Trick-or-Treating Without Sidewalks

I had a lot of reasons for enjoying Halloween as a kid. Of course I loved the candy overload and dressing up, but one of my favorite things was getting to walk outside at night. After all, we normally didn't get to go around after dark.

When we moved to MA, I was initially surprised by the lack of sidewalks, but I didn't think much about it until it was time to take my older son (OS) trick-or-treating. I take that back. I actually heard a great deal about it from my husband, who spoke passionately about the extra lawn that he got to mow in the absence of a sidewalk. Anyhow, I found it scary, but not in a spooky Halloween way to walk down dark streets with a little kid. Halloween or not, it's still hard to see people when it's dark.

The next year, one of my friends suggested going to the mall for trick-or-treating. Initially I shuddered at the thought. Wasn't part of the fun going outside? This didn't sound like fun to me. And it wasn't...for me. It was, however, a lot of fun for my son. He loved it. He got to run around getting candy and was able to see all the other kids in their costumes. He also enjoyed the frenzied excitement in the climate-controlled air. Since Halloween is about my kids and not about me, which of course does not mean that I won't eat a lot piece or two of candy, I was really grateful that the mall had this program. Since my boys have never had the experience of spending hours walking outside at night trick-or-treating, they don't know what they're missing!