Halloween

[ManiRani]

What are folks in the US doing for Halloween? Is there any similar celebration elsewhere in the world? My youngest son, Jackson, who's 9 is going to be a skateboarder with his hat on backward and a red bandana and the whole bit. I had to draw the line with allowing him to sag his pants 🙂 The older ones appear to be a bit too cool to think about dressing up this year.

[Brian Stoppee]

ManiRani wrote:

What are folks in the US doing for Halloween? Is there any similar celebration elsewhere in the world? My youngest son, Jackson, who's 9 is going to be a skateboarder with his hat on backward and a red bandana and the whole bit. I had to draw the line with allowing him to sag his pants 🙂 The older ones appear to be a bit too cool to think about dressing up this year.

That might depend on where you live. Maybe in the Baltimore-Washington area we're overly cautious about security issues. Some parents are concerned about kids going from house to house. Even in smaller towns, which are 60 miles southwest of the White House, there are kids going to "Trunk-or-Treat" things (kind of like tailgate parties in church parking lots) or halloween events with downtown or strip center merchants.

[gary_sc]

Another issue about where you live is how far apart the homes are. Where we live (in South Pasadena CA), the homes are directly next to each other. 10 years ago we got 40-50 TorT-ers during the night. Then, for reasons we do not know, our street fell out of grace and we may get one or two small groups of kids showing up, sometimes none.

However, for the past two weeks my wife and I have been traveling around New England and in many of the places we've gone, the homes are miles apart and going door-to-door is probably not likely to happen.

Following along with what Brian said, when our kids were young, we occasionally did go to shopping malls that were open specifically for TorTing and had employees standing at the entrance with candy to hand out. Doubt it did much for the immediate bottom line but it did help with customers feeling supported.

Gary

[Brian Stoppee]

Gary Coyne wrote:

Following along with what Brian said, when our kids were young, we occasionally did go to shopping malls that were open specifically for TorTing and had employees standing at the entrance with candy to hand out. Doubt it did much for the immediate bottom line but it did help with customers feeling supported.

One Halloween, we had an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar at the Fair Oaks Mall. We figured, "Who will be at the mall for Halloween?" WRONG! The mall advertises it weeks in advance. It's their 2nd busiest day of the year, next to Black Friday. The Genius Bar Manager tells us the big hunk'n regional mall feels it makes them look like they are approachable good neighbors while getting people to look in the windows pre-Christmas. The stores which have some serious mark-downs do make some very good numbers on Halloween. That particular Apple Store makes its big bucks in enterprise sales but Halloween is very good for their retail numbers. With Halloween being on a Saturday this year, we're sure it will be lucrative. Management can't figure out why someone brings the kids to the mall for free candy and then drops $2500 on a top of the line MacBook Pro, but it happens. As one of the managers at a Crowne Plaza near that mall, who's moved here from Egypt, where he was a State Dept envoy, told us, "North Americans are like no one else in the world." HA!

[Cristen]

>  Management can't figure out why someone brings the kids to the mall for free candy and then drops $2500 on a top of the line MacBook Pro, but it happens. As one of the managers at a Crowne Plaza near that mall, who's moved here from Egypt, where he was a State Dept envoy, told us, "North Americans are like no one else in the world." HA!>

The success of Mall Halloween is pretty easy to see. Humans are hard wired to love scavenger hunts, but the parents don't want to go scavenger hunting for candy. They're only indulging the kids, which is boring. But if they didn't indulge the kids, they'd feel guilty. So they go to a mall and the adults can conduct their own type of "scavenger hunt" while the kids have a good time. This way, parents don't have to feel guilty OR bored, and they can always tell themselves they're keeping their kids much "safer" than in their own neighborhoods. The kind of neighborhoods where parents can buy a MBP are probably safe enough for trick or treating. But then again, in most areas this time of year, the malls have better weather.

[Kirsten R]

We did a "Trunk-or-treat" at Brendan's Karate school last weekend. Basically I made the back of the car be a crypt with monsters that also held candy. David and I took turns handing out sweets and keeping an eye on the stuff inside (400 activities for what seemed like 1000 kids).

I won the pumpkin decorating contest  - go me!  I'm the ONLY one who went beyond putting googly eyes or cutting out a smile. We'll have the full street Halloween experience on Saturday. I expect to get more kids this year because we're only of the only house with decorations. Our neighborhood has lots of houses and our street is wide and well lit so we often get kids from other towns and cities. Should be good.

k

[SJRiegel]

We live in a smallish older neighborhood. A bunch of parents (and empty-nesters like us) are getting together for a party in the park in the late afternoon, followed by the regular trick-or-treating for the kids after dark.

[TriciaLawrence]

We're empty nesters now, but my husband still insists on decorating the house to scare off all the local kids!  Very spooky music and lights and skeletons, the whole nine yards.  Glad it's not me coming to get the candy!

[JRfromPTC]

I'm going to a Suicide Squad themed party in San Jose... I know it's a weird sounding name, but the Suicide Squad is a team of Supervillains who do work for the government in the Batman comics. There is a movie starting Will Smith based on this comic book that comes out next year. I'm dressing up as a character called El Diablo...Wow... that reads nerdier than it sounds! lol

As a kid in Mexico we celebrated "Dia de Muertos" (Day of The Dead). It's a holiday that focuses on remembering loved ones who have died. A lot of times people gather at cemeteries with music and food. I remember doing it every year growing up.

[MadisonLeupp]

@Brian Well now I know not to sneak in a trip to the mall!

This year is our first year at our new house! We're not quite moved in- waiting for the floors to get installed (a small detail!) - but are too excited to meet all of our neighbors so we'll be staking out with the extra good candy bars. We have to make a sweet first impression!

[floramc]

Hear the saddest part about my life: I was never to a halloween party