We had perfect trick-or-treating weather, I’m just going to say that first.
Second, I will note that I am writing this yesterday (for you), on the night of Halloween, and that as the designated Candy Hander-Outer, I treated myself (see what I did there) to an extra large glass of sauvignon blanc. So. You know. Read this through wine-colored glasses, if you will. Too bad I wasn’t drinking rosé.
Carla was Extremely Serious about trick-or-treating this year. Long past, apparently, are the years when she toddles around our cul-de-sac and comes home, happy and spent, after thirty minutes. Oh no. This year, she was hardly home from school when she began counting down the minutes until six o’clock, which is when our city’s Designated Trick-or-Treating Time begins. (Does your city do this? Mine did not, when I was growing up. Then again, city is a wildly generous term with which to refer to the place I grew up.) If only Carla could apply the same time urgency to getting to school every morning as she did to ensuring she was trick-or-treating at six on the dot!
She was so Serious that she refused to allow me to take a photo of her. She was a witch. Picture, if you will, a pale blond child with heavy black eye makeup, some of which had migrated in a bruised-looking way to under her eyes, and black lipstick, scowl of determination and sparkly witch’s hat askew on her head, marching into the leaf-scattered twilight, a swath of black polyester and glitter – so much glitter – trailing in her wake.
(My husband went trick-or-treating with her; she isn’t quite at an age where we feel comfortable releasing her into the wild; dark things traipse about on Halloween night, even in our lovely neighborhood. I forced him to promise to capture her image, somewhere, somehow.)
I remained at home, to hand out treats.
I had to buy four bags of candy. Candy is HOLY KITKAT EXPENSIVE this year, right alongside everything else I suppose. I bought two bags sight unseen from the Target drive-up service; one of chocolatey things like KitKats and Whoppers and Heath bars, and the other of gummy things like Twizzlers and Sour Patch Kids. They turned out to be tiny bags, with 50 pieces of candy in each bag. And each piece was nothing but a bite. A BITE. I know this because I sampled some or maybe all of the Heath bars. “Fun size” has shrunken by at least 60%, in my estimation. So, in a panic, I went to Target this past weekend. All the good candy (subjective) was gone, and the remaining bags were $10.99 or $15.00 apiece. (I looked at my receipt for the 50-pieces-per-bag purchases; they were only $5.99 per bag, so perhaps I got what I paid for.) I got a giant $15 bag of Tootsie Rolls and Dots mix and a $10.99 bag of Smarties.
This assortment turned out to be… too much. We had far fewer trick-or-treaters than in years past. One of my neighbors said, the other day, that she thinks “they bus the kids in,” based on how many children we usually have streaming down our sidewalks. But this year, it was a slow trickle with little bunches of kids in groups.
Some observations:
- The majority – VAST majority – of our trick-or-treaters seemed to be in that nebulous teenage range. Maybe they were middle schoolers, maybe they were high schoolers; I could not tell. Some were wearing costumes, some were wearing jeans and a hoodie. I handed out candy and overly enthusiastic “Happy Halloweens!” to anyone who dared knock on my door. (One mother came up with three smallish children, none of whom were in costume, and said apologetically that they had all had inflatable costumes, but they had all popped. I told her that I was happy to give candy to any trick-or-treaters, and asked if she wanted some candy; she declined.)
- There was only a small handful of kids Carla’s age-ish.
- There was another small handful of kids in the baby-to-toddler range. One little kiddo was wearing an inflatable tractor of some sort. I asked him if he was a bulldozer, and he made an elaborate digging motion and said, “I’m a backhoe.” Thank you, kind sir, for the correction! (It was adorable.)
- We lost SO MANY kids to our video doorbell. Let me back up: We have a video doorbell now. I objected strenuously for many years, but finally my husband’s desire for video evidence of… tomfoolery??? won out, and we have one. All the notifications go to his phone, which is the sole satisfaction I get from having this thing. But the trick-or-treaters had no idea how to deal with it! I had the door open (perfect weather) and was sitting in my office (reading blogs, drinking wine) a mere six feet from the door, and overheard several kids saying, “I don’t know how to ring this doorbell!” I guess I figured kids would knock? Or say, “Trick or treat!” or something through the screen? But no. Some of them WALKED AWAY before I could catch them! Oh well???
