# Trick or Treat numbers 2015



## tjc67

I didn't find a thread for this year so thought I'd start it off. 

We got 58 Tots plus my 2 nephews for a total of 60. So I guess we'll be emptying the 40 leftover candy bags this morning and our little neighbor girls will be getting all the leftover stickers.

I was hoping for more but considering how windy it had been all day, not surprised.


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## heresjohnny

76, up from 42 last year.


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## grumpy2076

we had over 3000+ this year.


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## Pumpkin5

:jol:This year 454, I am estimating though. I made 380 TOT bags and when we ran out of those I had 25 little 'not so great' bags and then when those were given out, individual candy a few pieces to each TOT'er, and at the last, 50 tootsie pops. First year that I actually ran out of candy. :undecidekin:


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## bobzilla

Wow, that's awesome!
Congrats!!! 



Pumpkin5 said:


> :jol:This year 454, I am estimating though. I made 380 TOT bags and when we ran out of those I had 25 little 'not so great' bags and then when those were given out, individual candy a few pieces to each TOT'er, and at the last, 50 tootsie pops. First year that I actually ran out of candy. :undecidekin:


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## iowachap

3k? LOL WOW, dont think we touched that, one neighbor said they hit 400 when they ran out of candy, and we always have tons of candy so we saw the neighbors turn off their lights around us as we continued on for a couple more hours so not sure on the exact count, but over 400 great night.


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## waldiddy

dozens and dozens and dozens .... at one point, my front yard was full of people.


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## Rahnefan

7. As in, SEVEN. Like my props? Make me an offer.


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## tarpleyg

I didn't get a count but we certainly handed out more candy this year that ever. Almost 20 pounds and I was being conservative only handing out 3-4 pieces per ToT.


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## mikeythemars

Around 230, which was good given the numbers around here are generally low when Halloween falls on a weekend, because we are competing with private parties. Also, given I am in the NYC area the World Series game was definitely depressing turnout; the groups were smaller than normal and consisted of a lot more Moms than Dads. The only thing working in our favor was the weather here was the first dry, very little to no wind one we have had in four years.

As I have mentioned previously in other threads here, attendance at 10/31 haunts in my area is always best when Halloween falls on a mid week school night (Monday through Thursday).


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## BloodyWendigo

Over the years the TOT's in our neighborhood have been going down. They're all either grown up now or foreigners who don't celebrate the holiday. It doesn't help that most of my own family besides my myself and others in the neighborhood drive to the bigger neighborhoods east of us, where there's way more kids. 
However, I would say that I was reasonably impressed this year. There's another haunter that lives right behind me, and he had a party this year. He actually told everyone going through his garage haunt to stop by mine, so imagine my surprise when a 50-person line showed up! 
Overall, I think we had about 70-ish TOT's and then the adults from the party that came over, so around 100. A couple people showed up early with the ads I put out around the neighborhood in hand! Great year, first of many haunts to come!


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## Lightman

We had 825 kids. My wife keeps careful count.


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## Hairazor

31 and lots of slow drive bys


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## RoxyBlue

We gave out 80 glow bracelets (my preferred method of keeping rough count) and some folks didn't take one, so we had at least 90. Adding in parents of little ones and people who stopped by just to see the display, we were easily over 100. That's a good number for us because it allows time to chat with our visitors and enjoy the evening.


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## Otaku

About 150 this year, not bad, but about half of our all-time high. Like BW said, many of the kids have all grown up in our neighborhood (been haunting here for fifteen years). Only a few screams - I got to raise the scare bar next year!


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## infestdead

24 which is 3 more than last year so good year


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## stars8462

Around 45 - half of what we had last year.


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## Haunted Bayou

I don't know exactly how many, but it was probably close to 200. Lots of bands of roving, surly teens this year. The neighborhood is growing up, and there has been a lot of house sales recently. There was also some church activities that took away some treaters. I dunno, the atmosphere wasn't as festive as in the past.


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## IMU

Had 265 in 2hrs ... all the time that is allowed by town rules. Not the best turnout but didn't put out any notice of the display either. Last minute display was a hit though.


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## Lightman

RoxyBlue said:


> ... That's a good number for us because it allows time to chat with our visitors and enjoy the evening.


I agree with you Roxy...it gives you time to talk.

It got so busy that when friends would start chatting, we had to move them aside as the line for candy got quite long.

I joked with the parents and told them that they can go online next year and get a "fast pass"...and go straight to the front of the line...LOL. It got some chuckles.


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## Haunt Master

I got a rock.........
Had 4 this year, none under the age of 15-16....
I've lost the spirit to do full yard set-ups a couples years back because nobody comes.


