What’s Halloween like in the city? I asked myself the same thing. When I first moved to NYC my kids were one and three years old and had never been trick-or-treating. Out of the few experiences I had as a child, which consisted of door-to-door knocking within base housing, I suspected it would be slightly different.
Living in an extremely populous location I knew it would be odd to walk outdoors in our neighborhood and knock on random people’s doors. Besides, a lot of buildings have a doorman and you aren’t getting inside unless you know someone who resides there. Thankfully, our building has a sign up sheet for all the residents who choose to participate and pass out candy.
On the day of Halloween, I went downstairs and picked up the list which had floors and times for each apartment number. Even the trainers at the gym were passing out candy. We started at the top of the building and worked our way down, checking off the list as we went. The little ones needed redirecting from time to time cause they would go and knock on the wrong door – and I just knew the people on the other end may not be too happy with an uninvited evening disturbance.
Last year my son was notorious for knocking on the door and saying, “Merry Christmas.” It was hilariously cute because he had all the confidence in the world as he blurted out the untimely greeting. This year he kept sticking his head in the doorway repeating, “Trick or Treat,” as they patiently attempted to close the door just one more time.
My daughter refused to wait to eat her candy and as soon as she got it, she was furiously ripping the wrappers and sometimes even chewing the candy with the wrapper in tact because she had to have it right then and there – leaving a trail of chocolate behind as evidence of her wrongdoing. Half way through our trek in our apartment building the goody bags were starting to weigh down Chris and Camila. We made one trip back to the apartment to drop off the load of candy and that took some persuasion – cause you know these little ones don’t play when it comes to their candy.
Once we were done filling up on all the candy a parent…a child could ever want, we decided to do something different. Rather than turn in for the night we gathered the kids’ jackets and went to Times Square. They had a blast running circles around each other and entertaining the tourists. We may make going to this destination a long-lasting tradition.
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