Weather in the Chicago area was chilly and unsettled yesterday, near 32 and varying wildly between snow showers and sunshine. But in the beginning of the denoted time (3:30-7 pm), the snow stopped and it was just a cold-ish Chicago late fall day.
In our western suburb, we got very few trick-or-treaters. Maybe 30 - not even half what we generally expect.
What was the weirdest was that we saw many kids walk past on the sidewalk, without coming to our door. At least as many kids passed us by as rang our bell. We had orange and purple lights on our bushes, a couple of pumpkin cutouts in the ground out front, and the lights over the garage and front door were both on, with the widow shades open and interior lights on. The kids we saw pass us by seemed to fit the entire range, from very small to middle schoolers - and were wearing some sort of costumes and carrying bags. Our house is in the middle of a block - not on a corner or anything.
My daughter 2 burbs to the west noticed the same thing. My sister a mile to the east did not notice kids passing by, but she did notice that very few of her neighbors were giving out candy, and she got about half as many kids as usual.
So how many kids were out and about in your area?
And what is your guess as to why would kids walk past homes that were lit up, instead of trying to get as much candy as possible? When I was a kid and when my kids were kids, we went to every door that wasn’t entirely dark and unwelcoming.
(Also, “by you” is a Chicago-ism. Do folk say, “How are things by you?” or “I’m going by my friend’s house?” in your neck of the woods?)
My total was 7. Two teenagers not in costumes about 800p, then 5 under-10 kids in costumes that came in a van about 900p and got candy while their mother stood outside the van on the sidewalk. I offered her a bottle of water but she was good.
I don’t think anyone else on my entire street that I could see was giving out candy even though there are plenty of kids. Our house is not decorated but we had pumpkins out (uncarved) and the porch light and inside lights were on. Most of the other houses were dark. It’s a heavily Central American immigrant neighborhood, so the Halloween tradition is not strong here.
I almost got rid of all my candy. I didn’t have that much to begin with, it’s usually pretty thin around here most years. I have enough left for like 2-3 more kids. Had one more kid knocked on my door they would have gotten all of the rest. I’ll just take the rest to work and set it out on the library desk. The med students will make quick work of it.
In a weird way, the pandemic was the best thing that ever happened to trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.
Prior to the pandemic, the neighborhood association would put on a Halloween carnival, and all the neighborhood kids and parents would go, leaving the trick-or-treating to kids from nearby apartments and adults without kids in our neighborhood.
The carnival was suspended during the pandemic, and afterward, the oldsters who had run it stepped down, and nobody stepped up. So it just sort of was quietly forgotten.
But the result was that all the kids and their parents got into it- the past few years, there have been probably 70 or so kids out and about trick or treating, with a lot of people leaving their porch lights on (the sign that they’re open for business) and generally having a good time. Some people even have treats (wine) for the adults, or little parties in their yards, etc…
Last night was somewhat muted because it was pretty chilly, especially for a Halloween in Dallas. Even at that, it was probably 40 or so kids out and about, including mine.
It was a bit chilly, with some drizzle earlier in the afternoon, here in Raleigh. I’m in a 1960s established neighborhood, with long streets and 1/3 acre lots. Very, very typical upper-middle-class area.
I cleaned the front stoop, checked all our driveway and porch lights, put up a Halloween flag, hung a string of jack-o-lantern lights, put out a couple other decorations, and even put some safety tape up on the sides of the stoop because we don’t have a railing and it’s easy to back off the edge if you’re not paying attention. (It’s not a big fall, but it will startle you.) We had four pounds of miniature Hershey treats ready to go.
Chicago southwest suburbia and it was slloooowww… the weather was off/on shitty so I’m sure that cut into it a lot. We probably had 10-12 kids total in groups of 2-3.
Curiously, I had a selection of full-size candy bars and fruit snack pouches and fruit snacks were grabbed by about 40% of the kids. Not the world’s largest sample size but I wouldn’t have guessed that.
I think the pandemic really changed things. The last two years we’ve had a dozen or fewer trick or treaters. The neighborhood, solid middle-class established about 40 years ago, is aging and I’ve noticed there aren’t many kids around any more. Last night was drizzly and raw and cold and it snowed today. But snow never seemed to stop trick or treaters in the past .
I don’t believe that anything would have stopped me as an 8 YO.
But…I’m suspicious. On Sunday, a neighbor about three doors down came around with invitations to a “pre-trick-or-treat” gathering in the late afternoon of Halloween. She “thought it would be nice” for kids to get together early in the day. I told her how appreciative we were, but that we are 70 YO with no kids or even nearby friends/relatives that have kids. Now I’m wondering if this was actually one of those “Christian” alternative Halloween activities where kids are persuaded that they shouldn’t go out doing Satanic activities (e.g., trick-or-treating). If any kids DID attend the function, they sure didn’t go out afterwards.
My wife is much more into Halloween than I am. I can find a couple of neighbor kids dressed up cute, but after the first couple I just want them to stop ringing my bell!
We both discussed that we might not put any effort into it next year, except for the 2 young boys right next door. Of course, if we don’t buy any candy, I guess that will guarantee a ton of kids stop by!
Chicago, NWside. It was very slow, perhaps 25-30 kids, a third of what I was expecting. I told everyone to ‘take three’ but I still have a loads left.
YES! I heard small footsteps climb my stairs and pause, then walk back down and away without ringing. I also overheard someone point out my candle … as they walked past.
Another thing I heard at least twice: I opened the door to outstretched arms holding open bags and youthful glee, in chorus … “Happy Halloween!” That’s not the thing!
