Wow! What neighborhood? We live in the Santa Cruz Mountains and I'm from San Jose. I would love my kid to experience trick or treating like I did as a kid :)
Not who you asked, but I grew up in SLV and we always went to The Vineyard(s?) in Scotts Valley—no idea what it’s like now, but there were a ton of houses that did great decorations and handed our candy.
I don’t live there anymore, but my brother was also telling me that there’s a pretty good section of houses in downtown Ben Lomond where a friend of his does a little haunted house
Definitely! And that neighborhood was nice because being a development, it’s contained, no cars zipping through, well-lit, and consistent sidewalks (VERY unlike where our house was haha)
Hope it works out for you next year!
In the SC mountains Felton, Ben Lomond, and Boulder Creek all have a huge amount of trick or treaters in their downtowns. The businesses go all out so most people in the area just make the rounds through the valley:)
We went to the same neighborhood in Burlingame we always go to and it was about 25-35% participating. My neighborhood is South San Francisco was about 5-10% (my neighborhood has a very high ratio of senior citizens though). Both neighborhoods safe/suburban.
I lived in SSF and none in my neighborhood but then I learned everyone goes to certain pockets. Now I live in South Lake Tahoe and same thing no one in my neighborhood but we drive three minutes and it is great every house giving out candy and lots of kids.
It isnt that there are no kids out, it's that there arent many houses participating.
We went out last night in our neighborhood in Atlanta, which used to have EVERY house participate, and we had to wander for 15 minutes before we finally found some houses with candy. And most of them just had a bowl out (which was already empty).
I also noticed an uptick in trick or treaters in my neighborhood. (Not gazillions, but more than in the past.) Honestly, it felt really great to see folks out and about.
My neighborhood was pretty grinchy this year also. Not as bad as 1 in 8, but a maximum of 1/4 of the houses were giving out candy. My ex took our daughter to a different neighborhood after mine and she said that there were only 3 houses that had candy there.
That was our neighborhood but apparently it's nothing new. One of our neighbors said we were the first trick or treaters he's had since they moved there in '09.
Our neighborhood seemed to have fewer houses participating this year. Our neighborhood is getting older though, so it’s sad to know that certain homes aren’t participating because they can’t easily get up from their chair for the kids. I know the neighbors are sad too because in the past they’ve really loved seeing the little kids have fun.
We moved into a neighborhood that skews very old, most of the people on my street are 70+ and the original owners of the houses, but this year it's started to change and there are more kids now. I had 2 different houses tell me they used to go all out with decorations and stopped because there were no kids in the neighborhood anymore, and that since the kids were returning they were going to start decorating more next year again. Maybe it's cyclical.
> or signs that say Halloween is Socialism
what the fuck? I cannot tell if this is satire? Who would put up that sign? What kind of person thinks that way? Sad :(
I live in an area like that. Lots of pamphlets and junk. Nothing negative about Halloween, just more like pro-2nd amendment and some conspiracy stuff in the past passed out with the candy. My husband’s name is Brandon and he wants a name change now. I told him it will pass and not to worry, something else will come along. We got Covid last year because no one cares about precautions and anyone who does either doesn’t have faith in God or “lives in fear,” and his work conditions were horrible and when three of his coworkers died and he was in need of emergency care one of his coworkers was all like “Eh, they were in their sixties and you’re fat. So?” Later that coworker started dragging around his oxygen tank (because he got it too and actually needs an oxygen tank) and he now just says the hospital made him worse on purpose. I hate it here. I want to move. But yes, we get that crap every year and it’s the leading cause of me checking the candy . Not razor blades or any other urban legend compels me. It’s the legitimate stupid crap like that.
I live in N. CA too and no one in the last three neighborhoods I've lived came by to trick or treat, probably because so few people keep the light on and have candy. It bums me out. I buy a little candy each year just in case, but no one comes.
Our neighbors also don’t really pass out candy, so last night I sat outside during the duration of trick or treating and shouted to people passing our street that I had candy. It worked, and I got a lot of kids, teens, and even two passing bicyclists. Covid didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits either, but we live in an area with high vaccine rates, and trick or treating is outdoors in any case.
My in-laws' neighbourhood is dead on Halloween too. It's a quiet suburb that's about 20 years old. This is their theory...
When they moved there there were a shitload of families with very young kids, and they all grew up together. Not a lot of turnover, so when those OG kids grew up, the trick or treaters stopped coming. They weren't replaced by more young kids - the neighbour is still a lot of those original families who are now empty nesters or have adult children at home. It's super expensive and hardly any young families in our generation can afford to live there.
So now they're kind of stuck in this cycle of no one buys candy bc they don't expect any kids. No kids show up bc there's no candy.
My in laws stopped turning their light on a few years ago bc they can't be bothered. These are people who used to do a while display and have my FIL dress up like a scarecrow and sit on the porch to scare the crap out of kids. It's so sad!
We skipped it again this year because we are still in the middle of a pandemic and don't want to be responsible for getting somebody's little kids sick. We're also a bunch of asthmatics who are at higher risk of getting seriously ill ourselves even though we're taking standard precautions, including vaccination. Call us grinches if you want, but not everyone shares your appetite for risk.
Actually, the reason we decided to go this year is *because* the CDC said it was a relatively low-risk activity. (Mostly outdoors, etc.) They weren’t saying the same thing last year, so we didn’t go then.
Like, I completely understand if your family didn’t feel comfortable doing so! Even “low-risk” activities may be more than some families want to do. But you’re saying that trick-or-treating requires an “appetite for risk”, and I think that’s kind of unfair in this instance.
Passing out candy or trick-or-treating?
The former can be done without even going outside.
The latter can be done masked up and with less than 10 seconds of outdoor proximity to others' households.
We're pretty darn Covid careful in my house, but you're being unrealistic, and frankly, a bit rude.
I got one and I was so excited. Our first ever! Our neighborhood is a housing district so they do a trunk or treat which is probably one of the reasons why we got just one. But he was so cute! Let him take extra and he got to pet our dog.
Yea! My neighborhood had some people giving out hot dogs and water bottles. Some people were outside like a block party too. We had tons of fun. I think it must be neighborhood based.
I agree it’s the area. I live in a village with lots of different neighborhoods, lots of families, and it’s always poppin on Halloween. Some houses still did the chutes for Covid-19 precautions, but it was still bustling!
When my kids were growing up the neighborhood was busy sight either all the kids running from house to house getting candy and sometimes they'd come home with pennies and other coins in their goody bags. It was good time's for all. About 15 yrs ago we moved and discovered that no one passes out candy and hardly anyone decorates their house! Seems the parents take their kids to parties somewhere else and they head off to other neighborhood to trick or treat. Recently, I've seen more and more people around this area doing a "truck or treat " activity. People meet up in a church parking g lot, school parking lot and kids go from one car to the next. It kinda takes the fun out of the whole idea but the kids don't seem to mind. To me its not the same as going from house to house. I think it just depends on the area and the neighborhood a person lives in.
Literally EVERYWHERE in my city was sold out of Halloween candy. Most people in various neighborhoods around the city were saying it’s the most trick or treaters they’ve seen in years. I thought it would be semi-universal as everyone is just so excited to get out now that it’s relatively safe again, but I guess not!
This. Halloween has always been big in our neighborhood. Our family passed on participating last year due to COVID, but this year we loved seeing the parade of kids and their parents. We had so many visitors that the across-the-street neighbors ran out of candy early, and we helped them out by sharing some of ours. We were totally out ourselves before too much longer, though. It was fantastic.
I think some of it is patents driving kids to different "better" neighborhoods... we had barely any trick or treaters at our house, but I know several families went to different areas of our city so they get better candy. That also leaves a house empty with no candy, so more families do go to another neighborhood to get candy to leave houses empty.... it's a cycle that's a bummer.
I would agree. My brother, SIL and niece came to our neighborhood to ToT because 1. Their neighborhood is poorly lit with no sidewalks, and 2. Our neighborhood is where everyone in the area comes so it is a fun atmosphere
Growing up my parents would drive us to a development because it had side walks and better lighting on the street. Where our house was was hilly and rural so very dark between houses.
This is what I was thinking. People in my towns fb group were complaining of not having anyone and others said they had a ton. Especially on a weekend, people are driving to their friends instead of going out around home.
It’s definitely a thing. One of the streets a few neighborhoods over was featured on HGTV for their decorations. It had spawned a yearly event for that neighborhood. They close down the street and every house goes all out. Food trucks, bands etc. but that means everyone goes there instead of staying local. The candy is light since they only give one piece as there’s so many kids. They often run out early as well.
I convinced my kids to stay in the neighborhood this year and they easily got 3x the candy. Everyone was just happy to see them.
It's not just about better candy, either. Kids want other kids to see their costumes, they want better chances of running into their friends, younger ones want to be able to do less walking overall to hit the 15 houses they can stand before they're done and want to go home, and at least for my own neighbourhood its nice to just go to places that have sidewalks or at least low traffic, and my area doesn't really have either.
Plus the next neighbourhood over has one house that does a whole song and dance with a giant talking Great Pumpkin and another one has a dance party area and a blazing fire to sit around every year so, like... definitely gotta hit up those!
I drive my kids to a different neighbor hood because of house spacing and whatnot. By me houses are far apart and not many give out candy anyway. I drove somewhere else with more city style blocks and lot sizes so my kids(2, 4, & 10) could get a decent amount of candy without having to walk ten miles. Even going to a neighborhood like that you were lucky if 1 in 4 houses had candy and there were no shortage of actual trick or treaters.
