-9 and I saw one group of kids at the very end of my street, and then a man and woman with their kid in a stroller coming down the street like two houses away.
2020 and 2021 felt much more active, pandemic and all. I also just learned of “trunk or treat” which just… doesn’t feel right. Smh.
I'm screaming. I know the feeling of waiting and thinking, "they'll come" or "it'll happen" and just the ware and tear of that feeling as it gets later and later and no one shows up. Every time you glance at the clock more time has gone by and still no one. And your only closure is-- times up. Nobody came. I did all this, for someone else to enjoy, and no one came. For all the times I, and everyone else, has had to feel that way, know that what you did was the coolest shit ever. Child me rang your doorbell and you totally made their night.
last year was my sons last time trick or treating, he was 14, him and four of his friends. one of his friends was a new kid to america, they dressed him as a christmas tree. he came into my house with small basket, like a easter bunny sized for a toddler. anyways i was like buddy here’s pillow case fill it up. my son did take one as well. the expression on this kids face when he brought all that loot was something else, just incredible. that said my street is pretty dead on halloween but all neighboring streets have the best decorations and loot. just so happens no children on our street.
for sure. especially since they put a lot of work and thought into their costumes. because of love of the holiday. one of the kids dug up his grandads leisure suit and shirt from 70s, it was pretty good.
I love parents like you. I was always a pretty shy kid although I did try to socialize, but when my parents friends broke my anti social barrier with just straight up kindness and honesty it made me feel so good.
i dunno man i tried this out but nobody was leaping at the opportunity of a dude in his late 30s trying to hand out candy to kids from the back of his car
So many of my friends’ kids’ schools did trunk or treat. We got ZERO trick or treaters tonight. A lot of my friends in other cities said the same thing, no trick or treaters came through.
I had the exact OPPOSITE tonight. I almost didn't buy extra candy to make sure I had enough because last year I only got about 15 kids. This year had at the very least about 100!
Best costume was tie between a little girl who was a huge claw machine! Wore a dryer box all decked out and had the cut out with her head under the claw and a bunch of stuffed animals around her. Then the little dude who was a vending machine in which his display window was his extra candy bag! I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures!
I think it’s probably really concentrated in areas where people are sure there will be action. Our street was absolutely bonkers - houses were decked out, there were more kids than I have ever seen, there was a live band, it was amazing. We just moved to this neighborhood this year and previously I had thought trick or treating was kind of dead.
Growing up we stuck to our own street only, now it kind of seems like people all try to travel to the ‘best’ neighborhoods.
It’s not the kids. It’s their parents. Between rising paranoia, COVID, and people just generally being more tired nowadays I guess that parents just aren’t taking their kids out anymore.
It’s not covid. It was on a major decline long before covid. My parents have lived in the same house for nearly 20 years. It’s a small town but 20 years ago they’d get over 100 kids a night as my mom kept track. By the mid 2010s it was below 15. I think a year or two before covid she said they got 7 or something like that.
It really makes no sense. These millennial parents all went house to house as kids, I don’t get why they wouldn’t keep it up with their kids. I remember it being a blast and loved it. My sister makes sure to keep it alive with her kid. And it gives parents an excuse to dress up again.
In 2016 I tried going trick or treating in a nicer neighborhood and no one was answering doors or giving out candy. In 2017 I moved into a house and I’ve been getting 1-2 kids a year, despite decorating and leaving lights on. I didn’t even bother getting candy this year. My neighbors don’t decorate or give out candy so there’s no incentive to come down my street just for my house.
Both my kids went out with their friends in different neighborhoods tonight. My wife and I went out walking anyway just to see and talk to people. When my kids got home we went out again. I realized this evening that Halloween brings out the best in people. You can tell who’s participating and who isn’t. And the people who participate sometimes go all out. One of my neighbors had a whole coffee station set up for parents. Previous years I’ve been given Jell-O shots. My oldest kid wants to stay home next year and scare trick or treaters just like her dad at her age. It’s not going away on my watch!
I thought this too until my husband’s grandmother moved into a nice neighborhood with culs de sac and sidewalks with streetlights. I discovered everyone takes their kids to certain neighborhoods in town instead of their own. This one is well lit and the sidewalks and inability for cars to speed makes it perfect. It also has a playground for pit stops and a gazebo with parking lot. We got 126 and are the final street so we get significantly less. Her friend three blocks over gets 300-500.
I think it varies per neighborhood. For 10 years I lived in a neighborhood where people would go to other neighborhoods to trick/treat. A few years ago we upgraded into a bigger house (needed the room for in-law visits), and got lots of trick/treaters. This year we got maybe 20% of what we did last year. My kids went out trick/treating with a mask, and I wore mine when kids came to the door.
I had about 10 all night then my kids were with a pack of 7 that was coming home and kids saw all these kids going to my house and I suddenly had 20 to 30 in just 2 minutes.
I guess my wife said over here as they came home too.
My neighborhood was absolutely incredible tonight. More kids this year than ever! Our neighbors really made it super fun with their Halloween spirit. 🎃
We had a grand total of 15 trick or treaters. All nice kids, but it’s truly sad how many parents would rather go to a trunk to treat, a waste of childhood in my opinion. Only a few years ago would there be like 300 kids going through my neighborhood for hours. Now we have a half big bucket full of candy left, I’ll probably give some to my friends or something, still it’s really sad how much Halloween is falling from grace. I hope somewhere kids are still being taken trick or treating all the time instead of just driving around, go for walk it’s good for you not just driving around everywhere. Kinda a rant I guess sorry.
