# How did it go?



## spinachetr (Nov 12, 2009)

Weather was great. Fog cooperated this year, but my coffin shaker died after 45 mins. Everything else worked flawlessly. Got probably around 600 TOTers, first at 5:45 and last around 8pm. Went through 500 full size Hersey bars in an hour and a half. Then another 5 pounds of fun sized treats in about 1/2 hour. I ran out and had to turn another 20 away. Insane.


----------



## im the goddess (Mar 10, 2012)

Wow, that's my greatest fear, running out of candy. I buy so much, but who would think you would run out when you had as much as you did. Wow!


----------



## StanFam3 (Oct 5, 2009)

I'm exhausted but very happy! We had a large turn out! Lots of fun was had.


----------



## OctoberDream (Aug 7, 2011)

We had about 50. Down from last year. 
But we made the best of it. My 14 yo and her friends helped me put on our 1st haunted house. The kids had a blast and that all that really matter. In fact the are all in my basement having an after party. As for me I am really tired. 
The house was a hit. the kids loved scaring the fathers as they went in with their kids. They had two dads scream like little girls.
The drop panel worked well.


----------



## sookie (Sep 19, 2010)

Pretty good considering the weather. Had about 30 trick or treaters. Was able to put some of my things out and only had to pull them in fast about 8pm when the thunder started.

We had a good time.


----------



## Terror Tom (Nov 3, 2008)

Only had about 10, weather killed it. Cold, rainy, and windchill down around 30.


----------



## Halloweeeiner (Sep 20, 2007)

weather was in the low 40s,high 40 mph wind with rain & snow but we managed to get around 40 TOTers, almost ran out of candy because I was giving them handfuls lol overall a good one I would say


----------



## WitchyKitty (Sep 20, 2012)

I only had 9 ToT's.  Now, we don't get too many to start with, usually, we get about 20-25...but only getting 9 tonight was kind of depressing. I have a lot of treat bags left over. The weather was just way too cold and windy. It was only in the 30's, with the wind making it feel like 20's, so many of the kids stayed home or went to the Mall ToT. At least the ToT's I did get had cute costumes, lol.
Sigh, oh well. Here's to next Halloween being better for those of us with crummy weather this year...for those of you who had good turnouts, awesome!!!
As for tonight, Happy Halloween, everyone!


----------



## NotTheBatesMotel (Sep 28, 2013)

It was great! We had around 30 which is a bit more than last year. Almost every person commented on how much they loved the house and the ghost projection. My son is only 2 so we just hung out in costume at home and handed out candy. Already looking forward to next year.


----------



## dbruner (Aug 23, 2012)

The weather was good here and I got to do something I haven't ever done - take a kid around my neighborhood trick or treating. I invited some friends and their nine year old for dinner and trick or treating in my neighborhood since they don't really live in one. The daughter's dad took her around a little but they were back in about 20 minutes, maybe because it was unfamiliar. I volunteered and had a blast visiting the other houses in the neighborhood. I've only ever gone to one other house on Halloween night, the other house in the neighborhood with a full yard set up. A lot of the houses at least had a pumpkin out and many of the people sat outside like I do to hand out candy. I invited them back for next year to do it again!


----------



## Madame Leota (Sep 19, 2005)

The wind died down around 5 which gave me just enough time to finish setting up. We had approx. 540 kids and had to turn out the lights at 8:40. Wish I'd bought one more bag and been able to stretch it to 9:00 but that's ok. I prepared for 500 and then a few extra and that's what I got. Other than the early shut-down, I'd say it was pretty close to perfect!


----------



## ooojen (Sep 4, 2014)

It was cold here too-- didn't get above the 30's all day, plus it was windy. We had candy just in case, but the little ones stayed away. (Older kids had parties to go to tonight, but came here to tour in the previous couple days.)
So DD and I followed our plans-- we put the display lights on, got ourselves warm fuzzy blankets, lit some candles, made popcorn and hot chocolate, and watched movies. It was nice!


