No matter what city you go to in the U.S., Halloween will generally be celebrated the same: costumes, candy, and ghosts. But Halloween in Minnesota is like Christmas on acid. Strands of ghost and pumpkin lights reflect on inches of snow, swirling and blurring together. The chilling wind howls louder than the any of the lame recordings house owners like to play from boom boxes when trick-or-treaters come to the door. And the ice-cold temperature alone is enough to make any Halloween a crazed experience.
An out-of-state trick-or-treater needs to know a few things before experiencing a Minnesota Halloween.
Plan a route beforehand. The starting and ending place, the length of the route, and what houses you go to are important to figure out, as they affect everything else you need to do for Halloween. Do your research so that you know what houses hand out the best candy. As I grew older and started to plan my own Halloween route, I took into consideration my past Halloweens by remembering what houses were the best. Map out the best route with the best houses. In addition, the October weather is harsh in Minnesota so you need to decide how long you want to stay outside walking. Your best bet would be the shortest route that covers the top-notch houses. And don’t forget: pick a good ending place so that when you finish you have hot chocolate and a blanket waiting for you. Trust me, you’ll need it.
Who you go with. Do you want a small group of friends or a larger group? Is your mom making you take your younger brother/sister out trick-or-treating? Deciding on who you want to spend your Halloween night with goes hand and hand with your planned route. If you like who you are going with, then chances are you will want to stay out longer and your night will be more fun. If you have to take your younger sibling out, you’ll want a short and easy route. Choose your fellow trick-or-treaters wisely, as they will greatly affect your Halloween night.
Article comments
1 - Brian M.
This is great. The best line was easily "Christmas on acid". Good stuff.
2 - bliffle
Gad! What is all this Minnesota chic stuff that keeps popping up the past few years?
Now we have all kinds of people mumbling in faux Swede accents, even a popular movie, "Fargo" (which isn't even in MN!).
And this deranged frankenstein monster Keillor is staggering around terrorizing the airwaves with his warped stories and bad singing. Talk about bad singing, not only do we have Keillor on NPR saturday nights and sunday mornings, but he got invited (somehow) to the SF "City Arts And Lectures" program where he INSISTED on singing some MORE bad songs he'd made up!
3 - Joanne Huspek
Ha! This brought back memories, although I was in my 20s when I lived there. I made my own costumes, and there was plenty of room for layering underneath. Of course, the kids who grow up there are used to it, and go out with a vengeance despite the weather.
4 - Ruvy
Great read, Sarah!
When the kids were little and we lived in St. Paul (we live in Israel now) and we would take the kids out trick or treating in the neighborhood. We went with the family, nephews, nieces and sons in tow, dragging them to the various houses in the West Seventh nighborhood, trolling the streets between View and I35E just north of Randolph Ave. It was a blast (of cold air as well as fun) and we always came home to hot chocolate and oodles of candy.
We never did Christmas or Easter - just too many crosses in view for our tastes, but Halloween is just on the line between a sorta Christian holiday and sorta pagan one, and trying to deprive the boys (and their parents) of all that free candy was not the wisest policy. Especially since we did it once. And all those (kosher) candy bars were delish, especially after walking around in sub-freezing weather ro collect them from our not-so-kosher neighbors!
Thanks!
5 - Minnesota man
Are you serious? Inches of snow? Frigid Temp's? Ha it's 60 friggin degree's out? It's absolutely beautiful. Tonight is going to be amazing. I remember in the last like 22 years we had snow maybe a total of like two or three times on halloween. Minnesota is not the same anymore as it was twenty something years ago. It'll be November and you cans till wear t-shirts and jeans outside. Come on people get real!!! And those stupid accents are bullshit. Nobody talks like that here. Nobody.
6 - bliffle
60 degrees, eh? Enjoy it.
I remember visiting a friend one fall evening many years ago in St. Paul, driving my new convertible. Beautiful fall football day about 70 degrees. I parked at his house, we had dinner, drinks, watched a late night movie, and by the time I came out at 1AM the temp had dropped to 20 below!
I had to put the top up.