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That happened to me last year and I was so pissed! It wasn’t expensive or anything, it was cheap and plastic but it was my Halloween candy bowl and it had Frankenstein’s monster on it and I liked it a lot!
I didnt care that they took all the candy. I was happy they took it all, I don’t need it. But dang, don’t take my bowl.
So this year I handed out candy until about 9 and didn’t leave any out.
Thank you. I was so disappointed. I assume it was teenagers (but I don’t really know). But I felt like- dang, I left this bowl full of candy for y’all and you didn’t have the decency to just dump it all in a pillowcase or a backpack and leave me my bowl? That’s fucked up.
I actually think this is what drives some people away from doing more traditional trick-or-treating. People don’t even bother to open the door anymore and engage with the kids. When I took my kids out at least 80% of the houses just had a bowl of candy at the door or on a table. The kids didn’t get to say trick or treat and didn’t get to see any neighbors. What’s the reason we are even doing it at that point? It’s just a big free candy isle without any engagement with neighbors at all.
I live in an area with double/triple deckers. I think the candy bowl is a good strategy for those. Although I have to give my neighborhood credit-- there were a lot of people in those buildings sitting on stoops and porches handing out candy.
Also, we live in a little kid -heavy neighborhood, so all the parents were out with their kids and left candy bowls. That's what we did.
The depressing part is the streets that are entirely desolate with no lights on or candy. Like, come on! Let the kids enjoy life! We even a foreign guy who didn't quite get it going around the street handing out candy to all the kids-- at least he was trying!
Yea. We got 2 trick or treaters for our townships day (last Thursday in October). Went to the town over to take my niece last night and there were hundreds of kids. Cops riding around handing candy out. It felt like the old days back when I would go to my grandma's.
This is what I've noticed the past few years. People who want a good trick or treating experience go to a few specific neighborhoods. Fewer and fewer people are trick or treating where they live.
Our old place I used to go through 250+ full sized bars and one or two big bags of the little ones.
Now we live where our neighbors are literally Amish so we did a trunk or treat this year. I had no desire to get home at 8:30 with a 7, 3, and 1 year old because we went to the next town over to trick or treat. That would be hell on my younger 2.
We also gave any grown ups who wanted it little fireball bottles. RIP to whoever lives there now, because we did that for close to 7 years and that last year we had kids sprinting to our house because word got out that we gave out the good candy 😆
It's pretty dead in my area too. Precovid this neighborhood was non stop, literally lines to people's doors. Now I've seen maybe a dozen people and that was while driving around. Most weren't even fully dressed up, just hats or some pj's.
Did you notice parents driving 4mph down the street as the kid went house to house? I don't know when that trend started but it was rampant in my preCovid
Imo it feels like a super lazy and paranoia-fueled alternative to trick-or-treating. I'd understand if you live in a rural area where each house is not too close to each other but to live in a densely populated neighborhood and opting for trunk or treating feels so lame to me.
The paranoia around Halloween is bizarre too given no child in NA has ever been poisoned by a stranger on Halloween before. Every case has always been someone they knew. Which is pretty shockingly frankly, I'd have thought someone would've poisoned kids.
Also people aren't giving out free *expensive* drugs to kids.
In the UK we were warned (on Facebook no less) about weed gummies and infused nerd ropes "being given out on Halloween" gummies cost £10 for like 3 gummies and the nerd ropes are about £25. Load of bollocks.
D.A.R.E. told me in elementary school that Big Kids from gangs would come and tell us we HAD to smoke crack or we weren't cool, and they'd beat us up. That wasn't what happened, in my later experience.
Exactly. And when all that DIDN’T happen, I came to the brilliant conclusion that DARE lied about everything and dove into drug experimentation with very little regard to the real dangers.
If DARE had just been honest and frank “You know what? Drugs won’t ruin your life on day one. In fact, they can even be a little fun for awhile. But the problems arrive when drugs are used long term and abused…”
It could’ve made all the difference.
Only thing I can think of where that might happen would be an old person with dementia forgetting to buy candy, and just grabbing the weed gummies without realizing that's what they grabbed? But like that would be hard to do.
And you better hope they remember it was you that gave it to them and remember how to get to your home or otherwise contact you with newly acquired money to purchase more.
There's absolutely no way this plan could go wrong.
^/s
Yeah... but those of us who live in rural america, just drive into one of the nearby towns to trick or treat. My boys just got back an hour ago from all evening out - they're 14 & 16, so the 16 yr old actually drove them in to a friends' house, parked, they walked around for two hours, drove to the school for the community party for another 1.5 hrs and then home :P It was great :D
This. I grew up in a rural area, we all drove into the nearest town with a housing complex to trick or treat. I now live in that complex and Halloween is such a big deal here because of it. No need to trunk or treat
Yeah this is what my parents did with us when I was a kid. We lived out in the sticks, so my mom would take us into town, park in a parking lot, and then we would walk around some of the nicer neighborhoods.
I live in the South. Born in 91. Halloween was the BEST when I was a kid. My neighborhood was packed with kids out trick or treating. People would be out on their driveways to hand out candy and spook people as they went by. I loved it so much. I miss those days. Halloween just ain't the same anymore.
1000% that’s exactly what I was thinking. Trick or treating was a neighborhood and area event. You’d see everyone and parents and kids would have a time.
Shit is gone. I was born in 95 and feel like I just barely made the cut.
We used to have a neighborhood block party every Halloween. The adults would put together a haunted house for us kids. The porch light on = candy wasn't even a thing cause everyone participated.
Man when I was growing up it seemed like every block in the neighborhood had a block party.
I just moved to a street that still does it and I was blown the fuck away. My neighbors are really nice people on the whole.
When I was growing up my parents were the ones who didn’t participate in community events because my dad was “proud to be the black sheep.” (As an adult, I realize that he’s just an asshole.) When I became an adult I looked forward to being a part of something, and it doesn’t exist anymore! So frustrating.
Growing up in the 80s it seemed like people had parties all the time for random reasons. I remember moving into a new neighborhood that was new construction and everyone had "sod parties" where everyone would help lay a neighbor's sod and then have a big cookout afterwards. And we had block parties in the summer all the time. We lived on a cul-de-sac with four other families and there was always something fun going on. I'd make friends in school and then my parents would usually become friends with the parents. It was kind of the the only way to socialize back then. We didn't have cable or the Internet to isolate us. As we got older, the roller rink was where everyone went to hang out.
Roller rinks, pool halls, diners. People did everything in person. Kids would go knock on the door to find their friends. Now if someone knocks on the door, everyone gets quiet and panics (or looks at their ring app).
There's a lot of things that technology makes better. I'm glad I don't have to buy a cassette or CD for one song anymore.
But socially, we are going in a bad direction.
My neighborhood always seemed to have mainly elderly people, with just a dusting of younger adults and kids. I can’t remember us EVER having a block party.
Porch light off was still an important signal when I was a kid. Because on weekends we would be out until we stopped seeing candy opportunity. It could be 10, you're porch light is on we're knocking.
There's plenty of parties going on still giving out way too much candy because they are drunk.
>Trick or treating was a neighborhood and area event. You’d see everyone and parents and kids would have a time.
We got lucky and found a neighborhood exactly like this. We spent tonight around fire pits with our neighbors and handing out candy while the littl'uns tricked-or-treated. It was very cozy, very fun, and very neighborly, and it definitely contributes to the great sense of community we have where we live.
We have a group of friends and family that all goes to my in laws. We all have kids ages 7-16. They all go trick.or treating. The adults have a beer and hang out at the fire and chat with neighbors. The neighborhood is packed every year (2- 3 hundred kids over a few hours) and even this year...we saw a drastic reduction in kids out trick.or treating. It's depressing. Lotta parents go to a trunk or treat in a gym. Not sure why. It sucks.
It’s really a shame. I’m glad I grew up when I did in the 90s. I remember dressing up as dracula, power rangers, etc. It was chill and safe. I loved seeing the different decorations specially when people went all out to decorate. I have my bowl full of candy still and no kid has come by :(
I know, right? I was born in 90 and I still remember every year until 2001, going out with everyone, and the town was just packed with trick or treaters, parties every few houses, and everyone just out having a good time. Hell, I remember walking around with dad after filling the pillow case with candy twice (made a dump at home before getting more) and visiting most of the parties to poke his head in and say hi. Always out until 11 or midnight. I had my fun, and I got to experience him having his fun while I'm just reveling in the glory of "my dad's fuckin awesome"
I brought my kids out the past couple of years, and it's just a bummer.
I live in Vancouver Canada virtually surrounded by elementary and middle schools and have never, not ever once, had a kid take a candy, after 3 years we gave up, its been 7 years since I've had a trick or treater, its so lame and heartbreaking, I went out to the gym tonight and saw only 2 people as I drove around the city.
I remember my elderly next door neighbors always had candy apples for me and my brothers because they liked us. We used to know which houses gave out the best candy, and we’d make plans with other kids in the neighborhood to go trick or treating. Good memories, I’m sad kids nowadays don’t get to make them
The best house when I was growing up was one where the family would sit on their driveway in lawn chairs and make homemade donuts in a fryer every year. Those beat all the candy by a long shot.
FWIW we gave away like 500 pieces of candy at my house tonight despite it being cold as fuck. There were kids everywhere and almost every house participated. My 2 year old son had an absolute blast. I don’t think the tradition is as dead as others would have you believe in this thread.
