Trick or Treating results?

Cafe Society
1

We live in a nice middle-class suburb in the Boston area, in one of those developments with lots of dead ends and roundabouts and no through streets at all, sidewalks, and lots of streetlights, all working. In other words, absolutely, perfectly safe places to take your tykes for Halloween. Decades ago we’ve had tons of children come, and know from being told that many were deliberately brought to the neighborhood by parents who lived on busy highways and such. (Not complaining, it meant we got to see many more cute costumes.)

But the head count has dropped way, way off the past decade or so, making it hard to guess how much to buy. Even though we intellectually know this trend won’t reverse on a dime, we continue to buy too much candy out of fear of running out and disappointing some kids. This year the grocery we generally shop at had a deal, five bags, any assortment, of Mars line candy bars for $10. Sounded good. So we picked up two bags of Snickers, two of Milky Ways, two of M&Ms, and four of Twix. Going by the ‘servings’ estimates on the bag, that meant we had about 236 mini candy bars. We figured if the kids averaged 3-4 apiece, we were good for between 60 and 80 kids.

We had TWELVE. Three groups of four children each, that came between 7:45 and 8:05. And that was IT. And they were all perfectly mannered little kids who only took a single item, and even when urged only took a single one more each.

Dear god. We must have over TWO HUNDRED left over candy bars.

This is not good news for my annual pre-Holiday diet. :frowning:
Oh, and while straightening out a closet I’d come across a half dozen ‘goody bag’ packets of Pokémon cards left over from a birthday party quite some years ago. I had no idea if kids still played with Pokémon cards, but figured what the heck and put them into the basket in case some kids might want them. The first group of children wiped them out! Pokémon cards are better than chocolate, who knew?

So, how’d it go at your houses?

2

No takers. But I live way out, I bought Reese cups. I will eat them all, thank you!

3

Been handing out candy nonstop since about 5:30 here on the Left Coast. My neighborhood is a huge draw for kids from all over the area. I’ll give it until 8:30 and then lights out!

4

I live on the very edge of town (my house is literally the last house on the street as you’re leaving town). But I do have neighbours so I figure it’s possible that this year I might have trick-or-treaters.

The result is that every year I buy a couple of bags of candy and I have never had a single kid stop at my house. But I figure the year I don’t buy candy will be the year somebody shows up and I’ll end looking like Joe Biden.

I’ll be seeing some friends tomorrow and I’ll give it all away.

5

We had trick or treating Monday night. I live in a small rural town of about 275 people. About 50 kids stopped by (kids who live in the country also come to town to trick or treat).

6

I live in a little deadend neighborhood of 50 houses. No sidewalks but still safe. It’s really hard to tell if we’re going to have 100 kids or 10. Even when I was a kid (I grew up in this neighborhood) sometimes our friends came here, sometimes we went to our friends’.

Anyway I got 255 pieces of Skittles and Starburst (excellent deal at Sam’s Club) and put them on the porch in two big bowls, with a sign on the door about keeping the door closed cuz of the dogs (it’s true. They don’t need the knocking)

I was surprised to find at the end of the night there were two lonely Starburst packs in the bowl. Huh. Either I had a lot of kids or a few greedy kids. I did tell my friend down the street to tell her teen son to take big handfuls. Maybe he helped me out?

So, I dunno how many came but 255 pieces went out! Woohoo!

7

I’d say 75ish kids which seems like fewer than usual. The weather was pretty nice here in Chicago, chilly 40s but not windy.

8

I had about 250 assorted Twix, Reeses, 3 Musketeers, Hershey’s, etc. All gone. Our neighborhood has a fair number of kids, and I think we get a lot of the rural kids. I was hoping for a few leftovers…

9

First dry Halloween in six years. Zero goblins as of almost 8:30.

10

We don’t get a lot of kids at our house, probably because it is on the no sidewalk side of a fairly busy road. But my son did go out with my wife. He came back with a crazy amount of candy. And the good stuff too. There are full size candy bars in there!

11

Apparently everyone that had been coming here now goes to a neighborhood event at the park next door. They had it around lunchtime on Friday the 24[sup]th[/sup] this year.

12

we only got the neighbor kids this year but we never get more than 30 tops …we live in a small cul de sac and bus drivers would miss this street so I’m not surprised ,

13

We had our first group around 5:30 and then a fairly steady stream until 9. Then we had one last Trick or Treater around 9:20, a solo teenage girl in a really pretty witch costume.

Our neighborhood has become one that people will drive their kids to, so they can Trick or Treat. I’m fine with that. I feel bad for kids in areas without houses that participate.

14

18-20 kids tops. Lots of leftover candy.

15

Yep. My absolute favourite!

16

Where I live most of the kids go to the section of the neighborhood with a bit less hills and a bit less distance between houses. I like giving out candy and wish more kids would come by.

17

My neighborhood had several “trunk or treat” things, where apparently you put the candy in the trunk of your car and park in a parking lot. It doesn’t sound too fun, except that you get to see the kids in costume in the daylight, without coats. I guess.

But I think that saps some of the excitement, especially on a school night. I had 12 trick-or-treaters, and two of them were my own grandchildren who just came by to show me their costumes (and one of them is only six months old so she’s not eating candy anyhow, nor is my son. DIL took one though.)

And then one of my neighbors had a big “Sorry, out of treats” sign up, blocking the walk to their door. At 4:00 they had this sign up. I guess they weren’t surprised no one showed up.

18

I had 66. This was about ten more than last year. Had full size bars for all of them.

19

The numbers are up over past years, but they’re trick-or-treating in packs now, with lots of parents along. We actually had a couple driving a little electric vehicle tricked out like a bus filled with kids. No individual trick-or-treaters, or groups of kids only.
I waited outside with the jack-o’lanterns, a herd of Zombie Flamingoes and Skeletal Flamingoes, a bowl of candy, my Argand lamp going, and a Fire Pit with a blazing fire that had chemicals added so the flames were a satanic blue-green.

20

I went to bed early because I’m still recovering from surgery. But I had one little boy at the door before I shut down for the night–he got 3 pieces of candy. The rest goes in the freezer.