As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout the United States, families and children were forced to get creative with their Halloween traditions and celebrations. The CDC released some helpful tips for trick-or-treaters and their families at the beginning of the month of October, hoping to encourage fun on Halloween, while still keeping everyone as safe as possible. 

Along with the basics of wearing a mask, staying six feet apart from the next trick-or-treater, and using hand sanitizer after picking up any candy, many communities and neighborhoods have started their own traditions, and altered the Halloween experience in their own ways. 

Trunk-or-treating became one of the most popular alternatives to the normal door-to-door trips for kids. Free of contact with any doorbells or anyone else’s hands when taking candy, along with taking place outside, made this one of the safest ways to participate in the regular Halloween activities. 

Cars can be decorated in so many different ways, parked in a driveway, parking lot, or on the street, and costumed kids can take their own candy from the trunk. 

Another newly popular way to spread the Halloween spirit has been boo-ing. Being boo’d is more popular with neighbors because it is supposed to be an anonymous gift left on the porch of someone else. 

These boo packages can be filled with all types of candy and little gifts, and can even be paired with a ding dong ditch when delivering it. The packages can be disinfected before dropping them off, and there is not supposed to be any contact between people because it is anonymous, so boo-ing has become another safe tactic for delivering treats. 

While pumpkin patches and apple orchards are public places, they still can be kept low risk because there is a lot of space for families and groups to spread out. You can pick up your pumpkins from a safe distance and then bring them home and carve them, extending the Halloween festivities, but in the safety of your own home. 

Most unusual, though, has been the recent idea of using PVC pipes as a way to deliver candy to the kids that still arrive on the porches or walkways of houses. These “candy chutes” can be attached to the door or a window of the house, and the trick-or-treater stands on the opposite end, holding their bag and waiting for their treat to drop in. 

While it is not the most traditional way to hand out candy, it is definitely the most creative, and it gets the job done without having to come into contact with any other person. 

This year, amongst the craziness that the pandemic has brought, many people were not hopeful Halloween would happen, but they still tried to make it as normal as possible, and their creativeness helped to keep the spirit of Halloween alive.