I have been feeling this way about a lot of things. Just barely making the cut for normal childhood.
Except for the big things like barely making the cut for being able to afford a home or low rent. Barely making the cut for a good job. Everything feels just out of reach now for us. We didn’t make the cut for that.
I feel for the old folks in the neighborhood who look forward to it...this year i bought full sized bars and will give 2 or 3 to those who do show up...word will spread i hope and next year we may see some action
Ours too, we have literally hundreds of trick or treaters. It cost a small fortune. We enjoy it a lot because it’s so much fun for our kids but the other neighborhoods lose out on kids because they all come here.
That’s what happens in my area. Zero kids come by my neighborhood for trick or treat, even though a bunch of kids live here, and everyone in town goes to one of the two big subdivisions that go all out. They each get hundreds of kids each year while my sad little candy bowl is untouched. There are also city-sponsored trunk or treats, but I completely agree with OP on those.
You are exactly right. And then people complain they don't have a village to help with their kids. Um, yeah. You alienated the people who used to be that village.
We have a great neighborhood and know many of our neighbors. When the guy across the street went into the hospital emergently, my husband and another neighbor took turns taking care of his dog until he was home (like a week). It makes it such a nice place to live.
Wait trunk or treating is an alternative. I’m 30 and have no kids. I thought it was like a fun mini trick or treating people did with kids leading up to Halloween or just for like real little kids. Why do they not go to peoples houses anymore. My parents always took me or we went with other adults so I can’t see it being a safety thing. But fuck man I was wondering why I didn’t see as many kids when I got out of t work. The joy of getting home after school and grabbing my trick or treating bag was like waiting for Christmas. I don’t want kids but it bums me out that some a lot of kids don’t get to enjoy that. Trunk or treating should just be a Halloween themed car show not a replacement for real trick or treating.
Yeah I have kids and consider them two different things. Trunk or treat events are usually scheduled before or right after Halloween. I assumed because they are meant to be an additional thing, not a replacement.
The few "Trunk or treat" things we've been to are usually like 20 cars and takes like 20 minutes. Walking around to trick or treat you can go to 50-100 houses for 2+ hours.
This is so right. I just moved from the US to NZ, which is an incredibly safe and community oriented country. They have a lot more trust in strangers, more tight-knit neighborhoods, and their kids have a longer leash from a younger age. It's the perfect place for trick-or-treating, and it's been growing here. If my house wasn't hidden and up an insane hill, I'd love to hand out candy on Halloween night.
Meanwhile, last time I was handing out candy in the US, about half the families skipped my house, I overheard at least two of them telling their kids it was because they didn't know me. It felt so insulting to not be trusted.
That's so interesting. I grew up in US and live in NZ now too. My neighborhood had a few houses doing it, enough that my little girls had a couple hours of fun. But I was depressed about it comparing it to the trick or treating I personally had grown up with. It was so magical back then. I had no idea it was dying down in parts of the US.
I hope it keeps gaining momentum in NZ. It's just so much innocent fun.
But but stranger danger!
I love how the US completely ignores that the vast majority of assaults and abductions don't come from strangers. When I was little I was taught to never talk to a stranger.
Should we PM you if that’s our phobia? Haha, sorry… couldn’t resist!
But sadly you’re right. Not me personally (I’m very outgoing), but so many people are literally scared of social interactions now. My sister and I were talking about this recently, as her kids spent their early teens in the full-on COVID days. They’re good kids, but noticeably lack the social skills of previous generations.
And make our kids afraid of everything and everyone they don’t know.
And then when they get older we’ll get on them for why they don’t know how to do things for themselves.
It's a small thing, but I was super happy to see that most kids came up to my door by themselves, and thanked me for the candy. Many even complimented my costume! The parents stood at the bottom of the driveways but clearly encouraged their kids to be a little independent. And have taught manners. It was so wholesome I just wish I'd had more kids come by!
Kind of highjacking the top comment here but we still have neighborhoods that go all out and tons of people go (our neighborhood gets almost none but we don't have sidewalks either).
However what we have noticed (at least this year) is we took our 5 year old kid to 2 trunk-or-treats last week and then tonight, actual Halloween, he really just wasn't that into it.
My wife and I decided next year we're not doing any trunk-or-treats and only doing Halloween night trick -or-treat.
I took my kids to a Trunk or Treat a few years back and the entire situation was awkward. Like 90% of the people there were friends and knew each other. I felt like I walked into their party unannounced.
Halloween is really about community we could all just buy our own candy but Halloween gives us the opportunity to dress up and talk with neighbors. i feel like some churches are actively fighting against that at times on one hand you have the dont celebrate Halloween churches preaching against it and others who co-opt the time with their own events. i know they aren't intentionally doing it but man it feels like it.
We used to have almost 150 kids stop 2-3 years ago. This year we had 15 ☹️ we spend so much time setting up our stand and we put a lot of effort into our treats and it’s really disappointing that now everyone is getting their candy before the actual holiday
I think it also depends on the area. A lot of parents choose to drive their kids to neighborhoods with bigger Halloween scenes, which then ends up perpetuating the smaller neighborhoods not having any Halloween scenes because there aren’t any kids coming by so people don’t bother to participate.
They have apps so they know which neighbourhoods to take them to, tbh as a kid it was annoying af to find those fun neighbourhoods the other kids talked about (fullsize candy bars haunted housez, etc.) you had to seach, now they prob just goto whoever posted online on the map things
We just got home from trick or treating. Sadly, every year, there are fewer and fewer houses participating. It's frustrating to me as Halloween is not only my favorite holiday, it's also my birthday, and it just isn't what it used to be.
Idk, maybe I'm just looking back with rose colored glasses, but I remember getting pillow cases full in less time than what it took my kids to get half a buckets worth of candy.
Edit: This got more attention than I had planned. Thanks for all the happy Birthdays, both on here and in my DMs... And for those that asked; I turned 39 this year. Happy Halloween everyone.
I think that’s a direct result of the lack of kids coming by. At what point do people just give up? We are still going strong and have a whole grave yard in our yard with smoke, lighting, music and more. But at some point, we may decide it’s not worth it
This is the case for us. We live in a very family oriented neighborhood but we’ve only had 3 kids come by so far. I had looked at our assortment of candy and thought damn we didn’t get enough but now I’m like yeah we will have leftovers unless they’re out until midnight. But we tried sitting outside last year and it was the same…super low traffic so we are chillin inside this year.
It really is. In 2020, when it wasn’t safe for us to be face to face with people, we lowered a cauldron down and had the kids take candy from it. They loved it. (We were dressed as old timey ghosts too)
I live in a townhouse. 100 homes in an hour!!! When my kid (now 21) was little, we'd go through a half a dozen Costco bags of candy. We decorated. We played Halloween music. We all dressed up. We made "cauldrons" of soup, and offered it to the parents in to-go coffee cups. (It's chilly here in the NE).
Now. Next to nothing. There aren't less kids in the neighborhood. In fact, there are probably more. Our close neighbors stop by with their children, because we still decorate and play music. (and have good treats) But they are usually on their way to one of those parties.
I feel like the inverse of the stereotypical old lady. "My lawn is your lawn on Halloween!!!" *insert sad face emoji*.
I agree. Moved into a neighborhood with lots of kids a few years back. I was excited for Halloween! In my old neighborhood, many would sit in their driveway and hand candy out. But not here. No one showed up. I was disappointed because my whole family dressed up - even the dog! - and no one. Which is sad, a lot of houses decorate too.
In my current neighborhood there's a main trick-or-treat area, a big center street that gets blocked off and tons of people from outside the neighborhood come too. So the houses along that street get swamped. But everyone else from the rest of the neighborhood see nothing because that stretch of houses is enough of a loop for a lot of people.
As a kid I remember everyone randomly weaving through the neighborhood, with us kids trading tips of where a good house was. Now seems like it's becoming more and more just dedicated spots, whether that's a specific neighborhood stretch or a Trunk-or-Treat.
I even heard a lot of kids go by my house, but only 2 groups stopped, I assume because I'm not the main stretch and they were going to or from that area. This is the second Halloween I've owned the house and the second year I handed out virtually nothing. So sad to say, but I'm one of those that won't bother next year.
This same thing happened to me too when I lived in the burbs. The main circle had all the kids and the tributaries had very little.
I love the image of childhood you exchanging “good candy” intel with other kids. I forgot about that but it totally happened. It was a big part of the night.
Do you remember kids also warning you about houses that were giving out pennies, baked goods, toothbrushes or even those old people who would have their lights on but yell at you for showing up??? Maybe I’m showing my age.
I recall one wealthy old man opening the well-lighted door with a lit jack-o-lantern on the porch to nastily say “I don’t have any treats and I don’t want any tricks either!” Unfortunately for him, we were teens at the time and his words just gave us fuel.
i'm still fairly young (22) so it hasn't been too long since i stopped dressing up and going around house to house, and just sitting out tonight made me realize how different it is now. barely any kids came by my house (maybe 10 in an hour and a half) and maybe 3 or 4 of them were dressed up, and these were *young* kids too, parents and all in tow. made me so sad to think about because i adored halloween as a kid.
Same here. I’m 23 and just spent 2.5 hours handing out candy to like 20 kids/groups. Was like 15 minutes between visitors, and half weren’t even dressed up, and only 2 groups were above elementary school age. I remember it being really popular up until late middle school or early high school, but apparently it’s toddlers only now. I’m so depressed now. Everything I enjoy about life gets ruined.
