In my neighborhood the older kids come out later. At that point I'm done and just put all the leftover candy out in a bowl. I usually still have some left at nights end. About the time I just want it gone so I don't eat it all I get all the honest kids lol.

I did that once. They took the bowl, too.

I’ve left out a bowl in a quiet neighborhood and there was still a bunch left when I got home. Sure you run the risk of some kid grabbing it all, but either way the candy is gone.

You could also install a ring doorbell if you (or someone you have monitor it) are able to tell each kid or group to take one or two -- they will know they are being watched. Or buy those flavored tootsie rolls no one I know likes. But I do agree that the little ones will come early with parents and do the right thing and if you have a bowl dumper it will most likely be later. With Halloween falling midweek, I'm really wondering what kind of turnout we'll have. It rained last year and I am not sure we had a single one.

If one kid (or a rotten parent) takes the whole thing, you'd never know. But if your house were lit up, you'd still have people coming to your door, even if the bowl is empty. Were it me, I'd turn out the lights, give the neighbors the candy and ask them to be super generous to the trick-or-treaters and call it a night.

I'm always SUPER generous anyway-I give a big handful because I don't want it left over and it never fails that I always have candy left over before I'm ready to call it done. So the last kids at our door are always the luckiest-they get the bowl dumped into their bags.

This is funny.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4p07VFapPWs

I did it when DH was working nights and I had to walk with my kids, so no one to hand it out. It was fine and we even had some left when we got back.

Like you said, it's just candy.

I would do the bowl for all the reasons listed above (little kids come around first, it's just candy, etc).

We get about 100 trick or treaters each year and I just love seeing their little costumes. My favorite was a tiny toddler Santa with a big toy sack for treats. He just managed "Ho Ho Ho" when I opened the door.

I have a giant banana costume and it is very popular among the under five set when I open the door.

When I was a kid, one house in the neighborhood always had a bushel basket of slightly soft/shriveled apples on the porch with a note saying to take just one. I'm pretty sure they never ran out. ;^) I now own that house and not many kids bother to come up onto the porch. lol!

robo, I'm glad to know that others dress for answering the door. A giant banana sounds cool. :)

We used to do it when the kids were little, still do it occasionally if we have to be out. We have a long driveway, so if we cannot be here we put our life size cloth witch in a chair with a bowl of candy in her lap. We've never had leftover candy, but who's to say who took it? Most kids are good kids, I think.

when we are here (which is usually) we dress up a little too. Hub wears a cowboy getup with a bandanna over his face, I wear a prairie costume with cap and apron. It's fun.

neetsiepie, good point about having an empty bowl at the front door with all the lights on. I could put it closer to the sidewalk, but that seems more likely to be messed with.

Last year Halloween was on a Tuesday and the kids started at 6 and ended at 8, like someone threw a switch. Those are the exact hours I'm going to be out of the house. Ordinarily if I weren't home I wouldn't give it a thought, I just wouldn't participate. But since my re-awakening last year, I want to leave some token of good cheer.

While handing out treats and the local church's trunk or treat, I've seen kids reach in the bucket and take one before I have a chance to hand it to them, sometimes the little kids grab two or three, Mom or sibs remind them "Only one!" like chickadee's video. Also, I've had kids come by again for a treat - like I wouldn't remember them or their costumes! Even if I ask, "Weren't you just here?" they don't acknowledge me. They always get the treat though, no real biggie.

I've had the same experience many times, crl_

I guess it depends on your neighborhood. I'm always home, so I just give out candy. Hand fulls to the little ones and one or two to the baritones with the pillow case at 9PM. since they are stealing porch gliders and flower pots in some neighborhoods close, i don't think I would put out a bowl of candy. Last year we didn't have even one anyway.

I wish I had a porch big enough for a glider. My "front porch" is really a concrete pad. I wouldn't consider leaving a bowl of candy out if the neighborhood had sketchy activity or known ne'er do wells. It's a circle with very little vehicle or foot traffic except for residents, their friends, and delivery people. I'm not stupid and take necessary precautions. I think I'll end up deciding day-of. Although I'm sorely tempted to stop in a Halloween store and buy a Frankenstein mask to put in the window with a light shining up. I get scared thinking about it.

Bunny, Grandin Road has this great Halloween decoration in their catalog. It's a witch that taps on the window. I thought it was great and wanted it but it was pricey. Now I see that it is sold out!

Oh Bunny, I wish I could send you my Frankenstein bucket, it’s much better than just a mask because it looks like a whole head. I think it was meant as a bucket to carry for t or t. I don’t use it any longer but I’m sure it’s still in the closet.

