What was the best decade for Halloween?

[Andybev01]

It's tough to make a decision but I'd go with the 40's.
not that I was even born then but my parents married on Halloween 1947, and were pioneers of the holiday, at least for their generation.
My most treasured childhood memories are of all us kids and mom sitting around our big dining room table and making decorations out of whatever supplies and scraps that we had.
Outside the big window my dad and older brothers were burning piles of yard trimmings and leaves on the roadside.

Freaking magic.

[NeverMore]

On one hand I feel like the holiday lost something when people quit making their own decorations and costumes. On the other hand... it's so cool to be able to just walk into a store and buy something so spooky and glitzy. At least these new fancy mass produced decorations have pushed people who still make their own to go over the top. I'm talking folks like Pumpkinrot and Stolloween.

[Pumpkin_Man]

That's sort of what I miss about it, NeverMore. The only time I ever won a Halloween costume contest was when I made my own costume. I never won it with a store bought costume.

Mike

[tantraman]

The 80s for me when I grew up more candy disney ahlloween treat, Garfields Halloween and the Halloween series.

[Corpse Candle]

I had to jump in and post on this one!
I think there is a lot of truth in the comments made that the best decade is the one you were a child in. Nothing beats the memories of tot as a kid. I was a 60's kid in Queens, NY, and remember making out like a bandit. We are talking pillow cases full of candy here. Even then there were stories of razor blades and Milky Ways laced with Ex-Lax, but none the less, folks still gave out things like the popcorn balls that were mentioned earlier. ( How did they make those so good?) I nearly choked however on an apple with a quarter slipped into it. There was no malice intended, I was just not bright enough to notice the huge slot in the side of the thing!
Anyway, the more recent decades have a lot going for them also. Adults are taking the time to really decorate their homes and get into the spirit, so to speak. I am in Maine now and Halloween is very much alive and well. People start putting up decorations by mid September, and Halloween is a real community affair. I guess the bottom line is to make sure that whatever decade you are in, the kids remember it as the best ever!

[Pumpkin_Man]

I was a 60s kid, too. I lived in Chicago, and I also made out like a bandit. To boot, there where no time limits on how late you could ToT, and everyone wasn't afraid to eat their candy. The pop corn balls that I got were made by one of our neighbors who we knew for years. She made them herself from scratch, and that is what I miss the most about Halloween as a child.

As I got a little older, and in high school, Halloween was more a time for playing pranks or watching horror movies. I got into my share of mischief like many others.

As far as displays go, however, I think the here and now is the best time for Halloween. I often see Halloween displays that are even more elaborate then Christmas displays.

Mike

[Desdemona]

For me it was the late '60's, early '70's - so many children's Halloween specials on TV, homemade costumes, my mom was still handing out homemade popcorn balls and caramel apples, those little orange boxes for UNICEF, school parties where parents could bring cupcakes and cookies they made. Mom cut me off from trick-or-treating at 13 but then I got to take out all the younger kids and most neighbors, recognizing me at the end of their driveway, would send one of the little ones back with something for me.

I knew I still needed to have fun when I had my girls so we would decide on a theme and all 3 of us would dress up (as recently as 2006 when my youngest was 10) as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 2 vampires, dead people, there was even the year that all 3 of us dressed up as "random". Every year they each got a pumpkin to carve then we made salty/sweet pumpkin seeds to eat a few days later. Hopefully they will remember their early Halloweens as the best.

[Pumpkin_Man]

My parents didn't cut me off from ToT, but when I was 13, I felt self consience about it, so that was the year I stopped, and have been kicking myself for it ever since. I did collect for UNICEF, but we never had any fancy UNICEF parties. I remember one year, the neighborhood bully strong armed one of the little kids and took all his UNICEF money, but that's another story.

Halloween specials on TV, oh yeah. My personal fav was and still is "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." I still screen that every October, along with a few others. It's funny, but back then, we had a tiny handful of tv stations, and there were so many great programs on even when it wasn't a holiday. Now I have almost a thousand channels, and it's like winning the lottery just to find a program that even remotely interests me. I usualy find myself watching reruns of "The Riffle Man," "Batman" "Lost in Space" and the original "Star Trek" when I'm not screening a DVD. It was the same way with the radio. We had WLS, WCFL, and WIND for rock and roll music. All of them were on the AM dial, and you could listen for hours to some of the best tunes of the 20th Century. Turn on the radio today, and you'll be lucky if you hear one good tune after 10 minutes worth of comercials.

Oh well, I'm getting off track. Yes, I think the 60s and early 70s were the best decades for tv, radio and Halloween.

Mike

[SPOOKMART]

I agree with what others have said, a person is inclined to answer this question based upon their own experiences. However...

I trick or treated in the 70's and early 80's. It was the department store Halloween era. If your costume wasn't home made it was probably a Ben Cooper. Living in a city, that is what you did.

There was not a huge prop market. We had paper skeletons and made dummies with the leaves.

