Thread: Lack of Halloween Spirit?

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We're all full of Halloween spirit here and very much so for the entire year... As the months move forward and Autumn falls upon us, our giddiness over this great holiday knows no end. Best yet, you look around yourself and notice the "normal" people also getting into the spirit as well. Yards are decorated, displays are set up in stores, Halloween goods are available as far as the eye can see, and trick or treaters are welcomed all over the neighborhoods come Halloween...

But these last few years a couple of things have hit me.

I noticed that the neighborhoods I grew up in as well as the neighborhood I now live in somehow lack as many trick or treaters as there once was. In fact, last year I received absolutely NO trick or treaters and this is coming from a person who decorates their yard, has neighbors who also decorate, and still not a single knock at the door.... The sidewalk near my house was empty of costumed kids. But, I figured this was due to living by a busy highway.

The year before we had lived at an entirely different house. We had a handful of trick or treaters, but none like back in the day when I used to be a trick or treater. Worse yet, those who did trick or treat were religiously followed around by their parents! I'm talking kids that are WAY too old to be hanging around mom and dad for this type of activity... And there was no walking for some. Some had mom and dad driving them from house to house to house, mere feet away from one another. Have trick or treaters become lazy?

But that's not all... I looked around and saw absolutely NO scary costumes on the kids. My husband and I decked out our garage as a haunted house with flickering lights, hanging displays of ghouls, and we dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Krueger. We actually had parents coming up to our house with their kids complaining to us that our garage was "too scary" and that we needed to "tone it down or take it down". We looked at their kids and saw no tears or horror on their faces. It was simply the parents... And we imagined that the little 7 year old boy dressed as a pink M&M had to be the parents' idea pushed onto them as well.

Sadly, it doesn't end here though... Stores began to decrease their quality in goods. If you look in a lot of stores the gory stuff has been replaced with glittery decorations and the selection is now very, very limited. Last year we barely bought anything due to the lack of selection...

So what I wonder is if the Halloween spirit is being killed off somehow. Why are trick or treaters vanishing? Has laziness become the new cool thing? Is being social with neighbors and having an imagination to create a costume too big of a deal? And why do stores retreat to the cutesy Halloween stuff? Does it sell more or are they afraid that parents will complain just as they complained about my husband and me creating too scary of a scene?

It's a bit of a vent... But I just hate when people try to tear down my favorite holiday. I know that with people like you guys out here though, the spirit of Halloween will never die

Keep your head up and stay positive! If we chose to let it die it will eventually. But as long as I walk this earth I will Haunt till the day I die! Halloween Lives and I bleed orange! lol! Take care and keep the spirit alive no matter what!

Yes I have to agree off and on with most of this. I too noticed many of the trends latley have been less scary. I am not sure if this is because parents want things "less scary" or if glittered skeletons really are trendy. I mean I have seen elements to help make SOME scary scenes but nothing gory.

I think spirit and online retailers usually have MORE scary elements versus the smaller stores.

As far as trick or treators, I have noticed it all depends on the area. My neighborhood used to have HUNDREDS of kids and teens. Not anymore, lucky if we get like 20-35 people. This was about 10 years ago when there were tons of people out. I think it's a combination of the following: Kids grow up, move out of parents house, parents still live in the same house, kids have grandkids and the grandparents go to their kids houses, ie...different area for trick or treat. I think thats why certain neighborhoods have less trick or treat.

Also parties can be a large reason why there are not as many people out. Again some people on here say TOT varies from tons, none, a little, 10-50 ..it all depends.

Trick-or-treat, which used to be the primary activity of Halloween in the later 20th century, is no longer a good indicator of the holidays health.

Adam is right - TOT depends entirely on neighborhoods, the night of the holiday, whether there are sidewalks or a school nearby, traffic, lots of things.

Halloween is way bigger than trick-or-treat these days.
The decor you see, the stuff that isn't as scary or horrifying as you might like, is a sign of the holidays growth. It is big with adults now, who want all sorts of variety - classy, spooky harvest, witchy, cartoony, gothic, morbid, colorful, country kitch and everything in between.

You know, like Christmas - a style for everyone.

I've mentioned in other threads how sideswiped trend forecasters and designers were last year when they released their Halloween forecast for the market - color trends, motifs, popular icons and styles, etc. It was hugely popular, and people want more, more, more.

When I was a kid Halloween was half a grocery store aisle of candy and plastic cartoon outfits with molded masks. Now, there are giant Halloween stores that open all across the country.
Party suppliers like Party City completely transform for the holiday.
Parties are everywhere, haunted attractions are numerous, dinner parties are all the rage and yes, kids still go trick-or-treating in many areas, by the thousands.