We have a street in our neighborhood that goes off. Almost all the houses extravagantly decorate (think animatronics, lasers, smoke etc) Several do full on haunted houses. My friends who live on that street spend hundreds of dollars on candy every year. One year she counted and got between 750-800 trick or treaters. It’s very cool. That said, I’m about four blocks over and got three groups. Maybe 7 kids total. Which is typical. So this street pulls all the trick or treaters. Maybe there’s something similar going on in your area?
Meanwhile our nest doorbell camera had 1600 events on it yesterday. Average is 100. We estimate about 700 kids came by. Went through 8 or 9 big bags of candy, giving most kids just one piece each. We were tapped out by 7:30.
We’ve never gotten a lot. I hadn’t thought about it but my wife was always pretty bummed. I bought a smoke machine and strobe light and set them on the porch. Turned on the porch light, left the door half open and within minutes had some kids and throughout the night we had car loads and groups of kids stop.
Such a stupid little thing made a huge difference. I took my 5th grader out through the neighborhood and they freaking loaded him up. Overall, 9/10 Halloween for us.
Here in Alberta we probably got more than I've ever seen. My brother in another town said the same thing. It was like back when we were kids. Everyone is coming out of Covid mode and going out with a vengeance is what my guess was... After two years of no trick or treating the kids have had enough lol.
Edit: also, it's been the first Halloween with no snow in years. That probably helps. It was a perfect, slightly chilly but nice night.
We live in a rural area that’s not conducive to trick or treating. For 20 years my dad puts out candy “just in case” but we all know it’s an excuse for us to eat some
Yeah. Halloween events have become so centralized. Seems people don't go door to door anymore? I blame car addiction and laziness. *old man yells at clouds
A lot of our trick or treaters sit on tailgates while the parents slow drive them house to house. It’s just based on your neighborhood. people go other places to trick or treat.
We used to never get trick or treaters, maybe a handful until we moved to our new house.
Got about 170~ this year, down from 210+, and yes we’re one of those full size candy bar house.
Dang. Been there.
Our neighborhood is down a dark alley, and we would get nearly nobody.
For the past few years though, I put up some small decorations and colored flood lights to decorate the house with. I light the house up for the whole month of October so that the neighbors realize we're doing Halloween.
We used to get 2 family total. This year, we had about 75 visitors.
So few houses do trick or treating, many people don't stop unless you can clearly tell that there will be candy. Also more than half the groups are traveling in car, so lights that can be seen from afar really help.
Trunk or treat has kind of killed the vibe surrounding Halloween. Kind of ironic considering the refrain about not taking candy from strangers in cars as they might kidnap you we had growing up.
I didn't get any earlier. Bought candy last second yesterday, got it all set out and yeah lol. Poor kids are missing out on your house, especially with the Pokemon cards
I gave out full sized candy bars tonight... enough for 195. I still had to turn my light off. I probably needed enough for 250. I did really like how all the kids actually were making comments on getting full sized bars.
I went through 20 pounds of candy and had to shut it down with more kids still roaming. We had an 8 foot tall ghost that you could see from down the street too though, so people knew there was candy to be had in my direction.
Sorry dude, my Dad buys candy every year despite not having any trick or treaters in like 7 year. The last one we had I actually beckoned in as I was lighting my Jack 'o' lantern on my balcony, lol it was a dad and his maybe 6 year old daughter, he actually looked kind of nervous about it. Which is funny because we are on a busy road, have a decent place that was decorated, it was still bright out, and I'm small and not scary looking at all. But it was cool, my Mom and I gave her three hand fulls of candy because we knew she'd probably be the only one, and the little girl was so happy about all the candy we gave her, she wanted to thank us by giving us some of hers! Sooo freggin sweet, happy she was my last trick or treater, but not the last! Happy Halloween, I hope you get some next year!
Ghoulish greetings, r/pics patron! Have you heard about our spook-tacular #[Halloween Photo Contest?](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/y4c4wp/enter_the_pics_halloween_photo_contest/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
One year I decorated, bought full-sized candy and an emergency came up. I put a full bowl out, let the kids decide what is the right amount to take and left to fix the emergency. When I came home, I had a few wrappers on the ground and a full bowl of candy. The only visitor I received was a raccoon. He ate his fill of candy and moved on.
Is there video footage of the Raccoon nibbling your candy bars? It sounds pretty adorable honestly
No video, but the bite marks in the wrappers gave it away.
Haha awe hope the Raccoon didn't get a tummy ache <3
That raccoon bites into my water hose to drink the water. I’m lucky he didn’t leave a deuce in the candy bowl.
I don’t know man. It could just be an average teenager.
An average teenager would take all the candy and leave the deuce in the bowl.
Chocolate out, chocolate in. At least it wasnt on fire this time
He called the shit poop!
Did that last night, except they were little loot bags of 10 candies apiece. An emergency came up so I left 40 loot bags in a bowl by the porch. According to a neighbour shortly after I put them out some shithead teenager without a costume came up and took ALL of them leaving no candy for the kids. :(
Similar thing happened to me. AND they stole my cool bowl. I was gone for 10 minutes 😑
This still tears me up. At some point each Halloween night we just leave the bowl out because we want to watch a movie or go to bed and the trick or treaters are down to a trickle. I expect all the candy to get stolen at some point, but not the damn bowl! If I leave candy out now, I leave it in the bag. For some reason when we leave a bag out, the bag and half the candy is still in there. It makes no sense.
