The Trick or Treat Conundrum

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Now comes the week of Hallowe’en, and with it, my perennial question: to buy candy, or not?

I live on a rural road with seven house close together - the way New Englanders settled, with your neighbors near and a LOT of acreage behind. The year Ross and I moved in with 17 month old Smithie and the one month old Boy, we were hitting a wave. Four of the houses had turned over in the past two years, and we all had babies and toddler. 

 

For the first years, that worked out delightfully. Seven houses is more than enough for three to five year olds, and because we didn’t live in a place where others came to Trick or Treat, everyone was generous with their candy bowls. Special shout-out to the late Steve Heroux, who gave out cold Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale to all the grownups.

But kid get older, and they make friends well outside of your small neighborhood, and they start to hear about the hauls their classmates made in nearby developments and at their grandmother’s suburbs. My kids went to Catholic school in the big city of Portland, Maine (pop. 70,000) and their tiny urban friends made serious Trick or Treat hauls. I’m talking house giving out full sized chocolate bars.

So we began spending the evening at a friends house; Shari would make a delicious chili and homemade bread for everyone, we’d take our pack of youngsters out and about, and everyone had a good time. (Yes, concerned parents, Ross and I did sequester the trick or treat bags and doled out  reasonable portions of the candy. Starting on November 1st.)

Fast forward to 2026. There are still seven houses in our neighborhood, but only two families have children. There’s a new couple with a teenager part-time, and the rest of us are all on Medicare. For at least the past three or four years, no one’s come to my door, despite my lit candles and friendly pumpkins. And here’s the rub - part of the reason I’ve lost thirty pounds over the past 3-4 years is by not buying any sweets. Never have them in the house. Niente.

But. But….

Reds, what would you do? And how is trick or treating in your neighborhood?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: No one ever comes. No one. Ever.  Comes. We live in a neighborhood that has a lot of houses, but they’re far apart, and we have a long driveway. I have always thought that trick-or-treaters make a return- on investment assessment, and decide it’s too far to walk for what they could possibly receive.

But I look out for them every year, with high hopes, because I absolutely love to see little kids in costumes.

We faithfully buy trick-or-treat candy, and we have some unopened bags in our pantry from, I’m afraid, years ago. (But it’s still fine, right?)

Last week at Costco we bought a massive box of individually packaged chips and pretzels, Funyuns and Bugles and stuff like that to hand out instead of candy. Do you think kids would like that?

I am still going to buy some Twizzlers, even if I have to dress up and knock on our door to get them. 

JENN McKINLAY: We were not prepared when we moved into the suburbs surrounded by three elementary schools and a middle school. Lord-a-mercy, we ran through three bags of candy in a half hour and had to shut out the lights and hide. The next ten years we went through 10-15 bags of candy (thankfully, this was the Hooligans’ trick or treating era and they enjoyed it to the fullest). Then the recession hit and so many families moved out. Our neighborhood became an ASU suburb and it was all man-buns and the faint whiff of weed smoke for a few years, then the families came back but not as many. Now we go through a respectable five bags of candy, if we’re home and not traveling.

 

 
HALLIE EPHRON: FIFTEEN BAGS?!? Yikes.

I love Halloween, and we have a pretty active trick-or-treat neighborhood with a fresh crop of kiddoes. We only go through 2-3 bags of candy. I try to buy the kind *I* like just in case there are leftovers, but usually by morning the candy’s gone. 

We get a blast of little ones at around 6PM, then a lull, then older kids. After 8 I just put the leftovers in a bowl on the front steps and by morning it’s all gone and I’ll be lucky if no one’s smashed the pumpkin we had on the front steps. 

I don't buy kids liking these, even back in 1958

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Wow, fifteen bags, that’s a LOT of candy!! I never remember to buy candy in time and the supermarkets are always sold out by the time I think about it. Maybe Hank should send me some of hers?? We haven’t done trick or treating in quite a few years now. There are some blocks in our neighborhood that get Jenn’s amount of traffic, but we’ve never had more than a few. Also, we have to shut up the dog, who barks like a maniac even if the little fairies and goblins don’t ring the doorbell, so it’s easier just to turn off the porch light.

And now I feel like a grinch!

 

 

 

 

 

RHYS BOWEN: I live up a steep hill so have never had many kids coming. When we first moved in there were other families on our block and one big boy was a witch with a cauldron that terrified my kids. Recently it’s two or three at the most, although John always bought several bags of Kit Kat. Oh dear. Now I guess I’ll just have to eat these!

I never did much in the way of decorating, but now I have Anne living with me… former theater person.. And we’re having a pumpkin carving party tomorrow. My house already looks like this:  Going to be fun!

 

 

 

 

LUCY BURDETTE: Rhys, those decorations are priceless–if they don’t give you a heart attack! We’re like Hank, we just don’t get kids. The payoff in our neighborhood is poor. Yesterday at the Stop and Shop I had the candy or no candy debate, and ended up with one bag of Nestle’s Crunch just in case. I looked at the Twizzlers and thought of you Hank! But I knew I would eat them all so I left them on the shelf.

When I got home, I said to John, “I tried to choose something we don’t much like.”

“You were successful,” he said. Now we hope a few kids come because WE WILL EAT THEM ANYWAY. There would never ever be bags of candy left lingering in our pantry!

 

JULIA: And of course, if you or your spouse don't leave for the office, the old trick of taking the temptation away to work isn't available! One year when Hallowe'en was on a Saturday, I dumped the rest of the candy in a bowl and set it out for coffee hour at St. Luke's. Sorry, fellow parishioners on a diet.

How about you, dear readers? Do you expect trick or treaters? And how will you prepare for them?