Quick JFF Poll, Door to Door Trick or Treating...

Door to door trick-o-traeting in my neighborhood and my whole block goes all out, it's great! We live in the perfect neighborhood for it though, very insulated!

When my 14 year old was younger we did door to door. Around age 9 or 10 I started hosting Halloween parties. Now that was fun! This year we are passing out candy. The trick or treaters are driving the dog nuts!

My grandkids are bringing friends and going trick or treating in my neighborhood. Seeing all the yard decorations and costumed happy children under a night sky is part of the fun.

Our neighborhood is PERFECT for trick or treating. The streets/sidewalks will be full! I think a lot of people from around town hit our neighborhood, too!

Our sub is relatively small, but it's safe and has sidewalks, so I figure we probably get between 80 and 100 kids. I suspect there are some people that drive here from other neighborhoods to let their kids trick-or-treat, probably because where they live, it's not as safe or it's not likely people are going to be home to give out candy.

ETA: I took my DD out last night...she is 5 and it was super cold and windy so even bundled up, she made it just less than an hour and only hit about 1/2 the houses in the sub before deciding she had had enough (last year she made it all of them). She helped me hand out candy after that and she almost enjoyed that just as much! And yes, we got quite a few carloads of kids that we knew were not from around here, but we had more than enough candy to hand out and it helped to get rid of it all!

we do door to door, I love it. I dont like the parties, maybe around here they are boring for my kids and I. I feel like its not really my idea of Halloween. One year when it was raining hard, we did a school ran party. Not again. We go to the hot spots, and around our neighborhood. I usually take the kids to some of the assisted living buildings, cause its indoors, and everyone puts a little light on the outside of the doors. Its so awesome to make the elderly so happy to see the costumes, plus this may be mean but they tend to be less stingy with the handfuls of candy AHAHA

My kids just left with daddy. A lot of the kids go as a group and we begged off this year -- it was so hard to enjoy the time with the kids because they were so busy running in a wild pack. Our neighborhood is a very old city neighborhood with a mix of elderly and young families, so there's still a fair amount of trick or treating here.
But the time is limited by the community to 6-8 pm.

Door to door here. There are 109 homes in our subdivision and probably 90% of those give out candy, so you can imagine the haul the kids make.
I grew up going door to door. Back then we left the house at dark and didn't come home till 9pm, without parents even.....gasp.....

Door to Door is VERy popular in my neighborhood. I am expecting as many as 500 kiddos (not counting the ones that are dropped off by the van load from who knows where.... and I am not talking about the occasional family who chooses to come to our neighborhood which are welcomed..... I am talked about van loads of big kids with pillowcases on the prowl) and I am well prepared.

It is a huge social event for our neighborhood and looked forward to each year.

We pretty much set up outside and greet children as they come down the driveway. That way, my dogs don't get as upset and on lull moments which are few, we are in the street with other neighbor parents enjoying a halloween cocktail.

Have fun!

We sure do go out and trick or treat door to door! My 11, 8 & 3 year old can't contain their excitement for tonight!
But we are finding that more and more people aren't home or are at least pretending to not be home so it turns into just a long walk with little trick or treating. It is such a shame that it's turning into this :(

We go door to door. I don't know how many trick or treaters we have because we are out and about but I leave a bowl of candy out for them.

Door to door is still alive and well in our neighborhood!
How would a trunk & treat or the mall be much safer?

Our neighborhood is awesome at Halloween. The moms usually take the kids door-to-door while the dads sit in the driveways with the firepits handing out candy. We will probaly have about 200-300 kids come to our house tonight. I will be taking the kids around and daddy will be home handing out candy, roasting marshmellow's over the pit with Papa. Such a fun time in our neighborhood, just wish it was on a Friday night and not a Wednesday night!

My kids always did door-to-door. We're in a very small town and our street is Halloween Alley - lol! We'll get about 250-300 kids.
Most parents take the kids out door-to-door and then up to the school where the Lions Club has games with prizes and a costume contest so it's pretty much done by 8:00.
As teens, they do trick-or-treat for the food shelf with the youth group going door-to-door.

My kids are 8 & 5 years old. I take them both around our neighborhood trick or treating. It is a lot of fun for us and them. Either my husband or myself will stay home and hand out candy.

We live kind of out in the country so we would drive the ten minutes into town, park and walk around. ALWAYS ran into our neighbors who did the same thing. The town is relatively small so it was always like a party atmosphere. I loved it!! Unfortunately, my kids are in high school now and wouldn't be caught dead with Mommy & Daddy!! lol!! They go out with a group of friends for a little while; nothing too wild.

The only rule is they better have candy to share with me - after all, I DID drive them to their friends' house!! It's only fair!! lol!!

Hope everyone is having a fun and safe Halloween!!!

We still go door to door and then a trunk or treating event at church the week prior. We live in a quiet family friendly neighborhood with sidewalks and many homes go all out with decorating.

We have seen less through the years. I believe more families are doing Halloween parties and community/church events on Halloween night.

Have a great Halloween!!

