is trick or treating dead?

[holden j caufield]

every year it's less. This year the number was 8. I'm not even gonna bother getting candy next year.

 

[zerocool84]

Yea it was really bad this year. I stayed home until 8:30pm and only 2 groups of people showed up and when I was driving on the roads to a party there weren't that many people in the streets. My family said that many more people didn't show up after either.

 

[Twista]

Dead

 

[RedArmy]

We had 3 groups this year, mostly young kids with their parents. That's an infinite improvement over past years...where we've had zero.

 

[Cyco]

Yes, it's dead. I think we had maybe 2 or 3 show up to our door.

 

[Newbian]

Well can you blame them with the price of eggs and toilet paper?

 

[DaTT]

we had about 40 kids at our house.

 

[KB]

I had maybe 15 trick or treaters which is down maybe 5 from last year. I think trick or treating has been replaced by the halloween party, since I know a lot of people who were throwing them.

 

[theknight571]

My brother-in-law got about 50 kids at his house, we, on the other hand, had roughly 200-300 in the 2.5 hours or so we had candy... we ran out yet again. (15+pounds of candy this year)

The neighbor across the street passes out hot dogs, chips and pop each year.

Halloween in our neighborhood is a blast.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's pretty much dead. That and it starts WAY too early. I got people at like 5:00pm! It was still light out, wtf? lol. By 7:00 it was over. I got maybe 15 people or so, maybe 5 groups in total. Mostly parents with kids.

I remember when I was young I'd go with my friends till 10 maybe 11 or later, and by 12 people would start running out of candy. None of this 5pm stuff when it's still light out. Some houses had interesting setups too that would actually scare you, like what looks like a fake guy, then grabs your leg or something. Fun times.

 

[BW86]

I only got 5 trick or treaters this year.

 

[TwiceOver]

That's OK. The kids these days expect so much for nothing, they can't even say "trick or treat" when they get to the door.

 

[sdifox]

I am guessing H1N1 has something to do with it.

 

[Modular]

We only had about 5 or so. A few groups of younger kids but that was it. I was pretty surprised.

 

[Queasy]

It was pretty quiet this year but I blame that more on the cold and miserable drizzly weather on Saturday. It was much better last year.

 

[Jeraden]

We seem to slowly get less and less every year, though this year seemed to be up a bit from last year. But the weather was a bit nicer this year than last. I guess it depends a lot on the neighborhood. We have a decent number of kids in ours. My 2 kids really enjoyed it at least!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

We had tons this year. I didn't count but would estimate between 100 and 200. We bought a couple of large variety packs (225 pieces total) and ran out, so I had to run to the store and get more.

 

[Triumph]

I would say that people's perceptions are skewed, and in no way indicative of the overall state of trick or treating. I mean, kids get older, and your neighborhood is not necessarily a microcosm of the population at whole. I remember as a kid, people telling us, "Oh you're the only people we've had tonight!" That was 20 years ago.

 

[Vette73]

You have to remember that kids grow up so there are spikes. When i was a kid the whole area was full of kids. Then as I got older less kids. But recently its now full again.

When we first bought our house we had nearly no kids. It has been getting a little better each year and we even added one ourself.

 

[lothar]

I never knew it was common for parents to go trick or treating with their kids...

 

[Brovane]

I would say that people's perceptions are skewed, and in no way indicative of the overall state of trick or treating. I mean, kids get older, and your neighborhood is not necessarily a microcosm of the population at whole. I remember as a kid, people telling us, "Oh you're the only people we've had tonight!" That was 20 years ago.

I would agree that perceptions are scewed. Neighborhoods change and age. My Mom moved into her current house in 1979 when the housing track was first built. I bought a house in the next track over about 6 years ago. For a while at my Mom's house through the late 90's the trick or treater numbers where really small. The people that first moved into the track, there kids had gotten older and moved away or where not doing trick or treating. However as some of the older original owners moved out of the houses and then younger people have moved and they then have kids. The number of trick or treaters started to increase. This year was the first year that we took our 4 and 5 year old trick or treating and there where a ton of people out and about in our neighborhood and in my Mom's neighborhood.

I think that neighborhoods go in cycles as the population ages and then eventually moves out to be replaced by younger people with kids.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Its not dead just different in a lot of areas now. I know here they have city sponsored events that would conflict with the trick or treating we all remember.

 

[Blackjack200]

^^^^^ This

I had about 120 kids. When I was living at my parents house we'd get maybe 10-15.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Actually now it's less about how many kids a neighborhood has and more about how many givers. When I trick or treated we went on foot, door-to-door. Now parents shuttle their kids around in cars. They don't bother to stop for one or even two houses, they look for pods of 5 or 8 or 10 houses so they can hit a lot with one stop. Then they get back in the car and drive to the next pod. If you're in a cluster of houses with lights on you can get hammered and if you're the lone house on a block you can be ignored.

 

[cherrytwist]

Actually now it's less about how many kids a neighborhood has and more about how many givers. When I trick or treated we went on foot, door-to-door. Now parents shuttle their kids around in cars. They don't bother to stop for one or even two houses, they look for pods of 5 or 8 or 10 houses so they can hit a lot with one stop. Then they get back in the car and drive to the next pod. If you're in a cluster of houses with lights on you can get hammered and if you're the lone house on a block you can be ignored.

This. Halloween is the wife's favorite holiday. She spent days decorating as she does every year. Not one single kid this year, only the occasional honk (fast moving street).

In previous years, we've gone through 10 bags of candy in an hour or so (at different addresses).

Location, location, location.