Garrison Woods retains top spot in Halloween tally
Mini chocolate bars were top treat used to fill goody bags, informal survey shows
The inner-city community of Garrison Woods has repeated as the winner of Postmedia’s Halloween Kid Count.
Each year, Postmedia attempts to find out which Calgary community has the most Halloween spirit, asking readers to let us know how many kids knocked on your doors Halloween evening.
We also seek to figure out which types of candy are handed out most often and the most popular costume worn by trick-or-treaters.
As measured in our seventh annual (and not entirely scientific) count, Garrison Woods is once again the winner, with 257 kids who knocked on doors Wednesday evening (as recorded in a total of 28 responses).
Auburn Bay saw 189 trick-ortreaters (30 responses), followed by West Springs with 158 kids (35 responses), Chaparral with 129 kids (24 responses) and Evergreen with 116 kids (37 responses).
Postmedia received 1,827 responses this year.
Mini chocolate bars were the top treat handed out to door-knockers, making up 53 per cent of trick-ortreat bags.
But if you (or your kids) were looking for full-sized chocolate bars, Aspen Woods, Lake Bonavista, West Springs, and West Hillhurst were the places to be. Those neighbourhoods reported the most homes giving out the real thing, at six apiece.
A total of 17,120 full-sized chocolate bars were handed out this Halloween, or 12.9 per cent of all candy, including one home in Lower Mount Royal that claims to have handed out 1,200 on its own.
Potato chips were the third most popular treat at 11.7 per cent, followed by gummy or chewy candy at 9.9 per cent, candy-coated chocolate at 5.9 per cent, and hard candy and suckers at 1.1 per cent.
In what might (or should) be considered a major Halloween faux pas, nearly one per cent of Halloween bags consisted of nonfood items, such as pencils or swimming passes.
This year’s most common costumes were superhero and princess outfits. Zombies and clowns, which once ruled the night, were on the decline.
There were also 11 Donald Trumps reported, but just one Justin Trudeau.