While some neighnbors gave out apples, candy apples, popcorn the vast majority gave out candy bars, no not snack size or fun size but fill size candy bars. A pillow case got pretty heavy after 2 trips. You walked too and wore yourself out. In the 80's there was a Halloween scare and the candy had to all be checked.

The 80's in the NE atleast had a few cold Halloweens and I almost didn't get to go. I can't say it was too much fun trick or treating with cotton thermals and a winter coat under my costume.

Childhood memorywise it's always going to be the best time. However 2013 has greater potential. While I think kids are quite spoiled these days and stop trick or treating when they're 9 because they'd rather dl apps on their smartphone the ones who are not get treated to a mini horror show when they visit a house that believes the show must go on.

Think about it, Ben Cooper masks used to dig right into your head and the elastics always broke. Homemade costumes are better too since people can find cool easy to follow tutorials online. The props? Good Grief! The props these days are fantastic. I didn't have anything like that when I was a kid. While certain eras were more innocent 2013 places the trick or treater right in the middle of a horror movie. They love it too. Trick or treating is dying I think but I still attract a couple hundred patrons every October 31st. Forget it though if Halloween is on a Friday. Last time that happened, 60 kids that's it. Still many wont venture up. In the summer time I hear passerbyes talking about the scary house. That's when I know I did my job. My job is to make sure every generation has a childhood memory they can cherish.

[Murfreesboro]

Around here, TOT is especially big on Friday & Saturday nights. It diminishes when Halloween falls on a weeknight, especially early in the week. And if it falls on a Sunday nobody knows whether to go out on Saturday or Sunday.

[Pumpkin_Man]

I love it when Halloween falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, and I get plenty of ToTers, regardless of the day of the week. The only problem is that there is a very strict time limit on when the kids can ToT in my town. We often get ToTers from other towns where that beloved Halloween tradition has actualy been banned.

In the early 80s, I was still living in that New Lenox arm pit, so Halloween wasn't much to write home about. We got ToTers, and I did go to my favorite farm stand to purchase our Halloween pumpkins to carve, but it just wasn't the same.

As for making our own costumes, we all had a simple choice. We could either buy those cheepy things that they use to sell at Zares for $1.50, or we could make our own. The 'little kids' would get the Zares store bought costumes, but I started making my own costumes. The best one I ever did, and I'm KICKING myself for not getting a picture taken of me in it, was a robot costume I made from a few scraps I wound in the preserve cellar. An old cloths dryer exhaust hose, a couple of card board boxes, some "D" flashlight batteries and a few other odds and end, all held to gether with duct tape and spray painted a metalic silver, and I was the baddest looking robot this side of the Klingon Empire. I actualy won 10 bucks that year, first prize in the costume judging at the Mt. Greenwood Park Halloween Party.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

That robot costume must have been awesome! I'm not at all surprised you won.

There is no mandated time for TOT to end around here, but when my kids were little, it seemed almost everyone was done by 8 p.m. Two hours on the street (c. 6 to 8 ) seems like a long time to young ones.

However, I have noticed that when you have a highly decorated street in your neighborhood, TOT can last much longer. Over the years, a street near us has become quite a draw, and they are generally open for business until 9 p.m. or maybe even a little later on a good Halloween.

[SPOOKMART]

I live in a small city and perhaps that makes things different than a small town or a large city even. Curfew here is 5-7. I play music till midnight and will still get a few stragglers around 10. I've never been told to stop by the police or anything. I think when Halloween falls on a Friday parents throw parties instead. The demographics have changed immensely in my area. That hurts the amount of TOT'ers here. For most of my city's children there is no religious or cultural connection. So a lot of my effort goes to waste.

However if I lived in say FL or TX or even KY some parents would complain I'm too scary. It would be fun pushing the envelope though

[Murfreesboro]

Around here, the parties are thrown mostly by teens and grown-ups. TOT is still the primary thing for the children, but it tends to focus on a few neighborhoods that are well known for giving a good show. People tend to drive their kids to the choicest spots. We are fortunate to have such a "destination street" near our home.There is also one mega-church on the south end of town that gives a blow-out Harvest Festival, an alternative to Halloween. Folks I know who go there won't carve pumpkins or do the traditional scary Halloween stuff, but they will bob for apples, build scarecrows, that sort of thing. I don't want the churches to replace Halloween with this sort of activity, but I am OK that it is happening, too. It is in its way an acknowledgement that some sort of seasonal celebration needs to happen on Oct. 31rst. To each his own.

[Big_Guh]

I don't want to stray too far from the thread's original topic, but as an adult there is no better day than Saturday, in my opinion, for a Halloween to fall on. There is nothing like the day long build up, the slow, steady march to sundown. There is ample time for preparation and for soaking in the crisp Autumn weather.

As a kid, Fridays were tough to beat. I actually preferred Halloween falling on a weekday as school Halloween parties/costume parades were very enjoyable. I also remember the excitement of making TOT plans/plots at school with friends, which only amplified the build up to the big night!

Sundays are strange days for Halloween, indeed. Not to me, but the masses seem a bit confused as to how to handle it.