Trick-or-Treat 2025

Trick-or-Treat day/evening around here happened a few days ago. The kids go out from 4:00 to 7:00, so it's getting dark by the end of it. We had some surprisingly nice weather that day. I believe it got to 57° so with many layers on, I was pretty comfortable sitting out there. I had my portable CD player hidden in that purple pumpkin, so the music was going. And a neighbor was pumping out a serious amount of fog from his fog machine. It seemed like actual smoke in the light, but it was spooky in the dark. So was hearing the voices out of the animatronics he had lining his driveway. 

It was surprisingly hard to find a good mix of candy this year, and in an amount that was sure to be enough. All the possible leftovers here were good too. I wanted to share a pic of the candy package, because I thought it was cute. 

Isn't there something nostalgic about a close-up pic of some Halloween candy? Mmm...

The rat was back at it again! He gets comments every year, although he seemed more popular this year than ever. Several little girls patted his head, I heard a few "Nice Rat" comments, and one little girl asked where his eyes went. I explained that he's a skeleton rat, so his eyes are gone. My favorite comment on it was from the little boy who said "I like your dog" Haha! This would be a very small dog. 

My trusty spider was out again too. I somehow managed not to lean back into him while sitting in the chair this year.

I was happy with how this table decoration turned out. It ended up having sort of an altar vibe. I probably have all those Day of the Dead ofrendas rattling around in my subconscious.

I brought out a lantern to light up the skulls. The lantern is lit with one of those usb rechargeable camp lights. These things give a great amount of light and have a pretty good charge. I just linked to a pic of the exact ones I have, although I think I found them on Temu. I like that I can hang them off various things. I've hung one off a hanger in my closet to get some light in there.

The bubble cauldron! You might not be able to tell here, but it lights up. 

I'm using one of those same camp lights in this treat bucket. Doesn't it light this up nicely?

I'd forgotten that the back of this treat bucket had stamped/raised designs. These all showed up well once the light was added.

More nostalgia for me.

As you can see, it was pretty dark by the end of the evening. The kids came by consistently over those three hours. They were all very nice and polite as usual. I saw they had a lot in their treat bags, including the snack size bags of Doritos. I'm guessing the guy who was passing out Slim Jims last year is responsible for that. I have this hunch that he forgets which day this is happening and clears out his pantry.

So some highlights from the day were...

The little girl who was completely covered in her costume and mask, so I couldn't see her face. She came up, and asked "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" I said "Good, of course" and she gave me a thumbs up before walking away.

The very little boy who said "Thank You Wicked Witch" after getting his candy.

The teenage girl who was either super pregnant or had a fake belly on under a very skin tight orange umm... I want to say second skin? There was just a small opening for her face, which she had also painted orange. And she was wearing a massive, furry yellow mustache. I think I stopped breathing for a second before I asked "Lorax?" That turned out to be the right guess, and she seemed happy that I knew. Good thing, or I wouldn't have known where to go with that! 

What's funny is that I was at the mall today, and passed the window of that Ragstock used clothing store, and in the window they'd taped some small construction paper Dr. Seuss type trees and a sign that read "I speak for the trees" I thought to myself, "That girl could have used that sign and trees! And also, that store ought to add her costume to their window display"

Maybe you guys can help me with this next trick-or-treat story. A large teenage boy walked up to me and he had a dark bandana completely over his face. He was wearing a hat and I think a leather jacket? He had an axe over his shoulder. Now, does anyone know who he was supposed to be? I didn't, but he looked scary. I said "Ooh scary" and he says "I'll give ya a twitch" and starts twitching his head and neck around. Now, that was creepy and I'm sure a reference to something, but I'm not up on it. So I was like "OK, Happy Halloween" and gave him some candy. And he says "You have a good evening" and went on twitching down the sidewalk. ???

There was a little girl wearing a purple inflatable that was semi-inflated. I asked her what she was and she sort of mumbled something about being an inflatable. Her friend said "You know those things they have outside the carwash?" And I said "Yeah!" and did my impression of one, which I think I give a pretty good impression of. You know, waving my arms around randomly. I noticed their parents laughing from the street at that point...

Other than those standouts, it was mostly cute little kids who gave me compliments on my costume and decorations. One funny thing did happen during the end of the night. There were three teen girls and what looked like one of their younger brothers following behind. So each girl lines up and gives me a compliment "Oooh, I like your rat!" "Oh, I like your costume!" "Your decorations look so cool!" etc. And this boy wanders up like he realizes he needs to say something and is like "Uhhhh... nice hat." That cracked me up for whatever reason. I think out of all the kids who came by, maybe two said "trick or treat" They all said "thank you", though.