----------



## Twiceshy (Sep 3, 2014)

I'm the only one on my block who ever decorates or has the light on for the trick or treaters but I have always had a good turn out. This year we went through 170 bags of candy the first hour and a half and had to go get some more. It all dies down around 9:30 and I was sure glad it did because by then we were tired, but everyone loved it and we had a blast!


----------



## ViennaMike (Oct 14, 2008)

Probably about 30, which is normal for us. Weather was fine and this year pretty much all the props worked. I had a new leaping spider from Spirit and I think it triggers off light changes, because people could walk right in front and it didn't trigger in the dark, but otherwise all was fine. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. Plus I have Fridays off, so that was perfect for setup.


----------



## goosta (Oct 30, 2009)

It went great for us this year. Weather was good aside from the wind at first. Luckily that died down at sunset so the fog didn't just blow alway. First kids didn't come till later...about 6:30. But we had about 200 kids this year, which was way up from the 50 we had last year. Lots of neighbors came by which was cool - we met lots of new people. Many times throughout the night the yard was packed with people, which was pretty cool to see. Had more "handsy" kids this year messing around with stuff, but most everything is wired in place, so it was okay. Just a little surprised, as normally they are pretty respectful. Definitely a great night though!


----------



## Madame Leota (Sep 19, 2005)

ooojen said:


> It was cold here too-- didn't get above the 30's all day, plus it was windy. We had candy just in case, but the little ones stayed away. (Older kids had parties to go to tonight, but came here to tour in the previous couple days.)
> So DD and I followed our plans-- we put the display lights on, got ourselves warm fuzzy blankets, lit some candles, made popcorn and hot chocolate, and watched movies. It was nice!


That actually sounds wonderful! That is how I plan to spend the rest of the weekend!


----------



## Regions Beyond (Sep 11, 2010)

Good night for trick or treaters (not many, thirty tops), rain stopped early in the day, had bit of an issue with a too-soft pumpkin that aged rapidly had to be replaced for the porch (we had 8 to start with thankfully, not carving the others yet) - but tomorrow is the 'big night' of the display in backyard for family, friends, neighborhood people and so on, amount attending unknown - but the forecast is clear starting mid-afternoon so all should be a go, electronics and lights not in danger of shorting out in rain as happened one year. For now, the pumpkin is still lit and back indoors, awaiting midnight or candle going out on own, whichever happens first - food to prepare and final items (cemetery, many bagged spiderwebs, electronic props, pumpkins, cornstalks down side of house, battery powered strobe lights, etc) to go out tomorrow in advance of 6:30 opening. Will post about how that all goes at some point....

Happy Halloween to all!


----------



## Brandonandkayla (Aug 29, 2010)

Weather seems the hot topic this year. Was way windy most of the afternoon. ..luckily it did die down a bit towards the evening. Still.enough to render my new chauvet 1200 and custom built chiller useless ugh! But other than that the haunt was great...over 200 tots.


----------



## Deadna (Oct 19, 2002)

COLD rainy windy  Down to 50 from 75 in previous years but all the kids were driven here and nearly all of them were new to seeing my decorations


----------



## Bam Bam (Oct 29, 2013)

Went very well, except we had a bad pumpkin.


----------



## Wonderland_Brownies (Aug 14, 2014)

Our night was fun! This year we had a little over 30 ToTers which is down a lot from the past two years, we usually get 50 - 60 kids. The weather was great and it was a Friday so I was expecting more, but the town's rec center and a couple churches all had things planned tonight. We still had fun, and hopefully we'll be able to get rid of all the extra candy at our party tomorrow night.


----------



## Boone6666 (Aug 22, 2014)

weather got good after noon and luckly stayed that way, had a late start with the trick or treaters and only about 35 40 witch seems strange since last 
year I had at least 70 so much candy left, was prepared for at least that, my mom only had one. batters ran out on most of my props before it really got 
started got to get away from those thing's sister and her hubby were here and we had Halloween carolers something different, everyone seemed to 
enjoy it the display. good that's what its for.


