Organizing fun

There were some people who posted about having lots of trick-or-treaters.

That went in two different directions.

The people who posted positively about that were often people who had done things to make that happen. Some of them mentioned having hot chocolate or treats for the parents (sometimes alcoholic -- a lot of houses doing that could be dangerous). Someone else had a haunted house set up, and one person was grilling hot dogs.

I don't know that we would go that far, but if we had several neighbors we were working with, maybe.

For negative responses to lots of kids, there is one specific vein that I am saving for tomorrow. 

Otherwise, I want to get back to the people who did not have many trick-or-treaters come and who were unhappy about that. 

There were some complaints that seemed to be a bitter nostalgia or resentment that you can't have both parents trick-or-treating with the kids and have someone home for trick-or-treaters.

Mind you, one of those guys -- when getting pushback -- said their children wanted to trick-or-treat for two hours.

Again, in my childhood it was very rare to go off the block. Trick-or-treating took a few minutes. Also, having older siblings, I don't think my parents ever took me. I went with other kids or went alone when I got older. That would be more questionable today. 

I did see one solution in the "Halloween Candy" episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. While the parents took out their children, Grandma watched the grandparents' house while Grandpa gave out candy at the other house. 

That worked because there were four adults covering two houses, and they were right across the street from each other. Viewers of the show will probably not feel that being across from your parents is ideal. As it was, Grandpa ate so much of the candy he went looking for more and ended up distributing condoms. It probably still could have worked with better planning.

If you want to both be out there for two hours with your children, this might be where having other neighbors who are manning the doors can help. I mean, you can't be in multiple places at once. I get that, but maybe you can have other people in those places. We know people whose neighborhoods don't get trick-or-treaters and want them, so that could be one option. Or if 11 houses have candy and 4 don't, that's not terrible coverage.

Realistically, I believe there is a limited number of years where your children will be thrilled to have both parents tagging along.

And yes, we will always give candy to teenagers (parents if they want it, but they almost never do), we are not gatekeeping costumes, and we have given kids new trick-or-treat bags when they didn't have them. 

Back to the complainers who missed all of those great things that no one does anymore... okay, obviously the guy grilling hot dogs and the couple making the hot chocolate and various other people are doing those things. Couldn't you?

One of the great things about being an adult is that you can do things. There may still be times when asking for permission is appropriate, but you have a lot of options. 

The one guy also missed trading candy afterwards.

Look, nostalgia is the pain of not truly being able to return to a familiar place, for various reasons including that it has changed or that you have changed.

As a child, I worried about this an unreasonable amount; will I someday have to give up watching Saturday morning cartoons? Little did I know I would grow to prefer sleeping in anyway. I could have still watched the cartoons, and now if I miss them there is Youtube and classic television channels (and DVRs) and DVD collections.

(I also worried that I would no longer want to look at the Sears and Montgomery Ward wishbooks. Their disappearance does hurt a bit.) 

Still, there are Halloween nostalgia solutions. Maybe you have a trading party the next day with the leftovers from the Halloween candy you were giving out. I could imagine people getting into that.

When you get candy at about 11 houses, trading doesn't really come up. That was still fun and excitement enough for me then, and I do different things for fun now.

Last year we planned a Halloween-themed activity that involved a Snoopy craft, decorating sugar cookies, and had goodie bags for people to take on their way out. It invoked some of the childhood fun, but was its own thing. 

People enjoyed it, but repeating it would not have been the same. This year we played Bunco instead. 

There are lots of ways to have fun. 

It can take some work. If you are really into it, it can be a lot of work, but it doesn't have to be.

You can probably find something better to do than complain.