Not a one. I heard the next door neighbor kids getting ready to go (much squealing and yelling and you look great type stuff) and they hopped in the car and went somewhere else to do their T-or-T. Now I’ve got a big bowl of choc. I was clever enough to get things I like.
When I moved in my house 20 years ago, the neighborhood was a mostly a mix of retired people and families with young kids. I was excited about Halloween because I had always lived in apartments and never got to give out candy. I’d get 30-40 kids coming by. Now, the kids have all grown up and those retired people left are really old. Last night there were 2 houses with their porch lights on at the end of the block. I had mine on but turned it off when I heard some kids coming down the street since I had no candy. For the last two years I’d had no trick or treaters so I didn’t bother buying any. It’s kind of sad.
No kids since the pandemic, but not wanting to be a Halloween Scrooge, I bought some off-brand fruit taffies with names like “Citrus #5” and “Indeterminate Berry,” kept the porch lights on, and it might as well have been Children of Men out there.
We didn’t see anyone, even at other houses. I’d seen children walking around earlier when we moved here, so I hoped. But we’re still on the fringes of town, and I think most parents will take their kids elsewhere–either just where there are more people, or to other celebrations.
I still follow the rule that I always at least buy something candy-like for myself that I could give out if I need to. (I have popcorn balls this year.) Though I’ve recently found out that kids really like getting something that isn’t candy. Potatoes are really big this year.
Chicago, Midway area, and it was like the OP. We had maybe 30; normally we get closer to 80. Kids also passed our house despite having our porch light on and Halloween music playing. But that was only a handful of groups. I swear when it snowed on Halloween a few years ago (2019?) we had many more kids by, even though yesterday it wasn’t actively snowing during trick or treating hours, for the most part.
We had 28. I know this because we made up individual grab bags, and we set 28 of them out, holding back 2 in case the last group had more kids than there were bags. We turned the porch light out at 8:30 with one bag left on the table and took the larger decorations in. Then our (kind of weird) neighbor from the end of the block turned up and knocked at our door (!) holding his toddler granddaughter in footie pajamas, not a costume. We gave her the last bag and then stripped all the obvious decorations off the porch and turned the light out again. I’m thinking maybe she’d turned down the chance to go trick-or-treating and then regretted that at bedtime, and he’s aware that we would come up with something for her, no matter what.
I know 28 doesn’t sound like a lot, but I believe we were the only ones on the block giving out candy, there aren’t many kids left in the neighborhood, and it’s the most we’ve had since the pandemic started. I’m happy with it!
We moved into our current house in early fall 2021. In introducing ourselves to the neighbor, she said “don’t bother buying any candy for Halloween, nobody trick-or-treats this neighborhood.” FTR this is an unincorporated residential community outside a city of 25K. We’re also a block from an elementary school. We didn’t know the neighborhood personally but we believed her so we bought one small bag of grandma candy. Of course it was gone in like 4 minutes – we got a metric shitload of kids to the door, even after shutting off the porch light. Sigh. Lesson learned.
So last year we got a bucket of real candy: literally a 5-gallon Home Depot bucket and filled it up with the usual fun-size Skittles and Snickers and Twix and Hershey bars. And we went through most of it.
Ok, so this year we got three 5 gallon buckets of candy as we were expecting even more kids to come to the door. Yeah… that didn’t happen. We got maybe 50 kids, in the usual assortment of costumes. The best was actually a mom dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She definitely put some effort into it. It’s nice to see adults getting into it. There was also a little boy using sign language, which was super sweet. My wife knows some sign language so they stood there on the porch and had a quick conversation. He was clearly thrilled.
Interestingly, most kids didn’t say “trick-or-treat” but rather “happy Halloween!” That’s definitely a new thing. Must be a tiktok challenge or whatever is influencing the kids nowadays.
So today I have a full-to-the-brim 5 gallon bucket of candy plus another couple of pounds that I have no earthly idea what to do with. I’ll probably bring it to the school I teach at and give it to the kids, but I feel a bit daft for buying so much. I think next year I’ll buy boxes of full-sized bars from Costco and give those out. I’ve been warned that doing so gives you an immediate reputation and your house will get ever more kids each subsequent year looking for the big payola. I’m ok with that.
Nice, dry evening in the low 60sF. We opened our door 2x last night for T-or-T, one of them was just one kid. Lightest Halloween ever for us. 10-15 years ago the neighborhood was busy with kids and parents roaming around, lots of decorations, etc. When our kids were young the families on the street would get together, eat some home-made chili, dare each other with the home-made hot sauce, have a few cocktails, then we’d all roam around together with a Radio Flyer full of booze and a cooler of beer while the kids knocked on doors. Last night was as quiet as any other night on our street. I guess the kids all grew up and moved away, and any families with little kids went somewhere else. A full bowl of mini chocolates is all that remains.
In a northern Minneapolis burb. It was about 36 degrees out last night. My wife made 100 treat bags and I think we had about 4 left over.
Our development is less than 5 years old so there is a lot of young families that just built and moved in recently so everybody really gets into it. Our neighbor made vodka jello shots for the parents and was handing those out and I guess so were a couple other houses. Favorite costumes I saw this year was a group of middle school boys all dressed up in the same hotdog costume. Looked hilarious as they ran together in a group.
Also a group of high school girls who were all in identical inflatable hippos wearing pink tutus costumes. They even were doing a synchronized ballet routing out in the street.
Fun night that usually runs to about 9 but because of the cold wrapped up by 8.
40 miles west of Chicago. I’m in a townhouse in a residential neighborhood. It rained/snowed all afternoon and evening. I had 9 kids, including the one year old from next door.