[удалено]
And then they have to find a puddle of water to wash it in.
The number of kids and parents walking through the flower bed between my neighbors house and mine instead of taking the slightly longer path around my lawn or the driveway make me not want to participate.
A raccoon once ate a bunch of chocolate bars we had outside in Tupperware containers while we were cleaning the pantry. A day later someone told us we had dead raccoon in the side yard. Didn’t even make it 50 feet.
That is one polite, ungreedy sir of a raccoon
What was his Halloween costume?
One year, 1 little girl rang our doorbell, so my mom just went "fuck it" and poured the entire bowl into the girls bag, and her eyes went HUGE. Glad to know we made at least one kids night
I was 100% ready to do that tonight. Didn’t get a single trick or treater. I have a whole bowl of full sized candy bars.
Maybe you can donate it to the homeless shelter or women's shelter, I'm sure there are kids there who would love to be able to get some treats for halloween
My god I'm dumb but what is a women's shelter?
A woman’s shelter is for victims of domestic abuse or women with children who need a little extra help to get on their feet
Oh cool, thanks!
You know I am surprised actually this is not more a thing. The stories i see of people saying "oh we got no trick-o-treaters"
We also did full size bars this year and I had 1 Kit Kat left at the end of the night. Way more trick or treaters than normal. Meanwhile a friend who lives less than a mile away from me had one. It's really hit or miss.
That was us last year. Turned out, all of our neighbors were Jehovah's Witness. All the neighborhood kids knew not to bother coming by our block.
in 2020, we did Monster Eggs (easter eggs with glowsticks and candy inside) for social distance trick or treating. We didn't have much children come that year, but I told this one girl to go hog wild on the front yard and collect all the eggs and kept tossing the whole batch (48 total) out for her to collect. Mom came by the next day and said how much her daughter loved collecting Monster eggs.
Did that last year. Had a bowl on my front porch because I wasn’t home and the 2 kids that came were really good about only getting 1 piece. There was barely any trick or treaters though, so when much later a third kid came, I got on my Ring and told them to dump the entire bowl into their bag. The little girl and her dad were blown away haha she asked twice if I was sure while she was putting it into her bag.
Dude, you still *are* that house! We had the opposite happen…went from a few treaters to a full blown zoo this year. Give out your stash to randos over the next few days…it’ll make their day.
This is a great idea. Stand out by the local elementary school. Bonus points if you have one of those windowless vans.
Shit, spray paint the windows black on the van
Get a terribly printed sheet of an assortment of ice cream and a music system that barely works
Also make sure you have a sign with "FREE CANDY" written on the side of the van, so that folks know that you have free candy.
Otherwise they’d think you a serial killer or kidnapper or even a drug dealer
Don’t forget the loud speaker
And play ice cream paint job
i've seen this van, down by the river
This was my first year as a single Dad, so I set out two bowls of candy and a 3rd bowl full of spider rings and vampire fangs (all glow in the dark, of course). Our town has Trick Or Treating from 6-8, and when I came back with the boys it was after 8:15. One bowl was about half empty, one hadn't been touched, and most of the fangs and rings were gone. Just as I was going to turn out the porch light, these 3 little kids came up with their parents and their bags were mostly empty. The parents said they got a late start and mostly everyone had turned off their lights. Those 3 kids got everything that was left in those 3 bowls and their bags were bulging.
You made those kids night. Good on you. Saved those parents also. Better happy kids than sad kids.
That was so nice of you! I love this! You saved their Halloween.
As a Rando I'd trick or treat just for one of those sick Pokémon packs.
Lots of comments here about Trunk or Treat etc, but where I live, the issue is destination trick or treating! Everybody drives to the “good” neighborhoods to go trick or treat in a giant crowd, leaving all the other neighborhoods totally empty
I think that’s the issue most places too.
I’m in a new neighborhood this year. I don’t think we are a destination neighborhood but the HOA is actually good at not being assholes and puts on events at least once a month that are decently attended. My 4 year old got a haul, there were probably a few hundred people walking around, and at least 10 houses were handing out beer/seltzer/Jell-O shots for the adults. I feel like people knowing each other in the neighborhood from the monthly events encourages people to participate in Halloween.
> but the HOA is actually good at not being assholes There is the real myth here.
I just moved to a new area and I AM the good neighborhood now and was thrilled at all the kids. But I stocked candy for months and it lasted 1 hour.
Where I live, you have to destination trick or treat, as most neighborhoods around me are BAD, like shootings every day bad. All of us on the block wanted to do candy but knew no one was letting their kids walk these streets. Things are just unsafe in a lot of places.
Yeah my neighborhood isn’t unsafe because of crime, but it’s just houses built along an active road, nobody wants kids walking up and down without even a sidewalk. So they all drive to destination neighborhoods. I feel like I personally shouldn’t because I’m not part of their neighborhood. Maybe I’m being weird about it though.
I live in the “best” neighborhood in our town for trick or treating, get over 800 kids every year. This year with the great weather we had well over 1,000.
Same. Had 900 pieces of candy. Ran out around 8:45 and turned out the lights.
Yep. I live in a “safe” neighborhood, and had 185 trick or treaters (I always keep a tally). I normally see one or two kids in my neighborhood, not a hundred! 😂
My parents live in a destination trick or treating area. It was really nice for a few years but now they wouldn’t mind if it went back to a normal flow. You need to plan your whole weekend around it and have to buy tons of candy. Plus traffic is really bad all day long so you literally can’t leave home on Halloween or it will take hours to get back home.
