Halloween wrap up. I set up a chair and a table with the candy bowl at the bottom of my steps as they are tricky (no pun intended) and I didn’t want anyone tripping.
The negative - I only had about 40 TOT ers. I had hoped for more. Apparently most of the kids on my street are older and there are also several older residents (BTW I’m 65 ) who don’t participate . So I heard that our street is quieter than some of the nearby streets.
The positive - the kids were very excited about the full size candy bars. No one after 8:15 so I went inside then. The weather was nice!
The best thing? I met 3 of my neighbors I hadn’t met before!
Win-win! Now you know a little better for next year!!
I often have a crockpot of hot apple cider - it was warm this year so I didn’t bother! A friend of mine in Michigan had orange jello shots for neighborhood parents.
you chose your amount perfectly! a few left to snack on!
– re running out of candy – years ago if we ran out, we’d make our kids quickly sort through their stashes and give up the undesirable candies that we’d recycle back to our candy bowl! you know, the laffy taffy, jolly ranchers and nothing with chocolate!
Glad I told the first two kids to “take two” because they ended up being the only ones. It was supposed to be a rainy evening so maybe parents made other plans before the rain cleared out somewhat – it was still pretty gloomy and our street is very dark. Although I could hear lots of kids in the subdivision near our lonely little set of 2 streets cut off from them by a busy road. I’ll probably donate the extra candy to the food bank. Maybe they can use it for treats for the youth groups that volunteer there.
I had two kids at 4:15 and that was it! It was gorgeous weather. Last year we had more, like 40.
I wonder if it was because last year it was a Sunday (and I believe the Broncos played early) and because a lot of the events like Trick or Treat Street were cancelled because of covid?
When my kids were little we lived in a townhouse complex were there were mostly older, single people. We always went to the trick or treating at a group of businesses near our school (so all their friends were there too), then went out to our favorite Chinese food place for soup, then TorT in the neighborhood, making sure to hit the priest’s house for a ‘Free Homework’ pass. We never went in out complex.
We live a few houses from the busiest Halloween street in town, it was pretty nuts yesterday. The town put up floodlights and provided crossing guards and police officers.I went through two bags of Costco candy, although the last of it was dumped and stolen when I let the dog out (ever since Covid my neighbors across the street put out chairs and a fire fit for folks to gather, I can watch my bowl from there). My friend on the popular street ran out of candy after 3 hours, 1000 kids.
Yep, they do! It was my first time experiencing it. Granted, they looked to be either kindergarten or pre-K…not 4th or 5th graders (or older).
That’s the kind of candy I buy! I bought a big back of the fruity candy (Skittles, airheads, twizzlers, sour patch, etc) from Costco because I knew I wouldn’t be tempted to eat it. Of course, people from work wanted to trade me their chocolate candies for the fruity ones.
When chocolate is at hand, however, all bets are off!
Helped my friend with trick or treat last night (see post above–in my town, everyone trick or treats in the town center). Friend’s neighbor thinks there were probably 400-500 kids all together. He was complaining that people from nearby towns brought their kids (how does he know that?) It was definitely crowded, with a steady stream of kids from 5-7pm.
The kids were really cute and almost every said “thank-you” and if the kid didn’t my friend would say “what do you say???” (I found it annoying.) Anyway, it was fun seeing all the kids and their costumes. Also lots of families were all in themed costumes–there was one family where everyone was a different root vegetable!
@1214mom, I made individual bags with the help of the adult child of mine.
I have always made bags to gauge for the following years.
This year I had more pre teens and teens, who were respectful and really happy that we gave out glow necklaces and Pokemon cards along with the bagged candy-3 in each bag.
We make separate bags for the neighbors who know I always bake M & M cookies and sometimes we make red candied apples (which always turn out better and are easier than the caramel apples). This year it was too hot to make sample batches.
I used to hear a lot of complaining like that in my old neighborhood. I didn’t care. Some kids live in neighborhoods that are not safe or places where few people participate in TOT. I never begrudged a kid for wanting some candy.
The NextDoor posts noted big kids who stole entire bowls of candy left out (one post had a Ring video of a chunky older kid coming up to the porch and running away with the entire bowl of candy – you can imagine the comments after that one). Posts about teens (not allowed to trick or treat in my area) taking too much candy or emptying entire bowls of candy into pillowcases).
And then there was the odd post where an older (around 12) kid was told by a woman to take her young D trick or treating and bring her back later. The older kid’s mother couldn’t find the mother (it was dark, and there was a crowd of kids in the street), so she took her around to trick or treat with her kids. !!! Then she tried to find the house where the little girl’s mother was supposed to be visiting with the grandmother. It was dark with no lights on, but this woman left her there, anyway. !!!
On a more positive note, I liked the viral video of the boy (probably 10-12 years old) who went up to a candy bowl left on a porch and found it empty with no candy to take. He reached into his big Halloween bag and pulled out a couple handfuls of candy to put in the bowl so other kids would have a treat to take.
Halloween glass half full.
(While I’m sure there are circumstances where this is the only option (leaving a candy bowl unattended) I never really understand why the candy bowl owner does this. Do you not want to man the bowl? If you can’t be home could you leave it with a neighbor who will be home to pass it out? Do you think you’re doing your “duty” (see post above about participating in Halloween as the giver or receiver should be a joy not a duty) by leaving candy bowl out but unattended?!)
IMHO, if you plan to leave candy, I’ve left it in a container I wouldn’t be sad if it disappeared. If i don’t have such a container, I’d decorate a box and leave the candy in it with a note. It’s wrong to take the container or more than one candy, of course but it’s predictable that sone containers may disappear.
Random question. How long does Halloween candy last on sale in your stores? Last night we were in Target in another city, and I was schocked to see they still had real name brand bags of candy on clearance. In my town, it’s gone by 12:00 the day after a holiday, if not sooner.
I’d say all chocolate is probably gone a day or so after Halloween unless the store only did minor mark downs - but things like smarties or other non chocolate or off brand stuff might last a week
Bought some reeses pumpkin shaped candy the next day at the supermarket. The day after that (Nov 2)was at the CVS and there was still plenty of candy, but resisted. However, at Costco yesterday, these yummy chocolate coconut cookies jumped into my cart
) who don’t participate . So I heard that our street is quieter than some of the nearby streets.
