The Halloween First

Before last night, my kids had never been trick-or-treating.

It's not that we'd never celebrated Halloween or they'd never worn costumes or never collected candy. They'd just never trick-or-treated in the traditional sense: going house to house in a neighborhood, ringing doorbells, Mom and Dad watching from the street.

Ever since we've had kids, we've been on staff at a church, and the church always provided some kind of fall festival or trunk-or-treat for church members and the surrounding community. We enjoyed those festivities, and the kids always got plenty of candy. But we couldn't all be together as a family, because one of us had to man our own trunk or some game or activity. And we never got to be engaged in our own immediate community among our own neighbors.

This year we really didn't decide what to do until the last minute. In the weeks and days leading up to Halloween, I asked Harvey a couple times what he'd like the kids to do, and he had no strong opinion. We had asked around a little bit, and we'd heard of a couple of nearby neighborhoods that were supposed to be good for trick-or-treating, so we considered going to those. Even on Harvey's commute home yesterday evening, we talked about going out to a suburb and going trick-or-treating with some friends from church in their neighborhood. But we finally decided to do what was simplest: give our own neighborhood a try.

We don't see a lot of kids around our neighborhood, but we do know several neighbors, and we've always felt safe here. People seem to take care of their homes and yards, so why wouldn't some of them make the effort to provide candy for trick-or-treaters? I thought at the very least, the large population of older folks in the neighborhood wouldn't have their own kids to take trick-or-treating, so maybe they would stay home and provide an open door and candy for ours.

(For more on our neighborhood, see my blog entry here.)

We left around 6:30, and we stopped first at the home of some neighbors we know. They went all out with decorations, and they greeted us in their costumes and gave out candy. They were the only participants on their street. So we walked a little farther on, and we began to see more and more families out, more and more decorations, and more and more porch lights on. We began to realize that our neighborhood was quite the place to be for Halloween! The challenge was that many homes sit on hills, so there are long flights of steps leading up to their porches--but the work was all worth it for the kids, and I guess it's good that they were starting to work off some of that candy ahead of time!

It was so fun to watch the kids run up to the doors, to hear Judah say "twick-oh-tweet," and to see the reactions of the candy-givers and other trick-or-treaters to their costumes. (Tabitha was the Bride of Frankenstine, and at one house, when a woman told Tabitha she liked her hairdo, Tabitha joked, "Thanks, I spent eight hours on it!") 

L-R: "Motorcycle Guy," Bride of Frankenstine, Kitty Cat, and Sophia the First

Soon that bucket would be full.

But maybe the best part of the night was seeing all the families, many like ours, many different, and connecting with neighbors we hadn't met before. There was one house just a block or so down from ours where I knew a family had recently moved in, and I'd meant to stop by before and introduce myself, but this finally gave me the opportunity. I found out the mom is home during the day, and she invited me to stop by anytime. A little later, we found ourselves walking alongside a family with three kids, and they introduced themselves and told us about a neighborhood moms' group and dads' group that communicate via e-mail and get together occasionally.

The weather was lovely, cool but not chilly, and it rained on us a bit, but it was nice. All of our neighbors were friendly, and we enjoyed seeing all the lovely historic homes. It was a fun night, and I'm so glad we chose to stay close to home. And I'm happy my kids finally found out what it's like to truly trick-or-treat. Now they just have to guard their chocolate.