Elliot Potvin, 2, tells his dad, Jon Potvin, which Halloween costume he likes Thursday at Spirit Halloween in Auburn. Potvin said he and his son will go trick-or-treating on Halloween in his Tucker Street neighborhood in Lewiston. Potvin agrees the number of children trick-or-treating is down. “My wife grew up in the same neighborhood, when hundreds of kids went out on Halloween,” he said. “Now, we might get 10. It’s kind of depressing.” Daryn Slover/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
LEWISTON — Based on how much Americans are spending on costumes, candy and decorations, Halloween is alive and well.
The National Retail Federation is forecasting this year’s Halloween spending nationally to be a near-record $8.8 billion. Shoppers will spend, on average, $86.27 on Halloween.
But traditions are changing.
In many neighborhoods, there is less knocking on doors, more organized celebrations. And a growing number of cautious parents do not allow their trick-or-treaters to knock on just any door.
That means that for many households with adults ready with candy and a lit pumpkin, Halloween has grown quieter. Almost lonely.
“In the past couple of years, it’s definitely been a lot lighter,” said Heidi Sawyer of Lewiston. “And it ended earlier. Last year, I called it a night at 7 p.m.” and turned off the outside light.
She lives in the Farwell Elementary School neighborhood where trick-or-treat traffic used to be nonstop.
Larry Pelletier, who lives in Auburn’s Walton School neighborhood, said he has also noticed the change.
When his family moved to Second Street in the 1980s, “we would see 50 to 80 kids,” he said.
During the past few Halloweens, the Pelletiers have had a dozen to 15 children knock on the door.
“We’ve had a lot fewer kids ever since the United New Auburn Association started its Halloween celebration,” Pelletier said.
Plus, when his wife closed her day care, the day care children and parents also stopped coming, he said.
Parent Erika Swenson of Minot is selective where her children trick or treat.
Jon Potvin and his son, Elliot, 2, shop for Halloween costumes Thursday at Spirit Halloween in Auburn. Potvin said he and his son will go trick-or-treating on Halloween in his Tucker Street neighborhood in Lewiston. Potvin agrees the number of children trick-or-treating is down. “My wife grew up in the same neighborhood, when hundreds of kids went out on Halloween,” he said. “Now, we might get 10. It’s kind of depressing.” Daryn Slover/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
“We visit people we know,” Swenson said, as she and her children shopped at the Spirit Halloween costume shop at Auburndale Plaza in Auburn.
Her daughters Rosie, 4, and Isla, 7, will participate in a local “trunk or treat,” a growing trend where parents drive to a municipal, school or community center parking lot and give out candy from their decorated motor vehicles.
That is different from how she did Halloween as a child.
“Oh my gosh,” Swenson said. “My parents would bring me to town and let me go.”
She would hit every house she could.
Coleen Elias of Litchfield said her children Ashton, 8, and Avery, 5, will trunk or treat at their local school.
“It feels safer and it’s quicker,” Elias said. “They do go to a few houses,” but not before their mother checks out the reputation of the neighborhoods on a local Facebook page, Litchfield Bulletin.
When she was a youngster, she lived in the country. She and other trick-or-treaters piled into the family van and their mother drove them into town.
“We jumped out and jumped back in,” Elias said. “We’d go everywhere.”
Auburn resident and retired educator Silver Moore-Leamon said she gets few if any trick-or-treaters, probably because parents are concerned about safety thanks in part to urban tales of razor blades in apples “and the press makes it seem like there might be a pedophile attached to every Butterfinger.”
Parents’ worries do make sense, said Moore-Leamon’s neighbor, Migdalia (Mindy) Mass. “We tell our children from Day One, ‘Don’t take candy from strangers.’ (But) what do we do on Halloween? We go to strangers’ houses and ask for candy!”
Debbie Cleveland, children’s librarian at the Auburn Public Library, children are excited about Halloween and what they are wearing for costumes.
“But parents don’t feel comfortable with the door-to-door trick anymore,” Cleveland said.
Instead, they are opting for Halloween events sponsored by organizations and nonprofits, such as the Auburn Recreation Department’s Halloween party where children celebrate and show off their costumes, Cleveland said.
Still, some neighborhoods continue to draw high numbers.
Lewiston’s Grove Street neighborhood attracts a couple hundred trick-or-treaters, said Joseph Philippon, whose family lives in the neighborhood.
Neighborhoods where Halloween enthusiasts live and do the holiday up big get big crowds. One example: Peter Geiger, who since 2002 gives out thousands of king-size candy bars and goes all out with elaborate decorations at his Brentwood Avenue home in Lewiston.
Last year, more than 2,100 trick-or-treaters showed up.
But in light of changing traditions, how should most residents prepare for Halloween, given the declining number of neighborhood trick-or-treaters?
Be ready with candy, veteran treat givers say. It is better to have a few leftovers than to run out.
As for leftover candy, there are two competing strategies:
“I make sure I buy candy I like,” Sawyer said.
Cleveland, however, thinks differently.
“I make sure I buy something I don’t like,” she said, “so I won’t eat it.”
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