Halloween numbers are down this year.

[Baitball Blogger]

Not just in my area, but others have reported it as well. Do you suppose this is a sideeffect because of ICE? Are these people keeping their children from enjoying celebrations where ICE can knab them?

[Lovie777]

1. The whole holiday season is effed.....

[Baitball Blogger]

2. I agree.

[msongs]

3. maybe people dont wanna fork over their $9 chocolates to kiddies at the door nt

[MANative]

4. Definitely fewer kids this year than previous years

We usually go through two of the big Costco bags of candy. About half that this year. It is quite cold and windy here in CT, though, so that probably had an impact.

[global1]

5. I Live In A Near Western Of Chicago And Spoke With A Neighbor That Made The Comment That The Numbers Where Down.....

He posited that many of the families that came thru the neighborhood in past years were Mexicans and Latinos. Not this year. He felt that they were very afraid that ICE would be patrolling and would be terrorizing them.

I saw it myself at my house. In the four hours sanctioned by my town to allow Trick or Treating - my doorbell only rang twice. Usually there's a constant flow of kids at the door.

Pritzker asked for a stand down of ICE for this weekend - but Noem refused.

What do you expect from a person that shoots dogs?

[TomSlick]

6. Our numbers are way down.

The last ICE raid was years ago. The weather is fine.

I blame it on the Halloween hating Christians.

The last group of kids hit pay dirt. The candy had to go.

[hunter]

7. We had more trick-or-treaters than we've ever had.

Some children of the children our children grew up with are now old enough to go trick-or-treating.

There are a lot of multi-generational households in our neighborhood, possibly the result of high housing costs, but cultural too.

Our children moved away to big cities but many of their schoolmates did not.

My wife and I do not live in a 99% white suburban neighborhood like the one I grew up in where many parents considered themselves failures if their adult children and grandchildren lived with them.

So far, knock on wood, ICE has mostly left our city alone. The major multi-billion dollar business here is agriculture and many of my neighbors work in industries that support that -- mechanics, refrigeration techs, truckers, teachers, etc.. Their parents or their grandparents were likely to have been field workers and some of the people they share their homes with still are.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Thank you for that!

[onenote]

29. The number of trick or treaters coming to our house also was up compared to the past few years.

[uponit7771]

32. Out neighborhood is mixed race so ICE was a concern

[ForgedCrank]

8. Our position was overran.

and invaded. We had 4, 5lb bags of candy and ran out early. We had a line on our sidewalk, the whole neighborhood was swarming. I think it was due to the good weather

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Please tell me more.

Do you live in an urban area? Blue or red area?

[ForgedCrank]

15. It's messy.

My primary residence is in a p[pretty remote rural area that gets zero trick-or-treat traffic. No one will drive all the way out there for that. My entire state is ridiculously red.
But, I still have my other house in town where I lived in my younger adult years. It's now a short term rental and I also let our Church use it when we they a domestic violence issue (they hide abused women and their children there for short term stays). It's rare, but it does happen. There is rarely anyone actually renting it due to the lousy location. That is where we spend a lot of weekends and holidays due to it being a good central gathering place for family. Anyway, in town it was really busy and the weather was very nice, so the Halloween traffic reflected that. Weather is almost always the primary factor with all the kids and parents.

[Baitball Blogger]

19. Thank you!

And what a way to give back to the community. I bet people who stay at your house don't even realize they owe you their thanks.

[ForgedCrank]

22. I never

meet them, the Church leaders handle it completely. I've never even known any names and that is all by design for safety reasons. Their thanks is directed where intended and that is toward the Church. There are multiple members who offer their homes as well, but none of us know who the others are.

[Happy Hoosier]

11. Lotsa kids here...

But I go all out for Halloween, so I’m a “destination” house.

Probably our biggest year yet, but some others around here are reporting a significant drop off.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. Destination house.

I love it!

[Reader Rabbit]

12. It was raining pretty hard in Portland.

I only had about four groups of kids (2-3 kids per group) who braved the rain. Last group were middle school aged boys who were soaking wet. I divided the rest of my candy between them and called it a night.

