Anyone else notice a decline in Trick-or-Treaters?

Question

Every year I find that there are less and less trick-or-treaters. I'm wondering if this is the case for any other people/areas?

Answer 1

I think its because now people have safer options than letting their kids walk the street.. now schools have trick or treating in the gyms or malls have trick or treating so do department stores and its also indoors so its warmer than being outside if you live someplace cold

Answer 2

I do notice a decline in trick or treaters, but i also see a huge decline in people giving out candy. In my old neighborhood, when i first started almost every single house gave out candy. after a few years, less than half the neighborhood did. I understand that people move away and such but people should keep this tradition alive for the kids, its only one night a year that children can experience this and some people are too cheap or mean to do it. ive seen people go as far as turning every light off in the house to avoid kids.

Answer 3

I'm from Seattle. I had 59 trick or treaters. For fun we keep track of how many trick or treaters we get each year by using my husbands golf counter. (Whatever that littlle clicky counter thing is for golf??) Last year we has 120 trick or treaters. We didn't decorate our porch this year... I think that's why we had less kids this year. No rain here tonight but cold.

Answer 4

Quite a few people mentioned safety type reasons. I don't deny that we seem to hear about a lot of sickos. But I don't ever hear that Halloween is the time parents should be most worried about kidnappers & predators. All the parents I know are right there with their kids during trick or treating. Of course you don't send your kids to houses alone. I do think the group activity thing is getting more & more popular though. But I still don't see where the harm is if you accompany your children.

Answer 5

Yes, the trick-or-treaters are fewer in number. As a parent, I think the reason is that there are so many crazy, demented people in the world who wait for this time of the year to do sick things to kids. Kidnapping is outrageous, and parents want to make certain that their children are protected. The kid in us want our children to experience the fun we had trick-or-treating, but the parnet in us won't let them go. It's sad that because things happen to kids every day, they won't get to enjoy the innocence in going door to door collecting their goodies, then bragging on who got the most junk food.

Answer 6

We don't get as many as we did when I was a kid, that's fer sher. A couple of streets down from my house really go all out, with haunted houses, tons of pumpkins, etc. So most of the kids go to those streets to trick or treat. You can't even drive a car down those streets! It's so crowded & every year they get more!
Happy Halloween!!

p.s. - WOW!! Last night we got more goblins than we'd had in a few years! We ran out of candy, so did the guy next door to me!
It was great - there were so many children running around & having a really good time - just like the good old days!!

Answer 7

I count mine every year and it always seems that there are at least 5 less kids every year. I understand that some of them get too old to trick-or-treat (we have an age limit here) but I don't really notice any new kids coming out.

Answer 8

yeah ive noticed that big time. but my area has an obvious reason. they built new EXPENSIVE homes on the other side of our neighborhood. so by going to the new homes you not only get more candy cause the people are rich but the lot sizes are so small you can practically ring two doorbells at once. what probably happened where you are is that there is neighborhood that everyone goes to.

Answer 9

a lot more civic groups are doing things and some towns are cutting down the time limit,so this could have an effect. back when I was a kid,we started about 5:30 p.m. & run till almost 10:oo. really got a bag full then.

Answer 10

yes its true in our neighborhood too. I think its the rise in how many sexual predators that are out there.. we still take our children out for the event, but it is scary times now a days. I think that there have always been predators, just not as noticeable these days....Happy Halloween:)