----------



## Scatterbrains (Nov 16, 2008)

Great weather...as a matter of fact we had great weather all month, so can't complain about that. Really had to bust some butt today to be ready for the ToTs and fortunately, we didn't get our first until after 6:30 (halloween is so much better in the dark...as is my haunt. Broke 300 on the ToT count for the first time..probably closer to 350, so things were more hectic than usual. I don't know how you guys do it when you get over 500 ToTs...I'd have to shut down the walkthru to get people to move along. Folks across the street got into it and had driveway games for the ToTs...it's nice to see others taking the extra step. Other than snapping the neck on one of my horses when putting it away, I'd say it was a pretty good night even so many things didn't get done or plugged in.


----------



## Icepick (Nov 24, 2013)

Went great from 6:00-9:00, then rain moved in and shut us down at 9:15. 500-700 ToT's. Every thing ran without issues, wind was light so fog stayed low. All in all, a great night.


----------



## Pumpkinprincess (Aug 8, 2007)

Our rainy/windy day delayed our set up, but we were ready for our first TOTer by 6:15. We had quite the traffic jam and had slightly over 400. This was down from last year, but with the weather and the fact it was homecoming, we are happy with the turn out. 

We were exhausted and started to bring in things at 9. Everything was broken down and back in the house by the time the pizza was delivered at 9:30. We take the weekend off to relax and allow props to dry out in the garage. Everything should be back in storage by next weekend.

Bittersweet, but of course we are already planning for next year!


----------



## spicybad (Jan 9, 2010)

We had a great night. The wind died down late afternoon for our Zombie Asylum walk thru garage maze. My daughter and her budding actress friends did a fantastic job being zombie nurses, insane patients etc. 10 people including my wife and I. (plus my dog in his favorite Lion costume)
My daughter was cut in half on an operating table, we had a "Hi-Rez Designs" Psych Ward video door, a dot room with an actor under a seperate piece of dot cloth to scare, but it was the good old Drop panel that worked the best i think. Two girls on the entry had clicker counters reading 266 at 8.30 when we decided to call it a night. We still had heaps of candy left but it had died down and ony a few missed out on the maze as they came too late.


----------



## CrypticCuriosity (Aug 18, 2012)

I have to say, I'm actually glad I was so busy with school this year. I didn't get to plan as much as I usually do, and that ended up making my night a lot more relaxing and less stressful or rushed. I didn't have to cook, most of the decorating was done, my make-up wasn't elaborate but still effective, and I had a nice night!


----------



## SkeleTom (Oct 5, 2007)

The forecast threatened to rain us out here, but it dried up around 2pm and stayed dry the rest of the evening, hurray! I chickened out on the fog and most of the outdoor lighting, but it was clean and dry enough to let people tour the Mad Scientist Lab. If it had been raining, forget it, too much mud.

We had somewhere in the range of 150 - 200, I would guess. Due to some miscommunication, we bought comically too much candy, but apparently went through about two thirds of it anyway. Better than than running out!

I enjoyed my new Mad Scientist getup, and the new lighting effects in the lab got lots of compliments.


----------



## SaltwaterServr (Jul 28, 2014)

Wind died down at the right time, maybe had 120 or so ToT's. Neighbors said it was waaaaay slow this year. The HOA did a hay ride, trunk or treat, and a church outside the neighborhood did an open party too that probably knocked our numbers down. I was hoping for more, but it is what it is. The open mouthed stares and numerous requests for photos made it 100% worth it.


----------



## Shockwave199 (Jan 18, 2007)

Rain chopped off two hours of the night. By 8pm it was over. We get stragglers all the way till almost 10 usually. I'd guess 40 tots which is way down from a high of 100 a couple years ago. I'm starting to think Friday and Saturday night Halloweens may not be the best of nights, like I thought they should be. Week nights it seems like that's all people do is tot. Weekend nights they do parties instead. Overall though, my girlfriend and I had a lot of fun with the handouts. And since I held back on all animatronics this year, it was stress free even when the rain came. So 2014 is in the books as being fun with lots of laughs and low stress.


----------



## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Teens left screaming, No little ones left in tears, and only 1 child refused to go at at all. 

All in all, we hit that balance just about perfect this year.


----------



## PMTT (Oct 13, 2013)

No haunt here to mand but it was a wonderful evening. Rain stopped, winds died down and it actually turned out to be a better halloween night than last year.


