Using Halloween to Meet Your Neighbors

Sometimes I wonder why we bother with such things as "trick-or-treating" any more. After all, most of us tend to hate the idea of actually meeting our neighbors don't we?

How many people, reading this article, really know their neighbors anymore? Most Americans do not, we go to work, we come home. Once in awhile we might wave to a neighbor as we both happen to be in our driveways at the same time.

Trick-or-treating is all about going around the neighborhood, with your kids and "getting out there." Why do it on Halloween then? After all Christmas caroling is dead, or almost so, and who has a neighborhood Easter egg hunt anymore, or a BBQ with their neighbors for the 4^th?

On a purely practical side, we spend as much, or more, buying candy to hand out to others as the value of what out kids get while going door to door. So why do it?

Here is a thought, use Halloween as a chance to actually meet your adult neighbors! Last year my family had just moved into a new house (to us anyway) in a subdivision. Here is what we did to help us meet our new neighbors.

First we did the usual bowl of treats for the kids, nothing new there. The other thing we did was what was unusual. Remembering those long Halloween nights of walking my daughter around, carrying her raincoat (just in case), excess candy (if she was doing good) and generally getting dragged from one house to the next, in the cold, for years, I thought of the parents and decided to arrange a "treat" for them also.

I set up a table, at the end of my drive. Near the table, in the driveway, I made a small fire pit and filled it with lit charcoal. Over this I hung a cast iron Dutch oven, from a tripod, and used this for spiced cider. I also had cookies and hot chocolate. Since I live on a cul-de-sac the parents could stand at the end of my drive and, have a cup of spiced cider, or hot chocolate, and a cookie and watch their kids go from house to house around the cul-de-sac.

I was afraid that, in today's environment, people would be scared to take something like cookies or a drink in a cup from a stranger but I just figured I would make the offer anyway. Surprisingly it went over extremely well. I got to know a lot of my new neighbors that evening and met a great many more grateful adults who appreciated a cup of something warm. Here is how I went about it. Keep in mind I did this on a tight budget too.

First I purchased four gallons of store bought "apple cider." This was a bit much, two would have been good. Then I heated the cider, on the stove and added spices according to a regular recipe. I also added flat cut orange and apple slices, at the end of the evening these bits of cider spiced fruit make a real nice treat. I also made about four gallons of hot chocolate using generic, store brand mix. Again, this was a bit much, three gallons would have done. I did add cinnamon and nutmeg to the hot chocolate along with some milk.

I own two army surplus "mermite" food containers, which helped with pre-making all of this but any insulated containers will do. You can even make the cider and chocolate, put it in regular containers and set them in a cooler. The cooler is insulated and will keep things warm as well as cold.

I had purchased several packs of the cheapest cookies I could find, Dollar General vanilla wafers and Kroger chocolate chip cookies etc. I rounded this out with dollar store Styrofoam cups.

Outside I made a shallow pit, in the driveway gravel and placed lit charcoal in it. I hung a large, cast iron Dutch oven from a tripod over the charcoal and filled it with cider. The hot chocolate was served directly from the mermite container. This year I will have two pots over the fire, one for cider one for hot chocolate. I also hung several lanterns around the area for light, being careful to place the lanterns and the fire pit so that children, coming for candy, would not be around them. I placed the cookies on the table. I was also careful to adjust the height of the pot so that the cider would stay warm but not get too hot to drink. I was really using the pot over the fire just to keep the cider warm since it had actually been prepared in the kitchen earlier.

As groups of parents and children, came around I invited the parents over for something warm to drink, and a cookie or two, and I gave the children their candy treat. Yes, kids did ask for drinks too, mainly hot chocolate which is why I think three gallons would have been better instead of the two I have planned for cider this year.

Yes, I also had a few parents (3-5 of them) turn away, several of them glaring at me like I am somehow evil. Too bad, no spiced cider and cookies for you then. For the 30-40 parents who did stop by and have cider or chocolate, we had a good time talking and getting to know one another.

I have already had neighbors asking me "are you going to do the cider thing again this year?" Answer, yes I am and I am hoping to meet even more of my neighbors. I'll see you Halloween evening!