Many people’s plans since March have been getting canceled or postponed, but did anyone think trick or treating would be too?

Trick or treating has been around for over 100 years and has become one of Halloween’s most popular activities. Many kids look forward to going out in their costumes and receiving candy, but this year’s trick or treating will be a little different. The CDC does not want to cancel trick or treating completely, but they want to handle it in a safe way. The CDC has come up with many different ways to celebrate Halloween without putting others or yourself at risk. 

The CDC has put a new twist on trick or treating to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The CDC suggests “participating in one-way trick-or-treating where individually wrapped goodie bags are lined up for families to grab and go while continuing to social distance.” This will prevent people from ringing the doorbell and digging in the bowl of candy, which could spread many germs. If people are planning to hand out candy, they have to prepare goodie bags and must wash their hands before and after touching the bags. In addition, the candy bags must be placed in a way so people can avoid face-to-face contact. 

Some other festivities people have done in the past, but are now considered high risk, are attending costume parties, going to a fall festival in a different community, trunk or treating and many other festivities. People can still participate in these festivities, but they will just need to be modified. Many people do trunk or treating for Halloween, which is trick or treating but out of trunks of cars instead. For trunk or treating, people can space out the trunks, have pre-packaged goodie bags and make masks required. For people wanting to have a costume party, they could make it outdoors with everyone spaced out and masks on, or even make it virtual. The modifications of these festivities may not be the way they were in the past, but at least people can still celebrate Halloween.

If these festivities seem a little too risky, there are safer ways to celebrate Halloween. A few activities that will not put you at risk of getting COVID-19 are having a virtual Halloween costume contest, a scavenger candy hunt around the house with family, carving pumpkins and having a movie night with people in the household. This way people will not have to expose themselves to more people, and then it will not increase their chances of getting COVID-19. No matter what the situation is, there is still a safe way for everyone to celebrate Halloween. Enter at your own risk.