Simple Ideas for Distanced Halloween Trick-or-Treating

Looking for ways to have a safer Halloween? Here are some ideas you may like.

National health organizations as well as local communities are recommending extra precautions at Halloween this year. For health and safety, it makes sense to re-evaluate and possibly change your usual trick-or-treat practices. Some families are opting out of trick-or-treating altogether with activities like outdoor movies, family crafts or distanced costume parades. But if you’d still like to give something out to any costumed kids roaming the neighborhood, here are some simple ideas for distanced Halloween trick-or-treating that’s as fun and spooky as ever.

Chutes, No Ladders

Keep your distance from trick-or-treaters with a 6-foot (or longer) candy chute. Toss candy into one end; the trick-or-treater catches it at the other. We’ve seen chutes made of tubing long enough for homeowners to “shoot” candy from an upstairs window to kids down below. But the chute doesn’t have to be fancy. A couple of wrapping paper tubes or a bunch of paper towel rolls taped together can work too. Just make sure the treat is “fun-sized” and can zip unencumbered through the chute to a kid’s bag or basket. Hint: it helps for the treat-giver to be at a higher elevation than the receiver!

Treat on a Stick

Tape wrapped candy to wooden skewers. Stick them in the ground near your driveway or sidewalk 6+ feet apart from each other. If you don’t have a place to stick the skewers into the ground, tape the treats to the wall outside your door, tape them on the door, or put them in bags, paper cups or pumpkin containers spaced around the door. Or put them out anywhere in the yard where kids can see them.

Stand and Toss

Put a marker outside your front door for one trick-or-treater at a time to stand on. Then toss a treat (while masked) from at least 6 feet away—whether that’s from the front door, a window or another place outside. Set up other markers for kids to stand in line and wait a turn, just like at the grocery store. This can even be made into a game where anyone who catches a treat gets two, for instance.

Halloween Hangout

Got trees? Or one tree? Hang treats from the branches by taping each one to a piece of string. Or hang individual paper cups or see-through bags with a treat in each. Another way to hang treats is on a clothesline. Just make sure they’re low enough for small visitors to reach.

Graveyard Guests

Turn your yard into a graveyard! This is something that can also be done in collaboration with neighbors. Space graves, skeletons and other spooky props 6 feet apart and attach treats to them. This keeps crowds away from the door, besides adding a fun, ghoulish scene for kids to wander through.

Trick-or-Treat Twist

If you have a neighborhood where activities are easily coordinated, reverse trick-or-treating is an interesting and memorable concept. This works best in neighborhoods with a front yard or driveway. Here’s how it works: kids dress in costume and stand in the front yard. Neighbors drive by and toss a treat out the window to each kid from a safe distance.

For any of these simple ideas for distanced Halloween trick-or-treating, having hand sanitizer out for visitors will help ensure that only treats get distributed on Halloween. And if you wait inside, you’ll probably want to monitor the yard for kids to keep them from ringing a possibly germy doorbell. Happy Halloween!

Cynthia Kolko, The Summit Federal Credit Union