Here's a photo to give you an idea of how much candy was left by the end of the night. Judging by how much I started with, I'd say 80-some kids dropped by. 

I up-lit the rat with my lantern, so I could even see him by that point. He ended up with a campfire effect. 

The rat is actually looking pretty spooky there! 

So, it was a fun day/evening. After handing out the treats, I walked around the neighborhood. I wanted to see the last minute decorations people put out for that night and there were some. It was pretty atmospheric because there were a number of bonfire parties going.

It may be surprising, but I just last night watched Halloweentown for the first time! The movie with Debbie Reynolds as the nice, witchy grandmother. I'm finishing Halloweentown II tonight. I'm finding both movies super cute and wholesome. There have been some funny moments too. Looking at the costumes and set decorations has been a blast. I've been enjoying watching some new to me Halloween movies and TV shows this year. I recommend the Spongebob Halloween special. That was hilarious. And the Goosebumps "Attack of the Jack-o-Lanterns" was entertaining too! 🎃

Trick-or-Treat 2024

Trick-or-Treat for us was last Sunday. It goes from 4:00 to 7:00 so I was happy to have a nice, warm evening to be out there. You might remember that I had to wear snow pants under my costume a few years back! This year, I had some glittery gold extensions to wear in my hair. See them glittering in the sun? 

The skeleton rat was out again and as usual he got a lot of attention. A few kids patted him on the head, one waved as they left and said "Bye puppy" to it, and one kid asked "What's with the dead mice? Oh, is it a decoration?" ??? 

The kids were funny as usual and also very polite. I'd say more or less 65 of them came by. That's a decent amount, although I think around 100 came by last year. 

Some kids who stood out from this year:

🍬The little guy whose grandma had made a stroller or wagon into a garbage truck, complete with garbage hanging off the back on strings. All the kids with her were dressed in those neon yellow/green vests, as was grandma. They come up and she points at my shoes and says to him "Oooh, look at her shoes!" I put my foot out and kind of model it around to show him. Then the kid does the same with his sneaker to me until we were toe to toe. It was so cute.

🍬The three teenage girls who were dressed in togas with gold headdresses. (It was a nice night but not that nice!) They lined up and said "Hi!" and I said "Greek Goddesses?" They all said "Yeah!" in unison.

🍬The tall (I assume older teen?) guy who came up in a sheet with eyeholes cut out and his prescription glasses over the top of them. And also a red clown wig over his head. I said "Um? Ghost Clown" And I heard some laughter and "Yeah". Although, I'm not sure that wasn't just one of those grab things around the house costumes!

🍬The girl who was 13 tops, who saunters up in this skin-tight black pleather outfit that looks like it was painted on her and wearing cat ears. She just stands there alone with this dead serious face and says "Catwoman". I think my jaw literally dropped, as I said "Uh, yeah. I assumed." Then she says "Don't be afraid of my whip" and pulls this real (not costume) whip out from behind her back and snaps it on the ground in front of me. This kid knew how to use it. And whatever room my jaw had left to drop, dropped. This kid never so much as cracked a smile. I gave her some candy and she wandered off cracking that whip at other kids who were running away. I thought 1) What just happened? 2) I really hope she doesn't knock on the wrong door. 

🍬The adorable little girl who walked up with her friends as the Ghostbusters song was playing on my CD player. As she walked away with her candy, the "Who you gonna call?" part played. She turned around and pointed yelling "Ghostbusters!"

🍬The girl who walked up as Ghostface from Scream with a rubber human heart in her hand. She didn't say anything. (People dressed in this costume never do) but she was kind of holding the heart out. So I reached out and she handed it to me. I squeezed it and all this fake blood went rushing up tubes and into her mask. It was so gross! 

🍬The very small boy who ran up dressed as maybe a train conductor with this giant pillowcase over his shoulder. He was all alone and really rushing. I said "Looks like you have a lot of candy there" and he says out of breath "Wooh. I have been running non-stop for five blocks and I went to every door!" So I congratulated him and he leaves. By the time he gets to the street he struggles and flings the pillowcase over his shoulder and yells back "And my back is aching!"

