# How was trick-or-treating by you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 1, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432 "2023-11-01T18:04:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/21 "2023-11-01T21:12:15Z")
We had about 80. We handed out glow sticks, mini choco bars, and let the kids pick put a little toy from a huge bowl. Bottles of water for the adults. It was warmish to start, then got into the 60’s. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/22 "2023-11-01T21:24:15Z")
South Bay suburbs of Los Angeles. Very warm night, during the day it was hot and in the 80s. The extremely low humidity rendered the fog machine fairly ineffectual. Good turnout for a school night. We set up a table in our driveway and play a game where kids take a playing card from a card shoe - face cards or Ace get a full size bar of their choice, number cards get to pick 2 pieces from the snack size bowl. 4 decks + a joker in the shoe, and we had 20 cards left at the end of the night, so 189 trick-or-treaters between 6:30 and 9:30. ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/23 "2023-11-01T21:28:43Z")
Not a single kid here where I am in Syracuse. But a few blocks over was very busy (they have hundreds of kids every year. Gal at work has one of those hand clickers and this year had 1,005 kid, which was a small drop from last years (1,200). ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/24 "2023-11-01T22:25:35Z")
We normally get around 150-200 kids. This year it was a beautiful warm night, but we only got about 40. I have no idea why. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/25 "2023-11-01T22:32:47Z")
No one ever comes up our dead end country road with three houses in as many miles. It was also dang cold out there, in the mid thirties. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/26 "2023-11-01T22:35:03Z")
Fourth year in a row at the new place, no trick or treaters. Bliss. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/27 "2023-11-01T22:57:10Z")
I’m in semi-rural Kitsap County, across Puget Sound from Seattle, in a small neighborhood of a single loop of about 50 houses. There are enough kids to have a healthy evening of trick-or-treating. We visited a nearby trunk or treat with our 6-year-old son, then came home to make a round of our street. A family we know from the bus stop was getting candy from the bucket we left as we pulled into our driveway, so we joined up and did the loop with their three girls (5, 3? , and in-stroller baby). It was a good time. Son had a blast. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/28 "2023-11-02T00:17:46Z")
We had 40 kids plus my neighbour who was unhappy with the Hallowe’en candy his wife bought to give away came by to get a chocolate bar. We are in a mid-town Toronto residential neighbourhood, but on a street with detached houses on 40’ lots. If you are smart kid, you go to the streets a block over that have semis on 20’ lots and get twice the candy over the same distance. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/29 "2023-11-02T00:19:34Z")
We didn’t get anybody, as usual (we’re on the end of a cul-de-sac where only a few people have kids). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/30 "2023-11-02T00:21:13Z")
Despite having over an inch of snow fall on Halloween, we had the same number of trick or treaters here we’ve had in the previous 60 years: Zero. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/31 "2023-11-02T00:21:58Z")
We didn’t get anyone either. We live in a condo development (though on city streets, not private) with no native children. We’re connected to a subdivision where there are children, but it’s rare that any of them make their way down the normal city streets to our development. We turn off our motion detecting front light just in case, since we don’t have any candy. Usually I make sure to not be in the front room with the light on, but I totally forgot about that, and still no one stopped by, just as we expected. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/32 "2023-11-02T00:42:43Z")
Hoboken NJ has pretty insane trick or treating. I don’t know about the rest of the town, but there is an approximately 3x5 block area of brownstones where they go all out decorating every year. They close off the streets and like a thousand people show up. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/33 "2023-11-02T02:10:59Z")
