Damn, we recently got a house too. And I bought two large bags of candy.

In the beginning, I didn’t think a lot was gonna come. So dm the first few groups I gave a handful of candy to.

More avd more showed up, and I eventually ran out. Had to tell a bunch of kids we were out, but I couldn’t take it anymore and ran to the store to get two more bags.

Handing tid batch out with a bit more care, but it didn’t matter, we eventually ran out of this too.

This is a very walkable neighborhood though

Next year I need more…

Spooky ghost and spider

I’m usually the pass-out-candy parent, but my kids wanted to split up this year so I got to experience exactly why my street gets only a handful every year (and barely any this year). Four blocks down is practically a street-long block party. At least 50% of the houses are not just active but decked out. We saw cars dropping kids off, and we saw a family from school that doesn’t live in our neighborhood. I get it but I’m kinda sad my mostly-retiree street doesn’t see any action.

First year after we moved in, we decorated, bought candy, the whole nine yards. No one came. Next year we bought a smaller bag of candy, and ate it all ourselves. Left a bowl of candy out about 6 or 7 years later, after more kids started appearing on the street. Still not a one.

There’s a bunch of kids on the street, and a few people do put up some nice decorations, but we found out that everyone either does this trunk or treat thing at the church at the front of the community, or goes downtown, where they block off the streets and all the big houses decorate and have movies in their yard and stuff.

Surprisingly busy this time actually, last year I could count the number on one hand this year we hardly could sit down before the door went off again for a couple hours

I think parents are telling their kids to only go to houses that have decorations up now.

None of the parents I know take their kids trick-or-treating in their own neighborhood. They coordinate with other parents and know where the festivities are centralized and houses are close together. I also had no visitors last night but I never do…wide lots and no sidewalks, the kids go elsewhere.

I could never imagine give anything for free. I don’t have the money. I only did that thing once when I was a child.

That’s a bummer but at least you made that one cowboy’s night!!

My first year at my current place I went to work in costume with full face makeup (Jack Nicholson’s Joker). I came home a little after dark and waited with my bowl for about an hour and a half; but at that point the makeup was getting itchy and I was done with it. Got in the shower and within maybe 3 minutes the doorbell rang! Then it rang again a couple minutes later while I was still in there! Nobody has come by for candy since then and it’s been several years.

Tons of families out in North Beach, SF tonight! Was really cute

The FB group for my local area shared a map marked with houses that were giving out candy. It was through some website I think, you could mark your house and even if you had decorations. Your neighborhood might have something similar, you could be on a bad road for walk-bys.

This year, we had the most kids we’ve had in years. I think the weather helped; a couple years ago we even had a few inches of snow on the ground while it’s been unseasonably warm this year.

By the way, I would have been over the moon to get jerky sticks for Halloween as a kid. Love that shit. Maybe I’m weird, but I didn’t even really like chocolate much until I got older.

I’m too old for trick-or-treating and was never really into it as it’s not my culture, but I’m on the receiving end of trick-or-treaters every year. I don’t know if they’re what one would consider a tough crowd or what, but they really, really haven’t liked what I handed out. One year it was fruit and I guess that’s a no. Last year it was cotton candy and I got complaints because it took up peoples’ Halloween bags to carry cotton candy around. This year I gave out candy canes and they complained again, this time because they thought I was adding to the feuds surrounding premature Christmas products.

After trick-or-treating was all done, I also stepped outside to sort through the trash and discovered someone threw up on the side of my home. Was it a kid who ate one candy too many? Was it an adult who was drunk on cider? Was it an animal who tried to get involved in the holiday too but got carried away? Who knows. I just know I have something to clean up before sunrise.

I originally cosplayed as Stephanie Dola for the day, but it rained for the first half of the day and I got soaked, so I cosplayed as Yoko Littner (another anime character) in a way that was as presentable as possible without looking out of character. At one point I put some warm clothes on over the cosplay because it was cold but didn’t take off my cosplay, knowing people might still recognize the character underneath a green sweater and a jean shirt and jeans. A young autistic boy came by and recognized the character I was and noticed I was wearing clothes over it and asked if he could take a picture of me and him without the clothes, but he asked it in a way that made his family and peers, who didn’t recognize the character and/or may not have known it was a cosplay at all, think he was being “inappropriate” thinking he was just asking me to get undressed, and it would be an understatement to say I can tell he felt bad when he was scolded in front of everyone, but I didn’t know how to step in without it backfiring. I still feel bad for him and I’m hoping he shows up again somewhere so I can grant his request.

We often only get a couple trick-or-treaters every year, and this year was no different, except we left the front door open all night, which means we heard and saw kids walking past our house.

I’m one of the few groups that came to our porch, I heard one girl whisper to her friends, “that’s the creepy house”

So, I guess our house is the haunted house of the neighborhood. I’d be ok with that if we actually had any ghosts.

We’ve been here for over 140 years, and I’ve never seen a single ghost.

It’s always neighborhood dependent. We live in a kid-heavy town but trick-or-treating just sort of naturally condenses into certain streets/neighborhoods, and the town even shuts down Main Street for it. So the kids on your street might go to other neighborhoods to team up with friends, etc.

The only way to know is to ask neighbors who have been there for a while what the vibe is usually like on your street.

Our kid is 2 so tonight was his first time trick-or-treating. Our street always has some houses with candy but we went to a different neighborhood to go with friends. One of the houses we went to said they weren’t prepared because in 20 years they’ve never had anyone come! They were excited to see people, though.

This thread is sad.

As a kid, my parents(read: mostly my mom) would see 400-500 kids over the night. Was really fun, you’d see everyone out having a great time.

In my last place it was mostly childless renters in the neighborhood but we’d still get a good ~100.