Door to door, but our neighborhood SUCKS! People had their light on but no candy and got upset with my 6yr old - he then told them that a light on means candy - those are the rules. People had no light and candy (we knew because other kids were getting candy), people were decorated but no candy etc. So, we went to Grandma's neighborhood where they all know and follow the rules.

We still do door-to-door trick-or-treating because we live in a neighborhood with lots of children of all ages. Our neighborhood is also very social with many families camped out in their driveways with firepits burning and handing out candy. I have three large bowls of candy staring at me today, so I can't wait for it all to be taken away tonight! Arggh! I love this time of year though. It's so fun.
There are a lot of trunk or treat events at local churches and businesses around town, so I think many people go that route for safety reasons too. My husband's work had a trunk or treat for all the employee's kids yesterday and our kids loved it.
A.

My kids go door to door, and in our area we get a ton of kids every year. But, we live in a small, safe, quiet little mountain town.

We do!!!

But not in our neighborhood... Which is FAST streets & mondo hills & frats.

We drive to a local "freak street" (now 6-8 streets) that is amaaaaazibg. Waiting lists to buy in that neighborhood, 10's of thousands must be spent, etc.

It's been like this since the 90s, that I know of. Pocket neighborhoods still trick or treat in Seattle, but most don't. Of this who don't.

- Freak Streets
- Trunk or Treat
- Malls

I still decorate and leave candy out!

My dd is out right now. I only got 1 trick or treater :( because we're on a cul de sac and the street down the way is AWESOME for trick or treating. So everyone bypasses us and we get the kid across the street.

We go door to door...we have TONS and TONS of kids in our neighborhood and we also get the kids who all go to the elementary school (which is in our subdivision) that live where there is no T&T cause they are in the "country".

The high school also does a trunk or treat, donations of canned items given to Harvesters. We attend this as well.

Best of both worlds. I see no issue in going to the mall and trunk or treating...especially if it is not an option to do otherwise.

We live on a farm, and don't have neighbors, so we drive to a friend's neighborhood. Then we park and walk door to door. Happy Halloween!

ETA: We went to a Ghoul's Night Out (trunk or treat) last week at my son's elementary school, and we went to Spookapalooza (a sort of festival) last night at the high school where I teach. We've really celebrated Halloween this year!

I take my 3 kids out, and we already have kids out in our neighborhood (it isn't even 3:30 pm yet.)

ETA: We have several apartment buildings within 3 blocks, so although we only have a few dozen kids in the houses in our neighborhood, there are a few hundred. We had our lights on from 3-8 and ended up passing out about 300 pieces of candy.

My kids go door to door. Hubby will take them this year and I'm so sad to miss. I had major surgery last week and while I can walk, I can't walk far and my kiddo's can get a good portion of the neighborhood done! At least the back part where we live.

Lots of shops around here do it too, so next year we may look in to that if they want to. The local Chick-Fil-A is also doing a Halloween night from 5-7. Hubby won't be home until 6 and then they wouldn't get there until 630...so they will eat their pizza which will be here soon, get dressed, and wait for daddy!

My daughter still tricker treats we have 2 bags for her. One she uses for our friends and neighbors and then we take her down town where they have stuff going on and she does more tricker treating. Still have to check it though .I can still remember the year I lived in NY and they cancelled halloween. That was the start of the downfall. When I was growing up there were droves of kids now your lucky to get a spatering.

We do it here in El Paso, we did it in Lawton, OK (ran out of candy there!) did it in Sierra Vista, AZ, and they still do it in Oklahoma City! :) So everywhere I've lived so far, they still do it. I know the Family Readiness Groups on military bases also tend to do Trunk or Treats, but they do them on nights that aren't the "official" Trick or Treat night.

All the kids in our neighbourhood go door to door. I'd say about 90% of the houses in our neighbourhood decorate and hand out candy. We get more kids now then we did 10 years ago because we have more young families moving in as many seniors are moving on. We have a good walkable neighbourhood with sidewalks, and drivers are extra cautious on Halloween. I think the mall does something on Halloween, but I've never taken my kids. Somehow that just wouldn't be Halloween to me.

We go, as do all of our neighbors.

We take our kids door to door, but we live in a neighborhood where there are sidewalks and street lights. The amount of kids we get depends on the weather. Last year we had really nice weather, so there were tons out. Tonight it's chilly and windy so I don't expect as many and we won't be out as long (I hope :)

It's really a different world we live in now....it use to be that you would trick or treat in your building and others as well. Now most kids trick or treat in businesses versus homes in my neighborhood. I gues they figure it's safer. More public, no funny business. My older 2, would trick or treat with us in the neighborhood. My youngest, made it a yearly ritual to get together with her cluster of best friends in one of their neighborhoods, where several neighbors get together and really go all out for Halloween.Making a haunted house and party between 3 homes. No one knocks on our door anymore, those days are gone.

We do and probably will never hesitate to do so. We are a small town and everyone is very trust worthy.

We are still a town that hands out homade popcorn balls too. no one questions it. If you dont know the person they usually understand when you dont take homeaid stuff. However for 4 surrounding blocks I think I dont know maybe one couple. And Bf knows probably 80% of the town.

