When my parents were alive we always had lots of candy and kids. In the last years, my father had congestive heart failure, so sat in his chair with oxygen, but mother would ask if the children could step just inside the door so my father could see them. He loved it and would tell them how cute they were and how great their costumes were. I continued the tradition a couple years after they passed, but began to get a lot of "older" kids, like teenage boys. Which I wouldn't have minded, except I always let kids grab a handful of candy, never just put one in their bag. I had the mini Mars bars, but they would say things like, "is that all you got lady?" or just scoff disappointedly and I began to feel uncomfortable with these "kids" bigger than me in gangs of 3 or 4 being unhappy with what they got. I am a woman living alone, so just didn't feel safe doing it anymore. I used to go to friends' houses and help them, but now those friends are moved or just too old. Now I just turn out all lights and watch TV in the bedroom, unless a friend wants to go out to dinner. I work at my church's Fall Fest around Halloween every year to get my fix of passing out candy.
This year many neighbor's on NextDoor complained that they had few kids and noticed that most of their street was dark, and blamed it on that. My neighbor across the street had lights on and passing out candy, and I kept hearing a lot of doors slamming so started watching out the window. There were a few kids walking up from the neighborhood, however, mostly it was cars pulling up, hitting the houses with lights on, jumping back in the car and driving to the next street. Those neighbors reporting trick or treaters averaged 30ish kids. One street, about 2 miles over reported over 700 kids. They are in a more affluent community. It was unusually cold here in north Dallas though. Things have changed a lot since I was a kid and I don't think it's as safe for trick or treaters or for residents anymore. We had a home invasion in the DFW by two persons in clown masks who tied up and robbed a couple, among other vandalisms and a child hit by a car. There are so many churches, neighborhoods and community centers that offer parties, trunk or treat, and other fun celebrations that I think kids going door to door should be discontinued and people should just participate in these group events.