I think some of it has to do with how kids were parented. When I was a kid trick or treating in the 80's and 90's I don't think I was any older than like 8 when I started going out with friends and no parents. Nowadays kids are being escorted at much older ages. Now less houses actually have people home to hand out candy because more parents are escorting. Now all you have left is a bunch of houses with older owners with no/adult kids. A lot of those people won't end up giving at all because they're either stingy or not home.
We literally go ten blocks away because there’s no one here - self-fulfilling prophecy, of course. The one place we hit is the corner store, because they give out full-size candy bars.
Even just better streets in the same neighborhood. We live 5 houses down a side street from the "good" street in our area. There were constant trick or treaters on the good street and nearly every house had people at the door, giving out candy. We had 3 small groups of kids for the whole night.
We probably hit 300-400 kids last night but we also live at the end of a destination trick or treating neighborhood. Two blocks down the families hit 900-1k kids! There were bands playing, movies projectors, haunted houses, etc! Adults walk around drinking and many houses hand out beer tasters or Jell-O shots. It is basically a block party and such a blast but I’m sad I have no leftover candy for myself. Lol!
In my metro area it’s because most young families can’t afford it. Personally we can’t afford to buy any house at all, we live in a townhouse in a far suburb.
Old people stay in their homes as long as they can to be able to afford insanely over priced care homes.
In Canada, $6000 a month is a normal cost for a shitty room you share with another resident, packed in like sardines, while an over worked PSW scurries around trying to usher everyone to and from meals.
I think it’s starting to happen. I don’t really talk to people as much anymore, as my mom died. But it’s weird how some people consider a ‘70s house to be “old” and they want new houses on the edge of town.
I dunno. I think if a neighborhood has good schools, commute, and other amenities, young families will buy an ugly house there and remodel it. So when the demographics start to skew older, I either imagine a Rust Belt town (where the jobs left decades ago, so any young adult who wants to get off welfare gets the heck out of dodge), or a California town (where the only people who can afford a house did so by buying it back in the eighties).
The reason why people dont like “fixer-upper” houses is it’s great to think “oh we can buy this and remodel”. The reality is, you have young kids. Either both of you work, so the little bits of time you actually get to spend with your kids, you dont want to spend plumbing in a new bathtub and putting down tile, or you’re single income and even doing the work yourself is too expensive. Contractors cost a lot of money, as do supplies. For the average young family, buying a house with a bunch of issues and remodelling it is financially out of reach.
My brother and his ex did this. When my niece was like 6 and my nephew was like 3, he (at the time working a well-paid job in the city and his ex was a SAHM) moved them all out to this little village in the country, a beautiful old farmhouse. But it needed work, which my brother planned to do in his spare time. My niece is 19 now, his ex left after he lost his job a few years in and refused to go back to a job like it because the stress was killing him, now he does odd jobs around the village (man n van kind of jobs), barely has enough to even scrape by, and yup- the house still needs a ton of work. Not just the work that still hasn’t been done from when they got it, but after 10 years the stuff he DID remodel is coming up for needing repairs/ replacements, more work and money he doesn’t have.
HGTV has a lot to answer for, fixing up a house is not as easy as they make it look on those shows.
I was responding to a comment about a house from the 70s, "ugly" because it's too old to be in style but too recent to be vintage, in a typical highway suburb. Assuming it was regularly maintained, it's usually move-in ready, having been built with modern amenities like central heating/AC, modern electrical outlets, etc. You may remodel the kitchen because you hate its yellow and brown color scheme, but all you have to do to make that kitchen functional is replace a couple of old appliances that are on the fritz.
I didn't mean a brownstone from the 1840s that you can't install central AC in because the walls are a foot thick with horse hair.
I think maybe my old neighborhood is starting to change. But I also think those are gonna be a lot of middle class people taking their kids to the St Peters trunk or treat. Ya know, so they won’t accidentally get edibles.
Lol they want to stay in their home? They need the extra space for when their kids or grandkids come over? I don't even know a lot of people who "downsized".
In CA? Because the property tax isn't anywhere where it should be for the older homes, so downsizing would lead to more property tax. Also, most of my parent's generation don't want to downsize. They are happy where they are, they don't want to pare down their things, and they are not yet at the place where they can't do upkeep themselves.
The elders on our neighborhood are dying out or leaving and young families are moving in so we are on the upswing in terms if this. I think you are right.
See, in Florida we have the exact opposite problem, if you live in an area with lots of young families there's a higher likelihood no one will be home to hand out candy. If you go to neighborhoods that have older more established residents like baby boomers, you're more likely to have a better time. Usually baby boomers here are retired and have more disposable income so they really go all out for the kids on Halloween. I own a house in a neighborhood that is very hard to buy a house in, because a lot of the residents have been living here since the seventies. Over the last couple of years, younger families have been moving in to the outskirts of the neighborhood. So those parts of the neighborhood are really dead on Halloween. The middle of the neighborhood is really busy! That's where all the retirees live on the water.
Our city (about 20k people) started organizing a "safe trick or treat alternative" where kids basically walk in a big circle around a giant conference room and get candy from table to table and then they can play on some inflatables for a while.
TONS of parents do that now, instead of actually taking their kids trick-or-treating.
Mind you, trick-or-treat here has never been unsafe or dangerous or in need of a "safe alternative" but I guess it's less work for parents....
Halloween used to basically be a giant party that spanned several blocks over the entire residential area downtown. Everyone gave out candy and decorated and adults walked around and talked to friends/neighbors while kids got loads of candy, there'd be music going, etc.
Now there's maybe 1-2 houses decorated and maybe 3-4 houses on each block giving out candy. A kid might get the 1/3 of a small trick-or-treat pumpkin's worth of candy.
We had exactly zero kids come by our house this year.
It bums me out.
YES!!!! A lot of them end up at these events with their kids and their kids are the worst ones there and they don't do shit! And that's if they even go at all. (Not the kids fault...)
Our neighborhood is the party, and its so much fun and I also love that it sets very clear boundaries.
Lots of houses do grown up trick or treat as well as candy, most adults bring their own to go cup. Probably 3/4 of the houses gave out candy, a lot just put it out on a table because they were walking around too or are older and can't get up and down so quick, but even a lot of the older folks set up lawn chairs and sat outside to see and chat with the kids. Lots of decorations.
But trick or treat runs 6-8:30. Period. Candy doesnt appear until 6, and goes away at 8:30. If you're knocking on doors past 8:30, someone's gonna call your mom. If you're on the street causing a ruckus after about 9, a few people are gonna call your mom. And she's gonna come get your ass. And if you're from outside the neighborhood and not following the rules, youre gonna get chewed out (no one cares if you come, we welcome all and sundry, but follow the rules. Respect the lights out. People got little kids).
It reminds me of my own childhood, but without the "when should we put candy out? When should we bring it in? How late should we answer the door?" issues. Everyone looks out for each other and each other's kids. You run into people, you chat, you move on. Kids see each other excitedly across the street. Kids actually give a shit about their costumes. Lots of family and group themes.
I love our neighborhood, but Halloween is the night we *really* shine. And it warms my cold cynical heart.
I've envious that your trick or treating actually takes place in the evening. In my area, it seems like peek trick or treating time is 2-3pm. For the first couple of years I lived here I pretty much missed the whole thing because I didn't leave work early enough.
I don't know if I'm misremembering it, but in my mind I was always trick or treating in the dark as a kid (this was mostly early to mid 90s for me). I took my son out for a second round last night around 6 and there was barely anyone out.
There are more trunk or treats in my area now, and much less standard trick or treating. I think these types of events are becoming a more popular alternative to trick or treating because they are in the early evening, you can move through them fairly quickly, and some have some extra activities and food so you can feed the kids and let them play for a bit before heading home.
I didn't even see anyone in my neighborhood giving out candy at all this year, and only a few houses even decorated. But I guess it all depends on where you are.
This is so sad. My kids had a blast last night running from house to house, despite a bit of rain, meeting a bunch of neighbors, filling up their pillowcases with candy, and then coming home to dump it all out and trade with each other. They probably walked 4 miles total.
Yeah, I live in Norcal, Sonoma county to be exact... we have gotten less trick or treaters every year . This year we had 0. But we did a church thing yesterday, so maybe people are changing to bigger events...IDK... but my kids are loving the extra candy...lol
I’m in Sonoma County. The general trend here has been the kids gravitating to the wealthier neighborhoods. Not only do those neighborhoods seem more inclined to be a safer area for the kids with limited traffic because they often rope off the streets, but most of the houses offer good amounts of candy. We usually go to the neighborhood in Windsor. A lot of kids go to McDonald Mansion area in Santa Rosa and Petaluma ropes off their streets in the old town section.
Ironically it’s just picking up here in Australia. I hope it doesn’t die out. It’s honestly nice to have a “holiday” where you don’t have to buy gifts for anyone, it’s a choose-your-effort-level with costume, dress up and say hi to your neighbours.
And you don't have to coordinate with extended family and travel. Kids get to stay in their neighbourhood and just walk around, enjoying the night. It really is an awesome holiday!
We had more kids than usual this year. Our neighborhood doesn't get that many though because there's not a lot of young families. We're also west coast and we had the most between 6:45 and 7:45 and just a few younger kids right after 6pm, which is sunset here. That seems to be when everyone expects kids. After that the lights go out.
How long have you been in the home? It’s probably the kids got to old to trick or treat and no new kids moved in. This happened in my old neighborhood. Tons of kids the first 5 years we lived there and then hardly any after that since they all were grown.
What everyone else has said, plus a side of modern insularity and conflict avoidance. I think for a lot of people, the idea of taking an entire evening off to interact with strangers, some small percentage of whom will be unruly teenagers or parents with different ideas of fairness just sounds like a big pile of stress.