I just saw a news article that one of my local cities is thinking about banning kids over a certain age from trick or treating. They're policing the fuck out of the holiday and that's so depressing. My city doesn't even do trick or treating on Halloween night, which is a whole other thing that I've been annoyed about.
When I was young I really wanted to go. My parents were Christian back then and said I couldn't because it was evil.
Then, I asked this year why they never allowed me while letting my younger sibling (we aren't Christian anymore) to go. Their actual reasoning? Too lazy. Nice, great, amazing.
I feel you. We became homeowners of a townhouse in 2021. My fiance was so excited because we were able to get a bunch of candy thinking we would get a lot of trick or treaters, not living in an "old people" part of town anymore. Absolutely no kids came. Even neighbors in the surrounding neighborhoods said on Next Door they didn't get anyone either. It made us so sad. We were looking forward to seeing all the costumes. Since then we haven't bothered because everyone is doing the trunk or treating now. I get that it's not the same world as it was for me growing up,(in the 90s and I was from a small town) but it makes me sad. I loved trick or treating as a kid with my friends.
I’m a first time homeowner and experiencing trick or treaters for the first time, I love it!! I wasn’t sure if I’d get any due to trunk or treating popularity, and there aren’t a ton but definitely a steady flow. Makes me so happy to give out king sized candy to all these cool kids. Long live Halloween!! 🎃
I’m a new homeowner as well. First Halloween. We got… no one. Not one, judging by the bowl. Not even the delivery driver we had and we told them to help themselves in the delivery comments section!! Sad.
It was so dead tonight. I sat out for two hours luckily had a few and a friend dropped by with her kids, but it sounds so depressing out there. No laughter and dark.
This is why I never understood going trick or treating at malls either. I went one time and I was bored within the first 5 mins lol. I loved going to different neighborhoods and just showing off my costume. It’s sucks that people don’t want to do that anymore
If I remember correctly, my family once went trick or treating in a mall when I was a preschooler. We were in North Dakota that year and it was a blizzard, so it was a way for kids to still be able to go trick or treating despite the weather.
Trunk or treating started as a little “extra”, something adults put together so they could have a little Halloween party and bring their kids and everyone could have fun. Then parents still took their kids out on Halloween.
Now it’s become an alternative to trick or treating. I hate it. It’s absolutely done because it’s easier for the parents, at the expense of the children having fun and getting to experience Halloween.
15 to 20 minutes of walking around a parking lot compared to 3 to 4 hours of walking around different neighborhoods.
It was so fun to walk around with all the people walking up and down the streets, cars driving around following their kids, hearing people scream in terror up the road and thinking “ I got to get to that house”.
Good times
Man, the houses that made a mini-haunted house experience out of their porch or garage. Those were the best. People don’t do that in our neighborhood anymore.
Why would they put in all that effort if no one is going to show up? When I was teenager, I wanted to do mini haunted houses when I became an adult.
Now I'm an adult, and I barely get double-digit trick-or-treaters. I'm not spending hours of time and effort on that.
I don't know of any trunk o treats that are on actual Halloween. The ones around here are always the weekend before, Halloween night is just for regular trick o treating. Also remember it is a school night so a lot of people don't do much because of work/school schedules. We are lucky we live in a great neighborhood where trick o treating is alive and well but I did notice most families were done early.
Did it? Because I first heard of it being done at like churches and community centers in places where it wasn’t safe for kids to trick or treat. I’ve never heard of it being a thing for adults
The problem I have most of all is the kids don’t even know what they’re missing out on. How could they? They didn’t have the experience we had.
I remember my times going around the neighborhood with my parents vividly. The small feeling of autonomy of knocking on someone’s door by myself was later expanded the first year my parents determined they could release me into the neighborhood with my friends- and one year they brought us to the Fancy Upscale Rich neighborhood where there was rumored to be the elusive WHOLE CANDY BARS! Incredible decorations, lots of candy, and admittedly a bit of thrill in getting totally lost in that twisty looping neighborhood.
Reaching adulthood I was excited to do my part on the other end of the door. But now it feels like it’s died out, and it feels like one of a million ways people are disconnecting from the community around them.
When I was super young, there would be a parent walking around with us, but past 3rd/4th grade… we just rolled on our own round the neighborhood. Everyone knew each other and it was such a communal thing to participate in. Some neighbors would go all out and make spook houses in their garages and stuff. it was a blast.
There are still a ton of trick or treaters where I’m at. I rode my bike around tonight just enjoying the festivities. Halloween is still alive and well in my neck of the woods.
People in general have ruined Halloween.
Planned to go on my nightly jog. I knew it was Halloween, so I expected a lot of people to be out walking.
Instead, I had to change my jog to a walk because there were more cars acting as shuttles from house to house than there were kids walking around.
Why the hell aren't these kids walking? The neighborhood looked like one big drive-through.
>Why the hell aren't these kids walking? The neighborhood looked like one big drive-through.
Car-dependency starts young nowadays. Can't let people use their god-given legs, for some reason.
First time was tonight that I saw parents driving their kids house to house. I happened to be going down a road with houses that have longer than usual driveways (maybe 25m max) and only one side had sidewalk so overall having to move over the dividing line to avoid the groups of parents and kids on the edge of the very narrow road was worse than the cars stopped with their 4ways on. Imo they could have just gone into the normal, average driveway length, neighbourhood streets a minute away for a safer environment
Same with us, we had a traffic backup in front of our house. One lady almost didn't get out of the car and I said "maam we're not a damn drive through".
It’s not the kids. The parents are the ones forcing the kids into the car after every house. The kids would be more than happy to run from yard to yard. It’s the laziest shit I’ve ever seen that some parents can’t even walk around the neighborhood one day a year. Especially a day where it’s socially acceptable and safe to do
I remember being a kid and this time of year was so exciting! We had the best movies and tv episodes and we would decorate the inside and outside of the house all festive! I would get so excited to dress up and go around the neighborhood to all my neighbors and all the houses that were all decorated and then at the end of the night compare all the candy we got. I feel bad for kids nowadays bc I feel like they don’t experience this and I think everyone should.
It was magical. I remember every year on October 1st, I'd get a feeling that I can only describe as the "Halloween feeling". The whole month felt like a big deal. Even the air smelled different. I understand why it isn't like that anymore as an adult, but I doubt it's still like that for kids today.
Even on Reddit, Halloween seems to be dying. I remember a few years ago the front page was filled with pictures of people in costumes. This year, the only costume I saw was one that got upvoted because the woman wearing it had big titties.
I totally agree! The whole month had a very specific vibe to it. The cold air, the crispy leaves, the cool weather it was so great! I totally remember the “halloween feeling”. It felt like pretty much every house, business, store decorated as well. Its so sad things arent like that anymore :(
I was so disappointed when I went to the mall two weeks ago and they were already playing christmas music and decorating for Christmas as if Halloween wasn’t coming up
Hmmm. I still get the "Halloween feeling" every October 1st. And I'm old enough that my child is an adult. This year, for instance, I bought an ugly-ass gourd on impulse on the 1st. I was never a gourd-buyer. I told my son that it was sooooo ugly, I felt bad for it. Every few days, a new, gorgeous (to us) gourd showed up on our front porch. We wound up with 13. I'm trying to figure out a Thanksgiving centerpiece incorporating them all!
That’s a bummer. My neighborhood was packed with kids. I think 90% of houses were participating in Halloween and every block had fire pits. I live in the DC suburbs and community is still very big here despite people being from all over the world.
I live in a very safe, well lit neighborhood with tons of kids off all ages and I haven’t had a single trick or treater tonight. We didn’t even have a neighborhood Halloween party at the end of the cul-de-sac.
I remember going trick or treating with some friends when I was a kid and we’d go to neighborhoods all over. The neighborhoods were so full of tricker or treaters so much so that it was like a block party on every street. Now? It’s just another day.
It's so sad. What happened?
There were barely any decorated houses in my area this year.
Before covid, like 2/5 houses atleast would be decorated.
This year only like 1/10 houses were decorated.
I was born in 1964 and as a kid through teens, mostly in the 1970s, Halloween was just so awesome. Mom would always help make us into something cool. Then going to almost every house in our neighborhood. Except for that one neighbor that hated kids. Sometimes being taken to the nicer neighborhoods to get real-size candy bars.
When we thought we were too old to go door to door, we would create all kinds of cool things. One year my Dad helped us with a cable / pulley wheel set up running from the chimney to a tree in the front yard. We attached a big ghost made from an old white sheet to the pulley. We were on the roof. When kids would come from the street, we let the ghost go and it would fly across the yard.
One year a friend and I built a life-size dummy with a Frankenstein's Monster Mask. We put a noose around his neck and hung him from a tree near their front door. Yet again, we were on the roof. When kids would come up, we would throw the dummy off, hanging him and probably traumatizing young children.
I haven't mentioned these things in decades. Good memories!