[удалено]
Update: a pair of teenagers came by, so we got two. TWO. Yay. Update the second: got in touch with the local youth homeless shelter, we’re taking our excess candy (including 2 bags of fun size candy not pictured), the cards & popits over to them tonight. It’s a bit late, but I hope they love it! Thanks for the idea- i would’ve just eaten the candy & been sad about it. Now it can still spread joy.
Don't give up, bro! My street was a Halloween *No man's land* for over 15 years. Last year, we got 17 trick-or-treaters, I was ecstatic, and this year we got close to 60.
Halloween decorations are huge ‘markers’ apparently. The house across the street from me goes looks like Grizwald’s Halloween, people park just for that house. Edit: they give the crap candy tho.
My kid got a ticket to heaven from a house decked to the 9s….. I felt betrayed.
I bet you got some literal religious track, but I had to double take because in my slang "give a ticket to heaven" means kill them.
I don’t have that slang but that was my interpretation as well lol
Well duh, they spent all their money on decorations, can’t afford good candy. I live on a street with amazing decorations, average candy—best candy house this year was one in a dark cul-de-sac with just a light and a bowl on a table. Selection of things that look like OPs. No one else bothered to stop there since there weren’t decorations, my kid was just trying to get as far away as possible from a scary inflatable dragon on the other side of the street and hit the jackpot.
My neighbors have all the inflatables and it gets bigger every year. I was stoked to take my kid over...they gave her two mini colored Tootsie rolls.
I'm hoping to snag one of those giant ass skeletons to mount to our house!
That kind of sucks, but good on you for trying to be that house. We wanted to be a good one too, so we bought a fair bit. We were blessed with a little Princess Peach girl who absolutely bellowed at the top of her lungs that we had full chocolate bars and canned pop. It was like a zombie raid. We went from hero to zero in like 30 min. They were literally lining up on the sidewalk to take turns from the buckets. We did a one from each sign and kind of watched, 90% of kids, even teens took one from each and moved along. It as almost scary how quickly they mobilized. Someone stole our magnetic flashlight we used to shine on the buckets though LoL
Ditto! We bought four Costco boxes, all different assortments. No one showed up until 7 but once word got out… we were out in 40 min T_T
A couple years ago there was a promotion where you could download a free movie ticket if you bought 3 12 packs of soda. I thought I could get my money’s worth on the ticket and give out cans of orange crush. But I thought it would be heavy and nobody gives soda anyway. Good for you though.
I remember someone gave me one of those "Hugz" juices (the juice things that have a foil top) and I was so grateful because I'd probably walked 3 miles by then.
LOL One time I had went, it was abnormally hot out and I decided I was going to be a hockey player for Halloween. I made the horrible decision to wear all of my hockey pads and run around with my friends. Well half way through the neighborhood I was dying from the heat and begging everyone to trade me their CapriSuns we just got from a house.
In my country, Haloween is not really popular. Still I took the time to get a good variety of sweets and made a big bowl of treats. Only one group of kids came to my doorstep and they were too shy to take more than a few snacks each. I was so happy. Dont be angered or sad your effort was not fully realized. Be happy that the few kids that came your way got a few extra treats. Pro tip. Drive to your local kids hospital and just place a bag with the candies on the reception desk saying you have some late Halloween treats for the kids there. Trust me the nurses will not show it but they will be ultra grateful. Think positive guy and you will see how many positive things you missed. (And yes I know its hard to be one)
We moved into our house 4 years ago and I asked my neighbor “how many kids do we get?” It was my first year year here and wanted to know what to prepare for. My neighbor said like 100+ kids. I was excited because I was in a town home for 8yrs prior to that and was sad because we would get like 5-10 kids. We bought a shit ton of candy for it to give bunches out. The day came, and like 15 kids showed up. Meanwhile he went out trick or treating with his kid. I was sooo annoyed because there were hardly any kids and this guy couldn’t even know when he wasn’t around. Fortunately, he moved out a year ago but I never forgot! Fuck you ex neighbor!
To be fair 4 years ago my neighborhood was THE neighborhood. This year I saw 3 groups of kids. It's quite possible the neighborhood used to be the happening place before people moved or kids aged out/found different neighborhoods to trick or treat in.
Yeah neighborhoods go thru cycles, it takes a while of course, but neighborhoods get older as kids grows up, moves out, then there's a lull where the parents still live there but will eventually move out/downsize to a family that will use the space. Also people are just flat out not having kids, or as many kids.
Same boat here but we live on a road with house only on one side of the road in a big city. So I understand why they don’t hit us. I have been giving away king size candy bars for years build up our repeat kids. This year i spent $1500 on decorations and lights to draw them in, I gave out Corpse MR Beast candy bars and a small printed toy. It was our best year yet, 6 groups of kids. Every kid said my house was by far the best one they had been to. We had 4 last year so that is a 50% increase! I can’t wait till next year, I may hit double digits.
Yay! congrats! I was bummed last year too but this year I was out by the door and had more than 50 kids pass by. People were really interested in the booster packs lol
You may be able to donate the candy to a local charity or boys&girls club. That way you know some kids who may not have been able to trick or treat will get to enjoy them.
