We had fifteen or twenty.
I have a lot of razor blades left over.
Regards,
Shodan
It’s really strange - if the doorbell is plugged in, it just goes off randomly. The porch light just plain doesn’t work. Keeps the dogs quieter, at any rate!
Not a single kid. I thought at least the kid across the hall would have come over on his way to whereever then kids went. Then again ever since I moved out of my parent’s house I haven’t had a single trick-or-treater in 8 years. I lived in nice townhome neighborhood last year and left a bowl of candy on the porch under the lights when I left for the night, the bowl was completely full when I came home.
We had 140 and had to turn the lights out an hour early - just as the kids from Providence started to get trucked in. We gave out full-sized bars for the first time this year - hence the exact count and the underestimation. Even though we put the lights out people still rang so we had to put up signs that we were sorry but we were all out.
We decorate heavily and hang out outside every year. It’s our favorite night of the year.
50 or 60 I guess. Three and a half buckets o’candy. Not too bad.
I had zero. I live in a condo complex in Florida. Several children live in the complex, but I didn’t see one person, child or adult, dressed up and roaming the streets when I took my dog for a walk at 6:30. This was the first Halloween I was actually at home when trick-or-treaters could possibly come by, but my neighbor said we never get any.
My parents live in Celebration, Florida, and they had more than 100, though. It’s a pleasant upscale neighborhood (mine’s more middle-class), and people come from other towns just to trick-or-treat there.
Now what am I going to do with all this candy I bought?
We were told to expect them in droves, many trucked in from other neighborhoods. Our neighborhood has an entrance on one side only so there is no through traffic, a nice collection of expensive and not-so-expensive homes, and sidewalks. We bought lots of candy and decorated the porch with string lights, cobwebs, a fog machine and strobe light, skeletons and spiders. Husband dressed as Grim Reaper and I as a witch; daughter dressed as a dead cheerleader. We love, love, love Halloween!
It started to rain just as dusk fell. We got a few young stragglers, then nothing. Rain let up a bit to a drizzle, then started back up leaving everything soaking wet and puddles everywhere. We had a few groups of kids, all dressed up, but makeup was starting to get runny. Instead of walking behind the kids, parents would pull up in pickups and kids would jump out of the back at each sporadic house with lights on. We had nowhere near the crowds we expected and it was bitterly disappointing.
Oddest thing, though: by and large, kids have stopped saying “trick or treat.” They just walk up and stand there with their bags open expecting you to silently drop the candy in. What’s up with that? Daughter and I had many moments of standing there holding the cauldron of candy with kids silently staring at us as we waited for the cue. Finally, we’d coax:
“So, what do you say?”
Puzzled look.
“What are you here for?”
Light goes on. “Oh! Candy!”
:smack:
“Isn’t there something you’re supposed to say to me?”
Quietly, “Trick or treat?”
“THERE WE GO!” hands out candy
Sheesh! This happened repeatedly. Where did all these meek children come from? Look, we try to put on some entertainment for the kids with all our decorations and dressing up ourselves and scaring of the chaperones. Is it too much to ask if the kids would get in the spirit of things and give me some back? They’re already dressed up, how about a little play acting for me? BE the mummy, kid! Don’t just go through the motions. People, don’t let Halloween become yet another holiday that’s solely about how much money retailers can make off us. Get a little fun out of it.
We usually get hundreds. Our neighborhood is a Halloween dream: homes really close together, relatively well off neighborhood, very small front yards, etc. Sadly, this was the first Halloween I’ve missed since we moved in five years ago. Mrs Shibb had candy duty. Last year I had a “Rays punch” to give out to parents to celebrate the playoff run. It’s not uncommon to have parental or dog treats in our neighborhood. I used to get a good buzz going walking the Shibblets around but they’re too old for that now.
One year I’ll have to get a click counter and see how many we actually get. I typcially go through a good 20-40 lbs + of candy and we’ve never had left overs.
Well, this was our first Halloween in our new neighborhood, so we didn’t really know what to expect! I knew they “do” t-o-t’ing around here, because 9YO mudgirl was already slated to go out with some friends of hers. So yesterday afternoon, mudgirl and her father carved a really nice Jack O’ Lantern to put out front so t-o-t’ers would know we were participating. I even sat outside with a big bowl of candy, so I could keep an eye out for them. But after giving out candy to the nine kids who live in the building (well, 10 if you count mine), and maybe another random seven or eight, nope.
It was funny because I could look down to Main St and see groups of kids, and look up to Court St and see groups of kids, and none of them were coming down to my street. Finally, it occurred to me: my street is only three blocks long, and of that three blocks, the apartment building we own/live in is the only residential place on the whole street! Otherwise, it’s a bank, a charity place that gives away free stuff on Thursdays, a laundromat, the police dept., City Hall, and the garage where the City Hall employees park their truck! No wonder no one comes to this street!
