How to Get Kids to Remember Your House at Halloween

Let me give a little background. I grew up on a street with almost no kids. The other thing that did not help my house in particular was the fact that my house has a very long driveway which despite putting halloween bags with candles inside all the way up the driveway, we just could not attract kids. Maybe it is because there was none. However there was a certain group of kids that would come every year, all the way until high school, because of one thing that made our house memorable. So I thought about the houses I remember from trick or treating as a kid and thought I would share a former kid's perspective.

1. King size candy: Now the oxy-moron of this at my house was the fact that my father was the local dentist, so him giving out the king size candy also presumed he was trying to drum up business. We were trying to go with the idea that with all the kid size candy one gets, aren't you going to remember who gave you the king size one? It may be more expensive, especially if you get lots of kids in your neighborhood and you might feel against giving that much candy to a kid. However, what other night do you get a total calorie fest! Leave the amount of candy kids eat up to the parents. Just remind them to brush their teeth which you hand them that King size Snickers.

2. Decorations: My house was quite lame when it came to decorations. The one cool thing we used to do was grow a giant pumpkin ( we're talking like over 100lbs easily) and carve it and put it in the front window. But that was it. I remember the houses that had webs, witches, lights, and orange and black galore. Lawns covered in graves with funny epithets and spooky sounds coming from the house. Those are the houses I remember and I would make a point to go see that house every year just to see how they upped themselves from the previous year.

3. Costumes: Despite the fact that you are only answering the door, people actually remember if you put some iota of effort into a costume. My dad, every single year, would dress up. The majority was dracula. He would draw his eyebrows like bat wings and a black cape my mom had made for him. He would even bring a human skull he got in dental skull ( they no longer give real ones I hear ) and would bring a flashlight to shine through the lower jaw and pretend to make the skull talk to the little kids in a goofy voice. The other few years he went as Darth Maul, red and black face and all. When we went trick or treating, they would look for him because he was one of the few adults that dressed up. People remembered, and therefore I got extra candy.

Halloween is such an opportunity to create memories that will last forever, whether you are the one handing out the candy or the one collecting the candy. I encourage you to go the extra mile to make it memorable for a kid, and in return, they will remember you.