It’s been decades since South Milwaukee had trick-or-treating on Halloween night — until Wednesday.
So, what do you think? How did it go? Did you see more kids than usual? Less? Did you encounter any problems?
Police reported no incident calls related to trick-or-treating this evening, so that’s good.
My experience was great: There were lots of kids out and about, along with mine, in my neighborhood, and we had more than 70 people come by the house for candy (a record, my wife reports).
Everyone I spoke with tonight supported the move from weekend afternoon trick-or-treating to Halloween night.
But, what say you? Post your comments below!
South Milwaukee Blog 
What a great night! Everyone was in great spirits and having a blast. We had far more kids than in the past and we loved it. I hope we can do this again next year!
Fantastic! We had more trick-or-treaters than all previous Halloweens combined in the 10 years we’ve lived here. Kids started arriving shortly after 5:30 p.m. and the last group rang our doorbell at 7:28 p.m. Our thanks to the Common Council for putting trick-or-treating on Halloween — and in the evening. It was a major success!
P.S. The kids were upbeat, polite and looked so cute in their costumes.
I think it went great & yes it did seem like there were more kids then in the past. I totally support the switch 🙂
Great comments! We too had more trick-or-treaters at our house then ever. The kids were cute and even the parents seemed more into it. Glad everyone was safe and enjoyed themselves.
I can’t disagree with any of the previous comments: spirits were high and we had more trick or treaters than in years past. It was crazy trying to get homework done with school age kids, get them fed dinner, and dressed in their costumes after working until 5:00. I was the candy doler at home. My husband took the kids out and about. I was told that streets off of College were lined with parked cars. That means that we got a lot of people from other communities, but I didn’t see several neighborhood kids that I expected to see. Does that deem trick or treat a success? (We do go in other communities with friends who live there.) Nighttime time trick or treating? YES! Halloween trick or treating? I’m not sold.
Ummm…. All these comments about how great it was due to more trick-or-treaters – not sure what neighborhoods you are in, but the counts definitely did NOT match the neighborhood make up. This statement is being made based on two observations: 1) a simple count of the families with kids in the surrounding block or two. 2) The number of mini-vans pulling into the neighborhood. So many other communities had theirs on the weekend, it sure looked like we were getting non-neighbors from all over.
By the way, when the change was discussed previously, there was always talk about doing it in the dark. I don’t know about the rest of you, but it sure seemed to me to be “front-loaded” – implying that the majority were out while it was still light out anyway.
Bedtime wasn’t as big a problem as I anticipated although we’ll find out the true test when I speak to some teachers at pick up this afternoon. We did not have nearly as many TOTers and many houses on our usual path were dark (‘not a problem for me-less candy to get rid of at work-but disappointing for the kids). There were a lot more too old to be TOT ing “kids” I very much enjoy seeing all the costumes—‘not this year, couldn’t see much in the dark! 😦 I absolutely don’t support this and won’t be participating next year. We’ll take our kids to TOT at the zoo or museum and skip this nonsense.
Eric, I do think there were many more children from other cities. In fact, a mom commented that she and her family went out on Sunday in their Cudahy community. We had many cars parked on our street and the volume of children was probably triple what we typically see. That being said, I don’t mind handing out candy to children that don’t reside in my neighborhood. It’s a fun night for all – even those who hand out candy and are able to enjoy looking at fun costumes. The kids and parents were extremely polite. Initially, I wasn’t sure a 5:30 start time would work due to people just returning from their jobs, but I think for me, it worked out fine. Thanks for asking for our opinions!
We definitely had more kids than in the past, but as SM Guy and Working Parents pointed out, they weren’t the kids we know from our neighborhood. After about 6:30 it slowed down, as our street isn’t very well lit, and the “kids” we got at that point were mainly young teenagers without costumes. My son and his friend enjoyed it, but I don’t envy their teacher today.
