Trick or Treating

[Alix]

Just reading some of the threads on how few kids go trick or treating these days. Sad really. We usually get about 60 kids, but we aren't in a high foot traffic neighbourhood. I have friends who usually get 100 or so. My Mom is on a corner and gets easily 100 or more kids. She is also renowned for having great candy though!

So, how many do you get? And if you have kids, do you take them out?

 

[GB]

This is our 3rd Halloween in this house. The first year we had about 12 kids and half of those were high school kids. Last year we had more like 40 or so.

This will be our daughters first year trick or treating. DW will take her out while I stay home and hand out candy. We have been teaching her to say trick or treat for about a week now

 

[Half Baked]

I was never happy with the 17 yo 'Men' showing up at the door with no costume saying "trick or treat'. I also didn't appreciate someone carrying another bag for their 'sick' sibling at home. I've seen moms and dads do this too... boy I sure am grumpy today.

I so miss the toddlers and grade school kids. They are so excited and look so cute. I remember sitting in my costume, looking at the clock and watching the minute had until 6pm when we were allowed out.

 

[Alix]

6PM for us too. I used to be sitting there ready to race out the door! LOL.

I don't mind having the older kids come to the door as long as they made the effort to dress up. I like to think that as long as you are kid enough to dress up and go out, you're kid enough to get candy. (Bucky, maybe you should put on a pirate patch and bandanna for the "flamingos" you might get EXTRA treats!)

I'm with you though Jan, I don't like those big lugs that come at 9 and figure they'll clean you out. LOL. Forget it!

 

[GB]

I am not crazy about the older kids coming by, but I give them candy anyway. What really gets me is what they don't bother to say trick or treat. You should at least have to say that before you get some candy LOL

6pm for us too

 

[Toots]

Well I'm going to be the neighborhood scrooge and not pass out treats this year. We live in a cul de sac and we don't get much foot traffic. I didnt shop for candy this year, its raining here today so I just said "screw it". I know, not very nice of me ......

 

[buckytom]

. (Bucky, maybe you should put on a pirate patch and bandanna for the "flamingos" you might get EXTRA treats!)

agreed alix, especially if i wear only and eye patch and bandana!

thank god it's almost 70 degrees here today. if it were cold out, all they would give me would be hershey's miniatures...

dw has prepared 80 bags of candy so far, 4 or 5 pieces in each, for the onslaught. still have a huge bag (of stuff i like so i hope it isn't given out ).
we get anywhere from 50 to 200 kids each year. last year, i had to resort to giving out little packages of fruit gushers and other sweet type stuff that wasn't intended for the little moochers.

lol, i gave the old-enough-to-drive kids leftover packages fortune cookies and oyster crackers from take out in their sacks. they don't realize it until they've walked away, and hopefully don't know which house did that to them. he hee.

we stop answering the door around 9pm-ish.

 

[Alix]

agreed alix, especially if i wear only and eye patch and bandana!

thank god it's almost 70 degrees here today. if it were cold out, all they would give me would be hershey's miniatures...

Depends on WHERE you wear the bandanna! And LMAO at the miniatures comment! Its about -5C here today (20F). Snowsuits and parkas here we come.

 

[FraidKnot]

I've lived in my current apartment for 9 (going on 10 years). In all that time I've never had a kid (or even a teen) knock on my door. The first couple of years I went out and bought candy, with high hopes, but just wound up taking it to the office to give away (I don't care for sweets). It was quite an expense for nought.

Now I don't even bother. And I leave the porch light off just in case someone might wander by who thinks I have something to give them.

I suppose I should qualify this by saying the small apartment complex where I live is quite sensible about some things. They tend to put families with children at one end of the complex and singles and adult couples with no children at the other end. They do understand why I might not want to have to watch out for Timmy's bicycle laying behind my car before I back out of my parking space.

