I live in a neighbourhood where my two sons (the youngest turning 17 this coming Sat) were the only kids. Some other kids moved in 2 years ago but they're also 15 and 17.

No trick or treaters here and I miss it. I loved the excitement and the costumes.

The elementary school featured Trick or Treat Street. Parents would volunteer to decorate classroom doors and man them. We also provided the treats. Most of the lights would be turned off and the kids would knock on the decorated doors for treats. It was fun but not quite the same. Still for rainy Washington, it meant you actually got to see costumes and not just outdoor gear with a mask above.

My job before this, we'd dress up. Everyone who dressed up got $5 (to buy lunch). Then everyone would vote and the winner got another $20. I'm happy to say I won a couple of times.

One year I dressed up all punk and no one recognized me when I reported to work!

Another year, I made a costume out of brown paper bags (skirt, hat and vest). I went as a "bag lady".

I won both those times.

I asked my son if he'd like to have a combo birthday/Halloween party this year but he's going to a concert instead.

I told my husband when we retire, I want to move somewhere where we can pass out to trick or treaters but it may be an urban myth by that time.

ani

Congrats to your niece and your family! That will be a very memorable Halloween, and what a fun anniversary for her and her husband to enjoy!

We tend to be kind of boring people when it comes to Halloween--we don't go out of our way to go all out, but we usually don't hide in the back with our lights out either ;) Except for the one year when we completely forgot it was Halloween (our oldest was a baby that year so it wasn't as if the kids were clamoring to dress up)--we met up after work and went out to dinner (it seemed slightly quiet at the restaurant that night, but it didn't register on the radar). We realized as we drove home what we'd missed--huge oops!

I live in town and get a lot(75-100) goblins every year. It is a small town and so far there have been no problems with trick or treating.
I stay home on Halloween to see all kids in their costumes and to hand out goodies.

I think I'm staying home this Halloween and avoid being pelted by eggs. Egg throwing is pretty common occurrence here.

I love journals and would love to win this one.
Halloween used to be pumpkin lit in window, skeleton hanging in window and spider web but has changed over the years. Now we don't decorate as much but we still give out treats and sometimes I make up candy bags as I'm doing this year. The # of halloweeners has been very low but I attribute this to some years the snow has come. It will be so sad this year as our puppy(14 yrs. old)had to be put to sleep and won't be around to get all excited over the kids coming.

I have a 2 and a 5 year old who I take to a local event called Trunk or Treat. The kids dress up in their costumes and sometimes I do too. My daughter is going to be Mulan this year. My son will be Bumblebee the Transformer. I have not gotten myself a costume so not sure if I will dress up this year. Now that my son is 5 I thought he and I could bake cookies this year and decorate them together.

I quit celebrating Halloween many years back when our street began having groups of teenage kids drive in from all over the city and go door to door for candy and then they began to do damage to decorations, etc. Also since I live alone I have grown wary of opening my door to anyone I don't know. There is a church a couple of blocks from me that has a carnival for Halloween and that seems to keep the "fun" concentrated in that area.
PS. I use journals all the time and am always buying them. I love the fabric ones and the ones with special pictures on them instead of just plain.

We always look forward to seeing the little (and sometimes not so little) trick or treaters in my suburban neighborhood each year, from the teeny tiny to the teenagers hoping to get one last Halloween in before someone tells them they're too old to be out and about asking for candy from their neighbors. We generally have a constant stream of children coming by after the neighborhood pizza party, a tradition that started here when my girls were young and we wanted our kids to have something besides candy in their bellies that evening. The past few years I usually have made chili that night and filled candy bags ahead of time so the husband doesn't even have to think about how much to give each little ghost or goblin, princess or pirate that rings the bell.

This year however, Friday night football takes priority as my daughter is in the marching band so no trick or treating for her and no chili for me as I will be chaperoning. She and a group of friends had hoped to sneak at least one more in this year, until they realized what night Halloween falls on.

Sam, I like your idea of a Buffy marathon. I have several of the seasons on DVD so perhaps I will catch a few episodes before heading over to the game. I wish FX would start showing the re-runs again. I quit watching that network when they gave up on Buffy.

My mom was born on Halloween, so it's always been a special day for me. And I love to dress up, so double special. I have a great mummy costume I made by sewing long strips of muslin to thermal underwear. It's classic and it took forever to make. I'm always re-wrapping myself when I wear it to school--with Converse All Star tennis shoes, of course. I made one for my son when he was five and we were "Mummy and Son".

My daughter so hated people looking at her that she wouldn't wear a costume when she was little. Finally we got her to wear one when she was six or seven. I got her into her mousy costume long enough for pictures when she was five. But then off it came. She dressed as a little girl for trick or treat.

Jeannie

and this year my youngest (10) said he was done trick or treating. I was so bummed. Then he saw an ad for costumes and decided he wasn't too old after all. Thank God, because I was really looking forward to those mini Butterfingers and Reese's cups! ;-)

This year, I'm dressing up my little Havanese as a biker chick, too. We have a leftover Build-a-Bear pleather jacket and a bandana for her. Now if I can just find a studded black collar and bow, I'll be all set ;-)

Shirley

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I live in apartment building and the children aren't allowed to go door to door. We are told to bring donations of treats to the front office(leftovers are then donated to food bank or shelter). Since there are 7 buildings in this complex we have a hall. For Halloween that is where the treats are given out, resident have been invited there to watch the parade of trick or treaters and also refreshments.
At the retirement home I worked at it was hard dressing up because we had to choose a costume that still allowed us the freedom to move and do our job.
One year when I worked at the greenhouse and attended a Halloween party I borrowed the outfit I wore at work at times when spraying plants with herbicides or pesticides of white suit, mask, rubber boots, rubber gloves. Needless to say nobody at the party recognized me until I took mask off and I also won second prize that year.
I think with more scares arising more and more parents are arranging Halloween parties or arranging their child(ren) to attend those.

Sam, my younger daughter loves Halloween and in past years, had her costume all picked out and ready to go weeks before the actual event. She's in the sixth grade now and technically, this is her last year of trick-or-treating, so I was shocked when she said she didn't want to go! She said that last year she had a lot of people comment that she was too old for trick-or-treating, which I'm sure was because she's so tall (she was 5'5" at ten years old, and a year later is 5'8" tall). I think I've persuaded her to go, as I know she would regret it later if she didn't. I think the most unusual Halloween I had was the one year they canceled trick-or-treat in our town due to safety concerns and instead had a party at the local elementary school. They did a great job with the party, had prizes for the different costumes and lots of food and beverages and dancing, but it felt off.

And the winner is....

Fedora!

Send me your email, and I can put your new journal in the mail soon. Congrats! I hope you enjoy it :)

Sam