- At one point, I put up a sign that said PLEASE KNOCK! I HAVE CANDY FOR YOU! and I heard one child read it to another; the other child’s unironic response? “Okay, I guess we should ring the bell!”
- I was so un-busy with handing out candy, I may have done a TEENY bit of amazon shopping, I’m sorry!!, sauvignon blanc loosens my wallet and my ability to leave things in my cart overnight. I’m sorry!!! It seemed like a necessity at the time!
- Each Halloween, the children who lived in our house before we moved in come by. They don’t know us; we only know them because they used to come to our neighborhood block party. It’s always slightly uncomfortable, because they will peer behind me into the hall, and whisper to their friends that they used to live here, and they never smile. But this year, I didn’t see any of the kids. I suppose they may have all grown up by now; we’ve lived here eleven years, after all. That makes me a little sad, even if I am also relieved to no longer feel like I stole something precious from them.
Carla came in fairly early. My husband and I both think that next year, we should really make an effort to find her some friends to trick-or-treat with. This goes against my hermit tendencies, but I do think she’d enjoy herself more. She claimed that she’d had fun, but she seemed SO SERIOUS about the whole thing. All business, as my husband said.
She came home with quite the haul. She organized everything by candy type and counted it all: 89 pieces of candy, 12 of which were Milky Ways, 10 of which were plain M&Ms. I asked her which is her favorite, and she shrugged helplessly. “All?”
Lots of our neighbors give out full-size candy bars, and it lit a competitive flame inside my husband. He wants to hand out full-size candy next year. “We don’t want to be the house with the bad candy,” he told me earnestly. No, honey. No we don’t.
I continue to love Halloween. It is so stress-free and I love how strangers and neighbors alike open their homes and candy bowls for children they may or may not know. I love the joy in dressing up. I love seeing children of all ages making the rounds, no matter what they are wearing. I love how many teenagers commented on Carla’s pumpkins. I love how friendly the night becomes. It makes me feel so warm and happy and full of tenderness for our children and one another. It was a good night.
I hope your Halloween was as charming and balmy as mine was.
I have also decided to hand out full size candy bars next year based on: how pleased my children were to receive several and how few kids we get at the end of our long street where most houses don’t participate. The biggest WOWS my kids gave last night were to the house that had those boxes of movie theater candy. Dots and sour patch kids and such but the big boxes you buy for like $8 at the movie theater and $1 at the store. Another house (our neighbors from before we moved two streets away in the same neighborhood) gave out individual bags of chips and that is always a crowd pleaser too. (Plus we stood and chatted for a minute and they kept loading more candy and chips into my kids’ bags because they know us.)
The movie theater boxes is SUCH a good idea! One house in our area handed out chips, and my kid got a bag of her favorite chips so that was fun. Another house was handing out “healthy” options (like pretzels) and some people in our house were a little derisive of the offerings.
I’ve found that my kids (at least when they are little) are very fond of anything different. They love the candy but if someone has something interesting, they are all in.
Our town does the dumbest thing and has trick or treating the Sunday before Halloween during the day from one to four and it makes me so irate! It’s during the day! And on a Sunday! And no one comes. The Lutheran church behind our house (the same church that is on my BAD LIST because the bells toll every fifteen minutes 24 hours a day) has trunk or treat AT THE SAME TIME and I’m so upset about this. I was gone this year, but my husband reported only five children came to our door and I WANT a serious Carla to ring my doorbell because I would give her all the candy and toys.
While I think I would be able to get behind Halloween on the weekend, I agree that it should NOT be during the DAY! What?! That is so odd!
We had a great Halloween. We left a bowl of candy on our doorstep so we could both go with the kids and it was delightful. I also noticed a HUGE drop in the number of trick-or-treaters this year, though. I’m confused. We had WAY more the first two Halloweens of COVID?