Halloween is more popular than ever, despite the fears of a tiny minority, and the creepy fun, the magic, the nostalgia, the costuming and the revelry shows no signs of slowing down.
In fact, it is getting bigger every year.

There is a rumor that Halloween is the second largest holiday for spending in the US. Not true, unfortunately (check Snopes.com for this) as gift-giving holidays like Valentines and Mothers Day still beat it, but many financial sources say it not only grows every year, despite economic troubles, it is also enjoying a revival (slowly but surely) in it's birthplace - Ireland, Scotland and England. The European continent is seeing it in France and Germany, and more people celebrate it as more politicians cry out against this new american festivity, with it's ghoulery and its candy-begging.

Halloween is still good to go.
So light your lantern, grab your spade, pick a grave and start diggin'!

Halloween's supposed to be about being scared. The trouble is a lot of Parents, seem to wrap up their little darlings in cotton wool and shield them from everything they deem inappropriate. I think it's rude of them to comment about it in the first place. If they don't like it then don't go to your house!

You do Halloween how you want it, don't let other people's opinions bother you. Keep the tradition alive and don't let narrow minded idiots ruin the day we love so much

I mirror Spats' sentiments exactly!

Around these parts, I get 10 TOTs max. New neighborhood is highly rural, so I doubt we'll get much more...probably less, if any. But I'm still going to put up a display and invite friends over. I love getting TOTs but that's not the sole reason I enjoy Halloween or decorate for it...I suppose that is the same for many people. And has been said, kids grow up and move to different neighborhoods, have kids of their own...the big TOTing epicentres seem to crawl around in that respect.

Parents' attitudes can be insane, and I do agree this overprotective mollycoddling is not doing the holiday any favours, but Halloween still continues to grow and evolve despite their nefarious efforts

I totally agree with everyones comments. Last year I bought a bunch of candy after moving into an apartment because when I was a kid, apartment complexes usually had tons of people giving out candy. But last year I had no one knock at all. So it really does depend on your area. I live by an old church that does a sorta candy party in which they call it an alternative to TOT. But I love Halloween and I'll always decorate and keep the the traditions alive. No ones opinions will ever change that.

It does depend on the neighborhood. Some are packed others not so much.

My beef is how schools have pretty much wiped out the whole Halloween holiday. I'm sure some do something but none around me. So I make sure my son and soon to be baby, will enjoy Halloween like I did-decorations-trick or treating-scary movies-parties.

I think the Halloween spirit is still alive and kicking. I see many retailers with aisles and aisles of goods and whole magazines devoting all of their pages the cause.

I have been doing this for a much longer time than most here. I remember a time when I was fortunate to get a store bought superman costume made of the cheesyist painted on cotton fabric with a poorly made half shell plastic mask with a rubberband holding it on. TOTing was the only thing to do. There were few if any parties or haunts and no neighbors with fantastic displays. I have seen the holiday grow exponentially in the last 10 years. But all the numbers are based on money spent on the holiday. It used to be about the kids and the fun they had. Next it was an adult holiday too . Now it is more and more an adult only holiday. The kids seem left out. We have become so paranoid about the crazies out there that we shelter our children from everything. I don't know, maybe it is a necessity in this day and age. I would rather think that it is a knee-jerk reaction to all the media hype about a very few isolated incidents. Case-in-point the Millenia bug or Iraq's WMDs. There is no answer for the common individual. Demographics will change. We just have to try to push Halloween in a healthy way. A way that allows us our creative canvas for the holiday we all love. It is not about the money. It is about the fun, for all ages!

I do have one thing to say to those of you that love the blood and guts and gore side of the holiday. If you were to drive up on an accident, where all the people had been thrown from the cars with their body parts scattered everywhere and blood covering everything in sight, would you take your children for a walk through the scene while stopping to closely examine the worst of the carnage and maybe hold your kids there so that they would not get away from you? I guess I am not as much into that side of Halloween as some here are. I love a good scare that is driven by make believe. I still worry about the thing under the bed. I can however show my kids that things like this do not exist outside of our own minds. I can't show my kids that the real wackos of this world don't exist. I sure don't want to keep reassuring them that they do! We all have to decide what is too far and what is real and what is not. We as haunt builders have to decide which audience we are playing to! Sorry about the preaching, I should have left it for my blog! HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I guess I'd agree that I do see the holiday growing in some ways. But like some said, schools take dressing up away and trick or treaters vanish! I guess there is a reason for everything though. I never thought much about people growing up and parents staying in their homes... I just hope that when I move again I'll be in a neighborhood with more trick or treaters! For now though I'll just keep throwing my yearly Halloween bash and be happy about that

I hear chain stores are going to be taking a bigger approach to Halloween this year. Let's hope that's true! There used to be a Spirit here every year, but last year they moved away