Oh, well, so much for Halloween'26...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Usually, weather permitting, I deck front yard with FX, props etc etc, light porch with UV & 'Disco' lights, hand out glow-sticks by the dozen, open a second tub of sweets. Score the 'Trick or Treat' groups for effort...

Last year was a 'rain-check', I stayed closed for fear of pneumonia. Sad, really, as I'd acquired a bubble-machine with fluorescent 'juice', out-door UV floodlamp, an inflatable 'Anime' witch plus her leashed guard-hounds etc etc etc...

This year, night was forecast as 'mostly harmless', cool, damp, but NOT raining, side-ways or otherwise.

And, it was a week-end, which tends to boost 'Wild Hunt' numbers.

Even so, this afternoon, I could not find the energy to 'set out'...

Still had the porch UV & 'Disco' lights, though: I just had to switch them on.

But, between ~1800 and ~2100 local (GMT/Zulu), only one (1) knock came, a young mum and her two pre-school 'mini-princesses'. They got a handful of sweets each, an orange glow-stick.

And that was that...

Oh, well, maybe next year ??

[warshipadmin]

I hadn't realised the Old Dart took Halloween even slightly seriously. The big deal when I was growing up was Guy Fawke's Night.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Too many 'local bonfire' sites became seriously incendiary, people got hurt.

Several years, our near-by parks' organised displays had to be cancelled due Covid, weather etc.

Also, my beloved wife used to watch the 'Trick or Treat' groups on our CCTV, score them.
And asked me to keep up the tradition as best I could after she passed...

But getting one (1) small group was a bit of a come-down from some years' twenty or so...

[gtg947h]

We only had one group of visitors as well, the family across the street with two young kids. I guess our part of the neighborhood (which we just moved into in January) is rather quiet.

Our son did one round in his grandparents' neighborhood with his little cousins, then rode with his friend's family to another neighborhood. He got quite a haul.

But to the point, now we have three Costco-sized bags of candy that we don't know what to do with..

[Johnnie Lyle]

No trick or treaters here. I think I have had only one in the five years I have owned my condo.

[David Newton]

I have the extra defences of living in a block of flats. There would be the door entry system to get past. Never had anyone trick or treat over 15 years. Thank goodness as I strongly dislike Halloween for its non-Christian religious overtones.

[MikeKozlowski]

...Usually here in West Columbia there are a few small groups of kids, mostly younger and shepherded by an adult, but this year nothing but a single gentleman in a cow suit.

Make of that what you will.

Mike

[gtg947h]

I think over the last several years there's been a shift towards organized events ("trunk or treat", school/community fall fest, etc), whether for safety and/or convenience reasons. I think our son went to four such events in the two weeks leading up to Halloween and could have gone to more if there hadn't been schedule conflicts.

Night-of people seem to gravitate towards "high-yielding" neighborhoods like the one my in-laws live in, where everyone gets into it and they get lots of visitors and give out ridiculous amounts of candy. Our old neighborhood outside Savannah usually had good turnout and even had "adult treats" with several houses offering beer or jello shots.

[Johnnie Lyle]

I think over the last several years there's been a shift towards organized events ("trunk or treat", school/community fall fest, etc), whether for safety and/or convenience reasons. I think our son went to four such events in the two weeks leading up to Halloween and could have gone to more if there hadn't been schedule conflicts.

Night-of people seem to gravitate towards "high-yielding" neighborhoods like the one my in-laws live in, where everyone gets into it and they get lots of visitors and give out ridiculous amounts of candy. Our old neighborhood outside Savannah usually had good turnout and even had "adult treats" with several houses offering beer or jello shots.

That’s very much what is happening here in Sacramento. We have a few iconic neighborhoods that pull in thousands of kids, plus lots of Trunk or Treat events. It’s now a Monty Haul campaign, rather than a local event where you get candy from your neighbors or meet the neighborhood kids.

It’s disappointing.

[gtg947h]

rather than a local event where you get candy from your neighbors or meet the neighborhood kids.

It’s disappointing.

I wonder too how much is changing neighborhood demographics. When I was growing up, all but three or four of the houses on our street had kids and the same held for the rest of the streets. You could spend all evening just making the rounds there. But 34 years later, my parents still live in the same house-and so do many of the neighbors who were there before we were. Only three or four houses now have kids; most of the rest only have visiting grandkids on occasion. They hardly see anyone coming around.