Halloween is here, and communities are doing it a little differently

Saturday, 27 October 2018

Alyson Howell is ready to go Trunk n Treating next week.

Forget trick-or-treat, the US trend of 'trunk-or-treat' has reached New Zealand.

Rather than children going door-to-door looking for sweets (or tricks), community members load up their car boots with lollies and have a party in a central area instead.

The Auckland suburb of Pakuranga's Cession Community Church has been hosting a trunk-or-treat party since 2015.

'I had a lot of caregivers ask me, 'so what do we do about Halloween?'' Cession Community chair Brett Jones says.

* Send Halloween back to where it belongs

* Halloween is here to stay in New Zealand**

'We wanted to create a Halloween that was safe (and) included people that actually wanted to participate so we thought up the idea of decorating our car boots because boots are a Kiwi thing.'

The first party hosted 100 people, subsequent ones brought 500.

US-born Auckland mum Marisa Jobst says trunk-or-treating is ideal for neighbourhoods that are sparse or where homes are far apart – and for children who have a hard time walking around a whole community.

Any activity that allows children to get dressed up for a night and run around enjoying their community is a wonderful thing, she says.

'It's good, clean fun and allows kids and teens to really embrace the spirit of their childhood.'

Psychologist Marie Kelly says Halloween can send mixed messages about strange danger and community parties are a good alternative.

'Their reward is to receive lollies/sweets from a neighbour, known adults or from adult strangers.This is counter to what we teach them about stranger danger as normally speaking to adult strangers is discouraged.

'Some organisations and schools organise alternative get togethers such as Light Parties without the scary costumes and you can always put a sign on your letterbox to say welcome – generally people are very respectful and will not knock on your door if there is no sign declaring your participation.'

And for the sugar rush? Specialist paediatric dentist Katie Ayers says it's OK for children to indulge on special occasions.

'A lot of sugar at one time is a lot less of an issue than frequent sugar,' she says. 'But if they're going trick or treating and coming out with masses of bags of sweets that they might eat over several days, that could be enough to tip them over the edge.'