Trick or Treat?

A quick check of the calendar shows that Halloween in less than six weeks away. Normally, that would mean making plans to scout out the local Trunk or Treat parties and Harvest Festivals and kids of all ages would be scouring the store shelves (of Amazon, I suppose) for the perfect princess or vampire or Ninja Turtle for this year’s costume.

But this year? I don’t know… are we doing it this year?

Should we be doing it this year? Look, I love Halloween.

I have very fond memories of Halloween as a kid and as an adult with kids of my own. Now, my youngest is not only 14, but also way uninterested in anything remotely resembling trick-or-treating at this point, so it’s really not going to impact me in any major way, but surely trick-ortreating is a no-go this year due to COVID-19 concerns. I mean, going door-to-door and having people hand you candy seems like the exact opposite of everything we’ve been told to do for the past six months, right?

There’s just no way to social distance and trick or treat is there? And trick-or-treaters usually travel in packs.

Halloween parties (or “not Halloween” parties if you’re a church person) also seem like a recipe for disaster in 2020. I know that kids don’t typically get sick from COVID-19, but they can certainly carry it, and sending children out to carry the coronavirus from one neighbor to the next is probably not a smart move. I love Halloween, but I love being alive even more!

I guess one good thing could come from it… since it’s Halloween, at least we might finally get some folks to wear a mask!