Halloween Trick-or-Treating, Part I

Halloween evening this year was an absolutely spectacular night for Trick-or-Treating. The weather was quite warm, the sky put on a stunning sunset, and the neighborhoods were swarming with costumed people in a merry mood. I edited a ton of pictures so this is going to be a two-part post, enjoy!

After last year, where trick-or-treating was banned due to the pandemic, it seems everyone was eager to have a fun All Hallow’s Eve. Children, adults, and even the elusive teenagers were out in droves, all in costume and in a festive spirit.

For Arthas, I picked out the cutest and softest fuzzy panda costume for him, which I found on Amazon and was great quality at a great price. It doubles as a cozy winter onesie because it is so soft and thick and cuddly, I might order a few more of the other animals, they had lots!

After browsing through hundreds of boy costumes, Alistair decided he wanted to be Genji from Overwatch, a video game character who is basically a futuristic ninja. He originally wanted to be an Among Us Imposter, the bad guy from a computer strategy game, but all the costumes for that looked quite lame.

The highlight of Alistair’s costume for him was the sword, he asked to play with it every day before Halloween but we had to keep it safe so it didn’t get broken (or break someone’s bone).

Alistair also chose to wear some winter boots to make his outfit look more authentic, unfortunately they were very heavy so he got tired almost right away and was ready to go home!

Ariana probably had the most elaborate costume, she wanted to be a fairy, but they didn’t have any super cool fairy costumes so we ordered everything separately, a pretty dress, fairy wings and wand, a pair of sparkly high-heeled shoes, and even a beautiful purple wig with blue highlights which she paired with a giant rainbow bow she already had.

For trunk-or-treat we put lots of sparkle make-up on Ariana, but Halloween night we were pressed for time so instead she just added some stickers to her face. Her wig also only lasted about half of trick-or-treating before coming off, but we got pictures of it so that’s all that counts.

Ariana, I must add, is absolutely obsessed with these sparkly shoes. She tried to wear them to school every day since they arrived, and wore them around the house when we refused her. Every single day she wore them until trunk or treat, and Arthas also enjoyed prancing around in them. Finally after trunk or treat we let her wear them to school, which she did more than once so far!

Arin decided that because he is in high school now and a full teenager that he was too old to go trick-or-treating. This of course broke my mommy heart, who has taken him every year even when he was a newborn. He said he wanted to hang out with friends and go to a Halloween party instead. I tried convincing him right up until the moment we left, but he insisted no, teenagers don’t go trick-or-treating in high school.

Well, as soon as we got out of the car we noticed not one, not two, but a million teenagers. There were roving gangs of teenagers out trick-or-treating. Some of them were in costumes and going to get candy, and others were all dressed in black and covered in shaving cream.

Apparently in our town, shaving cream battles are the thing that teenagers do (in addition to trick-or-treating), and so there were not only teens covered in white foam, but also lawns – presumably of those who were not home and therefore not giving out candy, earning them a ‘trick’.

Once we got home, Arin was finally ready to go out as his friends had just joined the fray. His friends asked him to be dropped off right back to the same exact spot where we had parked before, and I once again mentioned how he should have come with us. He wandered around for a while, hopefully not making a shaving cream mess, and then went back to one of the gang’s house for some cotton candy and soda.

Surprisingly, even though it was perfect weather and a gorgeous night, the little kids didn’t want to stay out very long. We left early, 5 or 5:30 and the neighborhood we drove to is just down the street. Even though we were so early there were already tons of people out, and some had run out of candy!

Alistair got tired first, maybe after the third house, and kept asking if we could go home yet. The houses were pretty close together as we were in a neighborhood, “the best” trick-or-treat spot in our small town. Ariana was happy to keep going though, so Alistair followed.

Since our town is only 1/3 populated during the off-season, a lot of places in town are vacant during the autumn and winter, so a lot of houses weren’t even occupied and that was a bit lame. The kids kept running up to houses with lights on that just had no one home. Luckily, this is the town’s ‘family’ neighborhood so a higher percentage of people live there year round than other areas of town.

Arthas was such a good boy, he walked the whole time and held Dada’s hand to go up to almost every house that Ariana did. After each one he would put his candy into one of Alistair or Ariana’s bags. He didn’t complain or act scared once, he was so brave and I think he had fun. I think he was just happy to be outside and hanging out with everyone.

So we ended up leaving before 7pm, and we spent maybe an hour and a half total on our Halloween adventure, maybe less. The kids were super satisfied and happy though, and we left just as dusk was falling. We didn’t even make it to full dark! Regardless, they got quite a lot of candy anyway and had all the fun they could handle.

What was a total surprise was how absolutely gorgeous the sunset was. It was still fully light when we parked and went to the first house or two, and then suddenly the entire sky was on fire! All the way through until dusk, the sunset put on the most amazing light show, definitely setting a perfect autumnal mood for All Hallow’s Eve!

Everyone in the town it seems was milling around the neighborhood we chose, which is several residential streets all connected together with nice houses and moderately sized yards. Even a small house in this town can go for close to a million, so I’m sure most of these homes, while they look ‘normal’ are in the 1-3 million dollar range!

There were several houses that were having parties in their yards or garages while the trick-or-treating was going down, making it almost like a street festival. It was sometimes hard to tell where the kids were supposed to go to get candy, and you could have easily just walked up and joined a house party if you were cheeky.

Once Alistair got tired, he started skipping a few houses, but Ariana and usually Arthas had no problem charging right up and getting their candy. I felt bad Alistair was so tired, and we agreed next year no matter what he would wear sneakers, not boots.

Alistair was so excited to finally get to use his sword, though. He got to use it for trunk or treat, but couldn’t bring it into school for Friday dress up day where they also couldn’t wear their face masks. I’m not sure anyone could tell what his costume was without his mask or sword, but he still had fun dressing up anyway, and his black mask looked like a ninja mask so I’m sure people got the idea.

I couldn’t resist doing a ‘Mars edit’ of Alistair’s Genji costume, not that Overwatch takes place in outer space, but hey, it could. You can see from the side that he’s missing the ‘hat’ portion of the costume, it’s a grey cap with a long ninja tail, which he somehow misplaced after school dress up day.

I’m surprised that Arthas didn’t complain or get tired at all, but he is such a trooper. He really never complains even when he is exhausted, he just quietly passes out. He had plenty of energy though, and held Dada’s hand the entire night while walking along.

Over the years I’ve been trick-or-treating in a lot of places, in several different states and I have to say tonight was one of the top three best nights of all time. The gorgeous weather, the festive and happy neighborhood, the fact that the kids were pleased to go home so quickly and that we got out early enough to enjoy the early evening and sunset… it was just a great night.

Since I’m about halfway through with the pictures I edited, I’ll end Part I of the 2021 Halloween Trick-or-Treating post here. Stay tuned for the second half of the evening, coming soon!

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