Finally, around 7:30, I gave up (we have a ton of candy left over!) and hubby and I went out to dinner.
None, as usual, but I always hope for some. Of course, living out in the country, they’d have to hike acres between houses, but…I miss trick-or-treaters. My son went to an Illini game, and the rest of us vegetated on the couch. So much for Halloween. It was much livelier when we lived in town.
I didn’t have this problem with the few that showed up this year. Everyone said “Trick or Treat!” and most of them even said “Thank you”. The cutest were the two young ones I mentioned in my previous post, who thanked me for the candy, started down the stairs, then stopped, turned back and said, “Have a Happy Halloween!”
Our borough does this too, on the Thursday before the actual holiday. I’ve been told that the reason for this is so the police aren’t spread too thin on October 31; there aren’t enough officers to keep an eye out on the kids AND watch for drunk drivers, too. It also marks that night as kids’ night, and most adult-oriented businesses like bars tend to be respectful of that.
We didn’t hand anything out, but the sprog ended up with 3.4 lbs. of candy by the end of the night, with a lot of people just handing over fistfuls of candy or leaving the bowl out on the porch. There seemed to be fewer households participating this year than last year, and for some reason, fewer kids seemed to be out, but this may just be a function of where we went.
I laid in 350 assorted small toys (bubbles and such) and right at 400 assorted small pieces of candy. Everybody got a toy and a candy until the toys gave out, then about three candies. I went out about 15 minutes before the official trick or treat hours started, about quarter to 5, and just about couldn’t get my pumpkins lit for passing out candy. I completely ran out at about 6:30, and turned away 10 kids just during the time I was gathering up my blanket and candy bin to come inside. (We just sit out on the steps rather than having them ring the doorbell to save time and hassle and the dogs going nuts.) When I looked out the window about 8, there were still kids out there.
Brown Eyed Girl, we have the exact same issue with a lot of our kids, though it seems to have gotten somewhat better the last year or two. They don’t say “Trick or treat!” or “Happy Halloween” or “Give me the candy, bitch” or “kiss my ass.” They just slump up the steps, stick their bags in my face and stand there. Then they stare into the bag a moment, stare up at me a moment as if in utter incredulity that anyone could be so damn stingy, and slump off in silence.
I like those kids better than the pushers and shovers, though. The ones, usually about middle-school aged, who race each other across the lawns, shoving other, often smaller kids out of the way and trampling what remains of my flower beds. Those kids really piss me off, though I’ve fussed at enough of them and I’m stingy enough with the goodies that we really don’t see any of them these days.
What really makes me nuts, though, is something that was new this year–kids looking at what I put in their sacks, and then reaching into the bin and getting more without even a hint of asking. Not little tiny kids, either. We’ve had a few toddlers and pre-schoolers try that and Mommy or Daddy always pull them back and shoo them off. These were kids who looked around 8 or so. It was just 2 or 3, but Jesus Christ on a pogo stick what kind of parent thinks it’s okay for their kid to act like that?
My son is big into facts and figures and so asked me to keep a running total of how many trick-or-treaters we had. The night’s total was 187, and they were 99% completely polite.
Only seven kids visited my house after all.
But they were all terrific. Nice, polite, with “thank you!” I only had to remind one of them to say “Trick or treat.”
I wish more had stopped by … 
Ditto on both. Same thing last year, but yet my roommate bought 2 huge bags of candy for this year, which now sit there calling my name.
We had lots of kids come by, and took turns taking our 4 year old out - he was dressed in his spider costume, mommy was a pirate, and I was a mad hatter.
All of the kids that came by were very polite, and many had quite imaginative home-made costumes. I particularly liked a couple of kids dressed as “thing 1” and “thing 2” from The Cat in the Hat.
I was happy to see that most people on our street were into it - many had really fun displays, and everyone had at least some carved pumpkins; there were kids everywhere, and everyone - kids, adults - was in costume. The next street over was just dead - all the lights out, no displays, no kids.
The kids I got were polite. The woman who lives up in apt. 5 has two little girls, cute as buttons, who are always wanting to hug me, give me “gifts” (like a colorful autumn leaf they picked up off the ground, etc.). Like many kids around here, they are broke. Their “costumes” consisted of blanket sleepers (they’re very small girls; ages 3 and 5, I think), and cat whiskers/nose drawn on their faces in what was either washable marker or their mom’s eyeliner pencil. But they were cute and polite!
We had an adult for every kid in our group, and about every third house at least one of us would ask, “Are you saying ‘trick or treat’? Are you saying ‘thank you’?” By the time we got to the end of the first street we had the kid who was dressed as Mario saying “Grazie!” and “Ciao”! We all had such a good time.
I live in an apartment building and have never gotten trick or treaters, and this year I went to a party at my friends’ who live in a condo building and they didn’t get trick or treaters either.
My parents just got two, the next door neighbour’s kids.