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## The-Hog-Flu

I only had 5 trick or treaters but I had a ton of folks stopping in front of the house to take pictures and walk the yard. Those 5 kids were the 1st kids ever to stop......so yeah, progress


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## Richie4540

Down under here, we got about 250 - 280 not sure as we lost count, we had made about 150 good lolly bags based on the previous year when we had 100 bags and were left with about 10.

The 150 bags went within 30 minutes and we were left scrambling making up more and eventually gave up and just poured all the spare candy into a basket and let the tots take a couple of pieces each, we also had guests for dinner and they brought a heap of extra candy and our neighbours brought over a big bag of candy to help out during the night as they had a lineup of people extending past their gates. 
We had a great night and the tots finished by 8.30 which left us to entertain our dinner guests.


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## goneferal

I had 34 happy TOTs plus lots of parents. There were several group photos in front of the cemetery.


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## jabberwocky

Stopped counting after 1000.
Estimating between 1200 and 1300.
It was a great year!


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## Spooklights

About 250 or so. Down from an all time high of over 350 last year. It was a great night, though.


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## gypsichic

About 65.....I'm curious though how some of you reach such high numbers with yard displays - full on walk thrus I can see.
We had lots of compliments & photo ops which was cool!


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## Richie4540

we dont advertise at all, but we live on a corner of a busy road that feeds a lot of houses, so building the entrance gate on Friday acted as a billboard and got the people to come, alot of people were walking from nearby houses, but heaps also arrived in cars, so I am guessing that because its still not a huge deal here in Aus the people that came by car were just cruising around the area looking for houses that are done up. The couple of streets that we connect to with houses have a few families that dress up their houses but I would guess that its less than 10% of houses that do Halloween. 
the ones that do have fun though


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## The-Hog-Flu

I live on a backwoods country road so I don't expect any kids. I was thrilled to get 5! 
Word of mouth has brought more and more visitors with each year. I get mostly folks who stop throughout the month to take picks and walk the yard.


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## hedg12

Rahnefan said:


> 7. As in, SEVEN. Like my props? Make me an offer.


Precisely the reason I don't do much anymore. Not as much fun when there isn't anyone to appreciate it.


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## Hauntiholik

267


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## jdubbya

We had 460 candy bars which were gone. We figure between 600-650 went through the haunt. Best year yet. Numbers are one thing but it was just a perfect Halloween; gorgeous weather, appreciative tot's and parents, everything worked like it was supposed to. Couldn't ask for better!


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## Sblanck

Around 150 I think? We have a young neighborhood and my wife commented that she saw at least two large vans drive in and drop kids off from other neighborhoods. I was pleased.


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## Night Watchman

We had just over 270 ToTs. We were into our fourth box of 90 chocolate bars by the end of the night. It was a very fun night.


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## Pumpkin5

Rahnefan said:


> 7. As in, SEVEN. Like my props? Make me an offer.


:jol:I'd rather have 7 than really took their time and enjoyed every detail of my haunt, than 500 that move through like cattle.


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## mroct31

We had hundreds of kids and adults. It's funny everyone will tell me they don't see hardly anyone on the other streets near us so it makes me wonder where do all the people who come to my house go?


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## hfed

damn. We had 120 bars which were gone pretty early, like 7:30.

I had to call my parents & one of my friends to bring backup candy!


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## Rahnefan

Pumpkin5 said:


> :jol:I'd rather have 7 than really took their time and enjoyed every detail of my haunt, than 500 that move through like cattle.


I hear you, but the juice is no longer worth the squeeze. All the buildup and preparation, just to be bored and lonely on your favorite night of the year. Until my neighborhood gets more kids in it and trunk-or-treats stop strangling traditional Hallowe'en, this witch finder is making a new plan.


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## alewolf

Very low, maybe 50. Not sure that is even accurate. Really bad weekend, heavy rainstorms in at 3am Saturday and then another heavy downpour around 730 pm. Lost a projector and not sure how many props. Regular 20 plus mile winds with lots of rain for the week in front. Halloween Things started falling down etc, had some tombstones actually break in half from wind and many of them actually had the rebar rip through them as they blew loose.


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## Death's Door

We have 210 TOTers and 5 four-legged TOTers (dogs). The dogs got a pack of pupperonis and are always dressed in costumes.


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## RoxyBlue

^Forgot to mention the dogs! We had five as well, three of whom were in costume. We keep Milk Bones at hand for doggy ToTs.


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## shmork

We didn't keep up a count but I think we got somewhere between 2,500 to 3,000 TOT's this year. We also learned that, if we don't want the plants on our parkway strip trampled that we need to put up some sort of tape or fencing next year!


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## dynoflyer

Between 125 and 150. Less than our max but the weather was mild and we're only a mile from downtown Salem, MA where they had an estimated 100k revelers over Fri and Sat. We didn't get the usual middle school crowd later in the evening, I think they all tricked their parents into letting them go to Salem.