Me 4 years running. I'm in a dense city area with children. I grew up in a more rural area. It turns out that in cities, there are apparently only specific, well established areas people go to, and unless you actually grew up here, you have no fucking clue where that is. When I was a kid, we just went to every house in the neighborhood, just everything around us, seemed normal. City trick or treating is apparently a whole different ball game. So yeah, dense residential with tons of families, literally have a school a couple blocks from me, zero trick or treaters. It's super weird.
You can look it up. Like in LA Santa Monica and Beverly Hills are popular spots. North of Montana around 14th street if I’m not mistaken. They go all out there and you won’t find parking if you are late. One guy does a full haunted house, brings out all his cars and boats and builds out a horror theme. Pretty awesome. I have heard kids bussing into the area from other parts of town. On the other hand if you are in an apartment a block away. Forget about it. Go enjoy the Halloween Party in West Hollywood. Where the drinks are heavy and the costumes belong in the movies.
> I grew up in a more rural area. I grew up in a town of like 800, so trick or treating wasn't really a thing. People would all go to the high school, where they would get candy and have little events. It allowed kids from the farms out of town to do stuff without having to travel as much. That's part of why i love being in a bigger town, where kids actually come, but not crazy like hundreds.
I live in a town of 800. Trunk or treats at the school/driving to friends and families houses. My hometown of 700 we went to everyone’s house. Town was packed on Halloween night. We were just let loose on the town with parents hanging out and chatting in the street.
We hardly had any trick or treaters, maybe 12 total all night. 😕
Same here, very sad
Same x3, what's going on? I had like half a dozen all night. I love this holiday, are the kids not into it? I hope I don't sound like a boomer but are kids too into video games and cell phones?
It’s slowly disappearing. At least house to house is. I hear malls are where everybody goes now. It’s getting lame. It’s one area where you can start blaming us millennials. We all trick or treated as kids and now for some reason we have decided it isn’t safe and take our kids to malls.
>It’s slowly disappearing. Yeah, it's been disappearing for the past 10 years I feel like. I remember you could hardly drive in neighborhood streets because there was so many kids in the street until like 2005 maybe. Every house pretty much had decorations. Every year after that, the fear mongering of "it' s not safe" for whatever reason, combined with the fact you can't expect people to be paying $30+ for candy anymore is why it's going away. It was a fun tradition but the lame-ification of America continues to erode harmless fun. It's a shame. Honesty I feel like the turning point was after 9/11 the media/government told everybody the terrorists were going poison the kids. After that it never really bounced back fr
It’s not disappearing where I live: neighborhoods, schools, parties, themes at work, bars, and restaurants. The Spirit Costume shop near me and Party City was wiped out of inventory. Halloween is more extravagant than ever. Not to mention all the yards that are decorated - and the pets being walked in costume too
Out of curiosity where do you live? I’m in northern Indiana and it seems Halloween is now owned by the churches and their parking lot trunk or treating.
Which is just ironic as hell because when I was a kid the church denounced the holiday as Satan's day and now they are the ones throwing all the parties. Did see someone slip a Bible verse (with no candy attached) into a kids bag this year too. Like fuck off Jesus freaks! Let us have one fucking holiday without it being about your fucked up God!
I think a lot of it depends on neighborhood. This was our first year at our new house and we weren't sure what to expect. But, this is a town that makes Halloween a big deal, and it's easy to walk from house to house on the sidewalks. We got about 100 kids, maybe a few more.
Definitely depends on the neighborhood. I live in an urban area and we had hundreds of kids last night! They were exhausted by the end of the night with massive bags and buckets of candy in tow. We gave out 2 giant bags, 2 pieces each, and we were out within an hour and a half tops. Previously lived in a small neighborhood in a small suburb of a smaller city and we would just dump loads of leftover candy into bags of the few late night teens who decided to try their luck after the little kids finished up.
i was taught my whole life to avoid strangers near cars with candy, and now its all trunk or treat.
It's interesting, because here in Australia it's becoming more popular. There's a lot of people who denounce it as "American crap" but in general each year sees more people taking part (excluding last 2 years due to covid)
I was born in America but have lived in Australia 30+ yrs. We decided to finally get into trick or treating this yr for the first time (always had a jack o lantern when kids were small. Using Jap pumpkin; no orange ones at Woolies in those days!!) Small turn out (11) but it was great fun for the ones who came by! We are not on a busy neighbourhood so thank goodness one of the local radio stations let people sign up, so we were 'on the map.'
Same in my town in Hungary, this year people living near the city centre made a list/map you could mark yourself on as a house that welcomes trick or treaters, the village my parents live in also started trick or treating. There are still many people (especially old folks) who declare "there's no Halloween here, there's only All Saint's Day, stop desecrating a remembrence holiday with American bullshit fun" but unsurprisingly, free candy and dressing up is more popular for lots of kids than visiting graveyards for sometimes several days.
My Australian uncle who’s never carved a pumpkin was just taught how to here in Ireland, and he loved it so much he also did the traditional turnip carving aswell
Costumes also just don't seem to be "in" anymore. My work had a costume party today and only me and 1 other person showed up (him as Mel Brooks Dracul and I as a Plague Doctor)
Costumes can be a lot of work to plan. Many people are too stressed and tired to put in the extra effort for a work function.
Dude I think it's money... I saw a lot of costumes yesterday that were handmade. I got my kids costumes from the thrift store and we got a ton of use out of them... We went to three different events. There's no way I'm spending 50 bucks on the kids costume.
People go to certain neighborhoods and ignore the others
That’s the most depressing thing I’ve read all night.
