A COVID-Safer Halloween 2020
How are you and your family? If you have children and are supervising their remote or hybrid learning, you are probably exhausted and frustrated. We could all use some festive celebration. These kids have been through enough, so let’s give them an awesome, safer Halloween. Trick-or-treating is usually outdoors and “masked.” However, the CDC and some local authorities are recommending against trick-or-treating. What should you do?
As with most decisions these days, you need to balance the risks and benefits for your family. Do you have any high-risk family members (elderly, obese, immune-compromised)? What is the prevalence of COVID-19 infection in your area (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map)? What are the laws and public health orders in your area? Does your neighborhood have sidewalks that allow for distancing or would you need to go up and down elevators or other crowded spaces? Will your kiddo keep that mask on?
Here are some options:
· The safest option is a celebration in your home or yard with just your household members.
o Go all out: Dress up, decorate, blast the music.
o Watch an age-appropriate Halloween movie.
o Zoom with friends and family, if you like.
· Drive or walk around to look at neighborhood decorations. Better to do on the day before or after halloween to avoid trick or treat traffic.
· Pumpkin patch or apple picking. With masks.
· Have a small, outdoor gathering of 10 or fewer people with masks.
· Arrange with a group of friends and neighbors to do distanced, masked trick or treating.
o Agree to wear masks (surgical or cloth, not costume) and set treats out in a way that allows for spacing.
o Recommend staggering times by age group of youngest child in the family to decrease crowding. For example: Under 5 year-olds trick or treat 5-6 pm, 5-10 year-olds trick or treat 6-7pm, over 10 year-olds trick or treat 8-9pm.
o Individually wrapped treats, of course. Make them as good as you can. Glow sticks and King-sized candy bars? Sounds good.
o Candy chute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tJ8GZB0U3I or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojdpQWxOCpE
· Nextdoor has an app, but that may be more open than a small neighborhood group. https://blog.nextdoor.com/2020/10/01/nextdoors-treat-map-is-back-with-new-features-for-a-safe-halloween/
· Avoid indoor celebrations or groups of over 10 people.
· Halloween, All Saints Day and El Día de los Muertos have religious significance for some families, so they may have special virtual or outdoor celebrations with their family and religious communities.
What is my family doing? We went all out with decorations. Think 12-foot inflatable pumpkin plus a skeleton-strewn graveyard. A neighbor has arranged a trick-or-treat map for our neighborhood of families who agree to masks and distancing. We will double check the local laws, orders and COVID-19 prevalence in our zip code. We will dress up and mask up, then trick-or-treat. We will respect whatever time frame the neighborhood group agrees to. We will only walk with members of our household. We will not enter anyone’s home or even go to their door. We will build a Trick-or-Treat chute. We will make a yard sign saying, “No mask, no candy” and put up soccer cones to show kids where to wait.
On a more serious note, we are in a pandemic that has been deadly and mismanaged. Most schools in my area are still closed, while bars are open. I acknowledge my family’s privileged position in our neighborhood with sidewalks and neighbors we know, being able to afford the decorations, and being healthy. My above plan may change before October 31st, depending on the local situation. However, an awesome Halloween can still be had with some old sheets and spooky dance music.
So make it a great, safer Halloween, whatever that looks like for your family. And Vote.
