the darkness before halloween

[darkoshi]

...when people turn off their porch lights. Even on a Sunday, the day before, even though around here trick or treating is even less likely to occur on a Sunday than on other days of the week.

I wonder what percentage of households still put out decorations and give out candy. I think it must be very very low. So low that the radio commercial that played twice this evening seems incongruous to me. A female speaker was saying "You don't want to be one of *those* houses where they run out of candy and start handing out pennies".

Not that I've been driving around looking, but I've only seen 2 houses with decorations this year, other than mine (and mine doesn't have much, just some lights and such). One of those 2 houses I only saw because my mom mentioned it to me, and when I drove by this evening, the lights weren't on. Most likely to discourage anyone from thinking they were giving out candy today instead of tomorrow.

I can't imagine anyone in this day and age, young or old, would knock on some stranger's door to trick or treat, just because it has a porch light on, with no decorations up. It's rare enough to get trick-or-treaters at my house, even with Halloween lights up. Surely this turning off of porch lights is just something ingrained in people of an older generation who grew up when trick or treating was more common...

But according to a survey last year, 78% of households were giving out candy. WHAT????!!!! The actual survey results say 78% of *parents*, not all households. But still, that sounds awfully high to me. Is it only in the South that neighborhood trick or treating is so low? I have no actual childhood experience with trick or treating in residential neighborhoods like where I live now. As a kid, I only ever trick or treated in military housing areas.

Here's another list of Halloween survey results, from 2013 and 2014.
61 percent of the American public will decorate their front porch or door to welcome trick-or-treaters (69 percent of households with children will do so).
WHAT???!!!
76 percent of households plan to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters this year.
So... that means that 15% of households that plan to give out candy may do it without any decorations after all? Or maybe they simply do it at an alternate location like a school or church.

Anyway. I've got my outfit for tomorrow figured out. I won't wear the vest actually, as it is way too warm for that.



(Ha! Finally found an opportunity to wear my impractical clothes out in public.)
(Hey, if you look closely, you can see my pink-bow-wearing spider hovering in the background.)

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

In my neighborhood, about 15% of the houses are decorated but over 75% hand out candy.

Nice costume!

[darkoshi]

Wow, so you may still have kids walking from door to door, as opposed to being driven around in cars by their parents?

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

About half the kids that showed up tonight were purely walking, with most of the rest being dropped off by a car, walking the length of our block on the inside and outside runs, and then being driven off to the next location, and in one case (of a kid who has a congenital issue with his ankle) he drove himself in an electric jeep and then walked up to each house.

[darkoshi]

Here, all the kids were (and in past years have also been) dropped off in cars right at my gate/driveway. Which is understandable as none of the houses around me are decorated or giving out candy.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

My next door neighbors used to go all out with the walmart inflatable giant halloween (and christmas) stuff, and then for a couple of years did nothing, but this year they did something fun: made two life-sized witch mannequins, one on the lawn and one on the porch, and then one of the neighbors dressed up as a matching witch and stood very still on the porch. Man, that got a couple of shrieks.

[darkoshi]

heheh, Creative idea.