FEATURED NEWS ARTICLES

The Houses Halloween Forgot

By ELIZABETH BERNSTEIN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - October 13, 2000

Every Oct. 31, Kathy Durham's block looks like a ghost town. Year after year, no matter how she decorates or how much candy she buys, trick-or-treaters skip her street.

But just two blocks over, it's Halloween Central -- kids by the vanload pulling up all night. "It's definitely not equally distributed," says Ms. Durham. Last year, she threw in the towel after an hour and handed over her candy to a hard-hit neighbor.

Boo! Here's a spooky twist to the New Economy: the "haves" and "have-nots" of trick-or-treating. Last year, Americans spent $659 million on Halloween decorations, up a whopping 53% from the previous year, according to the National Retail Federation. But while that means plenty more fog machines and faux cobwebs for the kids, it's also creating a sort of Halloween gap. Simply put, some houses are having all the howling good fun, while others -- even folks right around the corner -- are left holding the candy bag.

The reasons for the gap range from higher spending -- not just on decorations but on hot new handouts like York Peppermint "Batties" and glow-in-the-dark necklaces -- to basic safety concerns that keep kids traveling in packs. The rise of neighborhood associations has also played a role, helping turn what was once a house-by-house effort into a community event. As a result, the stakes are higher than ever before, turning what ought to be just fun into an angst-ridden occasion for people trying to keep up with the "Boneses".

On Manhattan's Upper West Side, for example, residents of one neighborhood work together to present a haven. Police block off the street, and building representatives, not individual apartment dwellers, distribute candy. The upshot: While very few kids go door-to-door on surrounding blocks, trick-or-treaters show up there in droves. "I don't know how, but word gets out about this street," says Fran Stern, a longtime resident of the neighborhood.

Kids help reinforce the pack mentality. After all, they know where they got the best candy last year -- and who's being most generous this year. "Usually, the direction all the kids are going is really good," offers nine-year-old Adrian Van Den Bout of Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Cobble Hill neighborhood, though he notes a pumpkin out front is often also a good sign.

Ms. Durham of Palo Alto, Calif., attributes her paltry turnout (about 20 kids a year) to the fact that her street is relatively dark and has a park in the middle that kids must traverse to get the goods. "Maybe some of my neighbors feel bad, but I think it's OK," she says. "My life goes on."

Monster Mannequins

But decorations are clearly a big part of the picture. Take Ms. Durham's neighbor Paul Lomio, who lives two short blocks away and has trick-or-treaters streaming in all night. He converts his garage into a haunted house, with scary music and at least a dozen movie-quality monster mannequins. "Spirit and decorations are the key to attracting the kids," says Mr. Lomio, a Stanford University librarian. "You gotta advertise."

It's that kind of sentiment that has turned Halloween into a terrifying retail beast, recently catapulting it past Easter as the second-largest segment of the seasonal-decorations market. Indeed, a recent "boo-ology survey" by Macerich, a Santa Monica, Calif., shopping-center company, claims that as many as 80% of U.S. homes plan to decorate this month. That's on top of the $2 billion on candy and $1.5 billion on costumes Americans are expected to spend this year.

Trick-or-treating itself is on the rise, too, after languishing somewhat following (largely embellished) fears of contaminated candy during the 1970s and early 1980s. Last year, 92% of American children went trick-or-treating, up about 10% from a decade earlier, according to the National Confectioners Association. The number is expected to rise again this year.

But don't tell that to Brandy Deatly. The Summit, N.J., homemaker usually gets fewer than 25 trick-or-treaters a year, a pittance compared with the 1,600 kids from all over the area who come to see her neighbor's colossal Halloween production. "They just check out the street, which has houses on only one side, and say, 'Naah, I'm not going down there.' "

Same for Sue and Gordon Certain of Atlanta's North Buckhead area. Despite hanging skeletons, giant pumpkins and a doormat that howls when someone steps on it, they get only about 20 trick-or-treaters a year. Even their 13-year-old daughter prefers a different street.

What's scaring everyone away? Most likely, the street's wide lawns (which slow progress down), houses on just one side -- and a pretty steep hill. But the next street over is packed, "probably because they have houses that are close together," says Ms. Gordon, who is a job analyst for the state.

Helping the Hard-Hit

In some areas, residents who are ignored by the masked mobs are trying to help out those who aren't. In Mountain Lakes, N.J., where a few circular streets attract hundreds of children, folks who live in less-traversed parts of town have begun dropping off candy donations at the local library, "That way people won't be going broke," jokes longtime resident and mother Mary Ann Pendleton.

But even the "haves" of trick-or-treating have their limits. When hundreds of trick-or-treaters -- many of them bused in from less-affluent neighborhoods -- began swarming the Harrison Hill section of Fort Wayne, Ind., each year, residents decided to stage Halloween on a different night, publicized only in the community association's newsletter. At first, many homeowners felt that the practice was discriminatory, says Dana Merle, treasurer of the neighborhood board. Now, they like it, she says: "They feel like the candy they give out is going to kids they see on a day-to-day basis."

That's certainly not a sentiment shared by Ms. Deatley's neighbor, contractor Mike Paytas. Five years ago, he noticed that "Halloween was dwindling" and decided to do something about it. His solution: a display worthy of Hollywood -- a coffin, two fog machines, two dozen ghoulish mannequins and a 1970s Fleetwood Cadillac, parked on the lawn with a strobe light and a skeleton couple inside. Kids come from up to 30 miles away.

But what about Mr. Paytas's neighbors, the ones on the darker streets a few blocks over? Don't they feel he's stealing their fun? Not at all, says Ms. Deatly, who doesn't mind when the trickle of kids at her own door dies down. "Then I can walk over and visit Mike's house, and that's much more fun."

Truly Frightening Accessories

If you thought just carving a pumpkin was enough, check out the trick-or-treating accouterments some retailers and Web sites are peddling:

Fog Master
$99.95, Gotfog.com

Fog machines are a hit with tiny "Phantom of the Opera" types. This one can be operated by remote control.

Syncromotion Skeleton Grim Reaper
$199.95 SmartHome.com

Forget those cardboard skeletons. This grim guy sings and chats with the kids.

The New Candy
49˘ to $3.99

This year's hot loot: Peppermint Batties, Freak Outs, Halloween Peeps.

Blowmold Gravestones
$19.95 to 22.95
BlowMoldCentral.com

Halloween gone too far? Some models let you put a name on the tombstone.

Candy Caddy
$14.99 at eBags.com

When plastic won't cut it: These bags -- with flashing lights -- are designed to be more durable.

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