Moving Halloween?

Started by BruceD1 • 9 replies • 1193 views

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BruceD1 (Georgia)
Posts: 59

Posted:

We’ve had a request to move Halloween from Wednesday, 10/31 to the last Saturday, 10/27 of the month. Has anyone moved the celebration of Halloween? How was it handled? Does this cause division among neighbors?

I think one problem is that since we are a new neighborhood which seems to get many people from the surrounding area. The Pool & Tennis center parking lot (located in the front of the neighborhood) is completely full of parked cars. So, we end up having many cars riding the streets of the neighborhood with many kids, 518 in a 274 home neighborhood.

JoeW1 (New York)
Posts: 728

Posted:

BruceD1 - You're not moving the holiday, just the date of celebration. The same as you would if it was a birthday if it fell mid-week. I don't think moving the date will cause a division, if anything you are trying to make things better. However, I'm curious how you will get the word out to surrounding homes outside of your community so traffic and parking are reduced. Luckily my community is gated so there is no thru traffic.

LindaC3 (Florida)
Posts: 526

Posted:

BruceD1...Our HOA has also rescheduled the celebration of halloween to Sat.the 27th...We are actually calling it " trunk and treat " and having it under the " boo tree".... We have 3 acre parcels so very hard for the kids to go door to door ,so we decided on a mutual space...We will have games, treats, and candy for kids of all ages..Should be a fun time indeed....Seeing how I drive a big red truck mine will be decorated and called truck and treat.....
We do not have outsiders that bring their kids here as we are so far out of town....with your situation maybe if you posted a sign at your front entry "notifying" the surrounding people that you will not be honoring trick and treaters on Wed but rather to have a safe controlled activity it has been rescheduled to Sat the 27th.....You have plenty of time to do so...Have fun and be safe................Lindac

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

BruceD1,
I know that the State that we lived in before, always had Trick or Treat on a Saturday afternoon between 2 and 5. The safety of the little kids is more important that offending some ghost or Goblin, that you moved their date. Some associations have a all out Costume party for the little ones at clubhouses or any common area that will hold their numbers. I think that some of the "big kids" come up with these issues of moving such a date.

BruceD1 (Georgia)
Posts: 59

Posted:

Thanks you guys! I really like the idea of having a trick or treat type party in our park for the young kids. We have 155 kids under the age of 6.

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Bruce:

I don't see why your neighborhood couldn't celebrate it on the 27th. I have actually lived in a city where trick or treating was moved a day because of something, I wanna say it was because Halloween fell on a Sunday and it was a religious area.

However, what are you going to do with the outsiders that come into your neighborhood trolling the streets for candy on the 31st? I would still be ready for that.

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

I wish ya'all would get settled on a date. I got my schedule to firm up and two trick or treat days would take some schedule adjustments. To date, I have penciled in Candy nites between the dates of 15 Oct to the 10th of Nov. Got my trailer ready to go and will set up camp at Walmarts. I hate to be picky, but could you make most of those treats, peanut butter fudge, I'm big on that. Please, please, please, no sour oranges ar bad apples or other old fruit. Take up to much space in my RV.
Last year I was able to sell 5 tons of suckers and hard candy to Big Lots.

Uncle Charlie

DwightT (Idaho)
Posts: 664

Posted:

A local town (Eagle, ID) tried to move Halloween a couple years ago because of the Sunday issue. It was a tremendous fiasco. People were up in arms on both sides of the religious fence and it left a lot of bad feelings all around. Some kids were disappointed at being turned away from homes on the evening that their parents took them out, while other kids just went out trick-or-treating on both days. If I remember correctly, after it was all over the Mayor stated that the attempt was a big mistake.

Unless you can get complete acceptance from all families involved (and when was the last time you managed to get everyone in your HOA to agree on anything?), trying to move TorT is likely to be a disappointment.

BryanG1 (Florida)
Posts: 43

Posted:

We're having a community Halloween party for the kids (4 to 12) on Oct. 27, but are leaving the 31st open for whatever families choose to do on that day.

RonaldW (South Carolina)
Posts: 901

Posted:

I don't think an HOA can specify the date or day of a holliday. You can have a party or other event on any day you wish, but there's no law that I can think of that would prevent people from knocking on other people's doors requesting treats. Would you fine someone for allowing their children to dress in costume and knock on doors? How would you identify them? What about outsiders? You can't fine them.

I don't know about other HOAs but ours has far more serious issues to deal with.

Ron
SC

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