Trick-or-Treaters

[MichaelB]

We used to get 70 or so back in NY, but we moved into a neighborhood with fewer families, and over the past couple of years get no visitors. I enjoyed very much putting on my giant troll feet and monster hand to answer the door.

DW and I stopped by the Chicago Botanic Garden, which hosts a special Halloween event the children enjoy. They create two paths along the gardens, one safe, the other scary, and invite the families to follow on to the site of the festivities. Last year we took the grandkids after dark, and in the lily pond this creature was reaching out, touching people's feet and making strange noises. They were setting up when we stopped by this afternoon and I couldn't resist taking a phot.

 

[Sue J]

Our Trick or Treat was last night 6-8. We had more kids than usual (50+) and some very cute costumes. The most imaginative was a girl dressed as a Thanksgiving dinner table. The table was on her shoulders, set with a tablecloth, plates, cups and silverware. She had her head in the center with a turkey hat. Just adorable!

The kids were all polite and said thank you. Parents out on the sidewalk waved. It was a nice evening, not too cold and for once, NO RAIN.

 

[devans0]

I wouldn't miss it! Every year has a few children that are over the top in cuteness.

On YouTube, there is a video of a toddler wearing an led stick figure costume that is fun in the same way.

 

[martyp]

We will probably get about 50 kids. I open up from 6pm - 8pm and then it is light's out. Any later and you just get the older kids.

 

[eytonxav]

Lights out, me on the roof with a bucket of ice water.

This reminds me of trick or treating as a child, each year, there was one particular house where the owner would stand in his garage, door open, and the whole house without lights. If you came up his driveway, he would start hurling apples at you. Nothing happened to him, but I suspect he would be behind bars in todays world.

 

[Walt34]

Well, I guess that's better than the rock salt fired from shotguns that farmers used to use.

 

[chilkoot]

This year's head count was a record low. One group of four kids. Lots of leftover Twix bars.

 

[donheff]

Mobs of families. We disposed of multiple bags of candy. We went out with the grandkids and great nephews for a little while. Here is the crowd in front of one decorated house:

 

[Jack_Pine]

Got ZERO. We usually don't get very many and the constant rain kept the rest away................................

 

[scrabbler1]

Keeping my streak intact since the 1990s, I got no trick-or-treaters again this year. It was tough finding a snack pack in the supermarket which had anything less than 24 bags but after searching around a few days ago I did find one with 6 small bags of potato chips. That means I get to eat most of them on the car trip when we go to my brother's place for Thanksgiving in a few weeks.

 

[Walt34]

We had about 30-40, a bit more than usual. Cute little tykes, and the rain started about 7:30 when the older ones began showing up. Perfect timing on the rain.

 

[sengsational]

I was always the one left at home to answer the door. And to pass the time, I recorded the data:

So it looks like we'll get 20 to 30 kids. The neighborhood is "aging out", I think. More of our kids come in cars now (a big load of 6 kids piles out of a van), whereas before they'd all be on foot.

A record low this year: 6 kids.

That doesn't count 3 teens from the sub shop (Jimmie Johns) doing a reverse trick or treat (they handed out mini-sandwiches and a flier). That's a pretty good idea...normally we don't answer the door .

 

[ShokWaveRider]

We did not get a single one. we did buy some snacks but usually give way quarters or dollar bills. Last year we had 5 cost me $5.

Mainly adult oriented gated communities work well. No solicitors, JWs ro other annoyances either.

 

[Sarah in SC]

A record low this year: 6 kids.

That doesn't count 3 teens from the sub shop (Jimmie Johns) doing a reverse trick or treat (they handed out mini-sandwiches and a flier). That's a pretty good idea...normally we don't answer the door .

They did that at our office about a month ago, worked great--we order from them now about once a week. Ridiculously fast delivery.
Sorry you didn't get many. Apparently none in Concord either, reports the DH who is visiting there this week.

 

[FinanceDude]

I hate those bloody costumes...

Are you saying that with a British accent as you type??

 

[calmloki]

One of the joys of La Quinta is the high population of trick-or-treaters. Always great weather, so a bit different than Oregon, where the costumes are often covered with coats or rain and clouds damp the celebration. We are sure to be here for Halloween. Brought two 150 count Costco bags of mini candybars down this year and 118 kids later we were out. Great kids, polite as could be, a treat for us to be sure!

 

[imoldernu]

First time in several years... about 40 beautiful, polite, smily kids, with parents at the curb... One Dad, a perfect ""Jason"... mask and black all in one, w/ hoodie.

One 4 year old "Bumble Bee" was so abslutely cute, that I couldn't resist:

"Are you competing in the 'cutest kid' contest?"

"Yes"...

"What place are you in?"

honest to goodness... no prompting from mom or me....

"Kindergarten"

Made my day, and her mom uderstood... Nice, Warm, Happy Halloween!

 

[eytonxav]

DW bought a Herseys 12 pack since we live in a new gate community that currently on has 4 residents. We weren't sure of whether we would get outsiders, so DW said if we run short, we can hand out cups of mashed potatos. We ended up with zero trick or treaters.

 

[Helen]

I loved Halloween as a kid and I just adore handing out candy and talking to the trick or treaters as an adult. I go to Costco and load up on the full size candy. I get a variety, but Sour Patch Kids seems to be the favorite.

We had 3 friends over who brought candy and handed it out with us, so the kids hit the mother lode at our house. One group excitedly exclaimed that they were coming back to our house next year!

I think my favorite was a cute little two year old. She was simply overloaded mentally with all that was going on. Her Dad said to her, "What do you say?" and she explained to us that her Mom had gone to get her a new diaper.

All the kids were so polite and so cute, I was sorry when it was over. We only had 62 trick or treaters.

 

[mpeirce]

Second year in a row of really bad weather here. Didn't get to sit out on the driveway with the bonfire. We did have a few kids brave the rain and howling winds.

We give out full size Hershey Bars. Now how will I get rid of them this year?

 

[ERD50]

Despite the rain, I think we had more kids than ever. They were all in a good mood, rain didn't seem to matter at all. They almost seemed determined to have a good time regardless.

DW loves Halloween. For the past few years, I've set up my guitar amp out front of the house, hooked to a microphone and a digital effects box and digital reverb unit. The effects box lets you do things like get Darth Vader sounding voice, or chipmunk voice, and it gets pretty ferocious with tons of reverb piled on, volume cranked, and the bass turned way up (sadly, my little Peavey Amp only goes to 10). I always hand the mic to the kids, and they get a kick out of making 'monster screams'.

I have to be careful not to scare the little ones, we had one little firefighter this year, kinda scared at first so I kept it down low, but once he got the mic he wouldn't stop!

But one young lady (11?) made our day - she said "This is my favorite house to Trick or Treat - cause of that (pointing to the amplifier)".

It was fun, I guess the amp will have to get set up again next year!

-ERD50

 

[gbstack]

We usually get over 200 but this year was 120. We had light rain for a couple of hours. Looks like we will returning some candy to Sam's Club.

 

[KB]

I had 90 kids this year. Thanks to this thread I counted the kids so I would know how much candy to buy next year. Most of the kids were 4 - 10 or so, no older kids this year.