Everyone thought of Halloween as the holiday where they get to go out, get free candy, and dress as their favorite character, until this year. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic decided that this year’s Halloween would be a hit or miss. A lot of cities like Los Angeles, California, Auburn, Alabama, and Chicago, Illinois discouraged their residents from going trick or treating this year. These cities were seeing a fast increase in cases and thought that the kids who were going out would spread the pandemic even more.
Other States created a fun way to hand out candy. Since kids who were trick or treating needed a non-contact, or 6 feet apart way, of handing out their candy, citizens of these different states started to create chutes and baggies to hand out the candy.
The Candy chutes were made from all types of materials like cardboard tubes, plastic tubing, and even metal tubes. People would decorate their tubes with cute little halloween designs and stick them out of their windows, doors, and even balconies. A few of the designs that were big during Halloween were mummy tubes, where the tube was wrapped up with toilet paper or white ribbon with little mummy arms on the end by where the candy exits the tube. Another candy chute tube I saw that was cute was a tube painted orange with Christmas lights on it so it lit up at night. Both of the tubes were so adorable and followed the state rules of maintaining social distance while having fun on a spooky night.
Not only were the tubes a big hit this year for non-contact trick or treating but the candy bags were too. I saw a lot of people in West Caldwell doing the baggie option. They filled bags with popular halloween candy like twix, snickers, m&ms, skittles, etc, and left them on a table so that people could come by and take a bag. They did not have to open the door or interact with anyone when doing this. It was also a big way to keep non-contact trick or treating going. The only concern that people had with this way of handing out candy was that they sometimes got kids who would take all the bags and leave none for other trick or treaters.
This year’s Halloween had been a shock to us all since most people thought that this awful pandemic would be over by then. Even with the Halloween cancellations and socially distanced trick or treating, there were beautiful costumes worn and happy little kids who got their candy. It showed that even during a pandemic, good things can happen.