I used to love Trick or Treating when I was a kid. Heck, back in the day you could even go into someone's house without worrying about being kidnapped or killed. I remember an older couple around the block (nope, didn't know them) who'd rigged up a talking Jack-O-Lantern at the top of the stairs to their basement. We'd go inside and the woman's husband was downstairs and there was a microphone and a speaker and he (the Jack-O-Lantern) would talk to you. FUN! Kids wouldn't dare go into a strangers house even right next door these days. What a sad commentary on the world today.

 

[amber]

We usually get around 30 or so trick or treaters. I turn on my porch light as soon as we're done eating dinner, around 6:30 and turn them out around 8:30 because I figure all the little kiddos will be done by then. I have a huge bowl of candy (milky way, twix, jolly ranchers, lolly pops, twizzlers, peanutbutter cups, dots, smarties). The only thing that annoys me is when kids knock on the door once the lights are turned off

 

[Flourgirl]

We've had only 1 kid in the last 3 years. We leave our light on each year, but none of our neighbors give out candy so what kid is going to come all the way down our street to visit just one house? We generously will reward the one that does however with a full size candybar (we buy 4 or 5 "real" candy bars each year and eat the leftovers ourselves).

We don't take our 3-year old trick or treating yet, there's so much to do all day long though. Our town does many Halloween events for the little kids. Even the hardware store gives out goodie bags today. We enjoy a hayride at the pumpkin patch in the afternoon, then our Library has a preschooler party at 4pm, then at 6pm our community center does a haunted walk. We get home around 7:30 and turn on our light until about 8:30, when our little guy goes to bed, he's Mickey Mouse this year by the way.

 

[Andy M.]

We live in a townhouse condo complex so there are a lot of houses in a relatively small area. There seems to be an alternate years cycle where every other year we get a lot of kids (75-100) and on the alternate years, very few (less than 40).

We can count on carloads of kids driving in from the next town over and hitting our condos for candy. They usually get here later than the residents and if I run out for them I'm less concerned than running out for our neighborhood kids.

 

[Katie H]

We live right in town on a well-traveled street. There are plenty of houses on our street, some with youngish children. The city has a rule that the children should only trick-or-treat between the hours of 5 and 8 p.m., so that's when we expect to see any little ghosties and goblins.

It was nearly 70 degrees yesterday and we'd hoped we could sit out on our big front porch tonight to hand out treats. Started out warmish this morning, but it's beginning to cool down and it's been spitting rain off an on. We may still sit out on the porch to greet the children.

We get an assortment of older children, too, but they really dress up. Maybe not extensively, but good enough to show that they'd put in some effort.

Usually we can expect somewhere between 30 and 100 children. With the weather, we may not get as many as usual. We'll see.

 

[ChefJune]

Not many trick or treaters in Jersey City. Even when I lived downtown and my front door opened on the street, i never got more than 4 or 5 kids. Now that I live in a locked building with doorbells but no buzzers, there won't be anyone but the 3 kids who live in the building.

there are a lot of organized parties for the kids, so that discourages trick or treating. So many people have "done things" to the kids, I don't blame the parents and teachers for planning other activities. It's a shame, tho. It used to be so much fun!

 

[middie]

I go with Billy every year so there's nobody home to hand out candy. I know Don's parents don'y get too many (maybe 10) and they live around the corner.

 

[phinz]

We're gonna go out for Mizzphinz' birthday tonight. Sushi for Halloween!

 

[vyapti]

We live in a cul de sac of townhouses. We get kids from the neighborhood and not much else.

In a college town, the student housing is just too tempting. My kids try to find someone that'll take them to campus for the 'big score'

 

[shpj4]

Last Halloween I didn't get a single boy or girl come to my door. I live in a secured building with 27 units and with everything that is going on in our world today people are afraid to buzz people in the building.

 

[crewsk]

We had about 100 kids or so this year. I took our kids & walked the entire neighborhood & when all was said & done, they wound up with 4 plastic grocery bags full of candy. We live in a sub-division & get a lot of kids from our town along with all the kids who live in the neighborhood. I love it!

 

[NightsinCalifornia]

Well tonight I got absolutely hardly any, maybe 5. It was realy, really sad. Maybe it was because it was freezing raining ! I sure hope so, I usually get like 60 kids..