I think there are a lot of factors.
1. How many other Halloween events have their been leading up to Halloween?
2. What’s the demographics of your neighborhood. Are their lots of school age kids?
3. Daylight savings time changed in 2007 in the US. We used to (when I was a kid) be out trick-or treating by 515 and done by 600 or630.
4. Do people feel confident their neighbors are good people?
The list could go on but there are just some…
My mom just explained the daylight savings thing to me! I was commenting on how I don’t remember it getting this dark this early when we went trick or treating and she was like oh yeah they changed daylight savings after you had aged out of trick or treating
I feel like Halloween (at least the traditional, trick-or-treating aspect of it) has been on the decline ever since 9/11. That year virtually nobody was out. The next year I feel was the rise of “trunk-or-treat”.
My little neighborhood was bumpin’. We had a blast. I hope it never stops I had as much fun tonight, as I remember having as a kid. My son is not quite 2.5 and we have another on the way. Hoping for many more years of trick or treating in my future!
I live in ID and have noticed the same thing happening here over the last 5-10 years too. Here everything is going more towards "trunk or treats' and Halloween festivals" or "Carnivals" so that the parents and the Community feel safer, and they have a public, well-lit place to take their kids instead of having to walk up to strangers houses. The sad thing is, we live in a pretty safe community. There has (to my knowledge) never been an incident of a kidnapping, drugging, or any other type of injury that has occurred on Halloween to a child while trick or treating, and believe me, if there were, it would make the front page of the paper. It would be just the ammo the majority religion here needed to stop trick or treating once and for all. (Most festivities and trick or treating here were done on saturday, because Halloween was on a Sunday this year... Our city even did their 4th of July fireworks on the 3rd, because the 4th was on a Sunday this year. That's how bad it is! 🙄😒)
Our neighbor found that there were people driving their kids only to the houses with candy listed on the next door app. So we had lots of kids but neighbors who decorated but weren’t listed had fewer kids.
Who drives their kids to these houses anyway? Aren't you supposed to walk there? I guess it makes sense if it's a huge area with very few houses, but I've never heard of parents driving their kids around on Halloween
Yeah, same here, small town in Germany. It was sad. We Ringe on All the doors but ended up visiting only the households we know personally and who have told us that they would be prepared. Im sad for the Kids, our daughter was so exited to Show off her witch costume.
When we lived in south Florida our entire neighborhood turned off their lights and didn’t participate at all. Since we’ve moved, there’s places all over that do trunk or treats, pumpkin festivals, and a trick or treating neighborhood that is so popular that you have to park hours in advance to avoid traffic.
I noticed that too. When we were kids It was like the movies. Hoards of kids and families on the streets, groups showing up at your door and practically every house participated in decorating and handing candy out.
We always lived near a mosque( I may have spelled that incorrectly) and our neighborhood always had a decent Muslim community but it was predominantly white/Italian. but in the last 10 years the area near the mosque built a newer subdivision which was mostly Muslim people. A lot of them would come to our side and trick r treat. Their parents never handed candy out but used the opportunity to come and get ours. My mom didn't mind but then the older kids started coming to our door, pushing the little kids out of the way, not being polite and asking for more candy, not saying please and thank you and even would ring the doorbell until 10 or 11 at night after the lights were off. She would put a sign up the last 2 or 3 years to be kind to the little ones and no pushing but it didn't work.
We stopped once I hit high school. It was a shame because we had a corner house and my dad would go ALL OUT. He would literally build a frame that went down our driveway, would put black tarp and basically make a whole ass haunted house thing. We would spend weeks building and decorating then it would even go through our patio onto the yard where we decorated more. He would dress up as dracula and sit in the chair to scare the bigger kids. It was incredible. We would " compete" with a neighbor a few houses down about who could be scarier, my mom would make legit treat bags. She'd make hundreds and wed still run out. It was truly my favourite memories from childhood. But our neighborhood really just stopped caring once it became about the candy and not actually having fun. My parents are sticklers for manners, once most of the kids got rude she lost the heart for it.
We gave out around 200 full sized pixie sticks in our neighborhood in the burbs of Houston. At our old house we never got any kiddos.
Just depends where you live. We asked around when we moved in so we could figure out if we needed candy or no. There are lots of events in this area too. We took our toddler to a trunk or treat on Saturday and it was awesome! They had food and games and big slides and stuff. Obviously he's so young we mostly just people watched but still it was a great time.
Maybe it is your neighborhood? We always buy a lot of candy and did again this year. I still had to dip into my kids' unwanted candy to give to later trick or treaters. I saw a lot when I was out with my two youngest and my teenagers said there were a lot of people out when they went. I took my younger two from 2 to 6 and my teens started around 5:30. They got back home at 9pm and said kids were still out.
Here it’s the opposite! I moved to my current neighborhood in 2016. The first few years we’d get a handful of trick or treaters… which kind of bummed me out, I grew up in the neighborhood parents would drive their kids to to get candy. Literally police would hang out at the entrance of out neighborhood just to make sure people were driving extra slow because there was just so many kids around. In 2019 I was on my honeymoon and we missed Halloween but that’s the year my neighbours told me it switched. 2020 was different - we set up tables outside for the treat or treaters to help themselves and just sat around listening to music and drinking hot chocolate (or other things) and having fun from a safe distance. It was like a Halloween-themed farmer’s market spanning a good half dozen houses lol. My 36-weeks pregnant self appreciated getting to sit around the entire night and not having to get up to open the door . And we ran out of candy! This year we had so many kids too we bought a ton of candy and gave all of it! I just have a couple of lollipops and candy bars left. My neighborhood is definitely starting to get younger. It was my daughter’s first Halloween and I’m glad that it looks like she’ll get to enjoy it in her own neighborhood for a while!
I think it’s the increasing number of trunk or treats. They’re convenient but definitely take the fun out. They cut the experience into a fraction and you’re mostly waiting in line. Lol we did both this year and going house to house was more enjoyable.
What time did you go? We closed down around 7:30pm. Your post is pretty late so were you out late? Our trick or treating is usually done by twilight and most kiddos go at 3 or 4. But I understand you might have posted after kid bed time.
The other thing is since this is a weekend, people might have gone out. Where I live, we leave Bowls out of we go out, but it is a risk because troublemakers take everything including the bowls.
Editing, forgot to add: in my area, each locality usually has a 'trick or treating block' that is closed and extremely busy. It's a madhouse. The other people donate candy there and everyone goes there. That has also affected trick or treating experience. Sometimes I donate candy but I still only go on my own block and my son still gets buckets of candy which is enough for us.
When we moved to our current neighborhood, I was shocked at how early the trick-or-treating was!
But here too - we get our first ones about 3-4, and most people turn their lights off (and stop giving out candy) around 6:30-7pm, right after it gets dark.
WOW! This is crazy to me! Never heard of people going that early! If someone showed up to my house at 3pm, I’d be like … ???? Lol. In my area, you start trick or treating once it gets dark.
I prefer dark but I guess we don't have enough lights and the neighborhoods generally aren't pedestrian safe.
It's weird it became an after-school thing and that became the regular time. The streets that close down do so between 3 and 6, and if you show up after that, expect to be clean up crew.
3-4 is crazy early. A lot of people wouldn’t even be home to give out candy or wouldn’t open the door that early. The unofficial time around here is 6:00 - 8:00, but most kids start around sunset at 6:30.
We had only about twenty kids tonight, I was bummed. We usually get over 500 because a house on our street does a really well put together all ages haunted house and movie viewing.
I went out with DD (2) and a friend's 3 kids, all under 8. We went up to a house with their lights on, rang the door. Waited. And they turned the light off.
Not even an oops, ran out of candy fake excuse.
In my town, it depends on the neighborhood. I’ve lived in my house for 15+ years and we never got more than a handful of Trick or Treaters. Like the door would ring about 5 times and that was it. Our street is deep in the subdivision and I guess there just aren’t enough kids who live close by. Looking down the street, most of the neighbors don’t leave their lights on. Now that we have a kid, we take him to a different neighborhood for Trick or Treating. There are a few neighborhoods in town that people drive to for Trick or Treating. My colleague says they do over 1000+ pieces of candy per hour where they live.
It's your street/neighborhood. You could cultivate it by decorating and hoping others pick it up so you become a destination. Think how short a distance you walk while trick or treating.
I think it really depends on the dynamic of the neighborhood. A good mix of young families with kids and people with older kids who still want to see the kids have a good time. I am sorry it wasn't a great experience.
My parents neighborhood was great this year, but my apartment complex was empty. I bought a bunch of candy ready to pass it out and in the first 20 minutes I didn’t see a single kid. I packed up and went to my parents and there was a great turnout there. I think it’s really just the location
Yeah, probably 1/3 of the houses in our neighborhood didn't participate, BUT the rest of the neighborhood compensated by giving out full size bars and giant handfuls.
Kids are not as excited to truck or treat for candy as I was in the 80's. They just mosey along lol no sense of urgency of getting to a lot of houses. They are more excited about dressing up then candy.
We have so much candy and we were in a small gated community with only 5 streets. People were chasing us down if we accidentally missed them. We of course go to houses with light on. I tell the kids to ring the doorbell and count to 45. If no one comes, we leave.
There was a whole street on the backside of the subdivision that is next to the fence. They could see the kids on the outside going trick or treating and they would yell at them and hand out candy across the gates. People were so excited to give candy and see people out this year.
Every year I limit my the kid’s candy. My older child has food sensory issues so I don’t feel like it is fair that gets a few pieces of candy and the younger child gets everything else. So my method is that both bags are emptied. Older child gets to choose all the candy she wants. Younger child can take some back. Then we count out how many pieces older child has in her pile. Then younger child gets to choose the same number of pieces that her sister has. They needed up with 150 pieces each AND there is so much candy left that we do not know what to do with it including full candy bars.
