HAPPY HALLOWEEN, my friends!
If I was a kid, I’d be super excited about putting on my costume, grabbing my candy collecting bucket or bag and heading out to trick-or-treat. But, since I’m an adult, there will be none of that, only a quiet evening at home. I didn’t even buy candy to hand out since the number of trick-or-treaters to our house sometimes numbers zero. Plus, the cost of candy is too high.
But my grandkids, ages nine months, six and nine, will join countless costumed kids canvasing neighborhoods for treats. Izzy is dressing as Pikachu, Isaac as Numberblock Six and baby Everett as a dragon. Not that a baby can eat candy, but, well, his parents are pretty excited about their son’s first Halloween. I remember our oldest daughter’s first Halloween costumed as an angel. And I remember my childhood Halloweens in rural Minnesota, especially the year I dressed as a gypsy.
I remember Mom dropping me and my siblings off in my hometown of Vesta, population around 360, to collect goodies. This wasn’t necessarily ring the doorbell or knock, then grab and go. Sometimes we stepped inside to show off our costumes and sign a guestbook before being given our candy. Or, in the case of Great Aunt Gertie, a homemade popcorn ball, which was quite capable of causing a chipped tooth. When we were done gathering treats, we went to Grandma’s house where Mom picked us up for the short ride back to the farm.
One aspect absent from my childhood Halloweens were yards full of spooky decorations. Today they are everywhere. My neighbors up the street, Coy and Kathy Lane, create a themed display in their yard that is open from 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. the entire month of October. This year they built a haunted mini golf course. It’s impressive. Sound, lights and action make this a fully-immersive experience created by a couple who clearly love Halloween. They’ll be handing out full-sized candy bars on Halloween, the final date the display is open to the public…until next October.
All around Faribault and neighboring communities, inflatables and other factory-made decorations have popped up in yards. Cats. Frankenstein. Skeletons. Witches. And on and on.
But the single freakiest Halloween decorations for me personally are the dolls. I can’t quite put my finger on why they creep me out other than that they do. My neighbors have an entire family of creepy dolls circling one hole in their mini golf course. I posed with one of them while Randy took a photo. We were there with our two oldest grandchildren during daylight hours, which likely explains why all of us were more entertained than scared.
Now had a mouse been running around or a bat flying about, I would have fled the Halloween scene, snap, just like that.
TELL ME: What are you doing for Halloween? Also, I’d love to hear a Halloween memory or story. Please share.
© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
We, too, have few kids visit so I will not be giving out candy. A couple of blocks over, however, will literally have bus loads of kids!
Same here several blocks away in a more affluent neighborhood, hoards of kids will descend. And then, of course, at my neighbor’s Haunted Mini Golf up the hill.
We will have a quiet night at home…lights off. Our neighbors say that last year no one came knocking at their doors in this new neighborhood.
I would dress up in homemade costumes and go trick-or-treating with my friend Diane (whom I blogged about this week), and her sister and other kids in the neighborhood. Lots of houses, lots of candy. O my.
Enjoy your quiet evening at home, perhaps reminiscing about Halloween past.
I don’t have many kids coming to my door. but I buy a couple bags of tootsie pops for the ones who stop by and will donate to the food back whatever is left. my grandies are all middle and high school age now but they still go out with friends, so I drop off candy at their houses ahead of time for them to enjoy. this year, I brought a little bag of Mexican Cinco De Mayo candy to each house to share and I can’t wait to hear if they enjoy it. Yesterday, I visited my old school to watch the kids march in the parade and it was so fun to see them all. As you know, I am soooo with you about the dolls and I hope that your grandies each enjoy their Halloween as well!
You are so thoughtful with those Halloween treats at the ready and those dropped off. How fun it must have been to see the littles in their costumes.
yes, great fun! and I figured the kids who got food from the food bank might enjoy some treats as well –
🙂
“freakiest Halloween decorations for me personally are the dolls”, I agree with this Audrey. I never had dolls as a child, there’s something ‘not right about them’? We don’t have many trick or treaters either. Usually a cousin with their children stop by, they often have the coolest costumes, each year is a theme. We have the pumpkin leaf bags for decor and a little sign saying ‘Happy Halloween’. It’s not my favorite holiday. I never really got why people loved to be scared silly and eat too much sugar…
To me Halloween has always been about fun and dressing up in a not-scary costume. That said, Randy dressed as a grim reaper to go up to our neighbors’ Haunted Mini Golf display this evening. Our neighbor said, “That looks like a stick with a piece of tin foil on it.” He was referring to Randy’s weapon. We laughed and replied, “That’s exactly what it is.” They’ve had 1,500 visitors since October 1. Everyone was enjoying themselves. Happiness prevailed.
I agree the dolls are creepy! Love the mini golf idea— that is super creative and fun. No dressing up here and we missed the big Halloween festivities in Brevard due to going to a celebration of life service. Theo had to amend his costume to a ghost due to his cast but he was very cute!
I’m sorry for the loss of a friend. And I’m sorry Theo is dealing with a broken arm. Hopefully his healing is progressing as it should.
My grandkids celebrated their first Halloween ever and it was fun. So many extravagant decorations these days. And two months left of the year. How can this be?
How fun it must have been to celebrate Halloween with your grandkids for the first time ever. Such precious time you have together right now.
Our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween, with a themed display at the end of the block and many people putting out an assortment of skeletons, ghouls, tombstones, pumpkins, and more. I love Halloween. This year, though, for the first time ever, I wasn’t in my own house handing out candy. I went to my son’s house in Richfield, got a first look at my granddaughters’ costumes before they went out, and handed out candy there. They don’t get nearly as many kids as we do, though. And the rain didn’t help, I’m sure. But we had fun.
That you were with family and had fun are what’s most important. Thank you for sharing your Halloween with us, Kathleen.
I miss cold MN Halloweens. The sound of leaves crunching under our shoes. The decorations out front was usually limited to a lit up pumpkin. I hated when it snowed because I had to wear a jacket, and no one saw my costume. I only had one costume and when I grew taller my mother would add more material to the bottom. Thanks for listening.
Christine, welcome to the comments section and thank you for sharing your Minnesota Halloween memories. Our moms were certainly creative in making do, weren’t they?
Happy Halloween and then Hello! November 🙂 Our little community goes all out for Oktoberfest which collides with the Halloween Festivities – golf cart parades, trunk and treats, going door to door, trick and treat downtown event, etc. There is no shortage of fun and candy and maybe a few scares and tricks. We did a quiet evening out by the firepit. Happy Day – Enjoy!
So much Halloween fun in your community. And then that lovely, quiet time by the firepit. Thank you for sharing your Halloween with us, Renee.