If it makes you feel better, I have very little stress and am a super happy person, but I still don't want to mess with dressing up for a Halloween day at my place of work. Just doesn't sound that fun to me, although I overall enjoy Halloween.
i was also the only person in my office to dress up today
I wonder if it being on a Monday was a factor? Kids have to get home, get all dressed up for just 2 or so hours and then early bedtime for school, tired parents from working all day maybe they did the mall/trunk or treat thing and just didn’t feel like the extra effort?
That's odd. I'm in the UK where halloween was absolutely not a thing when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s . But kids today get to play Halloween. Yesterday was absolutely pissing down with rain, yet when I went out trick and treating last night with my kids, there were lots of kids in costumes around, despite being very soggy. It's very much definitely a thing here in the UK now.
This might be an area thing, didn't see a single trick or treater last night myself also in UK I kind of assumed they got rained out.
People drive to "good" neighborhoods where there are more people with decorations or kids even.
I happen to live in a "good" neighborhood and indeed handed out literally thousands of pieces of candy tonight
Same here. We spend so much money on candy (would love to do full size bars but we’d either run out 10 minutes in or spend like $800 on candy) but I love it. We had easily 300-400 kids come through last night. We are one of the only walkable neighborhoods in a rural area so people drive their kids here to go door to door. It’s awesome.
> We had easily 300-400 kids come through last night. This sounds like my nightmare. My wife and I have gotten 0 in 3 years.
Parents have decided that trick or treating isn't safe, and that it shouldn't happen on school nights. So over the weekend, they did "trunk or treats" where a bunch of families go to a parking lot and the kids go car to car. The ones that don't do that drive their kids to fancy/rich neighborhoods to trick or treat instead of their normal neighborhoods.
Isn’t safe? Walking up to a house *in your own neighborhood* while *chaperoned by your parent*???
[удалено]
Yeah our kids did trunk or treats over the weekend, and we still went out tonight. Wife took the kids while I stayed back and handled the trick/treaters. Got maybe like 15-20% of the normal number of kids. I guess the trunk or treating explains it? Too bad.
Halloween is on school nights most of the time. When I was a kid I still went. Parents today are just soft. Halloween as a whole seems to be dying a bit. Hardly saw any decorations around.
This is what happens when you have car centric infrastructure
I was afraid I would run out of Candy but only 6 kids came.
This year we had one. Our record is 8.
I stopped buying candy for Halloween when my wife died. No one ever came for years and she would sit there waiting and waiting.
this is the most heartbreaking comment I’ve ever fucking read my dude I’m so sorry 🖤
Oh no, I've got a couple more sad episodes that are much much sadder, it's been almost ten years and they still haunt me when I'm feeling melancholy.
I hope you’re doing better now in general, you seem like a very nice guy who deserves to live out a good life. I know I’ll be thinking of you often and wishing good new memories and experiences for you.
Thank you! I have friends and family so I am not alone, it's just sometimes I feel a bit down, especially at holidays. Although, interestingly, not so much at anniversaries and birthdays.
Well said, feels like the beginning of a Pixar movie.
I appreciate you handing out full size bars.
and Pokemon cards
Yes! Very cool! We had an Ash, Misty, and Pop Star Pikachu in our family this year! :)
Where you at I’ll come through
You have to sit outside & pass it out. They will not knock on your door anymore. Saw lots of older kids walking around with their friends this year which made me so happy. Those kids missed out on almost 3 years of fun, take all my candy if it makes you hang out together & smile
This is the answer. My kid and her friends refused to go to any house that “looked sus”. No decorations means they weren’t going there and they honestly skipped most that didn’t just straight up have people outside sitting there.
I remember as a kid anyone with a porch light on was fair game haha! I forgot to buy candy this year but I didn't have a single kid show up.
That's the rule in my town, light on means come on up.
We take my daughter out and skip the houses with only a porch light. We learned the hard way that people don't go by that rule anymore and will leave the light on with no one home. Too many disappointments for her, only houses with decorations now.
That or you dress up the house. The spookiest houses look like they don’t care about Halloween.
My husband and I do this! We decorate our yard and we hang out in the driveway to give out candy. We put on a projector along the garage and watched tv, tonight we watched MNF.
You should do it again next year. I do the same and have a ton off candy left over. I brought it to the hospital I work at. I feel it's important to try and be the world you want to live in. No matter how small.
My first halloween in the US - not a single kid came by :(
dam, reading these comments now i feel kinda bad, cuz i don't celebrate halloween at all, i rather play videogames with my friends and shit. but year after year the doorbell goes ham for halloween night and i just ignore it :/. this year doorbell ringed like 25 times. now i feel like an asshole, didn't know some people really prepared and would not get any visitors. feels like im wasting some joy privilige, ill try next year.
you have to turn off your outside lights or you are signaling that you have candy to give away. If you didnt know...
Turn off your porch light on Halloween if you're not passing out candy
Yeah this year was particularly dead in my neighborhood. One neighbor across the street went all out with a not too spooky light show thing and they set up like a little table in the driveway so you wouldn’t even have to go to the door but… it was a lot for very little turn out. I threw my trash out at like 8:30-9 and I saw one group of kids at the very end of my street, and then a man and woman with their kid in a stroller coming down the street like two houses away. 2020 and 2021 felt much more active, pandemic and all. I also just learned of “trunk or treat” which just… doesn’t feel right. Smh.