I hung it/him very high, assuming good ol’ Frank was tall, and more to the side so it looked like he was peeking out the window. He was visible behind the sheer curtain so they could see him but not perfectly clearly, or they’d realize he didn’t have a neck or body. I’m sure it didn’t cool anyone over 10. It did fool at least one kid who didn’t recognize it as Frankenstein, she’s must have thought my real, very tall husband was just a little scary looking (Frank’s face is green with scars) and that he spent the evening peering out the window.

Why does it not surprise me that Robo owns a giant banana costume.

Halloween is the dumbest holiday ever, second only to New Year's Eve. ThxG is pretty lame too. Candy, champagne, carbs. Little else.

Hooray, we have no trick or treaters around here. Houses way too far apart, and not a few of them weekend places. People go into the small town green to do the door to door stuff.

I am easing my way into curmudgeondom.

hhireno, that's hilarious. I typically don't decorate, besides two mini pumpkins on my front step. I don't know that I could provide the right lighted doorway and have a spooky thing behind the window.

schoolhouse, I think my cats would have a field day with the tapping witch!

I am easing my way into curmudgeondom.

Come, join us, but stay off our lawns.

curmudgeondom

I'm trying to reform.

I must have jumped curmudgeon and passed right on over to bi-ch a long time ago.

We don’t ever have any out here in the country either, but we have entertained our grandkids and their friends with hayrides, food and s’mores in the fall. Lots more fun.

When we lived in town, and in a very nice neighborhood, we didn’t really worry about leaving a bowl of candy out early. It was the kids who came later from outside our neighborhood who were trouble. One year we left our house fairly late to take something somewhere. We left the remaining candy outside the front door, lights on. We weren’t gone long, and came home to a smashed pumpkin. Candy was gone of course and I guess the late-comers decided to ‘trick’. Never again.

Yes, we had a ball trick or treating when I was a kid. No candy? You get corn thrown on your porch - or soaped windows! Boy now days there is no way a person even a little kid could get away with that vandalism. Sometimes the big kids used parafin, not as easy to get off the windows. ugh.

Mom used to make a scarecrow out of old clothes, stuffed with leaves, and sit him on the porch. One year he disappeared, next morning he was found sitting up on the front porch of the church!

In my rural area, "trunk or treat" is becoming popular. Anyone that wants to participate gathers at a set time & place (ie: large field or parking lot) and distributes candy out of their car. The action is all contained in one area and no one goes door to door. If you want to participate you show up. Every year it's a bit more popular and is becoming a fun community social event. People decorate their cars & set up lawn chairs, coffee for the adults, etc.

They offer that at the elementary school. Way too efficient, when you think of how little walking there is and how much more candy you can score.

Waaay back when I was a radical health nut, I’d only hand out dried apricots and nuts all nicely tied in little cellophane bags. Kids stopped coming to our house. After I had a child of my own and started to loosen up a little, I give candy by the handfuls.

Nuts, In the past when we lived in a neighborhood with smaller lots and sidewalks, I would give out silver dollars. No sugar highs but made them a bit happier than dried apricots (which I would have loved tho)

I think the fun part is interacting with the T or T'ers. If I'm not going to be home I'd scrap the whole idea and just leave the house dark. I wish we had more kids coming to the door because I get such a kick out of it. Last year we had a total of six but I was thrilled anyway. In the afternoon our downtown merchants sponsor T or T for kids to go store to store in costume. Most of the merchants choose to participate as do the local PD and FD along with various civic groups. Volunteers handle the street crossings and such. DH and I park downtown to watch and just love it. The conversations you overhear are very entertaining and the costumes are great. (kids and adults alike) Then we come home and I get ready for the neighborhood kids. I always have plenty - just in case. I do have dried apricots in the cupboard but those are mine. All MINE!

Fori, you are bad. :p I don't want the stupid candy! Anything left over I give to our parish administrator and then eat it when I visit her office. I don't really like anything but Peppermint Patties which I have a horrible addiction to so I made sure not to buy any this year.

It's true; the interaction with the kids was what made it so fun last year. And coming a couple of weeks after the devastating fires made the joy and exuberance so magical. Everyone had been so scared and sad, and now they were shouting "Happy Halloween!!!" Best thing ever.

Mtn, no one ever walked here anyway. Very rural - houses are too far apart.

I've done it when I lived in a condo complex.

I believe from what neighbors said, the first small kids came with parents that watched what the kids took.

But it would all be gone with the first or second pack of kids by themselves.

I'm afraid the weather isn't going to co-operate for trick or treat in town this Saturday. Forecast calls for light rain all day I guess. I'll probably have to wait until Sat. morning to find out if it's canceled and/or re-scheduled. I called my 88yr.old aunt and told her to not go buy her candy because I don't want her sitting in the cold rain for two hours.

