We wanted to do something fun and trick-or-treaty for the kids for Halloween. The problem is that we didn’t know where to go. Different cities do different things for Halloween. In Aberdeen, SD, door-to-door is still common, as is going from business-to-business downtown during the afternoon. In Minneapolis, very few kids go door-to-door anymore. It is mostly a dead custom, as everyone goes to the malls or churches.
We didn’t know what it was in LA, and didn’t know enough people to ask. The best information I heard was about some neighborhoods that get all dolled-up for Halloween and focus on a trick-or-treating experience. Parents drive from all around to go there. Unfortunately, the people I asked didn’t have young children themselves, so they didn’t know precisely where such a neighborhood was. Sadly, our gated community wasn’t one, as we didn’t see any kids walking around. We looked on the internet.
We found that there’s an anything-goes costume parade in West Hollywood. Sounded exciting, but definitely not kid-friendly. Another article said that there is a family-friendly event going on in Hollywood right on Hollywood Blvd. We envisioned that it might be something similar to downtown Aberdeen, where the businesses hand out a little candy but with 100,000 people attending instead of 100.
When we arrived, there were a lot of people. I don’t know if it was 10,000 or 100,000, but it was a lot. There was no official event, so the street was open and the sidewalks were overflowing.
We spent about 2 hours there, but only scored one piece of candy for each kid. Sadly, the stores were generally not handing out candy. It was so full of people that in two hours, we only walked down and back one block. It was overall a disappointment, since we weren’t so interested in just walking around and looking at people’s costumes. But the kids did get one or two good memories.
We got to see a lot of super heroes, like Elmo, Super-Man and others. Julian saw a Mickey Mouse statue sitting on a little bench and wanted to have his picture taken.
On the way home, we stopped at Winchell’s donuts for the kids, so they could have something to eat for Halloween.
Here are the pictures from that interesting night:
