This is the first year S and I have our own house for Halloween! Meaning I can finally give out candy to neighborhood kids!!!

In terms of prep, early to mid-October was used for building up our outdoor Halloween decor collection. Previously, when we were in a condo, we only ever had indoor decorations. But given the rainy Vancouver weather and our front yard space, I knew we’d have to invest in some waterproof and durable decorations to spruce up our place. So that trick-or-treaters will know we’re open for business!

I feel that decorating for Halloween outdoors is so selfless. You don’t even get to see the decor most of the time, since you’re inside. And that’s not to say you have to be super flashy or spend a whole lotta money to do this. There are high impact houses that aren’t animatronics and expensive pieces. It’s a real chore having to put up things, and then knowing you’ll have to clean up and store it away afterwards. Clean up will usually have to be in the rain too if you’re in Vancouver. Then you’re also committing to giving out candy. But it’s so cool to look at and really brings some spooky cheer to the whole block!

We also started looking for good full-sized candy bar deals early on. We ended up getting a variety of bars from Costco, but also Wal-Mart had some good deals for some Feastables ($0.99 per bar!). At one point, I also realized I should sprinkle in some Asian representation (and Asian candy’s delicious!), so we got some full-sized Pepero sticks. I also had some supplementary snack-sized Pocky for folks, and a backup stash of white cheddar popcorn.

I think giving out candy for Halloween is important to me because of my childhood experiences. Each year, I’d go out with my dad and friends to knock on neighbors’ doors. It was tough work and I remember times where I’ve tripped in the dark and had to gather up my candy ASAP so I could catch up with my friends. But at the end of the night, I felt I had earned and worked for the haul in front of me. My parents also let me decide when I wanted to eat my stash, and I got to keep it to myself. In many ways, it felt like something I truly had ownership of. We grew up frugal, so the variety of snacks we had at our house wasn’t a lot to look at. But every year, after Halloween, I’d have a special inventory of candy and snacks I could turn to!

Speaking with several friends, they all fondly remember the houses that gave out full-sized chocolate bars. I realize that I also remembered the one white house that we’d go to every year because they’d have full bars! I know it’s not necessary for us to give out full-sized chocolate bars, but I like to think perhaps a kid or two might remember our house as a special standout for the rest of their lives too.

Leading up to Halloween, I was a bit disappointed with our block. Including our house, we had 4 houses on our block of maybe 30 houses decorated. I was thinking “no one’s going to hit up our block. It’s not worth it for them to take the trek down given the lack of participating houses.” But then October 30th came around and I was giddy to see many of our neighbors on our street putting out decorations or small indications that they’d have candy to hand out! When we walked our dog at night on the 30th, I’m not kidding when I say I had tears in my eyes discovering each newly decorated house on our block. I guess people didn’t want their decorations out too far in advance due to the rain?

On Halloween night, I was still not sure if we’d have many visitors, so the first 2 groups of children that came, S and I did a little dance of success! Then around 6:30 PM onwards, we started to get a steady trickle. We ended up giving away all our full-sized bars, and then had to dip into our popcorn backup stash! And even then, we didn’t have a lot of popcorn left by the end of the night.

We had some friends over to celebrate Halloween with us—especially since it landed on a Friday this year. We ordered Korean food for takeout, and then watched Enemy with our friends. It was an interesting movie, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s always pretty good at psychological thrillers. But the ending left us a bit confused. We also had some homemade desserts and ate some leftover popcorn at night.

I will say that on November 1st, S and I immediately took down all our Halloween decorations because I knew if I left it, it’d be staying around well into November. Feeling very blessed and happy with our first proper Halloween! Onto Christmas next!