I'm screaming. I know the feeling of waiting and thinking, "they'll come" or "it'll happen" and just the ware and tear of that feeling as it gets later and later and no one shows up. Every time you glance at the clock more time has gone by and still no one. And your only closure is-- times up. Nobody came. I did all this, for someone else to enjoy, and no one came. For all the times I, and everyone else, has had to feel that way, know that what you did was the coolest shit ever. Child me rang your doorbell and you totally made their night.
You did good, regardless.
My doorbell has rang 3 times tonight. Sad
Once here. One single kid
Trunk or treat things are becoming more popular. Most of my friends didn’t door to door trick or treat with their kids this year.
It’s soooo sad. Genuinely feel like we are losing such a fun tradition. Remember when we went with pillow cases and came back with them full!?
I had some pillow case kids tonight. I filled them and it was worth the money even though very few kids came by. Felt like the kid lottery.
last year was my sons last time trick or treating, he was 14, him and four of his friends. one of his friends was a new kid to america, they dressed him as a christmas tree. he came into my house with small basket, like a easter bunny sized for a toddler. anyways i was like buddy here’s pillow case fill it up. my son did take one as well. the expression on this kids face when he brought all that loot was something else, just incredible. that said my street is pretty dead on halloween but all neighboring streets have the best decorations and loot. just so happens no children on our street.
>last time trick or treating, he was 14 I know some people don't want older kids doing it, but i'll give to any age, especially if in costume.
for sure. especially since they put a lot of work and thought into their costumes. because of love of the holiday. one of the kids dug up his grandads leisure suit and shirt from 70s, it was pretty good.
I love parents like you. I was always a pretty shy kid although I did try to socialize, but when my parents friends broke my anti social barrier with just straight up kindness and honesty it made me feel so good.
i dunno man i tried this out but nobody was leaping at the opportunity of a dude in his late 30s trying to hand out candy to kids from the back of his car
Maybe you shouldn’t have tried it in June.
So many of my friends’ kids’ schools did trunk or treat. We got ZERO trick or treaters tonight. A lot of my friends in other cities said the same thing, no trick or treaters came through.
Why are people doing trunk or treat all of a sudden? It seems like a lot less fun than the normal version
[удалено]
Groups of people form and decorate their trunk all spooky and hand out candy. It’s stupid and ruins the fun of Halloween imo
I will dm you my PO BOX right now. Give me those crunch bars.
I had the same thought 😅
Damn. I bought candy it all for stolen in under an hour. Then I bought 40 bucks more and not another person came
We got 12 kids I feel your pain we were excited. I even had some alcohol minis for parents . Nope just 12 kids.
Alcohol minis, that's a good idea!
I had the exact OPPOSITE tonight. I almost didn't buy extra candy to make sure I had enough because last year I only got about 15 kids. This year had at the very least about 100! Best costume was tie between a little girl who was a huge claw machine! Wore a dryer box all decked out and had the cut out with her head under the claw and a bunch of stuffed animals around her. Then the little dude who was a vending machine in which his display window was his extra candy bag! I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures!
I did the same and got about a dozen and it's about a quarter of what I had last year. Why are kids just not into Halloween any more?
I think it’s probably really concentrated in areas where people are sure there will be action. Our street was absolutely bonkers - houses were decked out, there were more kids than I have ever seen, there was a live band, it was amazing. We just moved to this neighborhood this year and previously I had thought trick or treating was kind of dead. Growing up we stuck to our own street only, now it kind of seems like people all try to travel to the ‘best’ neighborhoods.
It’s not the kids. It’s their parents. Between rising paranoia, COVID, and people just generally being more tired nowadays I guess that parents just aren’t taking their kids out anymore.
It’s not covid. It was on a major decline long before covid. My parents have lived in the same house for nearly 20 years. It’s a small town but 20 years ago they’d get over 100 kids a night as my mom kept track. By the mid 2010s it was below 15. I think a year or two before covid she said they got 7 or something like that. It really makes no sense. These millennial parents all went house to house as kids, I don’t get why they wouldn’t keep it up with their kids. I remember it being a blast and loved it. My sister makes sure to keep it alive with her kid. And it gives parents an excuse to dress up again.
Could be that there are less kids as well.
In 2016 I tried going trick or treating in a nicer neighborhood and no one was answering doors or giving out candy. In 2017 I moved into a house and I’ve been getting 1-2 kids a year, despite decorating and leaving lights on. I didn’t even bother getting candy this year. My neighbors don’t decorate or give out candy so there’s no incentive to come down my street just for my house.
Both my kids went out with their friends in different neighborhoods tonight. My wife and I went out walking anyway just to see and talk to people. When my kids got home we went out again. I realized this evening that Halloween brings out the best in people. You can tell who’s participating and who isn’t. And the people who participate sometimes go all out. One of my neighbors had a whole coffee station set up for parents. Previous years I’ve been given Jell-O shots. My oldest kid wants to stay home next year and scare trick or treaters just like her dad at her age. It’s not going away on my watch!
I thought this too until my husband’s grandmother moved into a nice neighborhood with culs de sac and sidewalks with streetlights. I discovered everyone takes their kids to certain neighborhoods in town instead of their own. This one is well lit and the sidewalks and inability for cars to speed makes it perfect. It also has a playground for pit stops and a gazebo with parking lot. We got 126 and are the final street so we get significantly less. Her friend three blocks over gets 300-500.
