Thread: Trick or Treaters in the house?

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A new addition to my haunt this year is a mad scientist lab. It looks pretty good where it is, in our basement. I think it would lose much of its atmosphere if I were to set it up outdoors. We're a little worried that it may be asking for trouble to have people come inside the house. (We're on the edge of a kind of dicey neighborhood.) Can people comment on their experiences with inviting Trick or Treaters to come inside to see (and maybe interact with) props? Any bad experiences on the night or afterwards?

Thanks.

Year before last we had over 300 TOT'ers, last year we pushed almost 400 through our haunt. MOST were nice. That being said, I would never let them in my house. The older ones are almost always the problem!

Hmm..this is a tough one. In theory, yes it would be great if you could trust strangers in your home and let them enjoy the experience of your mad scientist lab. Unfortunately, I think you may be opening up a huge can of worms by letting people in. For one, there is the problem of having unchaperoned kids negotiating basement steps while wearing costumes (a big liability concern in my opinion...people will sue for anything these days "Hey my kid got a splinter on your handrail..I want a million!") Secondly, you said you are on the verge of a dicey neighborhood. That in itself would be enough for me to not allow anyone inside. How will you keep the "bad guys" out, or even know who the bad guys are? I think it might be too easy for someone to come in and start scoping out your house to see what you have, where the entrances are, which doors appear to not have good locks etc. Then you have to think of crowd control. I'm, guessing like most homes there is only one way in/out of your basement. Will guests be escorted up and down the stairs? How many people will be allowed in at one time. The list goes on. It really stinks that you have to think of all these things, but those are the times we live in. I hope you can think of a good way to share your lab w/ the trick or treaters!

I agree, you summarized our concerns pretty well.

The rest of the display is in the back yard (graveyard with ghosts). We have French doors into the yard, so they would not have to go through the whole house, just directly into the lab area. Other than that, we could leave the doors closed and let people look through the panes, or possibly through a window that they pass closely by while entering the back yard.

TOTs enter through a large hole in the side of the El Patron (pirate ship facade), wander through a multi-room HH inside the garage, cross over into the Caverns (living room/dining room), and exit out the front door. I have family hidden in the HH, I'm in the caverns, and my wife waits on the front porch with the treats. They followed the same path last year with no problems whatsoever.

At my house, the over-12 crowd is given a treat (usually chips) at the door and sent along. The 12 and under crowd can come into my house and circle through an area where they'll spin a wheel-of-fortune to determine their treat...which could be anything from a small treat bag to a plug-n-play computer game or large stuffed animal.

Only one TOT (sometimes two little ones with MOM) at a time comes through. With approximately 60 'walk-through' TOTs over 2 hours, it's manageable. I place black theater flats along the walls so there are no temptations along the way. Plus I (in costume) take each TOT through the room. So far, so good.