While reading your blog post, surrounded by the tote of our candy, I may have eaten a Reese’e PB Cup and a mini pack of peanut M&M’s. What can I say – the kids can’t take this to school because of the PB, so I’m doing them a service, right?!
I am eating a Tootsie Roll Pop while reading your comment, so we are clearly kindred spirits!
I didn’t know there was a time to start trick or treating! Our first kids (my favourite family of four girls) came at 5:30. Our house has become A Destination because of our decorations, which makes me so happy. We had 51 ToTs, which is an all-time record and also meant all the full-size chocolate bars were gone. That only leaves one million mini candies (why are they so mini now!!) to eat. Ah well, it’s all good. I put together bags for the six kids on our street who I really like, and I included POP for the older kids in the bags because my boys said that was the most coveted thing. We had lots of older teens who didn’t even have bags, I just handed them bars and they put it in their pockets.
It’s so funny, your Smarties are our Rockets. Smarties are candy-coated chocolates, in Canada! I love Rockets!
Our doorbell hasn’t worked in a decade or more, and I taped a note over the doorbell asking to knock. It worked, but some kids knock very softly!
You are truly The Good House, Nicole! POP!!! Imagine the delight!!!
After a glass of something or other, I believe we should all try our hand at blogging. Or maybe a hit of something. It may be preferable to those Nablomapo posts or whatever they are called.
Carla sounds a lot like Ella did when she was that age. She is now a freshman, but she still enjoys trick or treating. ❤️❤️
My husband and I relaxed in the backyard hammocks with the candy bowl near the Ring doorbell. Best decision we’ve ever made. 😂
That sounds lovely!
So my husband bought most of our candy the day of! And lucked out with the selection at our Target. But I thought he was really rolling the dice. He meant to buy candy when he went to Costco w/ Paul and his mom earlier this month but his mom said she had extra to give us… but it was not nearly enough. Some houses in our area give out full-sized candy bars and my husband would be a HARD NO on that because of his frugality. Ha.
We probably go about 40-50 trick or treaters. Our block met at 5:30 for a picture and then headed out. Phil said, “this is too early, trick or treating is from 6-8.” To which I said, according to who?? We did not have such rules where I was growing up (in a rural area, probably more rural than where you lived!). We were going to go with neighbors, but Will was TERRIFIED of one of the neighbor kids who was in an inflatable dino costume. I mean he screamed with terror so I knew that wasn’t going to work. I took Will and Paul to all the houses on our block. We live on a hill and I had to carry Will up and down many steps so I was happy to drop him off after we covered our block. He was very sweet and said “tank you” and sometimes blew kisses. Then Paul and I kept going and were out for about an hour when he said he was done. But my husband convinced him to go out for a bit more with him. So they went for another 30 minutes or so. We have way more candy than I’d like but i will try to forget it exists. And if we had sav blanc in the house, I would have been virtually cheersing you from MN. That is my drink of choice!! But I do not have wine in the house because I will talk myself into drinking 2-2.5 glasses/night so the bottle doesn’t go bad… And then I regret that the next morning!
Cheers anyway. 🙂
The weather was OK here, not raining at least. I had a very early trick or treater–about 5. An adorable little guy with his dad. However, I was barely home from a walk and didn’t have my candy ready. We don’t have rules but I always thought that the unstated expectation was after dinner and in dusk/dark. My trick or treaters came in droves but I have left over candy. At one point I thought I would run out. I live at the end of a cul-de-sac and once my neighbors turn out their lights, kids don’t want to make the trek. Glad Carla had a good time! My grandson loved the candy but isn’t too sure how he felt about the costume and the experience in general.
I live in semi rural semi suburban East Texas. Think Friday Night Lights, 4H, all that jazz. I saw a young lady dressed as Little Bo Peep with an ACTUAL SHEEP on a leash. Best costume ever.
Amazing!
We had two knocks at our door: one, a 3 or 4-yo Spiderman, and his little brother, a Mickey Mouse in a stroller, and their cute cat-costumed mom. The 2nd knock was our friends, 2 sisters, middle school age. Our Kate had gone with friends to another neighborhood. Shawn and I hung out watching the most recent John Oliver episode until it was time for me (to drive) to pick Kate up (so: No Wine). Sad Trombone this year, tbh.
