Current Events > Is Halloween dying?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was glad nobody showed up to my house for Halloween because I don't want to pass out candy and I'm sleeping a lot at the time because of my job.

But now I'm seeing all these social media posts about no kids showing up to anybody's house and it's kind of sad.

Here's one example:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8S2CLvL/

I miss how everybody used to decorate

Now it seems like nobody goes to houses anymore. I keep seeing trunk or treat being blamed for the decline. Wow how fantastic everybody gets to walk around a parking lot from car to car to get their candy. So much exercise to walk 2 ft from car to car and decorations got to be ass.

probably?

millennial/gen z parents aren't gonna waste 3 hours walking around for candy that's 50% crap when they can just buy a bag of candy at the store

kids still get the costume parties at school

Halloween decorations were out for a bit but then were quickly replaced with Christmas decorations in the stores around me. They're already playing Christmas music too

Way too many towns do some kind of "trunk or treat" now where all the parents just drive to a parking lot and the kids trick or treat from car to car.

Trick or Treating is so 2000s. This is 2023. Nobody does that stuff anymore.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


This. That's pretty much all there is to it.

Halloween belongs to the streets now

Fuck trick or treating. I wanna see slutty outfits

Yes. This should in fact be celebrated! Halloween is no longer for children, it's for adults to dress in slutty outfits and get drunk.

Halloween is kinda dying for children because of how dangerous the world is perceived to be. Combine that with Holloween requiring peer2peer interaction in terms of trick or treating or "halloween parties" and its not surprising that its slowly dying as we become less and less social with eachother outside of social media.

My neighborhood got a lot of kids trick or treating this year. The problem was a lot of my neighbors didn't want to be disturbed so they left giant bowls of candy on their porches and I saw kids taking huge handfuls or just outright dumping the bowls into their bags. I was out there policing my shit. Two pieces per kid and no candy if you aint wearing a costume. I keep it OG on Halloween traditions.

Heavy_D_Forever posted...

My neighborhood got a lot of kids trick or treating this year. The problem was a lot of my neighbors didn't want to be disturbed so they left giant bowls of candy on their porches and I saw kids taking huge handfuls or just outright dumping the bowls into their bags. I was out there policing my shit. Two pieces per kid and no candy if you aint wearing a costume. I keep it OG on Halloween traditions.

Candy bowls on Halloween are the shopping cart returns of children's ethics

luigi33 posted...

Halloween is kinda dying for children because of how dangerous the world is perceived to be.

Thing is the world used to be a lot more dangerous. DNA testing became mainstream In the '90s and all of a sudden criminals who had gotten away with murder for decades were outed thanks to science.

Personally, I had more kids hit my house than previous years. I started to get bored and cold sitting outside, since I was used to sitting outside for like, 30 minutes and getting nobody and just calling it, so I started giving extra pieces to kids who put more effort into their costumes, and even started handing candy to adults who were accompanying kids, just so I could run out and go inside.

Trick-or-treating is dead. Halloween itself is probably bigger than ever.

Heavy_D_Forever posted...

My neighborhood got a lot of kids trick or treating this year. The problem was a lot of my neighbors didn't want to be disturbed so they left giant bowls of candy on their porches and I saw kids taking huge handfuls or just outright dumping the bowls into their bags. I was out there policing my shit. Two pieces per kid and no candy if you aint wearing a costume. I keep it OG on Halloween traditions.

Yeah I wonder if these generations of adults don't like being bothered and don't have as many kids.

I used to think so too

it really just depends on what day it falls.

2025 halloween is probably gonna be lit

s0nicfan posted...

Way too many towns do some kind of "trunk or treat" now where all the parents just drive to a parking lot and the kids trick or treat from car to car.

This. Halloween isn't dying, it's just transforming for the worse. Now kids just do more and more trunk or treating and the streets are just dead as a result.

Funnily enough it's become a bit of a thing in Australia when it wasn't before. Although here it's best to look up online where the houses and streets are making a big deal about it so you're not wandering around aimlessly.

oh yeah tuesday is a terrible day too

friday and saturday are better. even thursday

s0nicfan posted...

Way too many towns do some kind of "trunk or treat" now where all the parents just drive to a parking lot and the kids trick or treat from car to car.

Yeah, I don't think it's dying, just changing form to this because it's both more convenient and safer.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Funnily enough it's become a bit of a thing in Australia when it wasn't before. Although here it's best to look up online where the houses and streets are making a big deal about it so you're not wandering around aimlessly.

Same as the UK. My dad didnt know what Halloween was until he moved to Canada.

As far as I know its a bit controversial there and certain neighbourhoods dont allow trick or treaters but a UK CEman would know more than me.

Im surprised more people arent sad about this. Trick or treating was such a special memory as a kid.

Not for adults anyway. Its definitely the stupid costume party of the year.

We went to a friends house for Halloween, and their neighborhood was insane. Parked cars lining all the streets, so many kids and families running around. We went through nearly 16 Costco bags of candy. Houses nearby advertising their haunted walkways, the beers they were handing out for parents with kiddos, etc. on community Facebook pages, etc.

Mizznox posted...

We went to a friends house for Halloween, and their neighborhood was insane. Parked cars lining all the streets, so many kids and families running around. We went through nearly 16 Costco bags of candy. Houses nearby advertising their haunted walkways, the beers they were handing out for parents with kiddos, etc. on community Facebook pages, etc.

