Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot Asks: Notes For Next Hallowe'en?
There are 364 more shopping days until next year's Hallowe'en. But while this year's is still fresh in the memory, I'd like to start gathering ideas for next year in the hopes of actually making my neighborhood worthwhile as a trick-or-treating destination, specifically for fun projects to actually give my yard a haunted-house feel. (For the second time in three years, there were zero candy-seekers, and I'd like to convince my neighbors to make the whole block more decorated and spooky, even if we never get all Alek Komarnitsky.) Did you create an animatronic zombie for your yard? Glowing eyes to appear from behind the bushes? Poltergist-style rising graves to frighten the children? Remote-controlled candy dispensers? If you used any kind of complex haunt technology at home, what things worked and what didn't? (I hear too many stories about fog machines leaking to make them sound like a good idea.)
Seriously. Go down to costco. Buy 10 boxes of full sized candies. It will cost you $200. Much less than a lot of crappy Halloween decorations. I guarantee you, the kids will remember. Often into adulthood. "There was this one house that gave out full sized bars!"
For bonus points, keep your receipts, and return any box you didn't end up opening.
In my community, there were fliers left on every door requesting that people not hand out candy from their homes due to concerns about children with dietary restrictions and "safety."
Instead, organizers designated several areas around the community where residents could reserve a spot for a table (table not supplied) to hand out candy under supervision from local volunteers. If the tables were not suitable, families were instructed to take their kids to the mall for "an authentic trick or treating experience."
I happened to need something from the mall, so I got to see their idea of a fun Halloween first-hand. Those shops handing out candy had hung photocopies of a tiny bitmapped 1980s "The Print Shop" style picture of a pumpkin near their doorways. They weren't permitted to hand out anything with chocolate, peanut, dairy, etc. so it was basically nothing but hard candies, mostly peppermints. 'Didn't look like anyone was hanging around for very long.
Halloween: Sanitized for your protection.
There are 365 more shopping days. You can also shop on February 29th next year.
Our 400-foot driveway is too much work, compared to the nearby 11 houses/acre development that went into what was a cornfield 20 years ago.
Kids do a cold-hearted calculation of [candy/time]. Decorations make little difference. I have an affluent neighborhood in one direction, and a working class, mostly Hispanic neighborhood in the other direction. I asked my kids where they wanted to go, and they unanimously agree to go to the working class area. I asked them why, and they said that in the affluent neighborhood the houses are too far apart, the driveways are too long, and rich people tend to be stingy, because, hey, thats how they got to be rich. Those are astute observations, but I was surprised to hear them coming from an 8 year old.