Trick or Treat

[mjrocks98.livejournal.com]

What time will the kids be out trick or treating?  I can't find it on the city's website.  Does Somerville not have set hours for trick or treat? 

Comments

Great question!

[anu3bis.livejournal.com]

I'm taking my 3-year-old out for his very first trick or treating, and any info on good streets or practices would be welcome. I'm used to the NJ suburbs, where you walked around the development at night and all the porch lights were on, ready for kids.

The techie in me...

[anu3bis.livejournal.com]

...says we need a wireless app that tells your smartphone what houses are participating. If it does well, you could expand it to Christmas caroling.

[jadelennox]

most people probably just, you know, trick-or-treat. Actually, these days nobody does trick-or-treat, except to the houses where they specifically know the parents. But the general rule is, a porch light on, Candy. No porch light on, no candy.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

That's about right. Participation varies a lot by neighborhood. There are a few magnet neighborhoods where lots of kids go because they know it will be a scene - the nice part about that is that its nice and safe, the cops even close down the street sometime. Springfield St. is (or recently was) like that.

I'll be taking the kids out around 6:30.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Actually, these days nobody does trick-or-treat, except to the houses where they specifically know the parents.

happily not true! i've gotten random kids and parents hitting up my house for candy.

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

Some friends and I tend to set up in our driveway and hand out stuff. It's slightly unfortunate that a bunch of the folks coming down the street stop and turn around before they get to the end.

[findingthegirl.livejournal.com]

I called 311 about specific times this evening and their response was that Somerville doesn't have set hours.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

I disagree. I'm planning to take my kid to anyone with a porch light, and i will tell them that it's OK to eat candy from strangers. Most of the parents I know are going to do the same. There's usually good trick-or-treating in the Liberty/Baystate/Lowden/Willow/Josephine area.

And an added PSA...If you want trick-or-treaters, leave your porch light on, and maybe a sign on the door. If you want us to stay away, leave the porch light off. It's very confusing with the 2 & 3 family houses...

[jadelennox]

isn't that exactly what I said about porch lights? "But the general rule is, a porch light on, Candy. No porch light on, no candy." Or are you saying something else?

I love parents who take their kids to anyone with a porch light. I have found that when I stand on my street, I will see parents walk right past our porch which has a porch light and is clearly occupied, and only go to the couple of houses where they know people. It makes me very sad, because I like giving out candy.

[antimony.livejournal.com]

The community should have a tag for this question -- it gets asked every year. Apparently, most places around here don't have set times, Somerville included.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Me, too! But then, I live near Springfield, which is indeed Halloween Central for Somerville.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

Seems he was objecting to this part: "Actually, these days nobody does trick-or-treat, except to the houses where they specifically know the parents." We happily trick-or-treat as far and wide as we can walk.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

Sorry, my post didn't show up in the spot I thought it would. I was disagreeing with the statement that people only trick-or-treat at places they know. We go to every house that looks like they want visitors.

I still go by the "porch light" rule, but it's very confusing with multi-family houses...just becuase the light is on doesn't mean eveyone in the house wants kids at their door. And I still don't know what to do with the houses that don't have a porch light, but do have a light on inside a shared foyer. A Halloween decoration or a note on the door just reinforces that you welcome visitors.

[mjrocks98.livejournal.com]

I added the "holidays" tag

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Where does have set hours? I've never lived anywhere that does.

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

We haven't had significant numbers here in about 15 years maybe a little more? Seems like the closer you get to Tufts the less kids you have in your neighborhood.

Dreading Halloween this year since the 100 plus college students I have on my street will use it as excuse to throw even larger parties than they already do.

[mjrocks98.livejournal.com]

Everywhere I've lived before coming to MA has had set hours (PA, OH, WV, MD, VA, NJ). Each town set their own hours. When I was little it was 7-9 & when I hit middle school they changed to 4-6 so there was more daylight. I think most places outside of New England have set hours for several reasons - easier for police to ensure safety of kids & have more crossing guards out, better for people passing out candy so you are not dealing with it all night, plus alot of communities have parades & like to either trick or treat right before or right after their parade.

[turil.livejournal.com]

People normally start at about 4:30 or 5 with the little kids, and then kids come in dribs and drabs all night long until about 9 or 9:30. IF you are in a neighborhood with kids.

[findingthegirl.livejournal.com]

I was told by a friend that Somerville usually had set hours. This is my first year bringing a kid out on Halloween and I wanted to cover all my bases.

[blunderblunder.livejournal.com]

i lived in northern NJ most of my life and nevvvver heard of this as a practice.

Re: The techie in me...

[siderea]

Yes! War caroling!

Re: The techie in me...

[anu3bis.livejournal.com]

bwahahahahaha!

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

I tried for two years, light on and various other things to entice, but no one came, so I gave up.

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

NH totally has set hours and days, and it's frequently not on the 31st.

[no1onthecorner.livejournal.com]

I grew up in Missouri and had never heard of having set hours until I was living here and a friend from New Hampshire mentioned it.

[kalimba21.livejournal.com]

For anyone who thinks trick or treating is dead, by all means check out walnut street between highland and union sq.

[ron_newman]

I think the answer is either "until the kids get tired" or "until residents get tired of answering the door".

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

Chelmsford, MA has set hours. I think the practice is ridiculous.