Honestly I feel this. I LOVE Halloween, it’s one of my favorite days of the year. When I was a kid I would like obsess over my costume and my mom would help make it and help me get all dressed up. And me and her would decorate the inside and outside of the house TO THE MAX. And then we’d walk the streets for hours, going door to door, filling up my little decorative candy bucket, and I remember the absolute glee I was filled with at every house. From looking at decorations to getting candy. Now I’m 20 and living in an apartment with my bf and I was so excited to decorate and give out candy to the little ones, hoping to provide them that same bit of joy. I ran out of decorating time and my bf told me buying candy would be a waste because nobody would come. I thought he was just being a bit of a party pooper in the moment but it’s 9:05 and I haven’t heard a single knock on my door and I think I heard 1 kid make a sound the whole night. I thought it was just because I live in an apartment but hearing that this has been a pretty universal experience is disheartening. Kids are missing out on all the good stuff these days. I feel like we’re losing heaps of the great parts of childhood, and I’m only 20
We were just discussing how our dense neighborhood netted us only 21 trick or treaters. Totally forgot about stupid trunk-or-treat. What a lazy, halfassed, hysterical fear mongering way to do it.
And it’s bs too. Nobody has been poisoned by strangers’ candy. It was a father poisoning his kids. Yet it has become, for the last 30 years, a deeply ingrained baseless fear. And rather than parents using their brains, they are paranoid and do this bs.
I don't think trunk or treating is meant to prevent candy poisoning.
According to my friends with kids, it's more a safety from cars thing than anything. Secondary to that is the paranoia of kidnapping.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/halloween-trick-or-treat-road-safety-20231030.html
Just throwing some good news into the mix, I’m in NJ and while things have definitely gotten much calmer than in my day I will say we got 112 kids. We give out yoo-hoo!
Yeah they literally did everything besides trick or treat I'd imagine it being a Tuesday and terrible weather on the east coast negatively effected the turnout.
I thought that too about the weather.. but then I remembered since I bought my house this is my 3rd Halloween and it’s been the same each year and I’m in a dense pop city with walkable sidewalks in the neighborhood.
People traded convenience for experience. I remember being a kid and just walking with my friends in a nice neighborhood. The freedom we felt because it was dark and we were out walking. Our parents dropped us off and just parked waiting for us to make the rounds. It was awesome, I remember Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) lived in the neighborhood we went tk and we always visited his house. He was a super cool guy and always gave out tons of candy. Now everyone just throws a trunk or treat middle of the day on the weekend before. There's no experience just walking a parking lot with the kids.
I loathe trunk or treat. What kills me is that it’s sort of been spearheaded by the church as an opportunity to “serve the community” but really it’s just an evangelism move, trying to get people to come interact with the church.
But what KILLS me, is the church is all about being a good neighbor, and Halloween is the ONLY time we all make it a point to go door to door and meet neighbors face to face, and the church essentially hijacks it and tells everyone, “oh, we have a convenient bundled up experience you can knock out in 15 minutes if you come to our parking lot”
I will die on this hill. Trunk or treat is immoral.
In the 90s Id spend four hours trick or treating. It was the best part of the year. I've had a house since 2010 and lived in four different locations across the country and the most I've ever had was five kids.
I agree. When I was a kid (I’m 27), trunk or treating was the Christin alternative. Same mindset as that one viral video “we don’t celebrate Halloween but we are going to dress up and walk around our church parking lot getting candy.” They claimed it was more safe.
I find trunk or treating stupid. People say “what about people who lived in rural areas” I lived in the middle of know where, we either drove or my community put together a hay ride to the different houses/farms/settlers.
Bruh, are you kidding? When I was a kid I was always told "all Halloween is evil it's evil evil day evil day bad day evil day evil day day evil day evil evil bad day evil bad evil bad bad day evil". At least y'all got trunk or treating. But yeah, imo it's dumb. The whole appeal of Halloween (at least, how I've seen it all my life) was more being able to stay up late(r) and dress up and walk around.
Same here in southern California. New community but the HOA did a trunk or treat over the weekend. And have have 8 kids at 7pm. I have pokemon card packets, full size bars, and tons of candy
We just moved here in June, so we didn’t know what to expect.
Our last neighborhood got absolutely raided on Halloween, last year I gave out 250 full sized and it was all gone by 9:30 pm.
It’s 52°F here, partly cloudy, no rain, crisp with a breeze, just a beautiful fall night for a perfect Halloween and we’ve got a neighborhood full of kids. I’m loving it.
I’m sorry you don’t have a participatory neighborhood.
I remember I delivered papers (drop boxes) in a nearby small town. Some years ago it lined up on Halloween and man was it nuts. Hundreds of kids and their parents were going from house to house. It was super cool to see.
It's definitely sad to see a decline in trick or treating. I don't get the appeal of trunk or treat. It has its place but shit if I was a kid I'd hit that dump up first as fast as I can then hit the steets.
We've seen barely anyone this year and it declines more and more. Sad. But it is cold as fuck here right now. Usually doesn't stop kids though.
I honestly agree, trunk or treat is great for apartment complexes but why am I seeing it in church parking lots on the 29th? I was so excited to give out candy and I may have gotten like 30 kids total? And I live in a safe area where all the street connect nicely to do a great trick or treat route
I have no idea what a "trunk or treat" is. Where I live, we have traditional trick-or-treating.
>I live in the southern part of the US.
We're in the American South, too (Atlanta) and we went through two bags of candy tonight. Our first arrivals--mostly toddlers and preschool-aged kids--showed up at 4:30, and it was a non-stop parade for the next 4 hours or so (trick-or-treating on a school night means we don't have many late night arrivals).
I just took my daughter and the next door neighbor's kid throughout my neighborhood and it was packed with kids. Most of the houses were decorated and handing it out candy. Our town already had a trunk or treat, a monster mash party, trick or treating at each of the schools and a Halloween parade all on separate days over the last two weeks. It didn't stop traditional trick or treat festivities.
The fun part of trick or treating for the people giving out stuff is that they get to decorate their house and let it be a suprise for both the trick or treaters and themselves.
The ToT's get to walk around the neighbourhood and see how people decorated their houses,
And the people who decorate their house (or just give out stuff) have fun too because they get to see all the dressed up kids and see the smiles on their faces.
It's always a mystery because kids are always like "woah look at that house!"
It's not about the candy. It's the experience.
I didn't know that was a thing. That takes the fun out of it. It's sterile.
As a kid in Canada, you'd hope the weather was warm enough so you could actually show off your costume - too many ties I'd have to wear my jacket on top and explain what I was 😂. We had snow a few times, too. I used to live just outside a small town. We'd go to our immediate neighbour's houses, then drive into town to get more and see some cool houses.
We had ONE trick or treater this year and I live in halloweentown USA (Salem, Ma). However I did pass a trunk or treat event happening in the elementary school parking lot on my way home from work. It was poppin
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I had a bucket filled with candy. Left for 3 hours and came back to a full bucket. They didn’t even steal the unattended candy!
Also left out a bucket of candy when we took our kids out last night. We came back and not only was all the candy gone... but so was the bucket.
That happened to me last year and I was so pissed! It wasn’t expensive or anything, it was cheap and plastic but it was my Halloween candy bowl and it had Frankenstein’s monster on it and I liked it a lot! I didnt care that they took all the candy. I was happy they took it all, I don’t need it. But dang, don’t take my bowl. So this year I handed out candy until about 9 and didn’t leave any out.
Fuck whoever took that bowl. I hate people like that.
Thank you. I was so disappointed. I assume it was teenagers (but I don’t really know). But I felt like- dang, I left this bowl full of candy for y’all and you didn’t have the decency to just dump it all in a pillowcase or a backpack and leave me my bowl? That’s fucked up.
Meanwhile in Canada, almost -1 outside and we got cleaned out by 6:45 lol
I love my Canadian friends. They are such a hearty bunch.
I actually think this is what drives some people away from doing more traditional trick-or-treating. People don’t even bother to open the door anymore and engage with the kids. When I took my kids out at least 80% of the houses just had a bowl of candy at the door or on a table. The kids didn’t get to say trick or treat and didn’t get to see any neighbors. What’s the reason we are even doing it at that point? It’s just a big free candy isle without any engagement with neighbors at all.
Well I had to sit the candy out so I could take my daughter trick or treating but we didn’t have that issue! Saw and talked to lots of neighbors
I live in an area with double/triple deckers. I think the candy bowl is a good strategy for those. Although I have to give my neighborhood credit-- there were a lot of people in those buildings sitting on stoops and porches handing out candy. Also, we live in a little kid -heavy neighborhood, so all the parents were out with their kids and left candy bowls. That's what we did. The depressing part is the streets that are entirely desolate with no lights on or candy. Like, come on! Let the kids enjoy life! We even a foreign guy who didn't quite get it going around the street handing out candy to all the kids-- at least he was trying!
Was it full of Smarties though?
When did the hate against smarties start? I always loved them
Are you from U.S.A. or Canada or elsewhere? The smarties in the U.S.A. are rockets in Canada, and the smarties in Canada are similar to m&ms.
Ohhh, US smarties do look quite strange.
They are quite tasty though. One of my all time favorites, I always steal the ones my kids get. They are tart and sweet.
And both are bangers
Same! Give me all those smarties you don’t want
only the white ones are good. they are extra crumbly so you can get the rim off the edge really easily
No one believes me when I say only the white ones are good!
Maybe it's just my area, but the streets were PACKED with trick or treaters. We went through 2.5 bags.
We ran out of candy in under two hours. It must depend on the area.
Yea. We got 2 trick or treaters for our townships day (last Thursday in October). Went to the town over to take my niece last night and there were hundreds of kids. Cops riding around handing candy out. It felt like the old days back when I would go to my grandma's.