I believe we had around the same amount of trick-or-treaters as years past. I think it was a great idea to move it to nighttime vs. afternoon – however, I think it should be the Saturday or Sunday before Halloween vs. on Halloween night (like some other neighborhoods in SM do). As a parent who normally works until 5:15pm, my husband and I both had to get out of work early (an inconvenience) to make it home and as my kids are a little older, they both had extracurricular activities planned for that night. My daughter didn’t get to partake at all in the Wed. night trick or treating due to a basketball tournament and my son had to cut it short to make it to basketball practice. They were both sad about not being able to participate to “the fullest”.
I also noticed many unfamiliar faces and started to suspect “out of towners” so I started up a couple of conversations to find out more. The people I spoke with were from the nearby apartment complexes that don’t typically get much tenant participation. I’m sure there were some people that took advantage of the alternate night as a second night of tick or treating for their kids. However, I can’t speak highly enough for how polite and friendly everyone was and most of the groups had parents with them.
I realize that the timing was not ideal for everyone but honestly, no time will ever make everyone happy. It’s a great American tradition and if you asked your boss if you could leave 30 minutes early, I’m sure most would oblige. I also suspect the after school sports will work this into their schedule for the appropriate age groups and teachers will let up on the homework.
I say stick with this new on-Halloween date. In the future we will look back on all those years we did trick-or-treating on a Sunday afternoon and say “what the heck was that all about?!?”
It was a great family night out and I hope it is a tradition that will continue and even spread to our neighboring communities.
I agree, no time is going to work for all but a work/ school night is so inconvenient! IMHO extracurriculars and homework are priority over TOT. Don’t know what kind of job you have but neither my husband or I can just take off early for any reason except a sick child!
I thought it was pretty cool. I’ve owned my home in SM for 5 years, and literally never had more than 20 kids come by for trick-or-treat. This time I ran out of candy and had to tap into my girlfriend’s Dove chocolates (which went over as well as one could hope). There were so many families out together in groups. It was good to see people out spending time as a family. I honestly never saw that here previously. I look forward to having kids someday and participating from that angle. This year it reminded me of trick-or-treating when I was younger. I totally support the change in day and time.
Trick or Treat an nght and on Halloween was very exciting until we were out there! We went a little latter and it seemed like no-one had thier lights on or were outside handing out candy. The kids were bummed out big time!!!! We told them we would buy some candy for them to share this weekend. I told them that a lot of people are stressed out with working, school, the storm and then the presidential campaign!! I hope it will get better and stay on Halloween night they also could start it an hour earlier!!
Looks like overall it was a success for most! We too have never seen as many trick or treaters. I’ve lived in the community for over 15 years. This was definitely the first time I ever ran out of candy, but I had a blast! Loved it on Halloween Night! Next year I’ll have more candy ready.
LOVED IT! I have lived here my whole life and we have never had night time trick or treating. It was so very cool, so what we had some visitors, some were grandkids of residents, some were from nearby apartment complexes. Some were probably from the Blakewood neighborhood that still had saturday night before trick or treating. Many of us that have kids can honestly say that we have visited friends or families trick or treats with our kids to make a social event out of it.
It was a great cheap and clean fun. As far as extra curriculars, adjustment takes time. Most coaches and directors understand and will excuse kids from the extras. It is a requirement of those extras to understand that family and homework take precedence. I had to take off of work, so be it, it was so worth it.
Perhaps we can work on the whole city celebrating together. Looking forward to next year.
I think the positive comments about this topic should be taken with a grain of salt. First…many are anonymous so who knows who is writing them (Yes I am that cynical) I think if you would like to get the gist on how people feel about the date change you should ask the city clerk. Ask him how many emails came in from upset citizens after the date was changed. I know they kept track. I’m actually surprised if you couldn’t answer that question off the top of our head…Erik. It was a stupid idea…IMO…for parents who work and for the obvious safety reasons. Weekend trick-or-treating worked just fine and there was no reason to change it. mwalsh9899@yahoo.com
P.S. Again…Erik…not everyone lives in a neighborhood like you. You are the minority when it comes to the kind of neighborhood you live in. Most live in heavily populated areas where there are a lot of streets to cross and a lot of traffic.
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