[peggysue2]

14. Chilly and very windy in my neck of the woods

I was shocked at how few trick or treaters were out in my neighborhood last night. My husband and son kept telling me I didn't buy enough candy and was sure to run out.

Wrong!

I have half of the large bag I bought and two small bags my husband insisted on buying now sitting in the cupboard.

Actually, the night made me sad. My kids loved Halloween when they were little as did I when I was a kid.

Times we are a-living, I guess.

[Baitball Blogger]

20. I know what you're saying.

I just realized that maybe part of the problem is that the little kids on the street are all grown up. So, it was late last night before we got the middle school kids that returned home from trick or treating elsewhere.

[Behind the Aegis]

23. If you freeze the left-over candy (assuming it is unopened), you can use next year.

The shelf life of most candy is about 6 months to two years, depending on the type, but freezing it, you can extend the "shelf life" and reuse it!

I bought 4 2lb bags, we had TEN trick-o-treaters!

[peggysue2]

34. Thanks for the suggestion, Behind the Aegis

I had no idea I could freeze the leftovers. Great idea. My husband has type 2 diabetes and never met a candy bar he didn't like. So, this is way of curbing that appetite and saving the sweet remains for next year.

Thanks!

[Scruffy1]

16. Here on the border the count was definitely down.

I think a lot of it is that not many are coming from Juarez to go trick or treating in El Paso. I still had over 200 and the weather was very nice and the costuming great.

[Demsrule86]

17. We had many kids...I almost had to ration candy! I live in Bedford Ohio.

I love this place...people are wonderful and we have folks from all over...very diverse for want of a better word. I know my neighbors. Yesterday, the kids had a parade around our elementary school where the kids wore their costumes. It was wonderful.

[Baitball Blogger]

21. Happy to hear your holiday is holding strong.

[Melon]

24. We actually has a lot of trick or treaters. In our area ice has no bearing. Candy is too expensive.

[bif]

25. As busy as ever this year!

We bought 3 big boxes of goldfish and ran out by 7 o'clock.

[JustAnotherGen]

26. Down two.hundred this year

796.

But - it was extremely windy and chilly. The past few years were warm and humid. I grew up in Western NY so no biggie to me. But folks in Central NJ aren't used to it now. 7:45 pm the streets were abandoned. We didn't even neighbor hop with containers of cocktails from house to house last night.

Last few kids hit pay dirt!

[J_William_Ryan]

27. "The whole holiday season is effed....."

True.

The consequence of living in a fascist regime.

[tavernier]

28. My family and friends throw

a haunted cemetery maze in the back yard. The high school teachers work six weeks setting it up and being the costumed monsters on Halloween night. We take donations for the senior scholarship fund. Our street was like the county fair last night and we made $1600 for the kids. The teachers love frightening the bejeezus out of the kiddies and the kiddies love seeing their teachers dressed like a crazed butcher or a demented clown or mad scientist. The neighbors love it and all pitch in with help and candy and donated decorations. The police swing through once or twice and always stop and tell us how awesome and professional the makeshift cemetery looks, especially with the fog machine making the lights look very ghostly.

Sorry you didn’t have a fun night. That is what the holiday is about. And not one Trump mask in the bunch. I think people are getting really really sick of politics. They want their normal country back.

[pandr32]

30. That and expense.

Costumes and candy are expensive. I am willing to bet Thanksgiving is going to be a numbers disappointment, along with the whole shopping season that follows.
The wealthy are a minority.

[uponit7771]

31. No one wants to deal with MAGA ICE terrorist

[Deep State Witch]

33. We had about 10

We usually get a lot more. Only one Hispanic family with 3 kids and 4 adults walking with them. My guess is the windy weather, parents taking their kids to Old Town Laurel (where they go all-out) and the threat of ICE. We usually decorate a lot. But we didn't last year because we had a huge dumpster in our driveway. This year, we just weren't feeling it. Time to start scaling back.