🍬And lastly, the little girl who I had never seen before. It's important to mention I've never seen her or her sibling or parents in this story, because they weren't from nearby. She gets her candy, is shy and sweet, turns and is halfway down the sidewalk before stopping. She stops in her tracks, turns her body, and points at a house. She says "That's a haunted house". Her mom was like "Uh, OK then." and kind of laughed it off. Thing is, I think she's right. That's a blog post in itself! Anyway, I have chills just thinking about that.

A fun new addition to this year's trick-or-treat display was this bubbling cauldron. A friend actually made this! (Thanks Sandy!) 💗

And check this out: It lights up! The purple lights really added something. And what's neat is that it is battery operated. So I didn't have to find a plug out there. That's an issue each year. Look at those skeletal hands clutching the cauldron!

A close-up view of the bubbles:

As you can see, by the end of the night the rat had a lot less company in the candy bowl. I hope you guys had an eventful trick-or-treat night with good weather, that is if it has happened already. I know some places do it on actual Halloween night. In that case, have fun tomorrow! 🍬

Pumpkin Carving and Trick-or-Treat

The annual pumpkin display in our village is up! This display will probably look familiar to you. What was new this year is that I actually participated. My mom and I carved pumpkins on the 25th, so they've been up a few days. I haven't carved a pumpkin in... I don't know how many years, so that was fun to do again. I had to wonder why I hadn't been participating in years past. They even provide the community with free pumpkins!

So this one is mine:

This one is mom's:

There were a number of pumpkins to choose from inside the gazebo.

After choosing a pumpkin, you go inside this tent to carve it. This inflatable entrance is a great touch. I'll have a pic coming up where you'll be able to see it more in the daylight.

They asked you to carve out the back so they could string a light through, but they ended up going through the top of mine.

My insides:

Here are a few rows of them lit up:

Pretty cool skull face! And extra impressive, considering we were using those children's knives and scoops. I'm amazed that someone was able to carve those eye details. Unless they brought their own carving tools? Actually no matter what they carved with, those eyes are impressive.

I think I was next to the guy carving Ghost Face in the tent, because I heard his kid requesting it. 

I appreciate when someone uses the guts and seeds in their carving.

I am going to assume a tired mom carved this. If not, I have questions. 

And the front shows the look of the Tired Mom.

An up-close view of seed mouth.

Sassy.

Remember the inflatable pumpkin?

We went back later in the daytime to see if more pumpkins had been added.

Cute little leaf bow or hair on this one.

Someone clearly brought their own accessories to decorate with!

Here's that carving tent in the daylight. 

There was some kind of pumpkin bowling game set up. I assume you roll a pumpkin toward the pins instead of a ball? I've never seen anyone actually playing this.

Our village did trick-or-treating from 4:00 to 7:00 yesterday (Sunday) and it was so cold out that I had to wear a winter coat, snow pants, and a pair of winter boots under this outfit! The weather took such a dip that there was the possibility of snow. Despite the cold weather, 60 kids came by. I had exactly 60 pieces of candy, so that worked perfectly.

For those last minute candy shoppers, I think the best deal was at Walgreens, if you don't need any more candy than I got. So many stores require you to buy a massive amount of candy to get any kind of discount. Although, I'm sure a lot of the people who buy Halloween candy are just eating the candy themselves! So it wouldn't matter if they had some left over. 

The kids were very nice and polite. I don't have any wild stories. They were just chatty and pleasant. There were lots of cute partial costumes, half hidden by winter coats. One girl took part of her winter wear off to show me there was an actual costume under there and I told her that I understood, as I was secretly wearing snow pants!

And one other kid asked where my broom was. I told him it was inside and he asked what I used it for. I said "sweeping" and he seemed disappointed. Then he wanted to know about what I had up on the tablet next to me. I was listening to some scary stories in between the kids coming by. If you listen to some of those themed scary story videos, you know they're not for kids. So when the kids weren't there, I listened to those videos and when the kids came up, I quick played a CD of spooky sounds that I had hidden. 

Do you guys listen to those themed scary story videos? The themes range anywhere from "Five Scary Stories from Walmart" to "Three Crazy Ex Stories". Now that I think about it, they're mostly about scary people at stores or scary relationships... Anyway, there are so many different channels out there now! I was listening to some trick-or-treat themed scary stories yesterday. Turns out, a surprising amount of strange things have happened to people while they were either collecting or handing out treats. I'm glad to say that trick-or-treat was completely normal for me last night. It was probably too cold for anyone to be getting into trouble around here!