Is Halloween dying?

[Dichotomy]

I didn't see any kids out and about trick or treating last night.  Is this tradition going by the wayside?

[Tupac]

Had plenty of six foot tall trick or treaters.

Teenagers shouldn't be trick or treating

[68Mason]

Depends...parents take their kids to places they think are safe.  The mall was one place to go this year as well as one of the bigger churches in the city.  We took our kids to the mall last year and will not do that again. It was jammed packed worse than a Wal-Mart on Friday after Thanksgiving!

We were still able to give out the 4 bags of candy at our house though.

[Shuffler]

Not here..... many go to the mall which have trick or treating in a safe environment.

I know of one large Baptist church here that had a car show, food, pony rides, games, and even mud bogs for the 4 wheelers.

[Viperius]

[soda72]

had about 30-40 kids show up last night....

[Tigger29]

hahah funny picture.

Really though, it all comes down to the age of your neighborhood.  Where I live we never get any, but it's an older neighborhood and the few kids left here are already in their teens.

Last night my g/f's brother had a get together at his house so we went there.  They had kids walking around everywhere, trick or treating!  (There was even one guy at the end of the block handing out beer to the adults LOL).  One guy even hitched a trailor full of hay to his ATV and was giving hay rides around the neighborhood...  So there was a lot going on there.

Then again, this is a 'new' neighborhood full of parents in their 20's and very few teenagers... the oldest of the kids MIGHT have been 14.

Of course, they were telling us that even this was nothing compared to a few years back so it's probably a combination of foreclosures (several empty houses on their block) and kids growing up.. you know.. too 'old' to Trick-or-treat because it's 'not cool'.

They have one 11 year old son who thought he was too old to TorT so he acted all sick and all.. but after he saw a few kids walking around with bags full of candy... well on came his football jersey, his helmet, and his pillowcase and he was gone!

It still around.. you just have to find the places where it happens.  Kids do grow up, ya know.. (and they rarely raise a family in their parent's house... although this is probably getting more common these days...)

[Slash27]

The kids were out in force around here last night. Most I've seen in a while actually.

[Dichotomy]

fair point Tigger.. I didn't really think about that until your post and I realized that I'm surrounded by retirees on all sides so that probably contributes

[gusman]

We live in the only part of town that has sidewalks. Parents bus their kids in. We gave out more then 450 pcs. of candy last night and had to turn the lights out at 7:45pm. It's very festive and since there is a 9pm curfew there is no longer any property damage.

Cheers,
gus

[oakranger]

My mom had over 500 kids last night! 

[68ZooM]

I had about 36 to 40 kids, lol cute thing is these 3 kept coming back 3 times before the end of the night    they lived 3 houses down, so i kept loading them up better them to eat it then me lol

[shotgunneeley]

Had dinner over at my grandpa's house Saturday night with all of the fancy fixins expected for south Arkansas cuisine (fried squirrel, fried chicken and fried deersteak).

While there eating and watching football we had about half a dozen different groups come up. They've lived in the same house for 40 years now, they've seen the change in times. That neighborhood used the hotspot for trick-or-treating and all the houses would get into it and decorate. But like tigger said, its an older neighborhood, not like suburban cul-de-sac filled with young families. These days people don't get into the decorating spirit and all of the kids are going to trunk-or-treat festivals provided by churches.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

It's been slowly dying off here. Some of us have older kids, but a lot of the ones with younger kids just don't take their kids out, they're too busy with the B.S. TV show of the moment or whatever. We had maybe 20 kids or so last night. There might have been 2 dozen houses in the area with a jack-o-lantern or other decorations out.

I think it is the same for a lot of holidays, if there's nothing in it for them, people don't do anything.

Out of maybe 40 houses I can see from my house, maybe 3-4, no more than 6, will have any outdoor decorations for Christmas, either. Mine will be decorated, and lit up. We do that, and spend money entertaining friends and family, rather than being hung up on the material side of it.

Same with fireworks for July 4th, and New Years. There was a time when everyone shot at least some fireworks, regardless of how broke they were. No more.

[Raptor]

I think the main thing that made it seem like less were out this year is the big "Saturday or Sunday" question.