Do you have TOT in your neighborhood?

[CurlyQ284]

My TikTok is filled with clips of people saying Trunk or Treat killed Halloween, there's no more TOT where they live.

My neighborhood was BUSY. I got 2 giant bags from Costco, maybe about 15 pieces left. Streets were crowded, cars had to crawl if they needed to pass through.

I'm in Michigan about 30 min north of Ann Arbor. We are a middle class neighborhood, I've noticed the kids in the fancy neighborhoods come here because their houses are too far apart (saw a couple of DSs school friends that live in fancy neighborhoods passing by last night). We have lots of houses with decorations, on Halloween many of the neighbors sit in their driveway with a beer and a fire pit going, some will offer you alcohol as you pass by from a cooler. One lady has a huge thing of chili and another lady makes a ton of hot dogs for parents if they want one.

Trying to figure out if it's a regional thing, a neighborhood thing, or if it's a neighbor participation problem 🤣

ETA there are trunk or treats at all the churches throughout October but I think of those as "additional" not "instead of". The only one I know of that is on actual Halloween is the fire station and I figure that's a good option for people who live in rural areas if they don't have a good TOT set up.

[lavenderblue]

We get kids, but no where near as many as I use to get in my old neighborhood. Where I use to live (suburbs) was several blocks worth of twin/side-by-side homes, most that didn't have front fences, so kids could literally walk from door to door to door in no time flat. I would regularly go through hundreds of pieces of candy in less than an hour and I definitely ran out of candy every year. My neighborhood now (exburbs) is only 50 houses that are all sfh with a mix of families in different stages so I only got about 50 kids last night, which actually was close to twice the amount that I got last year. Trunk or Treats or not a huge thing around here, I think maybe our elementary school has one, usually the weekend before, and that's about it.

[zizibet]

We have some. We've lived in this neighborhood for 3 years now, and there have been fewer every year- even though this is a great area to ToT in- no through streets to outside the subdivision, wide sidewalks, etc. However- the neighborhoods in Phoenix that are dominated by megachurches and Mormons mostly don't- it's all trunk or treats many with insane rules about costumes- nothing scary, nothing "occult", only "positive" costumes, which WTF. gender appropriate only costumes- seriously awful stuff.

[W.T.Faulkner]

It's alive and well where I live (lots and lots and lots of little kids), although today coworkers who live in areas fairly close to mine (15 min, 30 min) reported 0 trick-or-treaters. Our neighborhood is ideal, though: more-or-less upper-middle-class (we are the "less" LOL), densely-populated inner-ring suburb of a major city, very easy to navigate.

[nicolewi]

We have TOT and it's big here in any area with kids. Where houses are far apart most people drive. You see a lot of big decorated trailers with kids or pick-up trucks with kids in back. Some people give out alcohol (a few) or have campfires out on the driveway and there are a lot of decorations.

I feel like it's actually a lot bigger and a lot more of a family/adults-also event than it was when I was little, when it was just kids running around. Many high schoolers even still go.

The school does a trunk-or-treat but it's not huge and it's an additional event, definitely not instead of trick-or-treat.

[pixy0stix]

Yes, but it's real slow. A couple of years ago only a few people had their lights on and gave out candy. Now most of our culdesac is lights on for the few kids in the neighborhood.

[InBetweenDays]

We live in Seattle. Our neighborhood center does Trick or Treat at the stores from 4:30-6:30pm on Halloween, and then generally kids go out on the neighborhood. But the number of ToTers really varies street by street. We used to live about 3/4 mile away and hardly got any kids. At our current house we usually get around 125-150. Friends of ours get over 300. All within the same neighborhood.

And I've never heard of a trunk or treat going on nearby.

[Jalapeñomel]

We used to but now everyone goes to the downtown area with the big houses and the bands.