----------



## the_great_gazoo (Nov 6, 2005)

Great night, great weather great crowd.


----------



## nochevys (Aug 8, 2009)

It went great last night! 769 TOT'ers nice weather cool but dry and no wind. All props worked great. the only issue I had was my 1000w fogger quit about 2 hours into the night. Good thing I had 4 other foggers running. Very happy that was the worst of it.


----------



## IowaGuy (Jul 30, 2012)

stopped counting at 41. chilly night but no wind. Everything worked. A few things could have worked out better but I enjoyed my holiday. Happy Halloween everybody!!!


----------



## blowmoldcrazy (Jul 22, 2013)

Last night turned out pretty nice, good weather, barely any wind. I wish I got more TOT'ers, that would have made the night perfect, but overall everything was great


----------



## thumpingmoonlight (Jun 28, 2014)

The weather was actually beautiful here! I was outside carving pumpkins in the afternoon with a tank top on. It did get colder as the night went on though. Most of the kids in my neighbourhood are grown, so we only got about 15 TOT'ers, but the ones that did come loved my setup and several people told me we were the best house on the block. (Granted, no one else put up anything more than a pumpkin, but it's still nice to hear.) I like being outside to enjoy my lights, so I had a couple friends over and we dressed up and cuddled under blankets on the porch watching Goosebumps on my laptop until about 8 when we had to move it inside.


----------



## roach (Oct 30, 2013)

It turn out awesome no rain after all a bit chilly but thats ok everyone love the setup and got a lot of question about the amostfx ghost in my window . Fog was ok but a bit too much wind so it did not hang like i wish but thats fine . Im so building a fence for the cemetery next year to stop the kids from going in . All in all very happy tons of compliment and photos taken so im happy !!!


----------



## Mapleton Manor (Aug 2, 2014)

We had nearly double of what we have had in the past but our Halloween Display made the local news and people stopping said they had to come see it after seeing the news. Great fun.....a little chilly but the wind died right at TOT time so it was good.

Here is a video of last night that shows all we set up.

http://youtu.be/kzVQTbQJ4ew


----------



## Scary Firefighter (Sep 13, 2009)

Maybe 75-100 TOTs but I didn't really keep count. One thing we didn't have this year though was any large crowds gathering outside the house. Pretty much every year I've had a large group in the street "taking in" the haunt. What happens is that a few people hang out for a while, long enough for a few more to show up and then a few more and so on. Next thing you know you have 20-25 people (sometimes more) all out there together enjoying all the work I did. This year people just moved on after getting their candy and taking a few pictures. For a Friday I was surprised there wasn't more of a turnout but overall it was pretty decent. No ugly incidents with misbehaving kids (which can really ruin a whole night for me) and the props all worked fine. The front yard was cleared out last night but I have a bunch of stuff on the back deck that needs to be put away.


----------



## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

Our night went pretty well - we skipped a few things, mostly because we always bite off more than we can chew anyway, but nothing major was left out. One of our fog machines died and we were annoyed at that since it was the one we just bought, but we still had fog. The weather was decent though, and we still had around 100 kids even though we expected more since it was a Friday night. Agree with others who said that neighborhood events (trunk or treat, a local hayride) probably affected how many kids were out. 

One thing I'm happy with - we finished our display setup a little earlier than normal, and even though we still ran around doing last minute things, I had enough time to take pictures while it was still light out. We have two kiddos and it was our son's first Halloween, so I got some great shots of him & my daughter. Thrilled about that since in previous years, by the time I get out the camera it's often dark.


----------



## osenator (Nov 3, 2009)

We finally got some amazing weather. It was a bit cool, but eh, no rain or snow, or huge winds. Was the nicest weather in many years. Sadly, we got only around 200 kids, instead of the 500 we were expecting. Many family and cars skipped our haunt, as being too scary for them, but we still dazzled many, as in their own words "THIS IS THE BEST HAUNT EVER!"...


----------



## Great Pumpkin (Aug 23, 2007)

We had 95, which is about normal. I was not expecting this many due to it being really cold and windy out. Not many during the first hour, but from 7:00pm - 8:00pm is when the majority hit our area. Over all, a great turnout.


