It is trick or treat time on Monday. Up until this year, DH has always liked to put on a mask and go to the door. This year the energy level is much lower. I was wondering if anyone had problems with all the hoopla and how did you manage it? For some of us this may present a challenge.
We're going all out. Well, I say we. I'm dressing up DW as a Zombie a'la Thriller and I want her to do that left foot shuffle/shoulder shrug thing (No! No! No! Left foot! Ok. From the top people...). I'm putting up a large light display a'la Griswald's that flashes FORM A SENTENCE and HOKEY POKEY OKEY DOKEY. I have 18 pumpkins all carved out which I'm sticking into the ground on the way up the driveway like Vlad the Impaler all with medieval deathmask expressions. I used a blowtorch to get some lovely melting effects on them. There's a place in town that sells novelties and I got a dozen fake rubber snakes I'm throwing on the lawn and draping over the eavestroughs. I've got a strobe light hooked up in the upstairs bedroom that's set on random. I put a halogen bulb in and it's got that ultraviolet mad scientist look. It's pointing at the ceiling with the curtains largely closed. I put the mannequin from last year behind the curtain so it looks like someone's watching to get some of that Alfred Hitchock angst and I'm playing Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G minor speeded up loudly on the stereo.
I was going to put the mannequin on the roof face down again but that's so last year. So instead I drove around late at night and stole four of the straw people conveniently outside and have them laying in the garden and over the railing. Funny story about driving back with them sitting in the car (seatbelts on please) which would get too weird to get into here. I did take a movie of them sitting in the living room watching my wife practicing her Thriller routine and then sitting on the couch talking to them. It was cute in a macabre over-the-top sort of way like that fake orgasm scene in Harry Met Sally was or maybe that young banjo player with the toothy inbred grin in Deliverence who played like an angel. Who has time to consider all these things? I still haven't figured out how to make the fake organs I need spilling out of the strawman hanging over the railing. I've named him Al as in Al Zheimer and when I did I started kicking him for no real reason and now I need some stuffing and I don't mean thanksgiving.
Have never done Halloween. When the kids were growing up we went to harvest parties. Since we just be gone on that evening or turn the lights off. Of course, living in RV parks now we don't get any. When I grew up if there was not a porch light on, you did not go to the door. Now they don't care - their parents stand there telling them to go knock anyway.
Not nice. No light on is supposed to be clearly understood! Seems to work here, more or less. We generally only get <20 kids and I do light up the front porch with jack-o-lanterns and a string of Halloween lights so they know we're "open." The husband isn't a problem, it's the dog I have to shut in an upstairs room because she's a berzerk barker. I always turn the lights off and blow out the pumpkins by 8:30, because the only kids out and about after that are the roving bands of teens and I'm happy to just do the little kid part of the night.
I love Halloween, but since I live in an Independent Living Villa community, my neighbors are in their 80's and 90's. I thought I might get some of their grandchildren last year, but not a one. Saved me from eating the bags of candy I always bought "ahead of time".
Even when we first moved to Florida, and I lived in a neighborhood full of kids, I only got about 20, because the community held a huge halloween party in Town Square for the kids. They had entertainment, spooky stuff, and trick or treating at all of the stores in the outdoor mall and town square stores.
I never know how much candy to have on hand. I don't get as many kids as we did when our kids were little but can still go through 5-6 bags of candy. I always buy a bag of pixie sticks or individually wrapped Twizzlers just in case I run out of other candy. There are a lot of those sticks in a bag.
We used to be one of the few subdivisions with sidewalks, so parents would drop their kids off from other parts of the village because it was safer. I do love the little ones. The older ones...not so much.
We never have any trick or treat kids as we live a long ways off the main road and the houses in this neighborhood are all on 5+ acre lots. When our kids were young we lived in a neighborhood with lots of kids and our house was just off a main street so loads of kids from out of our neighborhood were dropped off too. Our son and young daughter loved to decorate the entry foyer and porch then man the candy bowl for the trixsters who came. Now our church has "trunk or treat" in the parking lot as do several other churches in town so young ones can come for the treats safely. Car trunks or vans are decorated and candy is given out from them. There are games, etc. as entertainment. Times do change.
Since we moved out of town we never have any trick-or-treaters but I realized with HORROR that Halloween is Monday and that is the night my granddaughter usu. spends with us! Now I am trying to figure out how to weasel out of taking her trick-or-treating, dh used to do all that while I handed out treats now he can't walk well and would probably get lost. I hate getting cold, it usu. snows on halloween... wah .... Wolf u are hilarious... black humor ...my favorite... it gets my warped mind through the day, best laugh I have had for a while.
I thnk my friends and I are the reason we now have trick or treat night.When we were kids every night in October was trick or treat night.Now I see crazy that was.EVERY TIME WE WANTED A TREAT OFF WE'D GO.
Halloween is one of the times I miss Charlie the most. We live in a SMALL rural town but I guess kids grow in the trees here. We usually have well over a hundred. Charlie always dressed up and the kids were almost as interested in him as their treats. We got a kick out of the little ones and I don't even mind the older ones if they are polite. There are worse things they could be doing.
Like Ann, when I was growing up,every night in Oct.was Trick or Treat night,Mostly TRICK night.I am ashamed to say we picked on a lot of older folks,soaping windows and dumping flowerpots,etc.Now we live in the country,mostly Mennonite,they don't believe in Halloween,too evil.
Tomorrow afternoon in the village all the streets are going to be closed off so the kids can go trick or treating down town. All the shop owners are ready with things decorated and the kids will get treats...it might be quiet in the neighborhoods...that would be ok with me tho I think a couple neighborhood kids will come round.
We only had 9 kids but they were so polite and so cute..the funniest ones were two boys who wore blow up fat suits. They waddled away with a bit of a float in the bargain..very funny. DH enjoyed it.LIghts went off at 8 as there were no more kid. I think the big party after school in the village kept the kids safely at home..oh one little group of boys came from the neighboring town. I asked why they came here and they said because they were told this neighborhood had bigger candy bars!
We didn’t have that many kids. I bought 2 big bags of candy & had lots left (I’m going to donate the leftovers to our community service club for their Christmas Santa night). My DH was confused as to why the kids were coming to our door. I tried to explain the concept to him (silly me) but he just didn’t understand.
I had to make a trip to the store after dark last night and passed through some neighborhoods of larger homes - a nice neighborhood and I was amazed at the cars lined up to drive through there. I supposed it was thought that folks in big houses give out more treats? We never let ours go off our street - they got enough stuff that lasted until Christmas anyway. I guess I was a real meanie as I always rationed it out. Of course DH and I had to "sort it out" after the little goblins were in bed. ;) ;)
We had about 70 kids. Way less than when my kids were small. The hardest thing was keeping my husband out of the candy. I carried that basket around with me all night. Once while I was handing out candy at the door, his hand came around me real quick and he grabbed some candy and ran down the hall with it. All I could do was giggle. :)
aww thats cute deb. i guess its ok for them to endulge at halloween. me too i had no treaters as usual so lots of candy. i made DH eat what i wanted so he was on a sugar high all night. :((( which backfired since i got no sleep. duh.
on a happier note i took bobby with me to the trunk or treat at our church last night. it worked out good because it was on the way home from his dr appt. our two yr old grandson was there along with our niece. it was so good to be out with the family although it took all 5 other adults in the family to keep bobby from wandering off out of the line the children had to go through.