The death of Halloween in neighbourhoods
Let us revive, a holiday built to give back to our community and to reinstall joy to kids everywhere
As a young kid, I adored Halloween. What’s not to like? You get to dress up, grab candy, admire and absorb the spooky atmosphere of your transformed neighborhood. As I grew older and felt myself outgrowing the tradition, I realized that my neighbourhood was also less receptive to trick-or-treaters.
In the past, houses with lights on would serve as invitations, and now, I see fewer and fewer lit up porches as the years pass. My neighborhood was always smaller, and perhaps as a result of us, the kids and I, growing older that the tradition started to garner less attention. I thought of it as nothing more than a consequence of growing older, but trick-or-treating, in the traditional sense, has become less and less popular, and alternative avenues of candy collecting have gained traction, like trunk-or-treating—gatherings of vehicles that open their trunks and hand out snacks that way.
Why is it that trick-or-treating has been somewhat disconnected from the Halloween spirit? Is there any way we can rejuvenate these traditions?
Public polling has shown that more and more houses get fewer and fewer trick-or-treaters every year. A few reasons could be attributed to this. For one, the aftermath of COVID-19, which discouraged social gatherings for fear of getting sick. The effects of this can still be seen today through current neighborhood trends, especially among adult citizens, who would be the primary distributors on Halloween night.
It could also be that kids are simply less interested in outdoor activities. Staying at home has never been more comfortable and entertaining for kids with electronic devices, and where Halloween may have been a more special occurrence before, current stimuli might equal or exceed any perceived entertainment value from trick-or-treating. As someone who very much likes to stay home myself, it makes sense that some kids wouldn’t want to go through the hassle of dressing up and running from house to house when there is plenty to do at home.
These problems are obviously not easy to solve, but it is undeniably possible that trick-or-treating and the spirit of Halloween can be made more enticing for all age groups to participate in. Through that encouragement, we could find that trick-or-treating regains some of its lost popularity through community effort.
There are some considerations for alternative ways trick-or-treating has been celebrated in recent years, and how these alternatives have taken away from the participation in traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating. Trunk-or-treating, for example, is a great way to celebrate Halloween. For younger kids and people with mobility concerns, it provides a similar experience without the difficulty of travel that can affect them.
While I think the trunk-alternative has a place alongside trick-or-treating, I do not think that it should replace tradition entirely. I feel it lacks the charm and sense of community that trick-or-treating provides. Kids, especially in smaller neighbourhoods, can build relationships and connections with local residents, and these can certainly blossom over time. Building rapports within communities is something that can be so fruitful, and something that has been somewhat lost after the COVID pandemic.
Yes, trick-or-treating comes with risks, especially in the later hours of the evening, but these risks can be reduced with simple supervision, and they shouldn’t dampen the holiday tradition as a whole.
Addressing the overall issue of trick-or-treating’s waning popularity should relate to parents and adults more than kids. Generally speaking, kids will go along with the tone and atmosphere set by their caregivers, and a nonchalant attitude from them trickles down. Personally speaking, my parents never set up elaborate decorations outside of our house or prepared candy for trick-or-treaters, and Halloween faded away as a household tradition as my younger brother and I grew older. Obviously I wouldn’t be able to speak for certain, but I feel that with a sense of Halloween spirit within the house, I would have been more excited for the holiday and perhaps less jaded as I grew older.
Halloween becomes a holiday that requires parents and adults to step up within their neighborhoods, to be able to grant the same experience they got to the new generation of trick-or-treaters.
Sure, holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day have the benefit of perpetuality, where past years build on and encourage gift exchanges every year, while Halloween doesn’t enjoy the same privilege. But, there is also the idea of positive peer pressure within neighborhood spaces that can be used, where Halloween decorations, even a week before, can encourage others to follow suit and might generally increase the amount of houses willing to hand out candy.
Thus, I would encourage anyone of any age that feels like they have outgrown the door-knocking tradition of Halloween to take part in the distribution part instead, and maintain the cycle of Halloween. Let us revive, a holiday built to give back to our community and to reinstall joy to kids everywhere.