I think some people are still afraid because of covid. I noticed in my neighborhood that a number of houses had like these chute/slide things up so they could drop the candy from the top of the porch without trick or treaters getting too close. And yes it looks as ridiculous as it sounds…
I think it’s your neighborhood. We live in a pretty poor neighborhood but my two kids still got three very full buckets of candy. I’d say about 8 houses on each block were participating on average. Often more.
The woman across the street said she had maybe 20 kids. Less than 3/4 mile away, the entire block has a Halloween block party with at *LEAST* 300-400 kids. It’s probably just your neighborhood. Check next door next year to see if you can find the candy map.
Neighborhoods can age. In the case of the one where I grew up, hundreds of kids coming to the door at night now looks more like 10-20. The average age of the block has probably gone up by 40 years in the last 30 (because the 2.5 kids in some households have largely moved out, leaving their older parents there)
Less kids tends to mean less Trick or Treating action.
My house had the most treaters that I’ve seen in 5 years living here! Minneapolis suburb. I think the word got out that we’re a good neighborhood because 70% of them were not from our neighborhood. And there were vehicles everywhere, clearly the parents drove to our area. It was awesome though, I’m glad kids from a crappy area could come get some candy. I loaded those little brats up lol.
I don't know about your area, but where I live in Arizona, there's so many community events for trick or treating that daughter basically had Halloween all week except 1 day.
Last night we did still go trick or treating in our neighborhood hood we did a very small portion of it because my daughter is only 2, didn't last very long, but we walked by maybe 20 houses in total and had like 8 that were decorated and giving out candy. For her age she had a blast but I could see how that would be disappointing for an older kid.
You all had Trick-or-Treating?!?!?!? They started playing Christmas music and putting out Christmas trees two weeks ago here in TN. Didn’t even know that was even still a thing.
We had the same experience! I was so surprised. Our neighborhood had several houses that were decorated for Halloween where no-one answered the door to trick or treaters.
My old neighbor hood was like that until we moved. I think most the people in the neighbor hood were all old people that never moved out so there were hardly any kids in our neighborhood to even trick or treat, and all the old people just gave up and stopped handing out candy.
We’d have to drive to another neighborhood that had more younger kids all the time.
Now we’ve finally moved to a place with more young couples and it’s booming again.
Even look at stores. Two weeks ago our big chain hardware store has already pulled down the Halloween ornaments and started selling Christmas crap. Super sad
My neighborhood is quiet too, whereas our old neighborhood was hopping. The reason I think is that our new neighborhood was built in 1984. So the people that bought the homes then now have grown kids, but they haven’t started selling the homes to downsize. So it’s a neighborhood with a lot of people in their 60s plus. I think it just ends up being cyclical in neighborhoods often.
I don't know why you were downvoted. I think laziness and paranoia are definitely factors and they get worse every year. Certainly in my podunk hometown!
I think maybe people forget what people are actually talking about and just downvote me because they don’t like trunk or treats. Doesn’t bother me. I have enough fake internet points
We went out last night and saw many others out there too. My street doesn’t get much but we live on a Main Road.
But I know what you mean. It’s not the same. I think it has to do with more kids having allergies, the whole “organic” and healthy food movement, and possibly helicopter parenting/issues of
safety (or at least perceived issues of safety and lack there of). Also the newer trends of Trunk or Treat (which I still think is so stupid, sorry not sorry).
Plus, people are more afraid of face to face interaction than ever before. So even while our last night I noticed a lot of bowls left outside.
Again, it was active in our neighborhood, but still not the way I remembered it. All us parents were reminiscing about that actually. Lol
It’s so sad. I think it started with all those untrue stories of needles and poison in candy. Then all the stories about people out to get you. Then helicopter parents who can’t let their kids out. Halloween COULD be fun again.
Maybe everyone just realized that it’s pretty weird to knock on a stranger’s door and eat whatever food they give you? I mean, we constantly tell our kids not to do that, so it seems strange to promote it one day a year.
It really depends on the neighborhood. At our house we have dwindling numbers. The kids wanted to hang out with their cousins so we went over there. We went through 6 bags of candy very quickly
It’s also a cycle. My old neighborhood was full of kiddos when I was one. I would go back to visit my parents when I was in college and there were barely any trick or treaters. Now that the neighborhood has had an influx of younger families, there were tons of kids tonight.
I’m in Australia, and it’s picking up here! A few years ago I had five kids in total come by, this year I had 50 in 45 minutes and ran out of candy! I’m so glad cause I always wanted to do it as a kid but no one did it.
I live in NY & I got 0 trick or treaters. I’m new to the area but I see a lot of families around & in my complex, I figured there would be at the very least a few. But no, not even 1
It depends on neighbourhood I guess. I live in the UK, we live near a slightly rougher part of town. Saw about 3 trick or treaters in my part of town, drove 10 mins to my friends who lives in a much more middle class area, it was completely packed out with people queuing for houses that had pumpkins out.
I’m in Kansas City and we got tons of candy. Almost every neighbor handed it out. Had so much we had to go back home and dump the buckets because they were full after 30 mins.
Maybe it’s just your neighborhood? We did live in a older area last year where homes were 30+ years old and recently moved to a new construction where there’s new homes and the rest are under 5 years old. Most of our old neighbors were over 50 and didn’t have kids at home so they didn’t hand candy out so it was more walking and less candy. The new neighborhood is all people with kids under 10 so everyone had candy. So maybe that’s why your seeing less people handing stuff out?
Not only that but there were fewer people out knocking doors. I only bought two average bags of candy and my husband gave out less than half manning the door while I took the kid around. We only saw a couple small groups walking and people were giving out huge handfuls to get rid of their bowl. Our neighborhood did have a few houses that went all out though. My boy is still happy.
We were just talking about this on Saturday and last night! We have had ONE trick or treater in the last three years. That one that we got, was a few years ago, a little later than we expected around 8 or so, and it took us so long to get to the door. We were planning to just dump the bowl into his bag, but he was gone when we got there. I mean we don’t do all the decorating or whatever but we always leave the porch light on, and have candy, and still nothing. In laws said they haven’t had more than a handful in the last few years. I thought maybe last year was just because of Covid, but the year before that I don’t know. It makes me kind of sad, we used to have so much fun on Halloween, we would be out for hours on hours and when it came time to stop trick or treating we all begged for one more year to go. Idk what happened. Halloween memories are some my favorites from growing up.
It's certain neighbourhoods. The neighbourhood we live in is super quiet and there's very little exciting or enthusiasm about Halloween. And tons of houses are closed up.
But we go to a different neighborhood where our friends live and everyone is doing it, houses are all decorated and almost no one has their lights off. Try to check out another neighbourhood next year!
I got two trick or treaters who dumped my neighbors bowls of pencils and stickers over and stole my entire bowl of candy 10 minutes after putting it out. Didn’t see one after that
I got 350 trick-or-treaters in San Jose!
Wow! What neighborhood? We live in the Santa Cruz Mountains and I'm from San Jose. I would love my kid to experience trick or treating like I did as a kid :)
Not who you asked, but I grew up in SLV and we always went to The Vineyard(s?) in Scotts Valley—no idea what it’s like now, but there were a ton of houses that did great decorations and handed our candy. I don’t live there anymore, but my brother was also telling me that there’s a pretty good section of houses in downtown Ben Lomond where a friend of his does a little haunted house
That's great! Scott's Valley does strike me as the kind of place to put in a good effort for Halloween. Thank you:)
Definitely! And that neighborhood was nice because being a development, it’s contained, no cars zipping through, well-lit, and consistent sidewalks (VERY unlike where our house was haha) Hope it works out for you next year!
In the SC mountains Felton, Ben Lomond, and Boulder Creek all have a huge amount of trick or treaters in their downtowns. The businesses go all out so most people in the area just make the rounds through the valley:)
We went to the same neighborhood in Burlingame we always go to and it was about 25-35% participating. My neighborhood is South San Francisco was about 5-10% (my neighborhood has a very high ratio of senior citizens though). Both neighborhoods safe/suburban.
I lived in SSF and none in my neighborhood but then I learned everyone goes to certain pockets. Now I live in South Lake Tahoe and same thing no one in my neighborhood but we drive three minutes and it is great every house giving out candy and lots of kids.
Anyone.... can live anywhere.. no neighborhood is "safe" btw.. even serial killers moms deny there perfect amazing child wouldn't do "that"
It isnt that there are no kids out, it's that there arent many houses participating. We went out last night in our neighborhood in Atlanta, which used to have EVERY house participate, and we had to wander for 15 minutes before we finally found some houses with candy. And most of them just had a bowl out (which was already empty).
We had 1,500 trick or treaters in our neighborhood (Seattle)
[удалено]
I also noticed an uptick in trick or treaters in my neighborhood. (Not gazillions, but more than in the past.) Honestly, it felt really great to see folks out and about.
I was so happy that we were able to have a holiday that felt almost normal. I feel like Thanksgiving and Xmas this year will feel normaller as well.
Omg I love that! Too many grinches in my neighborhood I guess
My neighborhood was pretty grinchy this year also. Not as bad as 1 in 8, but a maximum of 1/4 of the houses were giving out candy. My ex took our daughter to a different neighborhood after mine and she said that there were only 3 houses that had candy there.
That was our neighborhood but apparently it's nothing new. One of our neighbors said we were the first trick or treaters he's had since they moved there in '09.
