Last year our town canceled door-to-door style Trick or Treating, which I thought was only sensible. I’m sure there were some private parties, but no trunk parties or other ‘let’s get a lot of random people mixing it up close up’ activities at churches or such.
But what about this year? No ‘official’ announcement, and if they were going to, I’d think they’d have done it by now.
This is Massachusetts, where the vaccination rate is pretty good for adults, but little kids aren’t yet eligible and yet are pretty infamous for being ‘walking germ factories.’ I’m really not sure I want to spend a couple hours interacting with lots of little kids, giving our ages and some health complications, even though we are fully vaccinated.
That’s assuming their parents are willing to take them out, of course, which I bet a lot won’t be.
On the third hand, this neighborhood is a ‘destination’ one, known for being a cluster of dead end streets with good sidewalks and street lights, and a reputation for giving out full size candy bars… So if any local area will have a lot of T&Ters, it’ll be this one and I hate to disappoint kids by leaving the lights out and not answering the door.
On the fourth hand (I guess I’m a green martian) I REALLY don’t need to have a bunch of chocolate bars sitting around tempting me…
Turn out my porch light. Turn out the lights in the front of the house and hope no one knocks.
My 4 yo grand daughter will be ringing the doorbell at the two neighbors’ immediately on either side of her house in a neighborhood 5 miles from me. Her parents will be handing out treats, including non-food items for children who might have allergies. They expect very few kids.
They have decided to not do any community Halloween activities like Boo at the Zoo or church Trunk and Treats since their daughter is 4, with a 3 month old baby brother, neither of whom can be vaccinated against Covid.
I will probably be working. I would ask to work remotely so I could stay home and hand out candy if my neighborhood were a real hotbed of trick-or-treaters, but it’s kind of an isolated loop with not a lot of children living on it as far as I’ve seen. I suppose I will simply HAVE to purchase a couple of bags of candy so I can be prepared for any eventuality, but that’s just because I love kids so damn much. Anything for the little darlings, you know?
Fortunately, my workplace has a costume contest and I absolutely love dressing up for Halloween, to the point that I’ll start planning my costume earlier and earlier every year. (Hell, I pretty much have next year’s costume all lined up.)
This year I’m going as Ric Flair;
(For the record, that belt is a royal pain to put on and extremely difficult to move around in, so now I understand why half the wrestling champions out there just carry it on their shoulder.)
Shut off all lights, including motion activated. Disable doorbell (literally). Lock doors and ignore any visitors.
Last year there were a grand total of two trick or treat-ers. I’m hoping the holiday finally dies an overdue death so I don’t have to deal with the interruptions or my freaked-out dogs anymore.
We do the same thing every year. My gf buys some full sized KitKat Bars “just in case” (we live on a private road in the country and have never gotten a trick or treater). Then we dress up and hit a few bars to drink with the sexy nurses and zombies.
Acting as if this is no different from any other Halloween.
Our town tried to change the trick-or-treating date to Saturday because church (seriously!), but there was a revolt and they “moved” it back to Sunday. My fully-vaccinated wife and I will leave the porch light on and have big bowls of candy that we hope to empty.
This time around it’s the kiddies who are spreading this stuff around. Invite every kid in the neighborhood, and surrounding areas, to drop by on the same night? I don’t think so. Sorry kids, tell your parents to get vaccinated and have them take down that nonsensical “Unmask Our Kids!” sign in the front yard. (Seriously. That’s what it says.) Maybe next year.
Wow, what a lot of trick-or-treat haters. I love Halloween. I loved trick-or-treating as a kid, and still get a kick out of it as an adult. And trick-or-treating is outdoors, with lots of ventilation. And i, like you, live in a highly vaccinated area.
Last year i set out a bowl with three candies in it, and whenever a kid took one, i refilled it after they left. I didn’t get many kids. Rather to my surprise, none emptied the bowl.
I expect to be a week and a half past my booster shot, fwiw. I’m joining a J&J-over-Pfizer study, so it’ll be an untested regimen, and maybe not as effective as just getting a third Pfizer, but i expect it will be worth something. (This study just uses various doses, there is no placebo control.)
This year I’m setting up some pumpkins and other decorations, and i already bought candy. I plan to open the door when kids ring the bell, and hand them candy. I’m paranoid about catching covid, so I’ll wear a kf94 mask. But I’ll smile at the kids with my eyes, and wish them a happy Halloween as i shove a bowl of candy towards them.
And I’m looking forward to it. I hope we get some kids. My driveway is steep, and we usually don’t get too many, despite having a lot of kids roaming the neighborhood.
We’ll be taking our kids to the big downtown trick or treat event where they open up every business and give away candy to the kids. Pre-covid about 500 kids and their parents would wonder around but it was canceled last year so we’re not sure what we’re getting into.
Yeah, i wasn’t referring to your post. And if my neighbors had yard signs saying “unmask our kids” I’d be feeling differently.
~90% of the 12-19 year olds in my town have been fully vaccinated. And about 2/3 of the adults of “parental age”. (I just looked that up, and yes, that relationship surprises me, too.) The local rate of new infections per week is about 10 per 100k and declining. I don’t have a source for “infected kids in the schools”, but my town only has about 30k people, so it’s only about three people per week in the entire town testing positive, so it can’t be many.
We live in a neighborhood of large lots, so the houses are spread pretty far apart and the driveways are pretty long. The first year here (2004), we had fewer than 2 dozen kids. After that, we left the house dark. This year, we will be just returning from visiting my inlaws in Florida (unless we come home on Saturday - still to be determined.)
BUT, we’re doing a family T-or-T at my mom’s on the 23rd for my granddaughter and my great-nephew, same as last year. She’s got a lot of doors, between the house, the garden shed, and the pool house, so the various adults will man the doors while my daughter and niece take the littles from door to door. They’ll get tons of candy and we’ll know they’re safe. Plus they’re 3, so they’re too young to know traditional Halloween nights.
There’s a neighbourhood app where people list themselves, so wife+younger daughter will do the rounds while older daughter+myself handle the dishing out/scaring duties on the homefront. Couple of pumpkins, and I was hoping to get a latex sheet to stretch across the gateway, so as to do the grabby hands and leering faces thing, but I might not be able to get one so it’ll just be cloaks and plague doctor masks.
