Trick Or Treating In North Dakota Could Be Ending Altogether

Trick or Treating door to door in North Dakota may soon go the way of landlines.

The way of DVD's, flip phones, writing checks, and cable TV.  Yep, it's becoming obvious that North Dakota kids are just not trick-or-treating like they used to.

I read several threads about this topic on social media pages in the last couple of weeks since another chilly Halloween graced us in Bismarck Mandan.  I know we had about 25 groups of trick-or-treaters in our development south of Lincoln.  That was down about 50% from last year (yes, we keep track of each year) where we had over 50 groups.

Now, this isn't just a two-year trend.  Numbers have been tumbling for the last 5 years at my home, and from the comments I read on Facebook, people say that their trick-or-treat numbers have been declining for the last decade.

Looking at articles I've read in the last couple of years, this appears to be happening all over the country and not just in North Dakota.

The Trunk-or-Treat Turmoil.  

Trunk-or-treat events have taken over North Dakota and the rest of the country for that matter.  Many parents have opted to take their children to these types of events which generally can be considered safer events rather than taking their kids door to door in neighborhoods.  To be honest, there are so many of these types of events before Halloween these days, that even the kids are trick-or-treated out by October 31st.

Weather woes in North Dakota.

We've probably had snow over Halloween 5 of the last 7 years in Bismarck Mandan leading to pretty chilly temperatures for trick-or-treaters going door to door.  Not to mention, it just seems like fewer houses are leaving their lights on and participating in Halloween altogether limiting options.

It doesn't seem that long ago when you literally had to be careful driving after work on Halloween, because of the hoards of kids darting in and out of the streets trick-or-treating.  I for one miss those days.