Boo to shoo: Halloween a mixed bag in pandemic
NEW YORK — Roving grown-ups tossing candy at kids waiting on lawns. Drive-thru Halloween haunts. Yard parties instead of block parties and parades. Wider paths through corn mazes.
The family holiday so many look forward to each year is going to look different in the pandemic as parents and the people who provide Halloween fun navigate multiple new restrictions and safety concerns.
Some were looking extra-forward to Halloween this year because it falls on a Saturday, with a monthly blue moon to boot.
Decisions are outstanding in many areas on whether to allow kids to go door to door or car trunk to car trunk in parking lots in search of candy.
Other events have been canceled or changed, from California’s Half Moon Bay to New York’s legendary Sleepy Hollow — and points in between.
On a typical Halloween along Clark Avenue in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves, neighbors go all out to decorate their houses and yards with spooky skeletons, tombstones and jacko’-lanterns as up to 1,000 people pack the blockedoff street to carry on an old tradition: Tell a joke, get a treat.
Not this year. There will likely be no warm bags of popcorn, cups of hot chocolate or cotton candy doled out in exchange for the laughs as residents figure out how to pivot.
“We plan to decorate the house as usual so families can feel the Halloween spirit on their evening walks,” said Kirsten Starzer, mom to two kids, ages 11 and 15. “We will put up a sign that says, ‘See you next year!’ ”
Along the Pacific Coast about 25 miles south of San Francisco, this Halloween was meant to be a milestone for the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. The two-day event, now canceled, usually draws up to 300,000 people from around the world to show off parade floats and school bands for the holiday.
“It was supposed to be our 50th year. I guess we’ll have to celebrate that in 2021,” said Cameron Palmer, a local business owner and president of the festival. “This year we have other things to worry about.”
While the future is uncertain for trick-or-treating, Americans have been stocking up on candy. U.S. sales of Halloween-themed chocolate and candy were up 70% over 2019 in the four weeks ending Aug. 9, according to the National Confectioners Association.
Ferrara Candy Co., which makes a Halloween staple, Brach’s Candy Corn, said most of its retail partners asked for early shipments of Halloween candy because of expected demand. Target, however, is reducing candy assortments in anticipation of less trick-or-treating. It will give away surprise Halloween bags to shoppers who drive up to its stores in October.
CVS Pharmacy said it has scaled back the number of large and giant bags of candy its stores will receive in favor of smaller bags for smaller outings and family gatherings.
Feeding the desire for safety, Walmart is bringing in more masks that can pull double duty as costume accessories, such as versions that feature the words “princess” or “queen.”