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## Rahnefan

shmork said:


> We didn't keep up a count but I think we got somewhere between 2,500 to 3,000 TOT's this year.


Good gravy man. Are you, in fact, Rob Zombie? WTF...you guys and your thousands. That's a large candy bill though so good for you.


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## MapThePlanet

We had 196 kids. Felt pretty good....I think it would have been a better turn out if the World Series had a different team than the Royals!! City was all a buzz with it....Can't complain, we were up a few from last year...oh yeah, and the Royals WON!!!


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## Nevar

Not sure. My wife and a few other friends usually help. This year I did it all my self. Got my first tot around 1 PM, while I was still adding the finishing touch. Rats, spiders, guts, ETC.
My yard is a walk thru. My motion props are activated by wireless remote that I have in hand. So I was real busy. By the time wife got home from work @ like 4 pm I had at least 200 +.
Then we got hit. anywhere from 5 to 20 at a time [ younger ones with parents] every 5/15 minutes. Our last hit was around 8:00 pm. Figured we had another 3/4 hundred.
I love doing it, I love the looks on there faces when one of my boobie traps gets them. This year I,m proud to say at 65 yrs old. I built and set up everything myself.


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## Headless

We were absolutely thrilled with our 225 - at $5 each that was a really cool $1125 raised for our local Scouts. Very happy.


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## SPOOKY J

We had 273 Tots. It got really crazy at one point. I really have to look into more of a walk through. I got a couple nice notes in my mail box from some kids that loved the singing pumpkins.


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## shmork

Rahnefan, I wish we were Rob Zombie! No we just happen to live in a neighborhood that goes out big for Halloween. The police block off several streets for trick or treaters and kids swarm the neighborhood from everywhere. Yeah, our candy bill gets a little high. We offset by throwing a party and having friends bring a bag or five to help out.


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## JJhaunter

My first year and I had 105.


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## MansionHaunter

Pretty bad this year, only 81 instead of the usual 125-150. I blame the torrential downpour.


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## highbury

We actually had no rain for the first time in 4 years, so the kids came out in hordes. We had 342 in 2 hours this year, which is a record.

My heart goes out to everyone who only had single digit turnouts...


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## scareme

From the toys we had counted out we had 883. I never trusted candy because the helpers usually throw off that number. And you're right Rhnefan, at .50 per tot that's $500 when you are planning around 1,000. But counting parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, I know we had over 1,000 go through the yard. As several people have mentioned, you don't get to visit much with those numbers. This year I only had two helpers so those two never got a break the whole night. Our last stragglers showed up about 10:00. 
Rick let me sit on the "Island" all night and explain the story. With over 1,000 visitors, only 2 people knew the story. If I was looking for a unknown haunt, I found it. But I didn't have one complaint about using dolls. Well, one, but she didn't count. She was family. Oh, and lost count of dogs. But we went through a red solo cup of biscuits .


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## Troll Wizard

_*Ended up with only 27 this year, mainly because of heavy rains that started at 5pm and quit around 9:30pm. I mean, what can you do? After the rains stopped, it cleared up and weather was perfect but too little, to late!*_


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## corey872

Started with 10-12 ToT's a dozen years ago..built that up slowly over the years as the haunt expanded. Raked in 24-ish last year....

This year....FIVE ...one group of 3 then about an hour and a half later, one group of 2.

Not sure what to attribute it to...it was very nice weather. A bit cool, but nothing out of the ordinary, no rain. We had the lights up and on for the latter half of the month, so you would think 'word of mouth' would get around some. Plus a house across the street puts on a pretty big show - also had their lights on most of the whole month. Heck - our two houses combined put out enough fog to make a notably dense cloud covering dozens of square blocks...but only 5 kids!

Our local baseball team (GO Royals!) was in a World Series game that night (and eventually WON the series!!) - so maybe kids like baseball more than candy? Maybe instead of a haunt I should have made a 20ft video screen and piped the channel out to that?!?!

I feel punched in the gut now, especially since I was hoping for a big, stupendous, amazing "Saturday" Halloween. Sure I will feel better come October 2016...though will have to wait and see if the (ugh...) Monday Halloween is any better.


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## jdubbya

I truly feel bad for you guys who put up nice haunts/displays and only get a handful of kids to admire them. I know many of us say we "decorate for our own enjoyment" but I do it for the crowds of kids we get every year. If we only got a few kids, I would do very little. The throngs of TOT's are my incentive and fuel to keep doing the big haunt. So many of you put so much work and creativity into your Halloween. Sad that more don't get to enjoy it.


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## corey872

jdubbya said:


> I truly feel bad for you guys who put up nice haunts/displays and only get a handful of kids to admire them. ...