I posted this is one of the other threads, sorry for the duplicate: > [@](#): > > We’re in a family oriented neighborhood, and most years get 50 to 75 kids. This year, we got 1.5" of snow this morning (mostly melted during the day), with a temp of 30F. We got fewer than 25 trick-or-treaters this year, mostly young teenagers. BUT our last group was a bunch of preschoolers whose baskets were just overflowing. On top of the baskets were full-sized, nay, KING-SIZED candy bars. Our nextdoor neighbor was giving them out, so there’s competition for next year. But I want to emphasize: **KING-SIZED CANDY BARS!** ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/34 "2023-11-02T09:02:02Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > So how many kids were out and about in your area? Around 120, probably 50-60 houses. We did about 30 houses in our walkabout, and our house saw probably 80-90 of the kids. > [@Dinsdale](#): > > 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? In our neighbourhood, it’s an opt-in thing, with a map app and all that jazz, since it’s not exactly the longstanding cultural tradition here that it is in the USA. If the house doesn’t have pumpkins (either paper signs or actual jack o’lanterns) it doesn’t get bothered. We went as the Pumpkin family - Whistler, Old Mother Hubbard Squash, Count Steampunk-in, and Junior Pumpkin. [![Google Photos](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ADCreHc0-DPZCxqjcfxYFBX3Mk7jLgSZp5vcle_YUikkqe0uP12EYjLfDN9Oyr54ckbSsc9bxajIETRlcmOS6ls9I0JERhfjRvMDpgZPgG5u3GMbm3Z1Glc=w600-h315-p-k "New item by Neil Carr") ](https://photos.app.goo.gl/TCkXUVLoKa13zvR29) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/35 "2023-11-02T10:25:04Z")
A little over 100, which was fun. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/36 "2023-11-02T11:51:30Z")
I helped my daughter take the grands around near her neighborhood. Her house is on a street with widely spaced houses and no one decorates. But across the boulevard, there’s a new townhouse neighborhood that’s perfect for a toddler and a kindergartener, so we loaded them into their wagon and took them there. Out of 60-some houses, maybe 20 were giving out treats. We were out a total of an hour, including the walk from and to my daughter’s house. The kids had fun, and they were ready for it to be done as it was quite chilly and starting to spit a bit of rain. My neighborhood has houses spaced even farther apart than my daughter’s. We decorated and had candies the first year we were here, but never again (this is our 20th Halloween here) because we just kept the house dark. That first year, I don’t think we had a dozen kids come by. Plus between our various dogs and cats over the years, it was too much of a hassle to keep answering the door, trying to keep the animals inside. Yeah, I know, Bah, Humbug. But I wasn’t even here this year, so no biggie. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/37 "2023-11-02T12:22:40Z")
Exurbs, west of DFW. Last two years had zero trick or treaters. This year there about 30, almost all in creative costumes. Sometimes the entire family was costumed. Thankfully we had enough candy for all of them. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/38 "2023-11-02T12:42:36Z")
My youngest daughter and her boyfriend (both 21) decorated the inside and outside of our house with spooky Halloween decorations and bought a couple bags of good treats for the kids. They bought expensive costumes to wear to greet the kids. I reminded them that trick-or-treaters were becoming increasingly scarce at our house, as the neighborhood kids aged out. We had quite a few 20 years ago when our development was new and packed with young families. We had no trick-or-treaters at all in recent years. I kept my fingers crossed and hoped we’d get at least a few trick-or-treaters this year, so they wouldn’t be disappointed. We ended up having 2. But, they happy with that turnout—the 2 kids squealed with delight as they got their candy. When I was a kid, in prehistoric times, everybody had so many children, they didn’t know what to do…_and they lived in a shoe._ There was always a steady stream of trick-or-treaters coming to our house. And when we went out, we didn’t come home till we filled our big bags to the brim with candy. Easy to do before the days of microscopic snack-size candies. Candy bars in those days were the size of logs. ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432/39 "2023-11-02T14:16:24Z")
Cincinnati area it was cold and windy. Saw a few flakes of snow. Our neighborhood has sidewalks and fairly dense housing so kids are practically bussed in. Cars driving up and down trying to find a parking spot. We had about 200 kids which is average. I sit out at the end of the driveway and hand candy out along with dog treats as there are usually 5-6 groups with a dog. One of my neighbors has a cotton candy machine. He’s really popular. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trick-or-treating-by-you/992432.md?page=1)