This year our town decided to go ahead with trick or treating, with caveats. They encouraged everyone to wear a mask, that trick or treating groups be limited to households, and that candy be given away at a decent distance. The hours were 3pm-7pm, which is what they are every year.
I was fine with this. While the cases here are on the rise again, trick or treating is an outdoor activity and even scaredy-Kim here felt fine with it.
Rather than go overboard with chutes or catapults, we decided to leave individual bags of candy on a card table. At the beginning of the month I bought some tablecovers, bat balloons, stickers, and drawstring bags from Oriental Trading Company. On Friday night we stuffed 2 stickers and 2-3 pieces of candy into each bag. At 2:55pm, we set up the table at the end of the driveway and printed a sign telling the kids to take a bag. I think it turned out pretty cute.
Because of our GRAND MALAISE this year we didn’t decorate the outside for Halloween this year. WM remediated that decision by sticking some graves and bones around the candy table, and improvising an amazing dead Indiana Jones display.
Then we set up our chairs waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy back on the lawn and waited. Eventually the kids arrived.
Me to group of kids: Hi! Happy Halloween! Take 2 bags each!
Ringleader kid: Let’s all get 3.
WM, in his teacher voice: We. Can. HEAR. You.
It was COLD so we bundled up more as the day went on.
Nephews A (John Cena) and B (Woody from Toy story) arrived later on and I got to escort A to a few houses on my street. He gave me a Reese’s Cup. He is my favorite 6 year old.
When darkness fell and I stopped being able to feel my toes, we pulled the table up closer to the porch, turned the light on, and went inside. We drank coffee, I ate Laffy Taffy (no regrets), and we watched Disney’s animated The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a Halloween tradition of ours.
You can’t reason with a headless man…
All told we had about 50-60 kids, which is about 1/3 to 1/2 what we usually get. We have A LOT of candy left over.
I’m glad we had a chance to have Halloween. I feel like we all banded together to give the kids a touch of normalcy. I wonder: when these kids get older, will they realize the weird hoops the adults in the neighborhood went through in order to make sure they had a good day? Or will it just blend in with the rest of the Halloweens?
Either way, the community and warmth we experienced on Halloween is something I hope we can carry with us as we’re plunged back into darkness for a while.
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