You know I've had those bags of candy for well over a week and just last night got into one. I think I did good this year.

"cancelled or rescheduled"? On Saturday. What? Halloween is on Wednesday. There is no before or after, no reschedule. Halloween is October 31. Period.

"cancelled or rescheduled"? On Saturday. What? Halloween is on Wednesday. There is no before or after, no reschedule. Halloween is October 31. Period.

Ha! I feel the same. This year, our district made Nov. 1 a student holiday with parent/teacher conferences. First time they've ever done that, and my kids appreciate the forethought!

Anything left over I give to our parish administrator and then eat it when I visit her office. I don't really like anything but Peppermint Patties

Bunny (can't I still call you Linelle?), we were separated at birth.

Ironic too, what you mentioned about how good it felt to get together as a community in celebration with happy/innocent children after the fires.

We had a very similar experience after 9/11. We lived 12 miles west of NYC, and DH and I both worked there; he in the building across from World Trade. We lost a neighbor 4 doors down. Terribly painful, scary and sad time.

A Halloween block party had been in the planning stages to occur on our lawn. We had distributed flyers, gotten permits, arranged for police and firetrucks for kids to clamber over. We were not sure if we should go ahead. We did.

It was a gorgeous sunny autumn day and we had a wonderful time. It bathed all of us in goodwill and hope. I tear up just remembering it. We did the same party every year for nearly 10 years after that.

Put out the candy, with the sign and the warning about a camera. It might work and if it doesn't, you will give some kid a cheap thrill for years to come. "One year, someone just left out a huge bowl, so I grabbed it, dumped it in my bag and just ran like hell!"

So Robo, if you dress as a giant banana, is Emmett going to be your little monkey?

Curious George! How cute. And Mr. Robo can be the man with the yellow hat. Excellent! Great, bpath!

OMG! The Man With The Yellow Hat!

Mtn, that’s a wonderful story about the parties on your lawn. And a funny way to look at the kid who takes all the candy.

You may call me whatever you wish. :)

"cancelled or rescheduled"? On Saturday.

Not cancel Halloween - perhaps cancel or reschedule trick or treat night. I suppose they choose a weekend (always Saturday it seems) because the kids have school the next day? I don't know.

My city does trick or treat night on the Friday night before Halloween. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember. I think some of the other nearby cities and townships also do that but some have it on the 31st. The city parade is always on a Sunday.

My neighborhood elementary school will parade around a few blocks today. They come up my street so I need to remember to get out of the driveway before the slow moving parade starts, or I’m trapped until it passes.

I'm gonna do it. I trust the the little ones with their parents will come first and at least get their 1-2 pieces before any single kid empties the bowl.

I had a class tonight until 7:30, and my husband is out of town, so I set out a bowl of candy with a sign to take two pieces. When I got home about 7:45 barely any candy had been taken.

But, it's drizzly out tonight, and three of the six houses on my cul-de-sac have their lights out, so I'm sure that lots of kids/parents just skipped going down our street.

I need some kids to come along and dump the entire bowl into their bags, so I'm not left with all of this delicious candy!

I also put out a bowl of candy with a sign to take 2 I checked it several times, making sure there was candy in there and only refilled it once. On my local Facebook page some were complaining that the candy and bowl were taken, leaving nothing for anyone else. My kid visitors apparently were very polite.

I was out from 5:30 to 8:30. Left the porch and garage lights on. Not one piece of candy left. Bowl and sign intact, where I left them. Everything neat and tidy. Cats nonchalant. Tomorrow I’ll get a rundown from the neighbor across the street. I ate one Twix today and didn’t want anything left. And that’s what happened.

We were out with Emmett for about 30 mins and left our candy bowl outside. Barely touched! In fact we only had about half as many trick or treaters this year (50 instead of 100).

He was a fox and I was a giant green crayon so we didn’t have a theme, but I like the monkey/banana idea!

I had 12 full size Reese's pumpkins ready for the kids. Our door bell rang from 6-7:15. We had just the right amount!! :( I wouldn't have minded ONE for me!! LOL. All our kids come with parents so I am pretty sure Bunny's plan would work for us. I love to see our neighborhood kids and their costumes so always answer my door! We had a big celebration with our students yesterday. I make Kettle korn for them. At the end of the day with the nice weather I panicked and brought some left overs home, just in case.

We had bunches and bunches of trick or treaters, well over 200. We had to turn our lights out at 8, because we ran out of candy. Fun evening.

Snatched this from Facebook.

Someone posted this on my Nextdoor website. They left the bowl out while they ate dinner. They came out and saw them and told them to take all they wanted, not knowing what had just transpired.

https://ring.com/share/6618740990517244947