David Lisso’s front yard contains a menagerie of scary Halloween creatures: a wolf that howls, a line of creepy clown heads and a ghost doll riding on a swing.
Only this year, he’s added a 10-foot-long chute that will deliver candy Saturday, Oct. 31, from his front door down to the person on the sidewalk in a contact-less, socially-distanced way.
He built the Rube Goldberg delivery ramp as a way to provide visitors with treats on Halloween, while allowing his daughter, Dani, 22, who has asthma and is at high-risk for the coronavirus, to safely participate in her favorite holiday.
“She can stay 10 feet away from the people and yet talk to them and still have fun. And everyone can stay socially distanced,” said Lisso, 48, who lives in Rancho Cucamonga.
For Halloween aficionados like Lisso, the COVID-19 pandemic has made them re-think the holiday, often in ingenious ways. Others are skipping trick-or-treating and carving jack-o’-lanterns at home. Non-crafty homebodies can ask Alexa to read them a ghost story or play a slasher movie on their home TV.
More than three-quarters of those surveyed by the National Retail Federation last month said the virus was impacting their Halloween plans. Only about 58% said they would celebrate, with the majority choosing stay-at-home activities such as decorating their homes with black and orange garland or dressing up their pets.
“Today, there are more options and more ways to experience Halloween and they are all safe,” offered Lance Zaal, founder and CEO of LA Ghosts. COVID canceled many of the company’s ghostly tours so it jumped on the virtual and home-based bandwagon.
An app called Junket gives you a step-by-step ghost tours to follow, while ghostflix delivers streaming or on-demand tours of 23 cities at $13 to $15 a pop. Many have ordered Lily, a physical doll designed after a murderous countess from the 1600s, Zaal said.
“If you want to scare your wife, girlfriend or boyfriend, put Lily in a purse or backpack,” Zaal suggested. “Or in a cabinet when they get up for a cup of coffee in the morning.”
If getting a fright doesn’t jack your lantern, the California Department of Public Health offers tamer alternatives such as: holding a candy scavenger hunt in your home, creating face masks to match your children’s costumes or preparing a Halloween-themed meal.
The agency has said people should not go trick-or-treating and limit mixing between different households. The department says gatherings of more than three households are prohibited in California (your own, plus a maximum of two other households).
Likewise, public health officials urge residents to avoid trick-or-treating and opt for other alternatives.
To be clear, trick-or-treating is not illegal, just not recommended in Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties.
“The county has not forbidden any activity,” said David Wert, a San Bernardino County spokesman.
However, the rules for trick-or-treaters are lengthy: Face masks and social distancing are required. And those giving out treats should leave them on a tray so that each person can pick up their own candy without rummaging through a bowl. If residents cannot take these precautions and many more, they should turn out the house lights and not participate.
For those celebrating Dia de los Muertos, the state recommends spending time at home with family. Altars should be placed inside the home, next to a window so others can view them from the outside.
It took every ounce of parental care for Brandi Mcleland-Lapp to say no to her kids, Meadow, 9, and Locksley, 8. The family usually goes trick-or-treating at a neighborhood in La Verne, she said.
“We figured we would stay home. At least we would know they are safe. I get nervous about other people’s boundaries,” she said.
Instead, she and her husband decorated the lawn of their Rancho Cucamonga home with a pirate ship and skeletons gazing into a crystal ball that lights up.
The couple will celebrate Halloween and their wedding anniversary on Saturday. In 2016, the pair married in Lytle Creek “where it’s kind of spooky,” Mcleland-Lapp said. She dressed as a nymph and the groom wore a “Phantom of the Opera” mask.
On Saturday, they’ll send candy down a PVC pipe from their door to the street as a way to safely celebrate during the pandemic. The idea of a skeleton on a dolly carrying a bucket of candy was scrapped when it kept crashing.
Claire Egger of Orange Park Acres near Orange picked up some full-sized candy bars from Costco and sent invitations to a few neighbors with young children. On Saturday, the chocolate treats will be laid separately on a bench about 9 feet from her door, she explained.
“A lot of us just want to make sure these kids don’t miss another moment,” she said.
Even though this Halloween is different due to COVID, children can handle the changes, said Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy and sociology at UC Riverside.
“Kids are resilient. They kind of roll with the punches,” he said.
Carpiano said parents can explain changes in Halloween celebrations as efforts to keep the community safe.
“It is a good teaching lesson for our kids,” he said. “We have to think about other people. We have a responsibility and a role to keep each other safe.”
Many have opted for drive-thru celebrating. Last week, the city of Corona hosted 350 carloads and more than 1,000 children who were handed goody bags at the City Hall parking lot.
“The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for Corona to get creative in reinventing some of our traditions,” said David Montgomery-Scott, library and recreation services director.
From 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Upland and the Upland Unified School District will post district and parent volunteers in masks at 13 campuses where they will hand out donated candy to trick-or-treaters in cars.
The event was organized in part by Shannan Maust, an Upland High School parent, who said kids doing distance learning are missing out on socializing at school and now on Halloween.
“Kids need emotional connections,” she said. “For a child to circle back and see their teacher or principal is an emotional connection.”
Whether kids are handling the absence of socializing or not, the lack of community involvement on Halloween is a hard lesson for grown-up Todd Schroeder of South Pasadena.
The sound of candy hitting the bags of little princesses and super heroes won’t be happening for the first time in many years at Schroeder’s house on tree-lined Diamond Avenue.
Though the modest home is decorated as a cemetery graveyard with black lights and creepy figures, there’s no haunted maze this year and signs posted on his lawn and others’ on the block reads: “Due to COVID-19 No Trick Or Treating.”
The Halloween-festooned home is located about a block from the house at 1115 Oxley St. where John Carpenter filmed the 1978 “Halloween” movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis.
Schroeder attracted 3,200 people last year on Halloween. Others in the block say they used to get about 2,000. But this year they are not blocking off the street to traffic so as not to encourage crowds and are strictly forbidding giving out candy.
“We have all the signs up saying there is no candy this year,” said neighbor Dan Randal on Monday, taking a break from watering his plants. “We don’t want to endanger the kids.”
If some people do come by, they can look and move on, Schroeder said.
“Overall, it is a big disappointment. It (COVID) has definitely dampened this year,” he said.
Trick-or-what? Here’s how the pandemic changed Halloween celebrations this year posted first on https://anaheimsignsorangecounty.blogspot.com
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