[ellipses84]

Yes, but people tend to congregate in certain blocks of the neighborhood so some areas are crazy and others are pretty dead. Also, my kids aren’t hardcore like we were as kids. We loop around our block 1x and that’s enough candy for them and they want to go home. We used to go over to our friends’ and it would be more like a block party but the elderly people in our neighborhood are so happy to get a few trick or treaters so now we stay close by, TorT for a bit and pass out candy. A person in my neighborhood renovated their house to look like a castle (permanently- not just for halloween - it’s insane)! It’s 3 blocks away so originally we were going to TorT our way over there but then DS2 said he was too tired!

Our school trunk or treats are usually a week before so it’s a non-issue. There are some churches that have stuff and those are by the popular trick or treating blocks, or by people with cool decorations, full size candy bars, etc. One block does a whole theme for their decor and posts on the neighborhood fb page.

[tacokick]

Our street doesn’t really have kids and we don’t get trick or treaters but I know there are some streets very close where everyone goes all out and people seem to just to go to those streets.

[stuffandthings]

Oh we get a TON of kids throughout our neighborhood. And we don't even have set hours or anything--it's just sort of spontaneous. As soon as it starts to get dark on Halloween the kids all come out.

[nicanmatt]

Most of our local Trunk or Treats were over the weekend. In fact, I took my kids to 5 trunk or treats last weekend!! I know that one local church had a big "fall festival" with bounce houses and candy last night, and our school bus depot had a trunk or treat too. We live on a small country road so we drove to a nearby neighborhood and it was flooded with kids and so fun to see. The people were so kind and most houses had either a bowl or a table/chair set out near the road to help kids move along more quickly.

Now I just wish the school would do candy donations for the military/retirement homes so we could donate the candies I know my kids won't eat.

[janegold]

We do. Trunk or treat doesn't seem to be nearly as big a thing here (Boston burbs) as it seems to be in some other places, based on what I've seen on social media. We've never been to one.

My parents live in one of those big fancy neighborhoods in Michigan and they get no ToTers. The kids all go to more condensed neighborhoods.

[dexteroni]

Yes, and we get lots of kids. We had a little less than usual this year because it was rainy, but we still went through almost all of our normal amount of candy.

There are trunk or treats here too. I guess they choose one or just go to multiple events. I do think trunk or treat is why there’s no candy left on Halloween anymore, so that’s annoying because the earlier I buy, the more I eat.

[tiki]

I have no idea what Trunk or Treat is. Kids still walk around here.

OK, so I could have guessed that it was trick or treating from trunks of cars, but where are the cars parked? I see lots of online mentions of it happening at churches, so people go park in a church parking lot and basically tailgate Halloween? Our area generally lacks parking lots, so that would explain why it's not a thing here. 

[TR]

OH yes. Our neighborhood is huge, lots of young families, there are THREE elementary schools that the neighborhood is zoned to lol

There are two streets that they close down to traffic and so they get hundreds of ToTers. We got maybe 30-40? at our house.

[ellipses84]

My BFF lives in a cute residential neighborhood next to a State Capitol and they get 1000s of kids! It’s crazy. Obviously none of those kids are TorTing in their own neighborhoods though.

[twinmomma]

We don't ToT in our neighborhood, we live on a busy road with no sidewalks, so we always end up at my ex-in laws neighborhood. It's a perfect ToT spot, lots of side streets with houses close together, no traffic. It's actually the neighborhood where I grew up trick or treating as a kid!

When I was a kid, it was a packed area with wall to wall kids. Then it tapered off for a while as we all grew up and our parents still lived there as empty nesters. Now it's picking back up again with more kids around. Last night was pretty busy for sure. For us, I think it's because the neighborhood had to "turn over" to the new, young families. Lots of the older people of my parents' generation have moved out to downsize and younger families have come in, so it's getting busy again.

[sdlaura]

Yes, I think we have the perfect amount. We’ve gone to some neighborhoods that people drive to and are super crowded, and when we went when I had toddlers, I worried that they might be trampled in the dark by the bigger kids. But I want some level of critical mass so we run into friends and neighbors and most houses have their lights on and are handing out candy. So it’s good.

We live 12 houses from our elementary school and within walking distance of the middle school. The elementary school has had declining enrollment as the houses have gotten more expensive but we still have some young families moving in. The houses were built 40-45 years ago and are pretty close together.

