Halloween dinner is always at the wrong time, isn’t it?
The children want to get out the door, somebody can’t find part of a costume, and nobody is interested in sitting down to a proper meal.
I’d put out food they can pick at while they’re getting ready: pinwheels, apple slices, clementines, cheese, cut-up vegetables, and a dip. Nothing shaped like a spider. Just food they’ll actually eat before the candy starts.
Then comes the last check. Can they see through their masks? Where are the flashlights? Who’s going with whom, and when is everyone coming back?
Of course, a lot of trick-or-treating now happens while it’s still light outside. There’s also trunk-or-treating, where families decorate their car trunks and hand out candy as the children make their way through a school or church parking lot.
I can understand the appeal. The children are in one place, there are fewer streets to cross, and everyone can see where they’re going.
But it is quite different from the Halloween I remember.
In my memory, Halloween was almost always raw and drizzly. We went out after dark with a parent along, and whatever costume we had planned was usually covered by a coat. The sidewalks were wet, the leaves stuck to our shoes, and familiar houses looked a little strange at night.
It was creepy, and that was part of the fun.
I’m not suggesting that Halloween was better then. Honestly, it has never been one of my favorite holidays. But I do think something changes when we remove the darkness and the uncertainty from it. We felt as though we were having an adventure, even with a parent only a few steps behind us.
Have we made Halloween safer and lost some of the mystery? Probably. But children today aren’t comparing their Halloween with ours. This is simply Halloween to them. A parking lot filled with decorated trunks may be every bit as exciting as walking from house to house in the dark was to us.
And years from now, they’ll probably be the ones wondering why their grandchildren celebrate it differently.
No matter how they go trick-or-treating, I’d still take a quick walk up to my own front door before they arrive. Can people see the steps? Is the doormat flat? A pumpkin can look lovely on the porch and still be exactly where someone needs to put a foot.
If the grown-ups are staying, a pot of soup or sausage and peppers will do nicely. Add some bread and leave it all alone when the doorbell rings.
When the children come back—whether from the neighborhood or the school parking lot—let them empty their bags on the table and tell everyone what happened.
Somebody will want to start trading candy before taking off a coat.
That part, I suspect, hasn’t changed much.
I made a Halloween Hosting Planner for the food, porch, guest list, and all the little things that are easy to forget. If you’re hosting this year, it might save you from trying to keep the whole evening in your head.