Remember going trick or treating as a child? Children growing up in this pandemic won’t get to experience that normal event.

Halloween and the topic of trick or treating have been a major part in kids childhoods and continuing into their early teenage years. Many people, not even just children, look forward to the month of October for the pure excitement of ‘spooky season’. 

But with the COVID-19 pandemic that quickly engulfed the whole world, such activities like trick or treating are being altered or even sometimes ripped away resulting in these children missing out on their childhood years. Some concerns face the idea of how this Photo courtesy of pxfuel.com 

pandemic will overall affect businesses such as holiday themed stores like spirit Halloween as well as stores that sell candy that are having an immense decrease in sales and purchases of items.

As towns try and make events still occur while still making them enjoyable and safe, guidelines have to be set in place to ensure everyone’s health and safety. Relating to straight forward COVID-19 regulations, New Hampshire state officials have told people to stay home if you do not feel well to protect others from possible exposure. They also highly recommend wearing a mask whether you are handing out or receiving candy during trick or treating as well as maintaining social distancing and avoiding large gatherings or parties that tend to be popular during this time. Just like anything else, sanitation with hand sanitizer also never hurts to do and will be beneficial as an extra precaution. 

Some challenges come into play regarding the process of passing out candy. Human contact is trying to be very limited or avoided in general which is hard when reaching into a candy bucket is a sanitation problem but passing candy out is a social distancing issue. Although, even wearing gloves and masks still doesn’t guarantee the complete safety and non-exposure of everyone. 

This is why some people may be faced with needing to get creative during these hard times. Things such as creating a porch chute to slide the candy down to the children in the safest way possible or providing individually wrapped candy packages would be great during such an unprecedented time. 

WMUR’s website is very helpful in listing towns of NH in alphabetical order as well as listing the times trick or treating is available, the day it occurs and who is allowed to attend. For instance, Plymouth is listed as a town where door-to-door trick or treating is discouraged whereas Gorham’s is completely cancelled. Also towns like Auburn and Lincoln allow residents only. 

Trick or Treating of close towns and communities:

• Danville, Oct. 31, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

• Plaistow, Oct. 31, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

• Sandown, Oct. 31, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

• Raymond, Oct. 31, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

• Hampstead, Oct. 31, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

• Atkinson, Oct. 31, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Through these difficult times the holiday seasons may seem gloomy, but staying optimistic and following regulations will ensure not only yours but everyone’s safety and health as well. And also hopefully speed up the process of life going back to “normal”, or as close to normal as it can get.