Here any trunk or treat events are in addition to trick or treating, not instead of. I wonder if more rural areas where influencers live are more spread out and/or church oriented and that’s why trunk or treats are big there?

[jinkies]

YEs. It has ebbed and flowed as the neighborhood demographics have changed. But we still get a lot despite not being an ideal neighborhood (no sidewalks or lights, houses far apart).

[pinkdutchtulips]

we had some .. everyone who appeared got huge handfuls from us. we had 2 bags of costco candy and we're done to a half bag each. 

we live close to 2 elementary schools and a HS ... still didn't have many TorT'ers (just north of SF).

[mrsslocombe]

My apartment does TOT but the numbers last night vs pre-pandemic are a lot lower. Only people who live in the complex + their guests are allowed inside, so that limits how many people participate. This year 3 out of 10 apartments on my floor gave out candy.

NYC has made a huge effort in recent years to make areas more TOT-friendly so there's a lot of closed roads and kid-friendly areas. I live close to a huge one that is a lot of fun, plus you get celeb sitings. Amy Schumer and Paul Rudd were out last night.

Growing up we didn't get a huge number in a my small neighborhood, now my parents barely get any. It's an older neighborhood with small ranch homes, so nearly everyone there is retired, so not many kids left in the area.

[lostrn]

We live in a townhouse neighborhood of about 120 houses. we have a parade with kids (and some adults and dogs lol) showing off costumes, followed by a potluck, then the trick or treating starts around 6:15-6:30. We are right in the middle of two other similarly sized neighborhoods so the older kids (and I guess younger kids with willing parents lol) can really get a ton of candy by hitting up those neighborhoods too, there are multiple paths that connect us.

[aprilsails]

Trunk or treat never took off here. I took the kids TOTing last night and I've never seen them collect so much stuff. The weather was gorgeous though.

We put out buckets and at the end of the night there were 6 pieces left. So that means we gave out over 400 pieces of candy. I'm guessing about 80 kids would have come through based on past years.

[abs]

Trick or treating is still big in my neighborhood but most kids congregate together in big groups and spend time in 1-2 sections. My section is definitely slower. I think we got 25-30 kids? The section DD was in with her friends got like 200.

I personally found trunk or treat annoying and dumb. Trick or treating in the daylight doesn’t feel right plus they are so crowded and hot! We only did it once when DD was younger. She was over it within like 2 minutes and just wanted to leave. So definitely a thing but I don’t think it’s killing Halloween.

[fluffycookie]

Trunk or treat is big here with the schools and churches, but it hasn't hurt TOTing. We live in a town that a good portion doesn't have sidewalks so families drive to the areas that have sidewalks which is us. We went thru over 700 pieces of candy in less than hours. I really wish the town would block off the street. It's shocking that no one has gotten hit over the years.

[countthestars]

Yes - our Trunk or Treats were all last weekend and everyone still ToTs on Halloween. My neighborhood doesn't get tons because we have very long driveways, but we were in a friend's cul de sac that had 385 ToTers last night.

[wildrice]

We get kids, but everyone just stays inside their houses. I would LOVE to live somewhere that was more of a neighborhood party, but alas.

My parents/sisters live near Houston and it sounds like their experience is more like yours.

[Susie]

Both of the neighborhoods we've lived in, in the last 10 years have active ToTs on Halloween.

There are a bunch of Trunk or Treats at the park, at schools, at churches, but I think most people do those in addition to door to door ToT.  We tend not to do Trunk or Treat because we get more than enough candy at ToT.

[EvieEthelGarland]

Trunk or Treat is not really a thing here. I live on a cul de sac and I think that kills it for me, especially since there is a park at the end. It started dumping around 5:30 last night so that reduced the numbers even more. And we're remodeling and don't have a porch light right now. Twice I saw groups of kids scurrying in the street and called out to them "I have candy! Please come here!" Any other night of the year, that's be creepy AF but when I gave every kid 2 full sized bars, they seemed happy.

I still have about 25 out of 50 candy bars left.