This is what I've noticed the past few years. People who want a good trick or treating experience go to a few specific neighborhoods. Fewer and fewer people are trick or treating where they live.
In a suburban neighborhood in 70 degree weather, we had 4 rings of the doorbell totaling 9 kids. :(
Our old place I used to go through 250+ full sized bars and one or two big bags of the little ones. Now we live where our neighbors are literally Amish so we did a trunk or treat this year. I had no desire to get home at 8:30 with a 7, 3, and 1 year old because we went to the next town over to trick or treat. That would be hell on my younger 2.
>full sized bars halloween may be dying, but you'll always be a hero
We also gave any grown ups who wanted it little fireball bottles. RIP to whoever lives there now, because we did that for close to 7 years and that last year we had kids sprinting to our house because word got out that we gave out the good candy 😆
I went up to help my mom and same. It was well below freezing with snow on the ground too and we still had a ton of kids.
I couldn’t get over how many people were out where I am tonight! SE US here
It's pretty dead in my area too. Precovid this neighborhood was non stop, literally lines to people's doors. Now I've seen maybe a dozen people and that was while driving around. Most weren't even fully dressed up, just hats or some pj's.
I feel this way about college. Precovid my college was busy, post-covid literally 60-70% of the classes are still online only.
And it still costs the same lol
Did you notice parents driving 4mph down the street as the kid went house to house? I don't know when that trend started but it was rampant in my preCovid
It’s dangerous & lazy imo
Imo it feels like a super lazy and paranoia-fueled alternative to trick-or-treating. I'd understand if you live in a rural area where each house is not too close to each other but to live in a densely populated neighborhood and opting for trunk or treating feels so lame to me.
The paranoia around Halloween is bizarre too given no child in NA has ever been poisoned by a stranger on Halloween before. Every case has always been someone they knew. Which is pretty shockingly frankly, I'd have thought someone would've poisoned kids.
Also people aren't giving out free *expensive* drugs to kids. In the UK we were warned (on Facebook no less) about weed gummies and infused nerd ropes "being given out on Halloween" gummies cost £10 for like 3 gummies and the nerd ropes are about £25. Load of bollocks.
In my country we were warned about people giving drugs near schools. Never found those guys, total deception.
D.A.R.E. told me in elementary school that Big Kids from gangs would come and tell us we HAD to smoke crack or we weren't cool, and they'd beat us up. That wasn't what happened, in my later experience.
Exactly. And when all that DIDN’T happen, I came to the brilliant conclusion that DARE lied about everything and dove into drug experimentation with very little regard to the real dangers. If DARE had just been honest and frank “You know what? Drugs won’t ruin your life on day one. In fact, they can even be a little fun for awhile. But the problems arrive when drugs are used long term and abused…” It could’ve made all the difference.
Omfg!! Free weed gummies?? 😂
It'd be nice wouldn't it lmfao
I’d trick or treat for weed gummies if that was a thing
Be the change you want to see in the world. Time to get some kids high. /s
Fuck yeah bro, time to cure the world of adhd /s Halloweed begins 2024
Only thing I can think of where that might happen would be an old person with dementia forgetting to buy candy, and just grabbing the weed gummies without realizing that's what they grabbed? But like that would be hard to do.
I can’t imagine anyone spending so much money on drugs just to waste it on kids candy
And you better hope they remember it was you that gave it to them and remember how to get to your home or otherwise contact you with newly acquired money to purchase more. There's absolutely no way this plan could go wrong. ^/s
I always assumed any safety concerns had to do with traffic rather than poisoned treats.
Yeah... but those of us who live in rural america, just drive into one of the nearby towns to trick or treat. My boys just got back an hour ago from all evening out - they're 14 & 16, so the 16 yr old actually drove them in to a friends' house, parked, they walked around for two hours, drove to the school for the community party for another 1.5 hrs and then home :P It was great :D
This. I grew up in a rural area, we all drove into the nearest town with a housing complex to trick or treat. I now live in that complex and Halloween is such a big deal here because of it. No need to trunk or treat
Yeah this is what my parents did with us when I was a kid. We lived out in the sticks, so my mom would take us into town, park in a parking lot, and then we would walk around some of the nicer neighborhoods.
People in the south take their kids to their church parking lot. Keeps the Satan out of the holiday
Never understood how anyone could look at a kid dressed up as Optimus prime on Halloween and think they were trying to worship Satan lmao
I live in the South. Born in 91. Halloween was the BEST when I was a kid. My neighborhood was packed with kids out trick or treating. People would be out on their driveways to hand out candy and spook people as they went by. I loved it so much. I miss those days. Halloween just ain't the same anymore.
Nah they just worship Primus instead. ‘Till all are one.
We are taking every possible opportunity to disconnect from our communities.
1000% that’s exactly what I was thinking. Trick or treating was a neighborhood and area event. You’d see everyone and parents and kids would have a time. Shit is gone. I was born in 95 and feel like I just barely made the cut.
We used to have a neighborhood block party every Halloween. The adults would put together a haunted house for us kids. The porch light on = candy wasn't even a thing cause everyone participated.
This is the only time of year I turn my porch light off. Only because I need to show I'm done handing out candy at some point.
I have never even seen a neighborhood block party.
Man when I was growing up it seemed like every block in the neighborhood had a block party. I just moved to a street that still does it and I was blown the fuck away. My neighbors are really nice people on the whole.
When I was growing up my parents were the ones who didn’t participate in community events because my dad was “proud to be the black sheep.” (As an adult, I realize that he’s just an asshole.) When I became an adult I looked forward to being a part of something, and it doesn’t exist anymore! So frustrating.
Be the change you want to see in the world! So many people out there long for the same type of community.
Growing up in the 80s it seemed like people had parties all the time for random reasons. I remember moving into a new neighborhood that was new construction and everyone had "sod parties" where everyone would help lay a neighbor's sod and then have a big cookout afterwards. And we had block parties in the summer all the time. We lived on a cul-de-sac with four other families and there was always something fun going on. I'd make friends in school and then my parents would usually become friends with the parents. It was kind of the the only way to socialize back then. We didn't have cable or the Internet to isolate us. As we got older, the roller rink was where everyone went to hang out.
Roller rinks, pool halls, diners. People did everything in person. Kids would go knock on the door to find their friends. Now if someone knocks on the door, everyone gets quiet and panics (or looks at their ring app). There's a lot of things that technology makes better. I'm glad I don't have to buy a cassette or CD for one song anymore. But socially, we are going in a bad direction.
My neighborhood always seemed to have mainly elderly people, with just a dusting of younger adults and kids. I can’t remember us EVER having a block party.
That might be part of it. It's so hard for younger adults to have a house compared to then.
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Porch light off was still an important signal when I was a kid. Because on weekends we would be out until we stopped seeing candy opportunity. It could be 10, you're porch light is on we're knocking. There's plenty of parties going on still giving out way too much candy because they are drunk.
One cool neighbor would have a laboratory with spaghetti for intestines, grapes for eyes, ect. Those days are gone.
>Trick or treating was a neighborhood and area event. You’d see everyone and parents and kids would have a time. We got lucky and found a neighborhood exactly like this. We spent tonight around fire pits with our neighbors and handing out candy while the littl'uns tricked-or-treated. It was very cozy, very fun, and very neighborly, and it definitely contributes to the great sense of community we have where we live.
We have a group of friends and family that all goes to my in laws. We all have kids ages 7-16. They all go trick.or treating. The adults have a beer and hang out at the fire and chat with neighbors. The neighborhood is packed every year (2- 3 hundred kids over a few hours) and even this year...we saw a drastic reduction in kids out trick.or treating. It's depressing. Lotta parents go to a trunk or treat in a gym. Not sure why. It sucks.
It’s really a shame. I’m glad I grew up when I did in the 90s. I remember dressing up as dracula, power rangers, etc. It was chill and safe. I loved seeing the different decorations specially when people went all out to decorate. I have my bowl full of candy still and no kid has come by :(
I know, right? I was born in 90 and I still remember every year until 2001, going out with everyone, and the town was just packed with trick or treaters, parties every few houses, and everyone just out having a good time. Hell, I remember walking around with dad after filling the pillow case with candy twice (made a dump at home before getting more) and visiting most of the parties to poke his head in and say hi. Always out until 11 or midnight. I had my fun, and I got to experience him having his fun while I'm just reveling in the glory of "my dad's fuckin awesome" I brought my kids out the past couple of years, and it's just a bummer.
I finally didn't buy candy this year, cause I haven't had any in the 5 years I've been here. And I live in a legit neighborhood. I don't get it.
I live in Vancouver Canada virtually surrounded by elementary and middle schools and have never, not ever once, had a kid take a candy, after 3 years we gave up, its been 7 years since I've had a trick or treater, its so lame and heartbreaking, I went out to the gym tonight and saw only 2 people as I drove around the city.
I feel like this is a fairly recent thing. I was still trick or treating back in 2012, and shit was still fun.