We trick or treat in the neighborhood, and it's door to door. I noticed when I ran to the store to get medicine and noodles for chicken noodle soup last night that there was trick or treat stations in the grocery store, which is cute, but um...no. I remember being a child and hitting the mall on bad weather Halloweens, but otherwise, door to door.
If you don't get a lot of visitors: do you leave your porch light on? Nobody goes to doors if the light by the front door is off (even if the lights by the driveway are on, it's the light by the door that counts). We had a ton of trick or treaters last night. We go door to door because that's what I did as a child and it's "tradition", we like our neighborhood and it's kind of a way to see everyone out and about. We don't know their names or much about them, but there's something nice about the neighborhood seeing each other and talking that night.
There were hoards of trick or treaters last night, for 2 hours before we turned off our light. We trick or treated and loved watching all the costumed children, and my 6 and 2 year old had a blast. But my 2 year old was ready to come home after an hour, and was just as excited (or even more) to jump up every 60-120 seconds to open the door and throw candy in more "friends" bags. But I see you live in MI.....maybe our weather is more temperate? I'm guessing it's colder where you are.

My kids are too old for trick-or-treating.....(21-30)... but for several years, now, we've gotten very few kids at the door... our houses are spread a bit farther apart, and there is only 1 side to our street, and there are no curbs or sidewalks... it really isn't a very good street for trick-or-treating...... people drive just too fast!

I allowed my son and now I am always (when in inthe states) at home ready to hand out candy. I LOVE DOOR TO DOOR and hope it comes back for the future generations!

I will take my kids to the trunk or treat, My husband will take the youngest to the towns trick or treating and then later will take them out trick or treating in a neighborhood that we have taken them since they were little.

In the past, I did the mall thing - indoors, warm, etc. but last year was just crazy, and I heard rumors that the mall we went to in the past was no longer doing it. Also, DD is now 4 and has heard about trick or treating "for real" and wanted to go. We did a few streets with a friend and she got a little candy (DH was more worried about the haul than I was). Our friend vetoed a couple of houses that she didn't like the look of or had a lot of steps, but generally everyone was nice and I didn't get creeped out by any house/candy person. In my neighborhood, they are heavily Orthodox Jewish, so no candy here. We had to go to a friend's neighborhood. I also think that this year, depending on where you live, there was a lot of confusion about when it was going to be - do you have lights? Is there water on the road? Etc.

Ways to entice kids is to put out decorations (not many here this year thanks to Sandy), leave your light on and look friendly and festive. If a house had a light on and nobody home, we just moved on. You could talk to neighbors and think of a way to make your block look friendlier.

In the past, the stepkids went trick or treating in another nearby neighborhood with friends.

If the light's on, we go. Every year, there are mobs of kids running down the sidewalks but that's because we live in a rural area and everyone takes their kids into town to TrT. When I moved to the burbs in my 20s, I was all excited to hand out candy, had the spooky music going and everything. We would get maybe 20 kids. I was so disappointed! But those kids got a lot of candy from me.

My wife and I went with our daughter and her 5 kids. We went with them door to door.

Our church had trunk or treat and a chili cook off so the kids got a double shot.

What I noticed more this year was that people were running out of candy very early. Trick or treatng was from 6 to 8 in my daughter's neighborhood. But by 7 or 7:15 many lights were off and they had run out of candy. Its the worst I've ever seen it. I don't know if it was the economy or unemployment or hardships due to short sales or what.

But, the weather was beautiful. The kids were well behaved. Parents were with most kids, even the teenagers. A good time was had by all.

Good luck to you and yours.

We trick or treat in our neighborhood. We got no kids last year. Our trick or treating has been postponed until Saturday (really) so we don't know yet about this year.

We live in an apartment community that doesn't allow trick or treating. So, we are going up the hill to the neighborhood that goes to my kid's school and trick or treating, door to door, there.
L.

We never went door to door.
We use to live near a town that did a Halloween parade.
It was great!
Everyone was in costume, it was well lit, police and fire department was there and plenty of candy was thrown from floats - you ALWAYS came home with a full bag of loot!
Now we live out in the country and no one goes door to door here - it's too far between houses.
Our county says Trick or Treating is for 12 and younger, so our son has been too old the last few years anyway.

Yes, kids still go door to door here, but only in certain neighborhoods.
My town is very hilly and woodsy, hardly any sidewalks or streetlights, so families tend to drive to the flatter, safer, more walkable areas. It's fun because those neighborhoods know they will have a lot of kids come through therefore they really get into it, lots of cool decorations and special effects :)

As a family we do trunk or treat at the neighborhood church because it is our safest option and fun. We get to see more of other peoples' costumes this way too. Then we stop by a handful of houses on the way home if their lights are on. I especially like to take the kids to the houses of people who are new in the neighborhood because they may not know about the trunk or treat and I know how it stinks to be expecting trick or treaters and be disappointed in the numbers. We only had 2 families stop at our house. In years past we have had more teenagers in the neighborhood and they are repeat knockers. I don't care though, I just give them more candy. :)