The decline of Halloween.

[W00K #17]

Maybe it's because I live in a different area now, but it seems like it's dead.

As a kid it seemed like there were thousands of us out an hour or 2 after school let out, walking the sidewalks to every single house with a light on. As a young kid my parents would take us, we had the classic plastic pumpkin pale to hold the candy. By the time I was 8 or 9 everybody's parents let us all go out by ourselves in groups, we had pillow cases instead of the pumpkin pales, always had the pillow case full by the end of the night.

By the time I was in middle/highschool I stayed at home and loved that now I was getting to hand the candy out to the younger kids while I still wore a costume and we had bonfire going in the portable fire pit in the driveway.

It was a beautiful glorious day where everyone would participate in something cultural that seemed to cross all religions and creeds.

I didn't buy any candy this year or put up any decorations, didn't matter because I haven't seen a single trick or treater here since the covid lockdowns. Very depressing.

Wonder if things are different now because the most advanced handheld electronic device any of us were lucky enough to own back then was a Gameboy Color.

Earlier in the day at work though I went to my usual daily stop in a small town and there were hundreds and hundreds of people around on main street, probably a quarter of that entire town was out costumed up and taking their kids to get candy. It was honestly beautiful and so heartwarming to see. A bunch of kids gave me the sign to pull on my trucks horn and I did every time, while rolling down the window and shouting Happy Halloween just before.

 

[Staticness]

All of you are missing the symptoms for the cause: Big Dick Randy. Big Dick Randy has overtaken Halloween and will take all the booty and candy. Far wiser to simply stay home.

Real talk, Rona lockdowns happened. That did more to atomize neighborhoods than a million imported curryniggers, then they went ahead and did that too.

 

[mr_negativity]

No one has stated one of the major reasons: your neighbors with kids are greedy fucks who take their children to the rich neighborhoods in hope of getting more candy, leaving their own neighborhood empty of both trick-or-treaters and parents to hand out candy.

It's been true in my area for past 20 years. The children from the nearby black ghetto are shipped by their parents to the wealthy white suburban neighborhood for trick or treat. That part of town is in the top 5% of the most dangerous small towns in the USA. If you are a parent, and don't want to see your 8 year old shot knocking on the door of the house of some random drug den taking the kids to a safe place to trick or treat actually demonstrates a level of parental care and concern not typical of that demographic, so everyone lets it slide.

 

[Poppavalyim Andropoff]

What is causing this?

the rise of halloween in other countries

 

[Absurdist Laughter]

I've noticed the decline as well, the Sprint to October is my busiest time of year. I've noticed a decline in Holiday spending across the board but prior to that, at least, the haunted house industry was booming. Then Covid hit and interrupted everything for two long years. That industry hasn't recovered. It's also harder to get actors because during those two years, a mass amount of Americans got a taste of what it is like to be out of the "rat race"; no one likes to beat themselves up or potentially get beaten by a pitbull of a wannabe thug who got scared.

 

[Cheetahman]

Nobody came this year because it was raining and cold. The west has fallen.

 

[DatBepisTho]

I feel bad for contributing to the death of Halloween by not handing out candy or whole ass treat-bags w/ a soda, but the kids in this neighborhood deserve absolutely nothing.

Eta- my neighborhood is mixed race and it's sad the feral brown kids aren't the ones that are ruining shit for everyone, for once.

 

[TwoDollarPeePeePooPoo]

1) Nobody here is having kids
2) The people who do have kids are brown

Trick or treating is dead here. The very same neighborhood where I grew up and was loaded with candy is no longer a Halloween paradise.

 

[█████████]

It's because there's more browns.

And I'm not sure how to put it into words, but there's also a weird psychological effect that's happening to kids as the result of social media like Tiktok and getting smartphones in elementary school. Kids want to become adults faster now, which I know has always been a thing, but it's way more prominent now. I've seen skits making fun of little Tiktok kids that go to makeup stores and ask for like 40 different products, some of which being anti-aging. And what effects of aging is a fucking 12-year-old trying to prevent? Kids also don't ask for toys anymore, they want whatever the latest trend is, they ask for Stanley Cups (when those were relevant) or the newest iPhone. So it's possible maybe kids are abandoning trick-or-treating at earlier ages.

 

[HowlingChasm]

Participated as a vendor in a trunk or treat at a local Walmart and had to run into the store 3 times to restock on candy. Actual trick or treating itself on Halloween was mid, with more houses just leaving a “take one” bowl at the door(white neighborhood).
Regardless, the tradition is alive in our household and we try to make it as magical as we can for the small kids in the family. Even drove them out to a cemetery at sundown and told them the clowns come out of the woods at dark until they begged me screaming to leave. Personally carved 3 pumpkins.

