Despite what you may have been taught growing up, taking candy from strangers’ vehicles is becoming the new go-to for parents during the Halloween season.

Safety has been a major concern of parents for ages, especially around the spooky season. Reactive tape, lights, and GPS tracking are all solutions that parents have attempted to utilize in order to minimize the risk of harm while their children indulge in Halloween activities. However, a more recent strategy could include cutting out trick-or-treating all together.

Touted as a safer version of trick-or-treating, trunk-or-treat is often held by churches and youth groups during the weeks leading up to Halloween, dating all the way back to the 1990s. This event sees people gather in an open space, typically a parking lot, and go around collecting candy from the trunks of other people’s cars. For parents, the idea of a more structured Halloween event may be perfect for their children, but for others, it could be ruining the holiday spirit.

“People aren’t as encouraged to decorate their houses,” Marueen Hulburt, a senior at State High, said. “I think it’s one of the most fun parts of Halloween driving around and seeing all the decorations.”

Driving down a street and seeing little to decorations can kill the Halloween vibe completely, swaying possible trick-or-treaters to change the neighborhoods they walk or just skip the activity as a whole. 

While ghouls, ghosts, and goblins may scare children, the parents are only scared by one thing during the Halloween season—neighbors.

According to a study held by Pew Research Center, nearly 57% of Americans said that they knew their neighbors only a little bit or not at all. Additionally, 58% of Americans say that they have never met their neighbors for parties or get-togethers.

Danielle Crowe, a teacher at State High and mother, gave her insight on neighborhood friendliness.

“In my neighborhood, we really value seeing each other,” Crowe explained. “Everybody knows each other pretty well, and even if we go to trunk-or-treat type of things, we still will go around our block because they like to see each other. The fun part for us is like seeing the neighbors that we know. I would not be very motivated to go if I didn’t know any of them.”

Parents may not be comfortable with their kids knocking on the doors of complete strangers, so rather than getting to know their neighbors, they bring their kids to organized events to give them a more sedated version of Halloween. Instead of getting to explore their neighborhood with friends while running around in costumes, kids just shuffle around to different cars for 30 minutes while being escorted by their parents.

Whether it’s hosting a get-together, calling on the phone, or just starting a conversation when crossing paths, getting familiar with the people in your neighborhood and strengthening the local community will allow for more neighborhood-wide events like trick-or-treat to take place smoothly.