[goodkittieavril.livejournal.com]

Agreed

[gosling.livejournal.com]

Highland Road and especially Lexington Ave are *full* of kids, and pretty much everyone is handing out candy. The streets around them have a fair number too. (We live a couple of blocks from there and we get a bunch of kids too, although not nearly as many.) I have friends on Lexington Ave.; there was actually some discussion of closing the street for the evening of Halloween, because it gets so crowded that folks actually spill off the sidewalk into the street. It basically feels like a giant block party where you don't have to even live around there to be invited. I always start at dusk and take my son, now almost five years old, down Highland and then to Lexington Ave. (We try to go all the way up and down Lexington Ave., and every year so far it takes the whole evening.)

[gosling.livejournal.com]

Note: Highland Road is the two block long street by the bike path. (It is not Highland Ave., which is the extremely long main street.)

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I know in at least a couple rentals we've had, there was no porch light to leave on!

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

MD did NOT when I was growing up there, and did not right before I left there in 1997.

At least, not rockville.

[anyee.livejournal.com]

Were you serious when you wrote this post? Are any of these statements actually under contention?

YES if you're closer to a college, you'll have fewer trick or treaters, since in the last 15 years, fewer people in college have small children!

YES if you live near a school, there will be party-happy college kids.

Wow, if you don't like it, Somerville is a big area. Move.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Cleveland Heights had strictly enforced hours of 6:00 to 8:00 PM when I was little. After 8:00 PM the cops would start telling people to go home.

Also, different suburbs had different trick-or-treat nights. Some on October 30, some on October 31, some on November 1. If you were insanely lucky, your parents would drive you to the different suburbs on all three nights for maximized candy acquisition. One year I got an entire pillowcase full. :-)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I second Lexington Ave! I used to live there. It's Halloween Central. One year my landlord and I gave out 14 bags of candy. At 10:00 PM they were still coming and we were out of candy so I made popcorn and let them take handfuls.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

We live down the street from Tufts, with many Tufts students renting apartments on our street, and we have trick or treaters every year - not hundreds of kids or anything, but most of the kids who live around our street.

Also, our Tufts student neighbors are sometimes out in costume on their porches with bowls of candy to distribute, and generally seem to gush over the idea of kids in costume coming to their door.

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

Wow - it must suck to be you

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

Riddle me this aynee, what was Tufts enrollment in 1969? See the reason I ask is, that’s when I moved to this area so that gives me something you clearly don’t have, perspective. Do you really think the area next to Tufts was always loaded with hundreds of college students almost all of whom act like drunken assholes with no respect for others property or neighborhood? As Tufts grew and expanded their enrollment expanded and moved off campus flooding the neighborhood with entire houses filled with drunken assholes.

Come to think it anyee are you one of those 100+ drunken assholes that was removed from a house party on my street last night? How about the drunken asshole that ran threw my yard falling into my pool? Maybe you are the drunken asshole that fell asleep on my lawn furniture in my backyard a few weeks ago?

You’re right anyee, I don’t know you so maybe I can’t say you’re a drunk, but I definitely know you’re an asshole.

[anyee.livejournal.com]

Considering I don't even live in the area, and merely keep up with things there due to friends in the square, it's unlikely that I would get near your bourgeois paradise.

I hear there's a two-for-one barbed wire sale at Home Depot. Perhaps you should avail yourself of it? That would solve your drunk problems right quick. Or, you know, move.

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

Why should I move, they're the assholes.

[sunshineyellow.livejournal.com]

Most of the growth in the school since 1976 has been in the graduate schools. The number of drunk undergrads has probably been proportionally the same since 1852. Get over it.

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

No it hasn't total enrollment is listed currently at about 8500 (not including the medical school) but when a relative of mine graduated in 89 it was about 5500. I'm guessing you you were one the drunken assholes to sunshine?

[sunshineyellow.livejournal.com]

http://www.tufts.edu/home/get_to_know_tufts/

There are only 5000 undergraduates at Tufts. I am actually a grad student and managed to stay drunk inside my own house. However, one of my pet peeves is people who decide to live next to a college and then get mad at all the *gasp* college students around, especially when the college has been there for a good century and a half, so it's not like it's a surprise.

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

Another douchebag that thinks if you live next a college then you’re the asshole, since when you purchased the property it had to be just like this. Your right sweetheart if I purchased the house over the last 10-15 years and I expected a quiet neighborhood I would be delusional, but since it wasn’t always like this then the people that made it this way are in the ones that ruined the neighborhood. Why should I move when I’m not causing any trouble?

ssshhhhhh.........

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

......we cannot accomodate more trick or treaters on Lexington Ave.! Please don't advertise us. I have given out as many as 20 bags of candy to 200+ trick or treaters. This year one of my neighbors has estimated at least 400.

north end of cedar st = dead

[arakasi.livejournal.com]

We sat out on the porch with a bowl of candy from 5 to 7 pm, had one trick-or-treater. We were forced to stop passersby and ask them to please take candy from us. :(

Re: ssshhhhhh.........

[totient]

Oh pish. I love getting so many trick-or-treaters (325 this year) and don't mind spending the money on candy. The only downside is that if I overbuy by 25%, that's 5 pounds of leftover candy that's probably going on my waistline.

Recently, by the way, Lexington has mostly been a 6pm-8pm affair. Not that we mind kids who ring the doorbell at 9:30, but by then it's only a few houses on the street participating.

(another Lexington Ave resident)