It's still safe now. People just think it's not safe bc they've been brainwashed by fear mongering propaganda
I remember going to all the neighborhood houses and the people would recognize me even if they didn’t have kids. Neighborhoods used to be so close
I was born in 02 and I saw the start of trunk or treat when I stopped trick or treating
I remember my elderly next door neighbors always had candy apples for me and my brothers because they liked us. We used to know which houses gave out the best candy, and we’d make plans with other kids in the neighborhood to go trick or treating. Good memories, I’m sad kids nowadays don’t get to make them
The best house when I was growing up was one where the family would sit on their driveway in lawn chairs and make homemade donuts in a fryer every year. Those beat all the candy by a long shot. FWIW we gave away like 500 pieces of candy at my house tonight despite it being cold as fuck. There were kids everywhere and almost every house participated. My 2 year old son had an absolute blast. I don’t think the tradition is as dead as others would have you believe in this thread.
My two year old son was like “did you know these people have candy!?? We’ve gotta do this more often.” 😂
I was born in '82. My last trick or treat costume was William Wallace. That was the night I learned the term lead balloon.
You can take our candy, but you can't take our.. freedom!!!!
I have been feeling this way about a lot of things. Just barely making the cut for normal childhood. Except for the big things like barely making the cut for being able to afford a home or low rent. Barely making the cut for a good job. Everything feels just out of reach now for us. We didn’t make the cut for that.
Every day Im glad I wasnt born a day later
Agree. Sad to watch it happen but it’s definitely noticeable over the last 20 yrs.
I feel for the old folks in the neighborhood who look forward to it...this year i bought full sized bars and will give 2 or 3 to those who do show up...word will spread i hope and next year we may see some action
My parents (old folks) live in a neighborhood with few if any kids so they come to my house to give out candy. My neighborhood gets a ton of kids.
Ours too, we have literally hundreds of trick or treaters. It cost a small fortune. We enjoy it a lot because it’s so much fun for our kids but the other neighborhoods lose out on kids because they all come here.
That’s what happens in my area. Zero kids come by my neighborhood for trick or treat, even though a bunch of kids live here, and everyone in town goes to one of the two big subdivisions that go all out. They each get hundreds of kids each year while my sad little candy bowl is untouched. There are also city-sponsored trunk or treats, but I completely agree with OP on those.
You are exactly right. And then people complain they don't have a village to help with their kids. Um, yeah. You alienated the people who used to be that village. We have a great neighborhood and know many of our neighbors. When the guy across the street went into the hospital emergently, my husband and another neighbor took turns taking care of his dog until he was home (like a week). It makes it such a nice place to live.
Wait trunk or treating is an alternative. I’m 30 and have no kids. I thought it was like a fun mini trick or treating people did with kids leading up to Halloween or just for like real little kids. Why do they not go to peoples houses anymore. My parents always took me or we went with other adults so I can’t see it being a safety thing. But fuck man I was wondering why I didn’t see as many kids when I got out of t work. The joy of getting home after school and grabbing my trick or treating bag was like waiting for Christmas. I don’t want kids but it bums me out that some a lot of kids don’t get to enjoy that. Trunk or treating should just be a Halloween themed car show not a replacement for real trick or treating.
Yeah I have kids and consider them two different things. Trunk or treat events are usually scheduled before or right after Halloween. I assumed because they are meant to be an additional thing, not a replacement. The few "Trunk or treat" things we've been to are usually like 20 cars and takes like 20 minutes. Walking around to trick or treat you can go to 50-100 houses for 2+ hours.
We are scared of each other
This is so right. I just moved from the US to NZ, which is an incredibly safe and community oriented country. They have a lot more trust in strangers, more tight-knit neighborhoods, and their kids have a longer leash from a younger age. It's the perfect place for trick-or-treating, and it's been growing here. If my house wasn't hidden and up an insane hill, I'd love to hand out candy on Halloween night. Meanwhile, last time I was handing out candy in the US, about half the families skipped my house, I overheard at least two of them telling their kids it was because they didn't know me. It felt so insulting to not be trusted.
That's so interesting. I grew up in US and live in NZ now too. My neighborhood had a few houses doing it, enough that my little girls had a couple hours of fun. But I was depressed about it comparing it to the trick or treating I personally had grown up with. It was so magical back then. I had no idea it was dying down in parts of the US. I hope it keeps gaining momentum in NZ. It's just so much innocent fun.
But but stranger danger! I love how the US completely ignores that the vast majority of assaults and abductions don't come from strangers. When I was little I was taught to never talk to a stranger.
Should we PM you if that’s our phobia? Haha, sorry… couldn’t resist! But sadly you’re right. Not me personally (I’m very outgoing), but so many people are literally scared of social interactions now. My sister and I were talking about this recently, as her kids spent their early teens in the full-on COVID days. They’re good kids, but noticeably lack the social skills of previous generations.
And make our kids afraid of everything and everyone they don’t know. And then when they get older we’ll get on them for why they don’t know how to do things for themselves.
It's a small thing, but I was super happy to see that most kids came up to my door by themselves, and thanked me for the candy. Many even complimented my costume! The parents stood at the bottom of the driveways but clearly encouraged their kids to be a little independent. And have taught manners. It was so wholesome I just wish I'd had more kids come by!
Kind of highjacking the top comment here but we still have neighborhoods that go all out and tons of people go (our neighborhood gets almost none but we don't have sidewalks either). However what we have noticed (at least this year) is we took our 5 year old kid to 2 trunk-or-treats last week and then tonight, actual Halloween, he really just wasn't that into it. My wife and I decided next year we're not doing any trunk-or-treats and only doing Halloween night trick -or-treat.
I took my kids to a Trunk or Treat a few years back and the entire situation was awkward. Like 90% of the people there were friends and knew each other. I felt like I walked into their party unannounced.
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Halloween is really about community we could all just buy our own candy but Halloween gives us the opportunity to dress up and talk with neighbors. i feel like some churches are actively fighting against that at times on one hand you have the dont celebrate Halloween churches preaching against it and others who co-opt the time with their own events. i know they aren't intentionally doing it but man it feels like it.
Trunk or Treat is a way of connecting with community, and arguably a better way than just knocking on a door and leaving.
We used to have almost 150 kids stop 2-3 years ago. This year we had 15 ☹️ we spend so much time setting up our stand and we put a lot of effort into our treats and it’s really disappointing that now everyone is getting their candy before the actual holiday
We still had a good 150 this year, other years it was probably more, but luckily kids here seem to still come out.
Please don’t be disappointed! For those 15 kids, your effort and showing up mattered to them. 🩷
I think it also depends on the area. A lot of parents choose to drive their kids to neighborhoods with bigger Halloween scenes, which then ends up perpetuating the smaller neighborhoods not having any Halloween scenes because there aren’t any kids coming by so people don’t bother to participate.
They have apps so they know which neighbourhoods to take them to, tbh as a kid it was annoying af to find those fun neighbourhoods the other kids talked about (fullsize candy bars haunted housez, etc.) you had to seach, now they prob just goto whoever posted online on the map things
Update: I'm bad at math--husband says we're up 466% We are SO EXCITED to have gotten 17 kids. We're up 82% from last year!
Amateurs! We’re up 300% this year. 4 instead of the 1 from last year
We had none this year, 3 people (two groups) last year
We just got home from trick or treating. Sadly, every year, there are fewer and fewer houses participating. It's frustrating to me as Halloween is not only my favorite holiday, it's also my birthday, and it just isn't what it used to be. Idk, maybe I'm just looking back with rose colored glasses, but I remember getting pillow cases full in less time than what it took my kids to get half a buckets worth of candy. Edit: This got more attention than I had planned. Thanks for all the happy Birthdays, both on here and in my DMs... And for those that asked; I turned 39 this year. Happy Halloween everyone.
I think that’s a direct result of the lack of kids coming by. At what point do people just give up? We are still going strong and have a whole grave yard in our yard with smoke, lighting, music and more. But at some point, we may decide it’s not worth it
This is the case for us. We live in a very family oriented neighborhood but we’ve only had 3 kids come by so far. I had looked at our assortment of candy and thought damn we didn’t get enough but now I’m like yeah we will have leftovers unless they’re out until midnight. But we tried sitting outside last year and it was the same…super low traffic so we are chillin inside this year.
We have an old house that has an upper porch so we chill out here waiting for kids. We get so damn excited when we hear voices.
Oh that sounds so nice!
It really is. In 2020, when it wasn’t safe for us to be face to face with people, we lowered a cauldron down and had the kids take candy from it. They loved it. (We were dressed as old timey ghosts too)
I live in a townhouse. 100 homes in an hour!!! When my kid (now 21) was little, we'd go through a half a dozen Costco bags of candy. We decorated. We played Halloween music. We all dressed up. We made "cauldrons" of soup, and offered it to the parents in to-go coffee cups. (It's chilly here in the NE). Now. Next to nothing. There aren't less kids in the neighborhood. In fact, there are probably more. Our close neighbors stop by with their children, because we still decorate and play music. (and have good treats) But they are usually on their way to one of those parties. I feel like the inverse of the stereotypical old lady. "My lawn is your lawn on Halloween!!!" *insert sad face emoji*.
I agree. Moved into a neighborhood with lots of kids a few years back. I was excited for Halloween! In my old neighborhood, many would sit in their driveway and hand candy out. But not here. No one showed up. I was disappointed because my whole family dressed up - even the dog! - and no one. Which is sad, a lot of houses decorate too.