Thanks to you and others who have expressed the same sentiment. I don't know if I fall into the "nice display" group - but I appreciate it none the less.

I guess it is a double edged sword, too. I feel for those who get swamped unexpectedly! A week or so before Halloween the local paper ran a story on a home haunter. For a split second, a cold shiver rand down my spine because I thought it might be the house across the street...the though of the publicity leading to possibly multiple hundreds of kids showing up, and us maybe having to turn some away when the candy ran out was not appealing either!


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## jaege

Lost count at 350, but I blame it on being a Saturday. I don't normally get that many. Maybe 200.


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## David_AVD

Richie4540 said:


> ... but I would guess that its less than 10% of houses that do Halloween. (in Australia)


I reckon it would be more like 1% judging by the numbers around us.

No advertising here. I only started putting up the display a couple of days beforehand and the major bits only went up on the day.

This was my first year and I got about 7 or 8 groups (usually 2-3 kids per group). It was fun to do and I'd say we'll get more visitors next year, especially if I have the lights running for the week before.


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## wrascal

As we live in a small village of about 3500 people, advertising in the local paper, posters, and word of mouth really helped our turnout. We got lucky and the light rain we had for days cleared off as well as the wind. We were running about 10 life size animatronics, numerous small ones, props, 6 mannequins, 7 live costumed people, and 9 fog machines. The fog machines made a solid white haze for the 150 kids and maybe 100 adults that came through. We scared more than a few teens and adults, so it turned out excellent and we are looking forward to next year.

Russ and Susan Rowe


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## Johnny Thunder

Our usual 50 to 75 which wasn't bad. Had a lot of fun and some scares.


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## goneferal

I just found last year's count of 25 so this year we had ten more!


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## MPR_Dan

We got about 200 last year, which was our biggest year yet. Before we started 30 TOT's was an average Halloween.


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## screaminscott

416 last year for Stonehaven Manor!


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## The_Caretaker

only 120 TOTs in 2015


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## stick

I had about 60 I say in 2015 down from last year of 70/80. But still way more than the first year of 3.


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## wandererrob

Lost Lake Cemetery saw its best year yet with roughly 200 poor souls shambling through the cemetery gates, up from last year's best at ~100. A HUGE turnout for my out-of-the-way neighborhood. This year along with the usual email and Facebook posts, I also printed a few fliers and posted them on the community boards at the local grocery stores. I imagine the Saturday TOTing helped a lot too. 

We had a great night. The Gravekeeper even collected a few lost costume pieces as they ran screaming. I've never had "trophies" before!


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## GothicCandle

I planned 2015 to be my best year yet, I rented a duplex with a garage and yard for the purpose and put a ton of work into it. 2015 was my worst Halloween ever. I was shocked to find out that, apparently, my neighborhood is completely ignored. I had no kids, a few teenagers who actively refused to look at my haunt as they were discussing how many houses they could go to in the shortest amount of time and two awesome gothic adults who, when no one came to their door to trick or treat decided to go themselves. My mom, who's house I normally have my haunt got several hundred, as normal.


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## jdubbya

GothicCandle said:


> I planned 2015 to be my best year yet, I rented a duplex with a garage and yard for the purpose and put a ton of work into it. 2015 was my worst Halloween ever. I was shocked to find out that, apparently, my neighborhood is completely ignored. I had no kids, a few teenagers who actively refused to look at my haunt as they were discussing how many houses they could go to in the shortest amount of time and two awesome gothic adults who, when no one came to their door to trick or treat decided to go themselves. My mom, who's house I normally have my haunt got several hundred, as normal.


That's really sad to hear since you put so much into it. Do you plan to go back to your mom's next year?


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## GothicCandle

jdubbya said:


> That's really sad to hear since you put so much into it. Do you plan to go back to your mom's next year?


Maybe. I am waiting to hear back from a local non-profit. I gave them a proposal to design and run a pro haunt for them. I was told I'd hear back from them near/around the end of this month or beginning of next month. Some members of the board were quite excited about the idea while others were hesitant so I'm not sure what I will be told.


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## corey872

Sorry to hear the news. Our neighborhood has been hit/miss on different years, even though I'm in the same location. I use the 'hit/miss' loosely...24 ToT's was a grand-slam year... 5 last year.

I can't believe someone hasn't beaten me to the punch, but you'd have to wonder - are there no apps out there or 'Google Maps Halloween View' to show which neighborhoods are ripe for ToTing and which are 'dead' zones...and not in the 'good way'? You'd likely have to get some advertizing / word of mouth going for the thing to be popular, but conversely, you'd have 9 months to pull it off. Possibly an ad in the local paper, or spot on TV as next Halloween draws near? 

Though be careful - I've always considered it a bit of a double edged sword...having multiple hundreds of kids show up would be unmanageable, at least traffic wise for me.


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