I wonder if the parents of kids are using Facebook pages to look where the action is actually happening. Giving the perception from people who live in the boring streets and neighbourhoods that nothing is happening.

I hope so, its the most overrated """holiday"""

That said, trick or treating sucked back when I was a kid doing it anyway, so I don't see how it got any worse.

It got banned a couple years in my city due to COVID. So maybe that killed it like handshakes dying.

Trunk or treats have replaced Trick or Treating.

Most of the kids in my area did things on halloween Saturday, churches schools and other places all did their halloween fall festivities either friday or saturday since the cold was forecasted to be in on Tuesday...

Not in my city. We had like 200 something show up to our house. Luckily we bought like eight candy bags.

We cant have trick or treating like we used to, because some crazy guy with a gun, poison food, bombs, or whatever is gonna hurt someone. Because we allow it

Its busier now in my area than it ever was when I was a kid. Something changed in my area after covid

It seems like there were a lot more kids out this year than last.

I live in a small apartment building and don't get any kids coming to my door, but my buddy from work says that he got about 50 kids this year compared to 6 last year.

I saw one toddler dressed up as a fairy this year, that was it. It sucks. I grew up going to the mall to trick-or-treat as they celebrated every year. During my middle school-high school freshman years, they made a new rule that we couldn't wear masks anymore due to crime and Halloween there died instantly. Never trick-or-treated again a day in my life

I live in a bougie suburb that has a tight knit community...most houses will have decorations and some really go balls out. We had 2 large buckets of candy get handed out. I live in a small court where 3 of the houses had tables set up with decorations where people were just chilling on the porch.

It was actually a lot of fun, we did the same outside. Otherwise having to constantly answer the door to hand out candy is annoying af.

I live in a gated community, which may explain why trick or treat was more high volume here, than in other places. You're less likely to get run over, here, because speedtrap cameras will probably catch the person doing so.

in michigan it snowed a little earlier in the day and was low 30s. plus it was a tuesday night.

trunk or treat is part of it though. i did see quite a few posts of that last weekend from FB. still did see a bit of halloween posts though.

I mean between the weather being hosed, nobody having time or resources to decorate, and the way people routinely get killed for less than "walked up and knocked" I can see why trick or treating is kinda on the way out

that said, it also very heavily depends on where you are, honestly

If you don't decorate and don't get into the tradition of passing out candy, you have yourself to blame if Halloween dies out. You should feel ashamed if you don't get into the greatest tradition of scaring kids and then giving them candy.

Did you decorate for Halloween? Did you in any suggest that you were home to pass out candy? When I trick-or-treated with friends, these were the factors as to whether or not we'd go up to a house.

VeesMcGees posted...

Did you decorate for Halloween? Did you in any suggest that you were home to pass out candy? When I trick-or-treated with friends, these were the factors as to whether or not we'd go up to a house.

This is also a factor. When I was a kid, me and my friends would map out which houses gave candy out, which ones gave out the best candy, and so on. If you were particularly known for not giving out candy, or giving out bad candy, then we just didn't include you on our route.

In my area, they didn't even dress up.

Most kids were dropped off in vans from the inner city wearing winter outfits.

It was kinda depressing

While I don't have kids, all of my mid 30s friends who do all did Trunk R treats and/or went to family/friend parties the weekend before so they didn't have to trick or treat.

Perfectinsanity posted...

If you don't decorate and don't get into the tradition of passing out candy, you have yourself to blame if Halloween dies out. You should feel ashamed if you don't get into the greatest tradition of scaring kids and then giving them candy.

I mean I live off a 3 house random street and there's no sidewalks anywhere near where I live.

VeesMcGees posted...

Did you decorate for Halloween? Did you in any suggest that you were home to pass out candy? When I trick-or-treated with friends, these were the factors as to whether or not we'd go up to a house.

I put it in pumpkins but see above reply.

The topic isn't specifically about how I felt about Halloween, It's currently a social media trend of people sad about how no trick or treaters came by and they've got a bowl full of candy and a cute dog in an outfit.

I have personally noticed how less people decorate since the 90s but I'm more likely to remember the 2000s which was still highly decorated.

Horror Nights is packed every night.

It's been in steady decline ever since that trunk or treat nonsense.

luigi33 posted...

Halloween is kinda dying for children because of how dangerous the world is perceived to be. Combine that with Holloween requiring peer2peer interaction in terms of trick or treating or "halloween parties" and its not surprising that its slowly dying as we become less and less social with eachother outside of social media.

I dunno nextdoor says it's a lot more dangerous and has the videos to prove it!

Heavy_D_Forever posted...

My neighborhood got a lot of kids trick or treating this year. The problem was a lot of my neighbors didn't want to be disturbed so they left giant bowls of candy on their porches and I saw kids taking huge handfuls or just outright dumping the bowls into their bags. I was out there policing my shit. Two pieces per kid and no candy if you aint wearing a costume. I keep it OG on Halloween traditions.

But it's really dangerous out there and there are so many thieves unlike 20 years ago. Just go on nextdoor and look at all the videos of kids and adults stealing entire bowls of candy (including the bowl)

It's almost like video doorbells are a recent thing