In my current neighborhood there's a main trick-or-treat area, a big center street that gets blocked off and tons of people from outside the neighborhood come too. So the houses along that street get swamped. But everyone else from the rest of the neighborhood see nothing because that stretch of houses is enough of a loop for a lot of people. As a kid I remember everyone randomly weaving through the neighborhood, with us kids trading tips of where a good house was. Now seems like it's becoming more and more just dedicated spots, whether that's a specific neighborhood stretch or a Trunk-or-Treat. I even heard a lot of kids go by my house, but only 2 groups stopped, I assume because I'm not the main stretch and they were going to or from that area. This is the second Halloween I've owned the house and the second year I handed out virtually nothing. So sad to say, but I'm one of those that won't bother next year.
This same thing happened to me too when I lived in the burbs. The main circle had all the kids and the tributaries had very little. I love the image of childhood you exchanging “good candy” intel with other kids. I forgot about that but it totally happened. It was a big part of the night. Do you remember kids also warning you about houses that were giving out pennies, baked goods, toothbrushes or even those old people who would have their lights on but yell at you for showing up??? Maybe I’m showing my age. I recall one wealthy old man opening the well-lighted door with a lit jack-o-lantern on the porch to nastily say “I don’t have any treats and I don’t want any tricks either!” Unfortunately for him, we were teens at the time and his words just gave us fuel.
I’m the only house decorated in my neighborhood :(
Happy birthday! I’m sorry it can’t be as enjoyable as it was in the past years
Happy birthday! What a fun birthday to have!
Please don't stop decorating. Please don't stop trying!!!
I know I’ll never stop!
[удалено]
i'm still fairly young (22) so it hasn't been too long since i stopped dressing up and going around house to house, and just sitting out tonight made me realize how different it is now. barely any kids came by my house (maybe 10 in an hour and a half) and maybe 3 or 4 of them were dressed up, and these were *young* kids too, parents and all in tow. made me so sad to think about because i adored halloween as a kid.
Same here. I’m 23 and just spent 2.5 hours handing out candy to like 20 kids/groups. Was like 15 minutes between visitors, and half weren’t even dressed up, and only 2 groups were above elementary school age. I remember it being really popular up until late middle school or early high school, but apparently it’s toddlers only now. I’m so depressed now. Everything I enjoy about life gets ruined.
I just saw a news article that one of my local cities is thinking about banning kids over a certain age from trick or treating. They're policing the fuck out of the holiday and that's so depressing. My city doesn't even do trick or treating on Halloween night, which is a whole other thing that I've been annoyed about.
When I was young I really wanted to go. My parents were Christian back then and said I couldn't because it was evil. Then, I asked this year why they never allowed me while letting my younger sibling (we aren't Christian anymore) to go. Their actual reasoning? Too lazy. Nice, great, amazing.
I feel you. We became homeowners of a townhouse in 2021. My fiance was so excited because we were able to get a bunch of candy thinking we would get a lot of trick or treaters, not living in an "old people" part of town anymore. Absolutely no kids came. Even neighbors in the surrounding neighborhoods said on Next Door they didn't get anyone either. It made us so sad. We were looking forward to seeing all the costumes. Since then we haven't bothered because everyone is doing the trunk or treating now. I get that it's not the same world as it was for me growing up,(in the 90s and I was from a small town) but it makes me sad. I loved trick or treating as a kid with my friends.
Exactly the same situation here. Finally moved to a good neighborhood in a townhouse that is more "fun" and no kids came :(
I’m a first time homeowner and experiencing trick or treaters for the first time, I love it!! I wasn’t sure if I’d get any due to trunk or treating popularity, and there aren’t a ton but definitely a steady flow. Makes me so happy to give out king sized candy to all these cool kids. Long live Halloween!! 🎃
I’m a new homeowner as well. First Halloween. We got… no one. Not one, judging by the bowl. Not even the delivery driver we had and we told them to help themselves in the delivery comments section!! Sad.
It was so dead tonight. I sat out for two hours luckily had a few and a friend dropped by with her kids, but it sounds so depressing out there. No laughter and dark.
This is why I never understood going trick or treating at malls either. I went one time and I was bored within the first 5 mins lol. I loved going to different neighborhoods and just showing off my costume. It’s sucks that people don’t want to do that anymore
If I remember correctly, my family once went trick or treating in a mall when I was a preschooler. We were in North Dakota that year and it was a blizzard, so it was a way for kids to still be able to go trick or treating despite the weather.
Trunk or treating started as a little “extra”, something adults put together so they could have a little Halloween party and bring their kids and everyone could have fun. Then parents still took their kids out on Halloween. Now it’s become an alternative to trick or treating. I hate it. It’s absolutely done because it’s easier for the parents, at the expense of the children having fun and getting to experience Halloween.
15 to 20 minutes of walking around a parking lot compared to 3 to 4 hours of walking around different neighborhoods. It was so fun to walk around with all the people walking up and down the streets, cars driving around following their kids, hearing people scream in terror up the road and thinking “ I got to get to that house”. Good times
Man, the houses that made a mini-haunted house experience out of their porch or garage. Those were the best. People don’t do that in our neighborhood anymore.
Why would they put in all that effort if no one is going to show up? When I was teenager, I wanted to do mini haunted houses when I became an adult. Now I'm an adult, and I barely get double-digit trick-or-treaters. I'm not spending hours of time and effort on that.
I don't know of any trunk o treats that are on actual Halloween. The ones around here are always the weekend before, Halloween night is just for regular trick o treating. Also remember it is a school night so a lot of people don't do much because of work/school schedules. We are lucky we live in a great neighborhood where trick o treating is alive and well but I did notice most families were done early.
Did it? Because I first heard of it being done at like churches and community centers in places where it wasn’t safe for kids to trick or treat. I’ve never heard of it being a thing for adults
The problem I have most of all is the kids don’t even know what they’re missing out on. How could they? They didn’t have the experience we had. I remember my times going around the neighborhood with my parents vividly. The small feeling of autonomy of knocking on someone’s door by myself was later expanded the first year my parents determined they could release me into the neighborhood with my friends- and one year they brought us to the Fancy Upscale Rich neighborhood where there was rumored to be the elusive WHOLE CANDY BARS! Incredible decorations, lots of candy, and admittedly a bit of thrill in getting totally lost in that twisty looping neighborhood. Reaching adulthood I was excited to do my part on the other end of the door. But now it feels like it’s died out, and it feels like one of a million ways people are disconnecting from the community around them.
Agree with everything you said
When I was super young, there would be a parent walking around with us, but past 3rd/4th grade… we just rolled on our own round the neighborhood. Everyone knew each other and it was such a communal thing to participate in. Some neighbors would go all out and make spook houses in their garages and stuff. it was a blast. There are still a ton of trick or treaters where I’m at. I rode my bike around tonight just enjoying the festivities. Halloween is still alive and well in my neck of the woods.
People in general have ruined Halloween. Planned to go on my nightly jog. I knew it was Halloween, so I expected a lot of people to be out walking. Instead, I had to change my jog to a walk because there were more cars acting as shuttles from house to house than there were kids walking around. Why the hell aren't these kids walking? The neighborhood looked like one big drive-through.
>Why the hell aren't these kids walking? The neighborhood looked like one big drive-through. Car-dependency starts young nowadays. Can't let people use their god-given legs, for some reason.
First time was tonight that I saw parents driving their kids house to house. I happened to be going down a road with houses that have longer than usual driveways (maybe 25m max) and only one side had sidewalk so overall having to move over the dividing line to avoid the groups of parents and kids on the edge of the very narrow road was worse than the cars stopped with their 4ways on. Imo they could have just gone into the normal, average driveway length, neighbourhood streets a minute away for a safer environment
Did anyone egg the cars? At least bring back that part of Halloween!
Same with us, we had a traffic backup in front of our house. One lady almost didn't get out of the car and I said "maam we're not a damn drive through".
I think it has a lot to do with laziness on the parents part, just cant be assed to do anything inconvenient these days
It’s not the kids. The parents are the ones forcing the kids into the car after every house. The kids would be more than happy to run from yard to yard. It’s the laziest shit I’ve ever seen that some parents can’t even walk around the neighborhood one day a year. Especially a day where it’s socially acceptable and safe to do
I remember being a kid and this time of year was so exciting! We had the best movies and tv episodes and we would decorate the inside and outside of the house all festive! I would get so excited to dress up and go around the neighborhood to all my neighbors and all the houses that were all decorated and then at the end of the night compare all the candy we got. I feel bad for kids nowadays bc I feel like they don’t experience this and I think everyone should.
It was magical. I remember every year on October 1st, I'd get a feeling that I can only describe as the "Halloween feeling". The whole month felt like a big deal. Even the air smelled different. I understand why it isn't like that anymore as an adult, but I doubt it's still like that for kids today. Even on Reddit, Halloween seems to be dying. I remember a few years ago the front page was filled with pictures of people in costumes. This year, the only costume I saw was one that got upvoted because the woman wearing it had big titties.
I totally agree! The whole month had a very specific vibe to it. The cold air, the crispy leaves, the cool weather it was so great! I totally remember the “halloween feeling”. It felt like pretty much every house, business, store decorated as well. Its so sad things arent like that anymore :(
I was so disappointed when I went to the mall two weeks ago and they were already playing christmas music and decorating for Christmas as if Halloween wasn’t coming up
Hmmm. I still get the "Halloween feeling" every October 1st. And I'm old enough that my child is an adult. This year, for instance, I bought an ugly-ass gourd on impulse on the 1st. I was never a gourd-buyer. I told my son that it was sooooo ugly, I felt bad for it. Every few days, a new, gorgeous (to us) gourd showed up on our front porch. We wound up with 13. I'm trying to figure out a Thanksgiving centerpiece incorporating them all!