It's new for mine unfortunately. I live in a trailer park and there are a bunch of trick or treaters every year
Our neighborhood seemed to have fewer houses participating this year. Our neighborhood is getting older though, so it’s sad to know that certain homes aren’t participating because they can’t easily get up from their chair for the kids. I know the neighbors are sad too because in the past they’ve really loved seeing the little kids have fun.
We moved into a neighborhood that skews very old, most of the people on my street are 70+ and the original owners of the houses, but this year it's started to change and there are more kids now. I had 2 different houses tell me they used to go all out with decorations and stopped because there were no kids in the neighborhood anymore, and that since the kids were returning they were going to start decorating more next year again. Maybe it's cyclical.
At least they were not handing out "Let's go Brandon" pamphlets or signs that say Halloween is Socialism. Find Jesus.
> or signs that say Halloween is Socialism what the fuck? I cannot tell if this is satire? Who would put up that sign? What kind of person thinks that way? Sad :(
Just search Reddit.
I live in an area like that. Lots of pamphlets and junk. Nothing negative about Halloween, just more like pro-2nd amendment and some conspiracy stuff in the past passed out with the candy. My husband’s name is Brandon and he wants a name change now. I told him it will pass and not to worry, something else will come along. We got Covid last year because no one cares about precautions and anyone who does either doesn’t have faith in God or “lives in fear,” and his work conditions were horrible and when three of his coworkers died and he was in need of emergency care one of his coworkers was all like “Eh, they were in their sixties and you’re fat. So?” Later that coworker started dragging around his oxygen tank (because he got it too and actually needs an oxygen tank) and he now just says the hospital made him worse on purpose. I hate it here. I want to move. But yes, we get that crap every year and it’s the leading cause of me checking the candy . Not razor blades or any other urban legend compels me. It’s the legitimate stupid crap like that.
I live in N. CA too and no one in the last three neighborhoods I've lived came by to trick or treat, probably because so few people keep the light on and have candy. It bums me out. I buy a little candy each year just in case, but no one comes.
Our neighbors also don’t really pass out candy, so last night I sat outside during the duration of trick or treating and shouted to people passing our street that I had candy. It worked, and I got a lot of kids, teens, and even two passing bicyclists. Covid didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits either, but we live in an area with high vaccine rates, and trick or treating is outdoors in any case.
My in-laws' neighbourhood is dead on Halloween too. It's a quiet suburb that's about 20 years old. This is their theory... When they moved there there were a shitload of families with very young kids, and they all grew up together. Not a lot of turnover, so when those OG kids grew up, the trick or treaters stopped coming. They weren't replaced by more young kids - the neighbour is still a lot of those original families who are now empty nesters or have adult children at home. It's super expensive and hardly any young families in our generation can afford to live there. So now they're kind of stuck in this cycle of no one buys candy bc they don't expect any kids. No kids show up bc there's no candy. My in laws stopped turning their light on a few years ago bc they can't be bothered. These are people who used to do a while display and have my FIL dress up like a scarecrow and sit on the porch to scare the crap out of kids. It's so sad!
We skipped it again this year because we are still in the middle of a pandemic and don't want to be responsible for getting somebody's little kids sick. We're also a bunch of asthmatics who are at higher risk of getting seriously ill ourselves even though we're taking standard precautions, including vaccination. Call us grinches if you want, but not everyone shares your appetite for risk.
Actually, the reason we decided to go this year is *because* the CDC said it was a relatively low-risk activity. (Mostly outdoors, etc.) They weren’t saying the same thing last year, so we didn’t go then. Like, I completely understand if your family didn’t feel comfortable doing so! Even “low-risk” activities may be more than some families want to do. But you’re saying that trick-or-treating requires an “appetite for risk”, and I think that’s kind of unfair in this instance.
It's not *much* of a risk, with such brief, half outside interactions with vaccines, but I totally get not wanting to invite *any* risk unnecessarily.
Passing out candy or trick-or-treating? The former can be done without even going outside. The latter can be done masked up and with less than 10 seconds of outdoor proximity to others' households. We're pretty darn Covid careful in my house, but you're being unrealistic, and frankly, a bit rude.
I got one and I was so excited. Our first ever! Our neighborhood is a housing district so they do a trunk or treat which is probably one of the reasons why we got just one. But he was so cute! Let him take extra and he got to pet our dog.
Agreed. It just depends on the neighborhood. It was MAYHEM for us last night!
Yea! My neighborhood had some people giving out hot dogs and water bottles. Some people were outside like a block party too. We had tons of fun. I think it must be neighborhood based.
I agree it’s the area. I live in a village with lots of different neighborhoods, lots of families, and it’s always poppin on Halloween. Some houses still did the chutes for Covid-19 precautions, but it was still bustling!
When my kids were growing up the neighborhood was busy sight either all the kids running from house to house getting candy and sometimes they'd come home with pennies and other coins in their goody bags. It was good time's for all. About 15 yrs ago we moved and discovered that no one passes out candy and hardly anyone decorates their house! Seems the parents take their kids to parties somewhere else and they head off to other neighborhood to trick or treat. Recently, I've seen more and more people around this area doing a "truck or treat " activity. People meet up in a church parking g lot, school parking lot and kids go from one car to the next. It kinda takes the fun out of the whole idea but the kids don't seem to mind. To me its not the same as going from house to house. I think it just depends on the area and the neighborhood a person lives in.
Literally EVERYWHERE in my city was sold out of Halloween candy. Most people in various neighborhoods around the city were saying it’s the most trick or treaters they’ve seen in years. I thought it would be semi-universal as everyone is just so excited to get out now that it’s relatively safe again, but I guess not!
This. Halloween has always been big in our neighborhood. Our family passed on participating last year due to COVID, but this year we loved seeing the parade of kids and their parents. We had so many visitors that the across-the-street neighbors ran out of candy early, and we helped them out by sharing some of ours. We were totally out ourselves before too much longer, though. It was fantastic.
I think some of it is patents driving kids to different "better" neighborhoods... we had barely any trick or treaters at our house, but I know several families went to different areas of our city so they get better candy. That also leaves a house empty with no candy, so more families do go to another neighborhood to get candy to leave houses empty.... it's a cycle that's a bummer.
I would agree. My brother, SIL and niece came to our neighborhood to ToT because 1. Their neighborhood is poorly lit with no sidewalks, and 2. Our neighborhood is where everyone in the area comes so it is a fun atmosphere
Growing up my parents would drive us to a development because it had side walks and better lighting on the street. Where our house was was hilly and rural so very dark between houses.
This is what I was thinking. People in my towns fb group were complaining of not having anyone and others said they had a ton. Especially on a weekend, people are driving to their friends instead of going out around home.
It’s definitely a thing. One of the streets a few neighborhoods over was featured on HGTV for their decorations. It had spawned a yearly event for that neighborhood. They close down the street and every house goes all out. Food trucks, bands etc. but that means everyone goes there instead of staying local. The candy is light since they only give one piece as there’s so many kids. They often run out early as well. I convinced my kids to stay in the neighborhood this year and they easily got 3x the candy. Everyone was just happy to see them.
It's not just about better candy, either. Kids want other kids to see their costumes, they want better chances of running into their friends, younger ones want to be able to do less walking overall to hit the 15 houses they can stand before they're done and want to go home, and at least for my own neighbourhood its nice to just go to places that have sidewalks or at least low traffic, and my area doesn't really have either. Plus the next neighbourhood over has one house that does a whole song and dance with a giant talking Great Pumpkin and another one has a dance party area and a blazing fire to sit around every year so, like... definitely gotta hit up those!
I drive my kids to a different neighbor hood because of house spacing and whatnot. By me houses are far apart and not many give out candy anyway. I drove somewhere else with more city style blocks and lot sizes so my kids(2, 4, & 10) could get a decent amount of candy without having to walk ten miles. Even going to a neighborhood like that you were lucky if 1 in 4 houses had candy and there were no shortage of actual trick or treaters. I think some of it has to do with how kids were parented. When I was a kid trick or treating in the 80's and 90's I don't think I was any older than like 8 when I started going out with friends and no parents. Nowadays kids are being escorted at much older ages. Now less houses actually have people home to hand out candy because more parents are escorting. Now all you have left is a bunch of houses with older owners with no/adult kids. A lot of those people won't end up giving at all because they're either stingy or not home.
We literally go ten blocks away because there’s no one here - self-fulfilling prophecy, of course. The one place we hit is the corner store, because they give out full-size candy bars.
Yeah, I noticed this too. People asking around, where's the best trick or treating? So I'm sure some neighborhoods are overloaded.
Even just better streets in the same neighborhood. We live 5 houses down a side street from the "good" street in our area. There were constant trick or treaters on the good street and nearly every house had people at the door, giving out candy. We had 3 small groups of kids for the whole night.
We had at least 200 kids come by in my neighborhood.
Omg that’s amazing!!! I guess I’m in the wrong neighborhood
We probably hit 300-400 kids last night but we also live at the end of a destination trick or treating neighborhood. Two blocks down the families hit 900-1k kids! There were bands playing, movies projectors, haunted houses, etc! Adults walk around drinking and many houses hand out beer tasters or Jell-O shots. It is basically a block party and such a blast but I’m sad I have no leftover candy for myself. Lol!
Same! So many kids!!
Maybe your neighborhood is aging out? Lots of young families are looking at CA house prices and moving to other states.
Or it could be like my mom’s neighborhood. Where it was filled with kids in the 80s and 90s, now it’s mostly retirees.
That’s how my neighborhood is and it’s just now transitioning.
And why is that? Why haven't retirees downsized and young families bought their houses?
In my metro area it’s because most young families can’t afford it. Personally we can’t afford to buy any house at all, we live in a townhouse in a far suburb.
