If you are lucky enough to be staying in a home in Florida during Halloween, this is my advice; stay home. Just turn on your porch lights and wait. And, if your sub-division is anything like ours, Sunridge Woods, you will enjoy one of the best shows in town right on your doorstep.
The first year we were there. I was breath taken at the amount of people who turned up at the door. Being from the UK we weren’t too sure what to expect. Halloween has become more popular in the UK during the past few years but nothing to the extent with which they celebrate this night in the States.
Neighbours had told us previously to turn off our porch lights if we didn’t want to be disturbed and nobody would knock but we wanted to get into the spirit of things (no pun intended) so decided to leave them on. We had seen all the fantastic decorations which had gone up on the front lawns around the sub-division during the past few days; from inflatable ghosts to gardens turned into grave yards. Our youngest son wanted to get involved so we bought a few Halloween accessories at Wal-Mart and placed them out on the front porch and put the front lights on. We had about half a carrier bag of sweets ready, just in case we had any young visitors. We had no idea what a treat we were going to be in for.
The door bell started to ring at around 4 o’clock and I don’t think I sat down again until it was very dark, a good few hours later. Families started to arrive, some in matching outfits. Not only children dressed up but parents as well! It was incredible to see people in such elaborate costumes turning up at the door. When we realised what an occasion it was going to be my husband decided to take our young son out for a stroll around the sub-division and join some of the trick-and-treaters as they matched by our home. He was impressed by what nice people he had been speaking with as they walked around. However, he would never know most of then again as they were heavily disguised ?
Whilst they were gone I began to panic, I was quickly running out of sweets. I became aware that my carrier bag was not going to last the evening if visitors were going to keep coming at the rate they had been. I started to cut up cake and wrap offerings in napkins to give to the trick-and-treaters – hoping this would be acceptable from the crazy English woman who had run out of sweets! When my husband and son returned, I promptly stole my son’s trick-and-treat collection. Well, he gave this up willingly, when he saw what a dilemma his mother was in - I did replace these later. I quickly dispatched them both to the local garage to buy more sweets. Fortunately I only sent a few children away looking bemused at a piece of cake, wondering where their sweets were, before reinforcements arrived.
It was a great evening and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I highly recommend staying in on Halloween but buy a BIG bag of sweets or don’t give the first callers too many!
The first year we were there. I was breath taken at the amount of people who turned up at the door. Being from the UK we weren’t too sure what to expect. Halloween has become more popular in the UK during the past few years but nothing to the extent with which they celebrate this night in the States.
Neighbours had told us previously to turn off our porch lights if we didn’t want to be disturbed and nobody would knock but we wanted to get into the spirit of things (no pun intended) so decided to leave them on. We had seen all the fantastic decorations which had gone up on the front lawns around the sub-division during the past few days; from inflatable ghosts to gardens turned into grave yards. Our youngest son wanted to get involved so we bought a few Halloween accessories at Wal-Mart and placed them out on the front porch and put the front lights on. We had about half a carrier bag of sweets ready, just in case we had any young visitors. We had no idea what a treat we were going to be in for.
The door bell started to ring at around 4 o’clock and I don’t think I sat down again until it was very dark, a good few hours later. Families started to arrive, some in matching outfits. Not only children dressed up but parents as well! It was incredible to see people in such elaborate costumes turning up at the door. When we realised what an occasion it was going to be my husband decided to take our young son out for a stroll around the sub-division and join some of the trick-and-treaters as they matched by our home. He was impressed by what nice people he had been speaking with as they walked around. However, he would never know most of then again as they were heavily disguised ?
Whilst they were gone I began to panic, I was quickly running out of sweets. I became aware that my carrier bag was not going to last the evening if visitors were going to keep coming at the rate they had been. I started to cut up cake and wrap offerings in napkins to give to the trick-and-treaters – hoping this would be acceptable from the crazy English woman who had run out of sweets! When my husband and son returned, I promptly stole my son’s trick-and-treat collection. Well, he gave this up willingly, when he saw what a dilemma his mother was in - I did replace these later. I quickly dispatched them both to the local garage to buy more sweets. Fortunately I only sent a few children away looking bemused at a piece of cake, wondering where their sweets were, before reinforcements arrived.
It was a great evening and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I highly recommend staying in on Halloween but buy a BIG bag of sweets or don’t give the first callers too many!