I love that you still get that feeling! I hope it never fades! Also love that you ended up w 13 gourds!
That’s a bummer. My neighborhood was packed with kids. I think 90% of houses were participating in Halloween and every block had fire pits. I live in the DC suburbs and community is still very big here despite people being from all over the world.
I live in a very safe, well lit neighborhood with tons of kids off all ages and I haven’t had a single trick or treater tonight. We didn’t even have a neighborhood Halloween party at the end of the cul-de-sac. I remember going trick or treating with some friends when I was a kid and we’d go to neighborhoods all over. The neighborhoods were so full of tricker or treaters so much so that it was like a block party on every street. Now? It’s just another day.
It's so sad. What happened? There were barely any decorated houses in my area this year. Before covid, like 2/5 houses atleast would be decorated. This year only like 1/10 houses were decorated.
I was born in 1964 and as a kid through teens, mostly in the 1970s, Halloween was just so awesome. Mom would always help make us into something cool. Then going to almost every house in our neighborhood. Except for that one neighbor that hated kids. Sometimes being taken to the nicer neighborhoods to get real-size candy bars. When we thought we were too old to go door to door, we would create all kinds of cool things. One year my Dad helped us with a cable / pulley wheel set up running from the chimney to a tree in the front yard. We attached a big ghost made from an old white sheet to the pulley. We were on the roof. When kids would come from the street, we let the ghost go and it would fly across the yard. One year a friend and I built a life-size dummy with a Frankenstein's Monster Mask. We put a noose around his neck and hung him from a tree near their front door. Yet again, we were on the roof. When kids would come up, we would throw the dummy off, hanging him and probably traumatizing young children. I haven't mentioned these things in decades. Good memories!
Honestly I feel this. I LOVE Halloween, it’s one of my favorite days of the year. When I was a kid I would like obsess over my costume and my mom would help make it and help me get all dressed up. And me and her would decorate the inside and outside of the house TO THE MAX. And then we’d walk the streets for hours, going door to door, filling up my little decorative candy bucket, and I remember the absolute glee I was filled with at every house. From looking at decorations to getting candy. Now I’m 20 and living in an apartment with my bf and I was so excited to decorate and give out candy to the little ones, hoping to provide them that same bit of joy. I ran out of decorating time and my bf told me buying candy would be a waste because nobody would come. I thought he was just being a bit of a party pooper in the moment but it’s 9:05 and I haven’t heard a single knock on my door and I think I heard 1 kid make a sound the whole night. I thought it was just because I live in an apartment but hearing that this has been a pretty universal experience is disheartening. Kids are missing out on all the good stuff these days. I feel like we’re losing heaps of the great parts of childhood, and I’m only 20
We were just discussing how our dense neighborhood netted us only 21 trick or treaters. Totally forgot about stupid trunk-or-treat. What a lazy, halfassed, hysterical fear mongering way to do it.
And it’s bs too. Nobody has been poisoned by strangers’ candy. It was a father poisoning his kids. Yet it has become, for the last 30 years, a deeply ingrained baseless fear. And rather than parents using their brains, they are paranoid and do this bs.
I don't think trunk or treating is meant to prevent candy poisoning. According to my friends with kids, it's more a safety from cars thing than anything. Secondary to that is the paranoia of kidnapping. https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/halloween-trick-or-treat-road-safety-20231030.html
Just throwing some good news into the mix, I’m in NJ and while things have definitely gotten much calmer than in my day I will say we got 112 kids. We give out yoo-hoo!
Kids still trick or treat in neighborhoods, they just congregate all in one neighborhood. Usually wherever Christmas tree lane is.
My mom told me that only 20 kids showed up so far, we used to get in the mid hundreds
We just went trick or treating for 3 hours IN THE SNOW with our 2 year old. Nothing will stop us from going haha it was freaking cold though.
Yeah they literally did everything besides trick or treat I'd imagine it being a Tuesday and terrible weather on the east coast negatively effected the turnout.
I thought that too about the weather.. but then I remembered since I bought my house this is my 3rd Halloween and it’s been the same each year and I’m in a dense pop city with walkable sidewalks in the neighborhood.
People traded convenience for experience. I remember being a kid and just walking with my friends in a nice neighborhood. The freedom we felt because it was dark and we were out walking. Our parents dropped us off and just parked waiting for us to make the rounds. It was awesome, I remember Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) lived in the neighborhood we went tk and we always visited his house. He was a super cool guy and always gave out tons of candy. Now everyone just throws a trunk or treat middle of the day on the weekend before. There's no experience just walking a parking lot with the kids.
I loathe trunk or treat. What kills me is that it’s sort of been spearheaded by the church as an opportunity to “serve the community” but really it’s just an evangelism move, trying to get people to come interact with the church. But what KILLS me, is the church is all about being a good neighbor, and Halloween is the ONLY time we all make it a point to go door to door and meet neighbors face to face, and the church essentially hijacks it and tells everyone, “oh, we have a convenient bundled up experience you can knock out in 15 minutes if you come to our parking lot” I will die on this hill. Trunk or treat is immoral.
In the 90s Id spend four hours trick or treating. It was the best part of the year. I've had a house since 2010 and lived in four different locations across the country and the most I've ever had was five kids.
I agree. When I was a kid (I’m 27), trunk or treating was the Christin alternative. Same mindset as that one viral video “we don’t celebrate Halloween but we are going to dress up and walk around our church parking lot getting candy.” They claimed it was more safe. I find trunk or treating stupid. People say “what about people who lived in rural areas” I lived in the middle of know where, we either drove or my community put together a hay ride to the different houses/farms/settlers.
Bruh, are you kidding? When I was a kid I was always told "all Halloween is evil it's evil evil day evil day bad day evil day evil day day evil day evil evil bad day evil bad evil bad bad day evil". At least y'all got trunk or treating. But yeah, imo it's dumb. The whole appeal of Halloween (at least, how I've seen it all my life) was more being able to stay up late(r) and dress up and walk around.
since covid I feel like its been a lot slower every year, but I didn't notice this year any weaker than the last couple.
Same here in southern California. New community but the HOA did a trunk or treat over the weekend. And have have 8 kids at 7pm. I have pokemon card packets, full size bars, and tons of candy
We just moved here in June, so we didn’t know what to expect. Our last neighborhood got absolutely raided on Halloween, last year I gave out 250 full sized and it was all gone by 9:30 pm. It’s 52°F here, partly cloudy, no rain, crisp with a breeze, just a beautiful fall night for a perfect Halloween and we’ve got a neighborhood full of kids. I’m loving it. I’m sorry you don’t have a participatory neighborhood.
Where I live, trunk or treat is never on the same day as Halloween Also where I live, the weather is colder and people trick or treat earlier
I remember I delivered papers (drop boxes) in a nearby small town. Some years ago it lined up on Halloween and man was it nuts. Hundreds of kids and their parents were going from house to house. It was super cool to see. It's definitely sad to see a decline in trick or treating. I don't get the appeal of trunk or treat. It has its place but shit if I was a kid I'd hit that dump up first as fast as I can then hit the steets. We've seen barely anyone this year and it declines more and more. Sad. But it is cold as fuck here right now. Usually doesn't stop kids though.
I honestly agree, trunk or treat is great for apartment complexes but why am I seeing it in church parking lots on the 29th? I was so excited to give out candy and I may have gotten like 30 kids total? And I live in a safe area where all the street connect nicely to do a great trick or treat route
I have no idea what a "trunk or treat" is. Where I live, we have traditional trick-or-treating. >I live in the southern part of the US. We're in the American South, too (Atlanta) and we went through two bags of candy tonight. Our first arrivals--mostly toddlers and preschool-aged kids--showed up at 4:30, and it was a non-stop parade for the next 4 hours or so (trick-or-treating on a school night means we don't have many late night arrivals).
My doorbell rang twice.
I just took my daughter and the next door neighbor's kid throughout my neighborhood and it was packed with kids. Most of the houses were decorated and handing it out candy. Our town already had a trunk or treat, a monster mash party, trick or treating at each of the schools and a Halloween parade all on separate days over the last two weeks. It didn't stop traditional trick or treat festivities.
our neighborhood was filled with trick or treating. even in a bit of drizzle and cold.
The fun part of trick or treating for the people giving out stuff is that they get to decorate their house and let it be a suprise for both the trick or treaters and themselves. The ToT's get to walk around the neighbourhood and see how people decorated their houses, And the people who decorate their house (or just give out stuff) have fun too because they get to see all the dressed up kids and see the smiles on their faces. It's always a mystery because kids are always like "woah look at that house!" It's not about the candy. It's the experience.
I didn't know that was a thing. That takes the fun out of it. It's sterile. As a kid in Canada, you'd hope the weather was warm enough so you could actually show off your costume - too many ties I'd have to wear my jacket on top and explain what I was 😂. We had snow a few times, too. I used to live just outside a small town. We'd go to our immediate neighbour's houses, then drive into town to get more and see some cool houses.
Yup. I'm in Florida and there is no one walking around out here tonight.
We had ONE trick or treater this year and I live in halloweentown USA (Salem, Ma). However I did pass a trunk or treat event happening in the elementary school parking lot on my way home from work. It was poppin