i love this neighborhood! and this is one of the reasons why.

I hope all of these parents ALSO took their kids around to neighborhood houses to trick-or-treat. Otherwise they are ruining Halloween for those of us sitting around in our living rooms all dressed up in our witch costumes waiting for the kiddies to ring the bell.

Ballard, I send you a virtual Halloween hug from Portland. My kids and I trick or treated for the past three years in downtown Ballard and, although I used to think trick or treating in malls/business districts/etc was lame, I always found downtown Ballard to be a blast. The creative costumes blew away any neighborhood scene. And it didn't hurt that, after the kiddies got their candy, mom and dad could have a beer at the Ale House. I missed it terribly this year!

We trick-or-treated on Market, then had dinner at High Life, then hit a street of homes. Great evening.

Ballard's Best Holiday - ever.

This will sound corny, but the anonimity of the web allows me to confess - those kids and their parents are so cute, they give me goosebumps.

Now that my child is older, and went trick or treating with his friends, I was hoping to hand out some candy at home.
But we only got a single pair of kids, despite the fact that we decorate and try to look inviting.
Now I guess I know where they all were.
I guess I am destined to many years of quiet Halloweens at home with no kids ringing the bell.
Except for what I think was a drunk teenager after 11pm. Awesome.
I will miss traditional Halloween.

In past years we've only had 3 or 4 doorbell rings. Last year I decorated a bit and got just one. *This* year, though, we didn't decorate and yet we had many enthusiastic groups of kids come to the door. Many of them were very young. I think Ballard has more young families than ever, and Halloween is really ramping up!

We do the Market street thing about every other year, but we ALWAYS take the kiddos door to door.

We've been doing this for the past six years, and we saw more kids in the neighborhood this year than ever before.

Market Street looked like a great scene, and we had a huge stash of candy in anticipation of many cute little costumes. Unfortunately, the scene at our house included just two doorbell rings and some little devil stealing a Halloween decoration right off our front porch. Sigh...we tried.

olympic manor was packed. apparently packs of trick or treaters went from home to home. ah, the suburbs.....

We need to revitalize the door-to-door tradition. There is nothing wrong with the large business-sponsored candy-fest downtown... But we also need to remember all of the benefits of old fashioned trick-or-treating that brings together generations, reconnects neighbors, builds a feeling of community, and most importantly of all, gives us a once-in-a-year opportunity to peep in our neighbors' front doors and look at their furniture and stuff. ;-)

I don't want these freeloading, yuppie socialists in my neighborhood! Want some candy? Cut my grass.