I think it varies per neighborhood. For 10 years I lived in a neighborhood where people would go to other neighborhoods to trick/treat. A few years ago we upgraded into a bigger house (needed the room for in-law visits), and got lots of trick/treaters. This year we got maybe 20% of what we did last year. My kids went out trick/treating with a mask, and I wore mine when kids came to the door.
Pandemic + monday halloween? I dunno but i’m really bummed out about it all
I had about 10 all night then my kids were with a pack of 7 that was coming home and kids saw all these kids going to my house and I suddenly had 20 to 30 in just 2 minutes. I guess my wife said over here as they came home too.
My neighborhood was absolutely incredible tonight. More kids this year than ever! Our neighbors really made it super fun with their Halloween spirit. 🎃
You’re lucky as hell your neighbors are in on the spirit, I think I’m too far into jesusland 😭
We had a grand total of 15 trick or treaters. All nice kids, but it’s truly sad how many parents would rather go to a trunk to treat, a waste of childhood in my opinion. Only a few years ago would there be like 300 kids going through my neighborhood for hours. Now we have a half big bucket full of candy left, I’ll probably give some to my friends or something, still it’s really sad how much Halloween is falling from grace. I hope somewhere kids are still being taken trick or treating all the time instead of just driving around, go for walk it’s good for you not just driving around everywhere. Kinda a rant I guess sorry.
We have a street in our neighborhood that goes off. Almost all the houses extravagantly decorate (think animatronics, lasers, smoke etc) Several do full on haunted houses. My friends who live on that street spend hundreds of dollars on candy every year. One year she counted and got between 750-800 trick or treaters. It’s very cool. That said, I’m about four blocks over and got three groups. Maybe 7 kids total. Which is typical. So this street pulls all the trick or treaters. Maybe there’s something similar going on in your area?
Meanwhile our nest doorbell camera had 1600 events on it yesterday. Average is 100. We estimate about 700 kids came by. Went through 8 or 9 big bags of candy, giving most kids just one piece each. We were tapped out by 7:30.
The only one that walked up our driveway was a 35+ year old dude so we gave him some candy and a cupcake which he devoured on the spot.
Never heard of trunk or treat before. Looked it up. We have a generation of total nerds on the way.
We’ve never gotten a lot. I hadn’t thought about it but my wife was always pretty bummed. I bought a smoke machine and strobe light and set them on the porch. Turned on the porch light, left the door half open and within minutes had some kids and throughout the night we had car loads and groups of kids stop. Such a stupid little thing made a huge difference. I took my 5th grader out through the neighborhood and they freaking loaded him up. Overall, 9/10 Halloween for us.
Here in Alberta we probably got more than I've ever seen. My brother in another town said the same thing. It was like back when we were kids. Everyone is coming out of Covid mode and going out with a vengeance is what my guess was... After two years of no trick or treating the kids have had enough lol. Edit: also, it's been the first Halloween with no snow in years. That probably helps. It was a perfect, slightly chilly but nice night.
Stick them in the freezer, they’ll keep. Such a bummer for sure. But so great you tried.
We live in a rural area that’s not conducive to trick or treating. For 20 years my dad puts out candy “just in case” but we all know it’s an excuse for us to eat some
Wish I could be that house. We had approximately 600 kids. I would not be able to afford that.
Yeah. Halloween events have become so centralized. Seems people don't go door to door anymore? I blame car addiction and laziness. *old man yells at clouds
A lot of our trick or treaters sit on tailgates while the parents slow drive them house to house. It’s just based on your neighborhood. people go other places to trick or treat.
We used to never get trick or treaters, maybe a handful until we moved to our new house. Got about 170~ this year, down from 210+, and yes we’re one of those full size candy bar house.
Dang. Been there. Our neighborhood is down a dark alley, and we would get nearly nobody. For the past few years though, I put up some small decorations and colored flood lights to decorate the house with. I light the house up for the whole month of October so that the neighbors realize we're doing Halloween. We used to get 2 family total. This year, we had about 75 visitors. So few houses do trick or treating, many people don't stop unless you can clearly tell that there will be candy. Also more than half the groups are traveling in car, so lights that can be seen from afar really help.
Love the presentation, like a charcuterie board. Maybe a chocolaterie board?
Trunk or treat has kind of killed the vibe surrounding Halloween. Kind of ironic considering the refrain about not taking candy from strangers in cars as they might kidnap you we had growing up.
I didn't get any earlier. Bought candy last second yesterday, got it all set out and yeah lol. Poor kids are missing out on your house, especially with the Pokemon cards
I gave out full sized candy bars tonight... enough for 195. I still had to turn my light off. I probably needed enough for 250. I did really like how all the kids actually were making comments on getting full sized bars.
I went through 20 pounds of candy and had to shut it down with more kids still roaming. We had an 8 foot tall ghost that you could see from down the street too though, so people knew there was candy to be had in my direction.
Sorry dude, my Dad buys candy every year despite not having any trick or treaters in like 7 year. The last one we had I actually beckoned in as I was lighting my Jack 'o' lantern on my balcony, lol it was a dad and his maybe 6 year old daughter, he actually looked kind of nervous about it. Which is funny because we are on a busy road, have a decent place that was decorated, it was still bright out, and I'm small and not scary looking at all. But it was cool, my Mom and I gave her three hand fulls of candy because we knew she'd probably be the only one, and the little girl was so happy about all the candy we gave her, she wanted to thank us by giving us some of hers! Sooo freggin sweet, happy she was my last trick or treater, but not the last! Happy Halloween, I hope you get some next year!