----------



## SpookyBlackKat (Sep 19, 2011)

We did 75-100 which is normal. The first group came way early, our lights were not on and we had not even eaten yet. It was a group of kids that were driven in and did not live in our neighborhood. There were 12 of them and when I opened the door they all ran inside my house! One of them grabbed one of my personal handbags and told me their mommy had the same one. I would have been furious if they were older but they were all 5-7. It frazzled me for sure. We sat outside with candy after that. Died off around 7:45 and the street was empty. My 2 year old had just gone to bed, all the lights were off and props were down when the doorbell starts going off after 9pm. I was enjoying a beer and refused to answer it.


----------



## Hallow's Eve (Oct 10, 2012)

Neighbor counted 262. Tons of compliments. Had to start dismantling around 8pm as the mother of all storms was 40 miles away. With the help of 3 nephews, my sister, my two kids, husband and I--was tearing the last couple stands of lights as the hail started to pound. Awesome Halloween storm--just wished it had held off. My house is trashed!!!


----------



## halloween71 (Apr 22, 2007)

Had the normal amount which is 40.Despite the weather and the minimal decorations.we are 3 miles off the main highway so im tickled.


----------



## TheEighthPlague (Jun 4, 2009)

About two hours into it, I relaxed enough to realize that the weather was actually pretty terrific. Cool and partly cloudy, not too windy. Just right, I'd say. But, being a Friday night, numbers were lower than we'd like to see. We had about 45, including friends and neighbors. Lots of compliments, scared the crap out of a few kids and a couple of adults.

We put stuff out way earlier than usual, so we were expecting more ToTs, but we had fun and our witches theme (first time) turned out great. One brave little boy approached the boiling cauldron (real cauldron, real fire) talking a big game of not being scared until I said, "Come in, come in, we'd LOVE to have you for dinner." He promptly left. Mu-hahaha-hahaha!


----------



## Saruman of Many Colours (Sep 8, 2010)

Our friends and their 4 year-old son arrived at 5:00 PM, and then we ordered pizza (and made a beer run too.) Just as we were finishing dinner, the first TOTs arrived about 5:30 PM.

Even though there are approx. 220 townhouses in our development, only a small fraction of those participate in handing out treats on Halloween (and even fewer decorate.) Without any doubt, ours was the most-decorated house in the neighborhood. Got a lot of compliments from kids (including a group of four preteens dressed as Ghostbusters, who said mine was the best house!  ) and parents alike.

Stepped out for a while with my friends to take our sons TOTing, so my mother-in-law answered the door. Don't have an exact count, but she said a lot of kids came to the door. (When I left, we'd already had 12, so based on the other groups I saw when walking around, maybe 30-35 total this year?)

My favorite TOT was a 4 or 5 year-old girl who came to our door with two older sisters and her parents. Gave her some candy and said, "I hope that my yard wasn't too scary?" She told me that she wasn't scared, then hopped down from our porch (a single step) onto the walkway -- but doing so activated the Haunted Hedge shaker that I'd placed in the rhododendron bush that I'd cut back (severely, to basically ankle-height) over the summer. She screamed and jumped sideways, as her father laughed.

Later, TOTs dwindled and our friends left a bit after 8:00 PM. Weather forecast was predicting rain and heavy winds overnight, so I started bringing everything into the garage at 8:30 and finished by 10:00, just as it started drizzling.

As I was starting to tear down, another neighbor walked up to take some photos of my yard display (and, more specifically, the breathing grave prop that I'd purchased from madmax. She even asked how it worked, so I gave her some candy too.)

Overall, the most fun I've had on Halloween since we moved to this house in 2009. That the weather cooperated was also a big plus.

Edited: Forgot to mention the 400W fogger that I'd bought four years ago, and never before had a chance to use. It seemed to work just fine when I first plugged it in and tested it; but by the time my friends arrived, it had crapped out on me. Wasn't expecting a lot from it, but so disappointing. When I've finished packing everything else away, I'll need to play around with it and try to troubleshoot . . .


----------