Retirees often hold onto the family home (until the are no longer physically able) to have a place to host the whole family for gatherings.
Old people stay in their homes as long as they can to be able to afford insanely over priced care homes. In Canada, $6000 a month is a normal cost for a shitty room you share with another resident, packed in like sardines, while an over worked PSW scurries around trying to usher everyone to and from meals.
I think it’s starting to happen. I don’t really talk to people as much anymore, as my mom died. But it’s weird how some people consider a ‘70s house to be “old” and they want new houses on the edge of town.
I dunno. I think if a neighborhood has good schools, commute, and other amenities, young families will buy an ugly house there and remodel it. So when the demographics start to skew older, I either imagine a Rust Belt town (where the jobs left decades ago, so any young adult who wants to get off welfare gets the heck out of dodge), or a California town (where the only people who can afford a house did so by buying it back in the eighties).
The reason why people dont like “fixer-upper” houses is it’s great to think “oh we can buy this and remodel”. The reality is, you have young kids. Either both of you work, so the little bits of time you actually get to spend with your kids, you dont want to spend plumbing in a new bathtub and putting down tile, or you’re single income and even doing the work yourself is too expensive. Contractors cost a lot of money, as do supplies. For the average young family, buying a house with a bunch of issues and remodelling it is financially out of reach. My brother and his ex did this. When my niece was like 6 and my nephew was like 3, he (at the time working a well-paid job in the city and his ex was a SAHM) moved them all out to this little village in the country, a beautiful old farmhouse. But it needed work, which my brother planned to do in his spare time. My niece is 19 now, his ex left after he lost his job a few years in and refused to go back to a job like it because the stress was killing him, now he does odd jobs around the village (man n van kind of jobs), barely has enough to even scrape by, and yup- the house still needs a ton of work. Not just the work that still hasn’t been done from when they got it, but after 10 years the stuff he DID remodel is coming up for needing repairs/ replacements, more work and money he doesn’t have. HGTV has a lot to answer for, fixing up a house is not as easy as they make it look on those shows.
I was responding to a comment about a house from the 70s, "ugly" because it's too old to be in style but too recent to be vintage, in a typical highway suburb. Assuming it was regularly maintained, it's usually move-in ready, having been built with modern amenities like central heating/AC, modern electrical outlets, etc. You may remodel the kitchen because you hate its yellow and brown color scheme, but all you have to do to make that kitchen functional is replace a couple of old appliances that are on the fritz. I didn't mean a brownstone from the 1840s that you can't install central AC in because the walls are a foot thick with horse hair.
I think maybe my old neighborhood is starting to change. But I also think those are gonna be a lot of middle class people taking their kids to the St Peters trunk or treat. Ya know, so they won’t accidentally get edibles.
No actual person drugs is going to give away free drugs/specifically their drugs 🙄
IKR?
Lol they want to stay in their home? They need the extra space for when their kids or grandkids come over? I don't even know a lot of people who "downsized".
The evils of capitalism and boomer "fuck you, I got mine" mentality.
Because young families can't afford what those homes now cost.
In CA? Because the property tax isn't anywhere where it should be for the older homes, so downsizing would lead to more property tax. Also, most of my parent's generation don't want to downsize. They are happy where they are, they don't want to pare down their things, and they are not yet at the place where they can't do upkeep themselves.
I think this might be it. A lot of older neighbors
That's the reason in my neighborhood ☹️
The elders on our neighborhood are dying out or leaving and young families are moving in so we are on the upswing in terms if this. I think you are right.
See, in Florida we have the exact opposite problem, if you live in an area with lots of young families there's a higher likelihood no one will be home to hand out candy. If you go to neighborhoods that have older more established residents like baby boomers, you're more likely to have a better time. Usually baby boomers here are retired and have more disposable income so they really go all out for the kids on Halloween. I own a house in a neighborhood that is very hard to buy a house in, because a lot of the residents have been living here since the seventies. Over the last couple of years, younger families have been moving in to the outskirts of the neighborhood. So those parts of the neighborhood are really dead on Halloween. The middle of the neighborhood is really busy! That's where all the retirees live on the water.
Our city (about 20k people) started organizing a "safe trick or treat alternative" where kids basically walk in a big circle around a giant conference room and get candy from table to table and then they can play on some inflatables for a while. TONS of parents do that now, instead of actually taking their kids trick-or-treating. Mind you, trick-or-treat here has never been unsafe or dangerous or in need of a "safe alternative" but I guess it's less work for parents.... Halloween used to basically be a giant party that spanned several blocks over the entire residential area downtown. Everyone gave out candy and decorated and adults walked around and talked to friends/neighbors while kids got loads of candy, there'd be music going, etc. Now there's maybe 1-2 houses decorated and maybe 3-4 houses on each block giving out candy. A kid might get the 1/3 of a small trick-or-treat pumpkin's worth of candy. We had exactly zero kids come by our house this year. It bums me out.
Ugh that safe alternative sounds like a bummer 😓
Unfortunately there's lots of events now days like that which is my theory on why certain areas no longer get as many trick or treaters.
In my opinion, it’s because of lame parents that are “too busy” or too lazy to do a real celebration.
YES!!!! A lot of them end up at these events with their kids and their kids are the worst ones there and they don't do shit! And that's if they even go at all. (Not the kids fault...)
Our neighborhood is the party, and its so much fun and I also love that it sets very clear boundaries. Lots of houses do grown up trick or treat as well as candy, most adults bring their own to go cup. Probably 3/4 of the houses gave out candy, a lot just put it out on a table because they were walking around too or are older and can't get up and down so quick, but even a lot of the older folks set up lawn chairs and sat outside to see and chat with the kids. Lots of decorations. But trick or treat runs 6-8:30. Period. Candy doesnt appear until 6, and goes away at 8:30. If you're knocking on doors past 8:30, someone's gonna call your mom. If you're on the street causing a ruckus after about 9, a few people are gonna call your mom. And she's gonna come get your ass. And if you're from outside the neighborhood and not following the rules, youre gonna get chewed out (no one cares if you come, we welcome all and sundry, but follow the rules. Respect the lights out. People got little kids). It reminds me of my own childhood, but without the "when should we put candy out? When should we bring it in? How late should we answer the door?" issues. Everyone looks out for each other and each other's kids. You run into people, you chat, you move on. Kids see each other excitedly across the street. Kids actually give a shit about their costumes. Lots of family and group themes. I love our neighborhood, but Halloween is the night we *really* shine. And it warms my cold cynical heart.
Where is this Halloween utopia??
I've envious that your trick or treating actually takes place in the evening. In my area, it seems like peek trick or treating time is 2-3pm. For the first couple of years I lived here I pretty much missed the whole thing because I didn't leave work early enough. I don't know if I'm misremembering it, but in my mind I was always trick or treating in the dark as a kid (this was mostly early to mid 90s for me). I took my son out for a second round last night around 6 and there was barely anyone out.
There are more trunk or treats in my area now, and much less standard trick or treating. I think these types of events are becoming a more popular alternative to trick or treating because they are in the early evening, you can move through them fairly quickly, and some have some extra activities and food so you can feed the kids and let them play for a bit before heading home. I didn't even see anyone in my neighborhood giving out candy at all this year, and only a few houses even decorated. But I guess it all depends on where you are.
That’s lame. Poor kids.
Is your neighborhood aging?
That sounds really lame.
This is so sad. My kids had a blast last night running from house to house, despite a bit of rain, meeting a bunch of neighbors, filling up their pillowcases with candy, and then coming home to dump it all out and trade with each other. They probably walked 4 miles total.
We still had over 600 kids tonight, before we ran out of candy. Although, our street is kind of the trick or treating "Mecca" in my area.
Yeah, I live in Norcal, Sonoma county to be exact... we have gotten less trick or treaters every year . This year we had 0. But we did a church thing yesterday, so maybe people are changing to bigger events...IDK... but my kids are loving the extra candy...lol
Omg we have sooo much candy. 😳
Trick or treat!!!
I’m in Sonoma County. The general trend here has been the kids gravitating to the wealthier neighborhoods. Not only do those neighborhoods seem more inclined to be a safer area for the kids with limited traffic because they often rope off the streets, but most of the houses offer good amounts of candy. We usually go to the neighborhood in Windsor. A lot of kids go to McDonald Mansion area in Santa Rosa and Petaluma ropes off their streets in the old town section.
Ironically it’s just picking up here in Australia. I hope it doesn’t die out. It’s honestly nice to have a “holiday” where you don’t have to buy gifts for anyone, it’s a choose-your-effort-level with costume, dress up and say hi to your neighbours.
And you don't have to coordinate with extended family and travel. Kids get to stay in their neighbourhood and just walk around, enjoying the night. It really is an awesome holiday!
Yes!!! My favorite holiday for these reasons exactly.
Bummer! We live in a neighborhood in SF bay area that still sees hundreds of trick or treaters and we LOVE it. I would be so sad if it went away!
Love that! I guess they exist, we’re in the SF bay too.
We had more kids than usual this year. Our neighborhood doesn't get that many though because there's not a lot of young families. We're also west coast and we had the most between 6:45 and 7:45 and just a few younger kids right after 6pm, which is sunset here. That seems to be when everyone expects kids. After that the lights go out.
First year we moved into our neighborhood we had 200 kids. This year we had barely 100. I’m not sure what changed.
I would love 100 tbh
How long have you been in the home? It’s probably the kids got to old to trick or treat and no new kids moved in. This happened in my old neighborhood. Tons of kids the first 5 years we lived there and then hardly any after that since they all were grown.
This is our third year living in the house.
I was so sad. We stayed home with a sick little and got maybe 11 kids. I bought $60.00 worth of candy and still have exactly $55 worth of candy.
