Every year I look forward to Halloween because our neighborhood is a such fun place for Trick-Or-Treaters. Many neighbors pass out candy and offer special decorations or entertainment.
Our tradition is to host a driveway party that brings the neighbors together. We use a giant movie screen to show the classic Charlie Brown Halloween Special and we serve hot chocolate and cookies to about 300 neighbors and friends. After the first year, we started serving water, too. It turns out that kids (and parents) get hot and thirsty from all the trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.
Our house is often used as a gathering place for Trick-Or-Treaters to meet-up with each other. For example, I’ve overheard people saying on their phones, “We’re at the Charlie Brown House. Come meet us here!” Others use our house as a half-way point. They’ll meet up at someone else’s house, meander their way to our house on one side of the street, and then visit the homes on the other side of the street on the way back.
It’s been fun to see the neighborhood kids come back every year. We first saw many of them when they were shy little ones who clung to their parents. Then we watched them mature into fun loving teenagers who were “OMG! SO EMBARRASSED!” to be out Trick-Or-Treating with their grown-ups.
I’ve thought about showing other videos, but I always come back to Charlie Brown. It’s what a lot of parents grew up with and they like the nostalgia. The only exception to Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and the rest of the Peanuts Gang was back in 2010. That year, we showed the live broadcast of the SF Giants winning Game 4 of the 2010 World Series. It was so fun to cheer on the Giants to victory with our neighbors on our driveway. Go Giants!
If you want to check this out next Halloween, contact me and I can give you details.