It’s 7:30 p.m. on Halloween and I’ve only answered the door four times to dole out about 10 pieces of candy. My Newton Highlands neighborhood has never swarmed with trick-or-treaters, but this is a very disappointing turnout. Leftover candy is not a good thing in my house.
How’s Halloween traffic been elsewhere?
Just drove about 5 miles from my PM run/tennis spot and saw zero kids trick-or-treating. Nothing like the old days…
It’s awfully quiet here on Spring St but it usually is – it’s a tiny little side street. Even quieter than usual though.
My daughter’s now too old to be going out with dad on Halloween so I wasn’t able to see if my favorite neighborhood Halloween attraction is up and running this year.
We are near Crystal Lake and we’ve been inundated. We went through six bags of candy! The kids seems to travel in packs so it must be hit or miss.
As late as last year’s Halloween, we had over 100 kids come to the door. I just shut off the light and I don’t think we broke 50 this year.
I had more trick-or-treaters in Newton Centre than I’ve seen in years. At least 40 kids. All those years of handing out full sized candy bars finally paid off.
A trio of teenage boys knocked on our door trick or treating. No little kids. Three and 1/2 bags of candy left over. Sad.
We had none in West Newton. Zero. I even moved the cars out of the driveway.
We had a pile of kids – way more than in the past.
It sounds like everyone came to Prince Street. It was packed full. Hundreds of kids.
Very, very quiet on Elliot St in UF
Three groups of wee visitors came to our house. I didn’t get home until 6:30 so I missed two thirds of them.
We had a four-year-old Darth Vader at 8:45 p.m., after we’d turned out the lights. He got a lot of candy.
My son and I were trick or treating with a friend on Prince St. The scene there is like Disney World during February vacation. The Newton Police block off the streets in the neighborhood and hundreds of people pack the sidewalks and street. Really intense with a live band, movies projected on the sides of homes, haunted house, residents set up on their porches with tons of candy, fresh popcorn, etc. It’s a wild scene.
We saw people we knew from various neighborhoods including Newton Highlands. However, when we came back to the Highlands we did see plenty of people out in our area. But I’m sure we lose some people to Prince St.
Pretty good turnout on Central Ave in Newtonville, I got home late (6:30) so I know I missed a bunch but likely 30+ came by. Seems about the same as last year, not as many older kids this time, a good mix of young ones and middle school folks.
I’m in the Highlands and we only had 3 groups. Luckily one group was a family of 6 kids. We used to get a lot of kids early because of people coming from the trick or treating at the shops but Tonight nothing. Even left the bowl out at the end of night and it did not appear to be touched. My kids brought home significant amount of candy so we now have way too much. Will be donating what I can.
What do you expect on a Monday night?
We have had more kids in the past, but I think alot of the kids have aged out of TOT in my hood. That being said, we had 75-100 kids – and only two did NOT wear a costume.
Many families go to The Street or another organized place, and as kids get older – families head to Prince Street!
From what I hear, and as Steve said, skads of parents take their kids to Prince Street in Newton Center.
Newton Highlands behind Lincoln Street around Sumner and Comm Ave and on Lincoln Street itself. Newtonville in the neighborhoods between Cabot and Washington Street including Washington Park.
Do kids around here still trick or treat in their neiborhoods?
I am out of the way for parents with little ones. Living with a teen in the house, I do get the older crowd which is still fun but I miss seeing the little ones. Maybe I will dress up and hang out on Prince Street next year. I’ll carry candy for the kids. Wouldn’t be creepy at all.
I lost count, but we had plenty of trick-or-treaters in Waban, beginning at 6:20 and ending around 8:30. Maybe as many as 75!
Since Newton Highlands kids don’t have their own elementary school, their circle of friends is often centered in other neighborhood like Waban, which is why we often get invited to trick or treat there.
The area between Dedham and Parker streets was pretty busy last night, based on the traffic we had at our house. I’m guessing about 40-50 kids, many in groups. Doorbell probably rang a dozen times. Plenty of Dum-Dums left over, but the Reeses depleted.
Our stretch of Albemarle very quiet this year; in prior years, high traffic, kids of all ages. It’s a great street for trick-or-treating – houses close together and close to the sidewalk for those parents watching. Come back next year! For now I’ll just have to eat all the Smarties til my head explodes.
I almost fell over when I read that headline. We live in Newton Centre and had at least 80 kids. It didn’t slow down until about 8:30 pm.
Upper Falls here. Went through three bags of candy and could have used at least one more (sorry kids!).
We live near the Albemarle section of Newtonville, and on our street we’ve seen the trick-or-treat traffic decrease just about every year for the past decade. Last night, we had a total of 6 kids come, and 4 of them were our downstairs neighbors’ kids plus their friends. Some years, we’ve noticed bands of kids occasionally passing up and down our street, but bypassing our house (even though we have all manner of lights on) — might be because our front stairs look kind of imposing, or we hadn’t put up any Halloween decorations, or simply because they didn’t know us. I swear, sometimes we’ve actually called out to get ’em to stop. But this year, I saw maybe two or three very small groups, and that was it.
It’s not like we cry ourselves to sleep over it, but we’ve been kind of disappointed by this trend. Our neighborhood used to be really alive on Halloween, with what seemed to be swarms of kids (including our own) trick-or-treating. Some of the change may be that we don’t have as many school-age families on the block, but there seem to be other factors.
Newton Centre-we had over 300 kids! and they were sweet, polite, funny and great costumes.