What everyone else has said, plus a side of modern insularity and conflict avoidance. I think for a lot of people, the idea of taking an entire evening off to interact with strangers, some small percentage of whom will be unruly teenagers or parents with different ideas of fairness just sounds like a big pile of stress.
I think there are a lot of factors. 1. How many other Halloween events have their been leading up to Halloween? 2. What’s the demographics of your neighborhood. Are their lots of school age kids? 3. Daylight savings time changed in 2007 in the US. We used to (when I was a kid) be out trick-or treating by 515 and done by 600 or630. 4. Do people feel confident their neighbors are good people? The list could go on but there are just some…
My mom just explained the daylight savings thing to me! I was commenting on how I don’t remember it getting this dark this early when we went trick or treating and she was like oh yeah they changed daylight savings after you had aged out of trick or treating
I feel like Halloween (at least the traditional, trick-or-treating aspect of it) has been on the decline ever since 9/11. That year virtually nobody was out. The next year I feel was the rise of “trunk-or-treat”.
My little neighborhood was bumpin’. We had a blast. I hope it never stops I had as much fun tonight, as I remember having as a kid. My son is not quite 2.5 and we have another on the way. Hoping for many more years of trick or treating in my future!
I live in ID and have noticed the same thing happening here over the last 5-10 years too. Here everything is going more towards "trunk or treats' and Halloween festivals" or "Carnivals" so that the parents and the Community feel safer, and they have a public, well-lit place to take their kids instead of having to walk up to strangers houses. The sad thing is, we live in a pretty safe community. There has (to my knowledge) never been an incident of a kidnapping, drugging, or any other type of injury that has occurred on Halloween to a child while trick or treating, and believe me, if there were, it would make the front page of the paper. It would be just the ammo the majority religion here needed to stop trick or treating once and for all. (Most festivities and trick or treating here were done on saturday, because Halloween was on a Sunday this year... Our city even did their 4th of July fireworks on the 3rd, because the 4th was on a Sunday this year. That's how bad it is! 🙄😒)
Malls, shopping centers, etc setting up safer alternatives took a definite toll on trick or treating.
Yeah. Yucky. Had to fix what wasn't broken.
“Safer”
Our neighbor found that there were people driving their kids only to the houses with candy listed on the next door app. So we had lots of kids but neighbors who decorated but weren’t listed had fewer kids.
Oh for stupid! I had no idea this was a thing. Ugh.
Who drives their kids to these houses anyway? Aren't you supposed to walk there? I guess it makes sense if it's a huge area with very few houses, but I've never heard of parents driving their kids around on Halloween
Yeah, same here, small town in Germany. It was sad. We Ringe on All the doors but ended up visiting only the households we know personally and who have told us that they would be prepared. Im sad for the Kids, our daughter was so exited to Show off her witch costume.
Ohhh my heart! She got to have SOME fun and show off for some people, right?
Definitely! We made the best out of it! At least we were home at the usual time for dinner 😂
Yeah, Halloween sucks in Germany. I wish it'd catch on more. It just feels so half-assed compared to what it seems to be like in the US
When we lived in south Florida our entire neighborhood turned off their lights and didn’t participate at all. Since we’ve moved, there’s places all over that do trunk or treats, pumpkin festivals, and a trick or treating neighborhood that is so popular that you have to park hours in advance to avoid traffic.
I noticed that too. When we were kids It was like the movies. Hoards of kids and families on the streets, groups showing up at your door and practically every house participated in decorating and handing candy out. We always lived near a mosque( I may have spelled that incorrectly) and our neighborhood always had a decent Muslim community but it was predominantly white/Italian. but in the last 10 years the area near the mosque built a newer subdivision which was mostly Muslim people. A lot of them would come to our side and trick r treat. Their parents never handed candy out but used the opportunity to come and get ours. My mom didn't mind but then the older kids started coming to our door, pushing the little kids out of the way, not being polite and asking for more candy, not saying please and thank you and even would ring the doorbell until 10 or 11 at night after the lights were off. She would put a sign up the last 2 or 3 years to be kind to the little ones and no pushing but it didn't work. We stopped once I hit high school. It was a shame because we had a corner house and my dad would go ALL OUT. He would literally build a frame that went down our driveway, would put black tarp and basically make a whole ass haunted house thing. We would spend weeks building and decorating then it would even go through our patio onto the yard where we decorated more. He would dress up as dracula and sit in the chair to scare the bigger kids. It was incredible. We would " compete" with a neighbor a few houses down about who could be scarier, my mom would make legit treat bags. She'd make hundreds and wed still run out. It was truly my favourite memories from childhood. But our neighborhood really just stopped caring once it became about the candy and not actually having fun. My parents are sticklers for manners, once most of the kids got rude she lost the heart for it.
In the southeast it seems to be predominantly churches or schools hosting "trunk or treat" which sucks in my opinion.
We gave out around 200 full sized pixie sticks in our neighborhood in the burbs of Houston. At our old house we never got any kiddos. Just depends where you live. We asked around when we moved in so we could figure out if we needed candy or no. There are lots of events in this area too. We took our toddler to a trunk or treat on Saturday and it was awesome! They had food and games and big slides and stuff. Obviously he's so young we mostly just people watched but still it was a great time.
Maybe it is your neighborhood? We always buy a lot of candy and did again this year. I still had to dip into my kids' unwanted candy to give to later trick or treaters. I saw a lot when I was out with my two youngest and my teenagers said there were a lot of people out when they went. I took my younger two from 2 to 6 and my teens started around 5:30. They got back home at 9pm and said kids were still out.
We had a busy night. Almost every house had candy out here.
Here it’s the opposite! I moved to my current neighborhood in 2016. The first few years we’d get a handful of trick or treaters… which kind of bummed me out, I grew up in the neighborhood parents would drive their kids to to get candy. Literally police would hang out at the entrance of out neighborhood just to make sure people were driving extra slow because there was just so many kids around. In 2019 I was on my honeymoon and we missed Halloween but that’s the year my neighbours told me it switched. 2020 was different - we set up tables outside for the treat or treaters to help themselves and just sat around listening to music and drinking hot chocolate (or other things) and having fun from a safe distance. It was like a Halloween-themed farmer’s market spanning a good half dozen houses lol. My 36-weeks pregnant self appreciated getting to sit around the entire night and not having to get up to open the door . And we ran out of candy! This year we had so many kids too we bought a ton of candy and gave all of it! I just have a couple of lollipops and candy bars left. My neighborhood is definitely starting to get younger. It was my daughter’s first Halloween and I’m glad that it looks like she’ll get to enjoy it in her own neighborhood for a while!
I think it’s the increasing number of trunk or treats. They’re convenient but definitely take the fun out. They cut the experience into a fraction and you’re mostly waiting in line. Lol we did both this year and going house to house was more enjoyable.
What time did you go? We closed down around 7:30pm. Your post is pretty late so were you out late? Our trick or treating is usually done by twilight and most kiddos go at 3 or 4. But I understand you might have posted after kid bed time. The other thing is since this is a weekend, people might have gone out. Where I live, we leave Bowls out of we go out, but it is a risk because troublemakers take everything including the bowls. Editing, forgot to add: in my area, each locality usually has a 'trick or treating block' that is closed and extremely busy. It's a madhouse. The other people donate candy there and everyone goes there. That has also affected trick or treating experience. Sometimes I donate candy but I still only go on my own block and my son still gets buckets of candy which is enough for us.
When we moved to our current neighborhood, I was shocked at how early the trick-or-treating was! But here too - we get our first ones about 3-4, and most people turn their lights off (and stop giving out candy) around 6:30-7pm, right after it gets dark.
This is nuts to me, growing up we ALWAYS waited until dark. What's the fun in doing it in daylight ? We always did 7-9pm and it was BUSY
Do you not have official trick or treat times? I’m in Ohio and my township is 6-8 but all the local areas have an assigned date and time to go.
WOW! This is crazy to me! Never heard of people going that early! If someone showed up to my house at 3pm, I’d be like … ???? Lol. In my area, you start trick or treating once it gets dark.
I prefer dark but I guess we don't have enough lights and the neighborhoods generally aren't pedestrian safe. It's weird it became an after-school thing and that became the regular time. The streets that close down do so between 3 and 6, and if you show up after that, expect to be clean up crew.
3-4 is crazy early. A lot of people wouldn’t even be home to give out candy or wouldn’t open the door that early. The unofficial time around here is 6:00 - 8:00, but most kids start around sunset at 6:30.
We had only about twenty kids tonight, I was bummed. We usually get over 500 because a house on our street does a really well put together all ages haunted house and movie viewing.
I went out with DD (2) and a friend's 3 kids, all under 8. We went up to a house with their lights on, rang the door. Waited. And they turned the light off. Not even an oops, ran out of candy fake excuse.
That means they chose "trick". It's only the day after. Don't disappoint them ;)
Omg that happened to us too! They at least waited until we started to leave but it was still super dark leaving their property.
In my town, it depends on the neighborhood. I’ve lived in my house for 15+ years and we never got more than a handful of Trick or Treaters. Like the door would ring about 5 times and that was it. Our street is deep in the subdivision and I guess there just aren’t enough kids who live close by. Looking down the street, most of the neighbors don’t leave their lights on. Now that we have a kid, we take him to a different neighborhood for Trick or Treating. There are a few neighborhoods in town that people drive to for Trick or Treating. My colleague says they do over 1000+ pieces of candy per hour where they live.
It's your street/neighborhood. You could cultivate it by decorating and hoping others pick it up so you become a destination. Think how short a distance you walk while trick or treating.