 

[DatBepisTho]

Participated as a vendor in a trunk or treat at a local Walmart and had to run into the store 3 times to restock on candy. Actual trick or treating itself on Halloween was mid, with more houses just leaving a “take one” bowl at the door(white neighborhood).
Regardless, the tradition is alive in our household and we try to make it as magical as we can for the small kids in the family. Even drove them out to a cemetery at sundown and told them the clowns come out of the woods at dark until they begged me screaming to leave. Personally carved 3 pumpkins.

The clowns in the woods, holy shit that takes me back.

Stay winning, man.

 

[George Lucas]

I think it depends on location. I got a decent amount. If you live in an older (demographics) neighborhood where there aren’t many kids you won’t get many.

Aside from the Trunk or Treats, neighbors who just leave a bowl out and fuck off are annoying to me. You can’t sit your ass down for one night to be with your community? As a kid I would not be very satisfied with dressing up in a cool costume just to have a bunch of locked doors and open candy bowls to visit.

 

[Dagoth AMOGUS]

Kids have more fun inside these days.

Security guard for a very wealthy international boarding school once told me about his job. I asked him if it was stressful, since like, a lot of the kids were connected to wealthy families and even governments.

He said not really because when they’re not in class or at sports, they’re simply inside watching tv and playing video games. Over the years, he has noticed less and less of them playing outside because the quality of streaming and gaming has simply gone up in a steady climb.

I guess it’s a good thing kids are inside safe and warm?

 

[█████████]

Kids have more fun inside these days.

Security guard for a very wealthy international boarding school once told me about his job. I asked him if it was stressful, since like, a lot of the kids were connected to wealthy families and even governments.

He said not really because when they’re not in class or at sports, they’re simply inside watching tv and playing video games. Over the years, he has noticed less and less of them playing outside because the quality of streaming and gaming has simply gone up in a steady climb.

I guess it’s a good thing kids are inside safe and warm?

Lack of Vitamin D isn't good for you. But I think there's more contributing factors to people staying inside more now, like the fact that the amount of third spaces are dwindling (especially with churches declining in popularity and things like malls dying) and going outside is becoming more and more dangerous, the more browns/blacks are in an area.

 

[Dagoth AMOGUS]

Lack of Vitamin D isn't good for you. But I think there's more contributing factors to people staying inside more now, like the fact that the amount of third spaces are dwindling (especially with churches declining in popularity and things like malls dying) and going outside is becoming more and more dangerous, the more browns/blacks are in an area.

I didn’t want to go straight for the jugular but yeah. The reason public places, particularly malls, are dying is because of blacks.

Just seems like a lazy answer, but Occam’s Razor says the simplest answer is often best

 

[HowlingChasm]

I didn’t want to go straight for the jugular but yeah. The reason public places, particularly malls, are dying is because of blacks.

Just seems like a lazy answer, but Occam’s Razor says the simplest answer is often best

There’s a city south of us that decorates their town square into a light show every Christmas season and we decided to never go again after last year when in every shadow was a childless male nigger loitering smoking weed. Just the thought that my child has to know what weed smells like makes me want to light ovens. It cannot be stressed enough that they’re antithetical to civilization and the sole reason we can’t have nice things. There is no stranger danger in Halloween, the danger is roaming packs of “youths” not even in costume raiding homes with dollar general bags.

 

[GlupShitto]

I think a lot of people are waking up to the demonic nature of the holiday. This year after Charlie's assassination, I woke up to the truth. I think next year I'm going to pass out Bibles to those who are lost and still participating.

 

[█████████]

I think a lot of people are waking up to the demonic nature of the holiday. This year after Charlie's assassination, I woke up to the truth. I think next year I'm going to pass out Bibles to those who are lost and still participating.

There's so many reborn-again Christian fundamentalists on this site that I can't tell if you're being serious or not.

 

[GlupShitto]

There's so many reborn-again Christian fundamentalists on this site that I can't tell if you're being serious or not.

The bible thing was a joke because I remember getting one as a kid, but I do genuinely think something is spiritually corrupt about Halloween and I decided to not celebrate this year and won't in the future.

Here's what Charlie had to say on the matter. I think he made a good point and his martyrdom has led to his message being spread to all ears. https://youtube.com/shorts/u_TAFVJ4CS0

 

[█████████]

The bible thing was a joke because I remember getting one as a kid, but I do genuinely think something is spiritually corrupt about Halloween and I decided to not celebrate this year and won't in the future.

Here's what Charlie had to say on the matter. I think he made a good point and his martyrdom has led to his message being spread to all ears. https://youtube.com/shorts/u_TAFVJ4CS0

I was in a religious school for some of my K-12 years, and they taught us to dress up as "good guys" for Halloween, instead of anything demonic or evil. And we had a local church trunk-or-treat. I think the "Halloween is EVIL" mentality is a bit extreme, but I'm not a member of any organized religion personally. I don't think Halloween is any more demonically-charged or whatever than a holiday like St. Patrick's Day which is all about drinking. It is true that some Halloween traditions originated with Pagan practices, but so did a lot of other modern-day Christian traditions, like Christmas.