At least the weather was good (and J.O. is funny).
Here in CT the weather was perfect and our neighborhood has lots of new families. More people out this year and more kids than I’ve ever seen. I took my kids and a couple of their friends–a happy bunch ages 8-15. It was just as you described: friendly, fun, basking in generosity, play & creativity. I love Halloween.
Fun fact: Halloween candy pairs very well with a nice glass of wine. It really is such a fun and easy holiday.
Trick or treat hours around here are from 6-8 and in my town it’s always on Halloween but in some of the other suburbs it’s on the last Saturday in October. When they were smaller my stepsons used to “double dip” and go to their cousin’s house for the last Saturday in October and then do it again here on Halloween.
We live in a fairly rural, non-walkable area, so have always driven our kids to a few neighbors and my in-laws. This year both kids had a full shopping bag and an extra gift bag full of candy, Pringles, chips, and more candy. From 6 houses. Six!! We are the only trick or treaters to at least 4 of those houses, so they put together a special package for my kids. And in case you’re wondering, trick or treating at 6 houses takes 1.5 hours (including visiting and about 25 mins total drive time). Bonus: one neighbor had bourbon shots for the adults!
I don’t blame you for doing some Amazon shopping while being so un-busy with trick-or-treaters. We haven’t had any this year (admittedly, I discouraged it this year as well, because I didn’t want to buy bags and bags of (YES, VERY EXPENSIVE) candy and then have to eat it myself because kids couldn’t find their way to our door.
We live a block away from a neighborhood of big, fancy houses and most kids go trick or treating there (probably because they give out full size candy LOL)… so I have kinda given up on the whole thing (not least because as a childless couple, the fun of Halloween is kinda muted around here). I did enjoy the decorations in our neighborhood though.
It was raining here, but we still got 40-50 trick-or-treaters. I amused myself by awarding winners (unbeknownst to the participants) for each hour from 5-9 and posting descriptions of the winning costumes on Facebook.
Aw, sounds lovely! My kids are getting older, 6th and 9th grades, and our Halloween traditions changed this year. They brushed off our tradition of trick-or-treating in a charming historic neighborhood with some former neighbor kids since they are no longer close friends. When they were younger, my husband and I would go and hang out with our friends as we took the kids trick or treating. This year my kids went in different neighborhoods with their own friends. My husband and I stayed home and handed out candy. It was so weird to suddenly be cut out of the holiday tradition, although it made sense for the kids. I love to see the middle and high school kids getting into Halloween! Its sweet to see their continued enthusiasm and love for dressing up!
Halloween here was pretty tame (even more so than usual). Funny that you mentioned chips instead of candy – I just read a thread on Twitter about someone who offered candy or a potato. She ran out of potatoes.
So, you will be a Fancy Lady like Nicole next year with your full sized candy bars?
I’m glad Carla had a good time and I had to giggle about how serious she is about this holiday. What a treat she is!
We have much in common: sauvignon blanc loosens my wallet and my sassiness.
I have zero ideas as to what an Inflatable costume is…but I’m imagining something uncomfortable until it pops. 😳
We had a low turnout of trick-or-treaters this year. I’m guessing the street my mom lives on just isn’t as exciting as other streets, womp.
As a kid, I never, ever got a full-sized candy bar when I went trick-or-treating and I’m always amazed that people just do this, lol. WHAT.
CANDY IS SO EXPENSIVE. I couldn’t believe how much money a bag cost.
It is so expensive!!!!
There is one little neighbourhood here near the airport that is quite isolated from all other residential areas. All the houses go ALL IN for all the holidays – decorations abound. The rest of the city has figured this out over the years and so tons of people travel to this neighbourhood. They’ve had to get the police in to crowd control and re-direct the traffic to adjacent parking lots so people walk in. I know a family that lives in that neighbourhood and a few year ago (pre-COVID) she told me afterwards that they had over 1000 kids come and they’d spent over $2000 on candy. So they “retired” from Halloween after that year and just buy a normal amount and then shut off the lights when they run out.