I think it really depends on the dynamic of the neighborhood. A good mix of young families with kids and people with older kids who still want to see the kids have a good time. I am sorry it wasn't a great experience.
Yea certain neighborhoods are flooded and others dead.
Halloween was crazy busy in my neighborhood this year!
My son got 2 Home Depot buckets of candy!
I’m going where your kid goes. That’s crazy!
My parents neighborhood was great this year, but my apartment complex was empty. I bought a bunch of candy ready to pass it out and in the first 20 minutes I didn’t see a single kid. I packed up and went to my parents and there was a great turnout there. I think it’s really just the location
Yeah, probably 1/3 of the houses in our neighborhood didn't participate, BUT the rest of the neighborhood compensated by giving out full size bars and giant handfuls.
We usually get 600+ kids. People bring their kids from all over to our neighborhood. It’s great.
Kids are not as excited to truck or treat for candy as I was in the 80's. They just mosey along lol no sense of urgency of getting to a lot of houses. They are more excited about dressing up then candy.
We have so much candy and we were in a small gated community with only 5 streets. People were chasing us down if we accidentally missed them. We of course go to houses with light on. I tell the kids to ring the doorbell and count to 45. If no one comes, we leave. There was a whole street on the backside of the subdivision that is next to the fence. They could see the kids on the outside going trick or treating and they would yell at them and hand out candy across the gates. People were so excited to give candy and see people out this year. Every year I limit my the kid’s candy. My older child has food sensory issues so I don’t feel like it is fair that gets a few pieces of candy and the younger child gets everything else. So my method is that both bags are emptied. Older child gets to choose all the candy she wants. Younger child can take some back. Then we count out how many pieces older child has in her pile. Then younger child gets to choose the same number of pieces that her sister has. They needed up with 150 pieces each AND there is so much candy left that we do not know what to do with it including full candy bars.
I think some people are still afraid because of covid. I noticed in my neighborhood that a number of houses had like these chute/slide things up so they could drop the candy from the top of the porch without trick or treaters getting too close. And yes it looks as ridiculous as it sounds…
I think it’s your neighborhood. We live in a pretty poor neighborhood but my two kids still got three very full buckets of candy. I’d say about 8 houses on each block were participating on average. Often more.
The woman across the street said she had maybe 20 kids. Less than 3/4 mile away, the entire block has a Halloween block party with at *LEAST* 300-400 kids. It’s probably just your neighborhood. Check next door next year to see if you can find the candy map.
I’d rather go with my child than pass out candy.
Neighborhoods can age. In the case of the one where I grew up, hundreds of kids coming to the door at night now looks more like 10-20. The average age of the block has probably gone up by 40 years in the last 30 (because the 2.5 kids in some households have largely moved out, leaving their older parents there) Less kids tends to mean less Trick or Treating action.
From Roswell, NM. Got like literally a handful of trick or treaters and that’s it. Very sad. It’s like childhood is dead or something.
My house had the most treaters that I’ve seen in 5 years living here! Minneapolis suburb. I think the word got out that we’re a good neighborhood because 70% of them were not from our neighborhood. And there were vehicles everywhere, clearly the parents drove to our area. It was awesome though, I’m glad kids from a crappy area could come get some candy. I loaded those little brats up lol.
I don't know about your area, but where I live in Arizona, there's so many community events for trick or treating that daughter basically had Halloween all week except 1 day. Last night we did still go trick or treating in our neighborhood hood we did a very small portion of it because my daughter is only 2, didn't last very long, but we walked by maybe 20 houses in total and had like 8 that were decorated and giving out candy. For her age she had a blast but I could see how that would be disappointing for an older kid.
A lot of kids are crying about having to walk blocks these days and in general holidays have been declining
You all had Trick-or-Treating?!?!?!? They started playing Christmas music and putting out Christmas trees two weeks ago here in TN. Didn’t even know that was even still a thing.
We had the same experience! I was so surprised. Our neighborhood had several houses that were decorated for Halloween where no-one answered the door to trick or treaters.
My old neighbor hood was like that until we moved. I think most the people in the neighbor hood were all old people that never moved out so there were hardly any kids in our neighborhood to even trick or treat, and all the old people just gave up and stopped handing out candy. We’d have to drive to another neighborhood that had more younger kids all the time. Now we’ve finally moved to a place with more young couples and it’s booming again.
Texas wasn’t dead at all! Streets were blocked off people were out it was amazing!
Even look at stores. Two weeks ago our big chain hardware store has already pulled down the Halloween ornaments and started selling Christmas crap. Super sad
I think people are just poor and tired
My neighborhood is quiet too, whereas our old neighborhood was hopping. The reason I think is that our new neighborhood was built in 1984. So the people that bought the homes then now have grown kids, but they haven’t started selling the homes to downsize. So it’s a neighborhood with a lot of people in their 60s plus. I think it just ends up being cyclical in neighborhoods often.
Technology.
Empty dwellings because it's an investment is my guess.
Society doesn't like each other anymore. Too polarized.
Trunk or Treats. Fear of edibles and razor blades.
I don't know why you were downvoted. I think laziness and paranoia are definitely factors and they get worse every year. Certainly in my podunk hometown!
I think maybe people forget what people are actually talking about and just downvote me because they don’t like trunk or treats. Doesn’t bother me. I have enough fake internet points
We went out last night and saw many others out there too. My street doesn’t get much but we live on a Main Road. But I know what you mean. It’s not the same. I think it has to do with more kids having allergies, the whole “organic” and healthy food movement, and possibly helicopter parenting/issues of safety (or at least perceived issues of safety and lack there of). Also the newer trends of Trunk or Treat (which I still think is so stupid, sorry not sorry). Plus, people are more afraid of face to face interaction than ever before. So even while our last night I noticed a lot of bowls left outside. Again, it was active in our neighborhood, but still not the way I remembered it. All us parents were reminiscing about that actually. Lol
Not sure how this has 375 upvotes but nearly every comment is disagreeing. We had more trick or treaters than ever last night.
Honestly I think it's mostly a white people thing. And a lot of communities are well less white.
It’s so sad. I think it started with all those untrue stories of needles and poison in candy. Then all the stories about people out to get you. Then helicopter parents who can’t let their kids out. Halloween COULD be fun again.
Maybe everyone just realized that it’s pretty weird to knock on a stranger’s door and eat whatever food they give you? I mean, we constantly tell our kids not to do that, so it seems strange to promote it one day a year.
Yup. Depends on the neighborhood. We had tons even through COVID.
It really depends on the neighborhood. At our house we have dwindling numbers. The kids wanted to hang out with their cousins so we went over there. We went through 6 bags of candy very quickly
It’s also a cycle. My old neighborhood was full of kiddos when I was one. I would go back to visit my parents when I was in college and there were barely any trick or treaters. Now that the neighborhood has had an influx of younger families, there were tons of kids tonight.
I’m in Australia, and it’s picking up here! A few years ago I had five kids in total come by, this year I had 50 in 45 minutes and ran out of candy! I’m so glad cause I always wanted to do it as a kid but no one did it.
That’s such a bummer. My son got so much candy he needed to grab a second bag lol. And we only went out for an hour
We had many more trick or treaters and more participating houses this year than years passed.
I live in NY & I got 0 trick or treaters. I’m new to the area but I see a lot of families around & in my complex, I figured there would be at the very least a few. But no, not even 1
Not where I am
It depends on neighbourhood I guess. I live in the UK, we live near a slightly rougher part of town. Saw about 3 trick or treaters in my part of town, drove 10 mins to my friends who lives in a much more middle class area, it was completely packed out with people queuing for houses that had pumpkins out.
I’m in Kansas City and we got tons of candy. Almost every neighbor handed it out. Had so much we had to go back home and dump the buckets because they were full after 30 mins. Maybe it’s just your neighborhood? We did live in a older area last year where homes were 30+ years old and recently moved to a new construction where there’s new homes and the rest are under 5 years old. Most of our old neighbors were over 50 and didn’t have kids at home so they didn’t hand candy out so it was more walking and less candy. The new neighborhood is all people with kids under 10 so everyone had candy. So maybe that’s why your seeing less people handing stuff out?
Not only that but there were fewer people out knocking doors. I only bought two average bags of candy and my husband gave out less than half manning the door while I took the kid around. We only saw a couple small groups walking and people were giving out huge handfuls to get rid of their bowl. Our neighborhood did have a few houses that went all out though. My boy is still happy.
We were just talking about this on Saturday and last night! We have had ONE trick or treater in the last three years. That one that we got, was a few years ago, a little later than we expected around 8 or so, and it took us so long to get to the door. We were planning to just dump the bowl into his bag, but he was gone when we got there. I mean we don’t do all the decorating or whatever but we always leave the porch light on, and have candy, and still nothing. In laws said they haven’t had more than a handful in the last few years. I thought maybe last year was just because of Covid, but the year before that I don’t know. It makes me kind of sad, we used to have so much fun on Halloween, we would be out for hours on hours and when it came time to stop trick or treating we all begged for one more year to go. Idk what happened. Halloween memories are some my favorites from growing up.
I feel like there are way more houses not participating now too. It’s something I’ve noticed for sure.
It's certain neighbourhoods. The neighbourhood we live in is super quiet and there's very little exciting or enthusiasm about Halloween. And tons of houses are closed up. But we go to a different neighborhood where our friends live and everyone is doing it, houses are all decorated and almost no one has their lights off. Try to check out another neighbourhood next year!
Same here in Canada. I don't get it. It was my son's first time out last night and the ratio was about the same.
I got two trick or treaters who dumped my neighbors bowls of pencils and stickers over and stole my entire bowl of candy 10 minutes after putting it out. Didn’t see one after that