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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

It was noticeably quieter this year in my neighborhood. I blame the election and the unseasonably warm weather.

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.

There’s always swarms of kids trick or treating a couple blocks from here (NYC). The houses usually have decorations up, and one of them usually goes really hard with music and stuff.

It probably helps that it’s a very walkable neighborhood.

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.

I saw people in my apartment complex getting their kids ready to go out earlier while walking my dogs; not one of them seemed to do any rounds within the complex though.

There’s a rich neighborhood about a block away. I wonder if they all just go there, looking for the full sized candy bars. 🤔

Haven’t had anyone come trick or treating to my door since COVID. It’s weird as hell and I’m about to stop buying candy. For them, anyway.

We did the same the first couple of years and barely any kids came, even though we’re a block away from an elementary school. OTOH, we’re halfway up a hilly area and most of the neighbors are long time residents or retirees. No kids on the block. We just stopped trying.

There’s this one street 5min away where they get a city permit and block both ends of the block so it’s safe for kids to walk in the street. Most of the houses decorate and put out candies. It gets SWARMED! We started taking our own kids there.

Maybe there’s a street like that near you and the kids and their parents just go there.

Yeah, here too

We moved to this apartment quite some years ago. The first two years we absolutely weren’t expecting anyone, because in our country/city it’s quite unusual for children to go ‘trick or treat’-ing

At least in the second year I managed to have some things and just gave all the sweets away we had fire ourselves.

This year, I was really looking forward to it.
TV said Halloween costumes were sold 3 times more than last years and I prepared with a nice mix of sweets.

Absolutely no one showed up…

Ok, were in a housing complex with many assistants and usually kids go to houses and not flats.
Still, was a bit of a bummer

Well, at least I’ve got some sweets now…