Door-to-door Trick or Treat in North Dakota may soon be going through landlines.
Like DVDs, flip phones, checks and cable TV. Yes, it’s becoming clear that North Dakota kids just aren’t trick-or-treating like they used to be.
I have read several discussions on this topic on social media pages over the past few weeks, since another cold Halloween graced us at Bismarck Mandan. I know we had about 25 groups of trick-or-treaters in our development south of Lincoln. This was about a 50% drop from last year (yes, we track every year) when we had over 50 groups.
This isn’t just a two-year trend. The numbers have dropped over the last 5 years at my house, and from comments I’ve read on Facebook, people are saying their treat counts have gone down over the last decade.
Looking at the articles I’ve read over the last couple of years, this seems to be happening all over the country and not just North Dakota.
The torment of the trunk or the treatment.
Trunk-or-Treat events have invaded North Dakota and the rest of the country. Many parents have chosen to take their children to these types of events, which can generally be considered safer events, rather than going door to door with their children through neighborhoods. To be honest, there are so many such events before Halloween these days that even children are tricked before October 31.
Weather woes in North Dakota.
We’ve probably had snow during Halloween 5 of the last 7 years in Bismarck Mandan, resulting in some pretty cold temperatures for the trick-or-treaters going door to door. Not to mention, it seems like fewer homes are leaving their lights on and participating in Halloween, limiting options.
It doesn’t seem like that long ago when you literally had to be careful while driving after work on Halloween, because of the hordes of kids darting in and out of the streets trick-or-treating. For my part, I miss those days.
WATCH: How Halloween has changed over the past 100 years
Gallery credit: Brit McGinnis