I think that a big difference is that Halloween is not really considered to be a holiday. The banks are not closed, the mail is delivered, the kids all go to school. It’s not like they give all of us the day off of work to celebrate this day, and then we ignore it.
As for the pumpkins, I received a lot of compliments. A few people stayed to watch an entire song or two. We live on a small side street and had 120 kids stop by. A friend a few blocks over on a busier street said they had prepared 200 goodie bags and they were all gone in the first half hour. On the Main Street the kids literally came nonstop. So even if it is on the wrong day, it’s a pretty big deal here.