TRICKorWHAT?

Pandemic Halloween is a mixed bag all around

NEWYORK » Roving grownups tossing candy at kids waiting on lawns. Drivethru 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 a myriad of 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 allowkids to go door to door or car trunk to car trunk in parking lots in search of candy, with Los Angeles first banning trickor-treating, then downgrading its prohibition to a recommendation.

Other events have been canceled or changed, from California’s Half Moon Bay to New York’s legendary SleepyHollow— and points in between.

On a typical Halloween along Clark Avenue in the St. Louis suburb ofWebster 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 Halloweenwasmeant to beamilestone 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.”

The kick-off event the week before, the Safeway World Championship Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off, will carry on with no public spectators but plenty of humongous orange contestants as the judging goes virtual. With any luck, a potential world recordbreaker from the U.K. will make it safely to HalfMoon Bay. Its grower has a shot at $30,000 if he sets a new record.

There’s still some Halloween fun to be had in Sleepy Hollow more than 200 years afterWashington Irving published his classic story about the headless horseman who terrorized a hapless Ichabod Crane. But the undead, evil and insane who usually entertain at Philipsburg Manor won’t be present for the annual walk-through horror attraction Horseman’s Hollow.

It, too, is a pandemic casualty.

So is a popular festival in the Kansas City suburb of Shawnee, Kansas, in which children stuff straw into donated clothes to make their own scarecrows.

In North Kansas City, Missouri, the city’s parks and recreation department canceled its Halloween in the Park event, instead inviting families to pick up a mystery box with candy and other surprises inside.

“The health and safety of our children and families are our priority during this time,” the city explained on its website.

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 inmore masks that can pull double duty as costume accessories, such as versions that feature thewords “princess” or “queen.” Walgreens has increased its assortments of indoor and outdoor Halloween decorations, and it stepped up offerings of beverage and snack options for entertaining at home.

Candy-getting scenarios are afloat on social media, with some planning treat tosses to stationary children