There’s No Halloween Like a New York City Halloween

Are you kidding? New York? We here in Lahaina Maui will have 20,000 people marching back and forth along our Front Street. And no cool or cold weather to worry about either.

Love, Love this story! I grew up in Yonkers in a 106 unit building and we would start on the 6th floor and take the elevator or stairs to the next floor..no coats needed! We would all meet up in the lobby for the "candy exchange"! We had our usual "curmudgeons" but laughed at their usual, tired sign - "do not knock. sickness in family"...

Great photos and story to bring back memories, thank you! I dressed up as a princess, a bride, a geisha, an ice skater, a cheerleader, a hippie, and a gypsy back in the days... My mom always took the MaryJanes and Bit of Honeys, and I'm sure she snuck out Hershey bars when I was asleep.

This brought back so many wonderful memories!I grew up in Astoria in the 60's. I remember my mother making Caramel apples for the neighborhood kids- she must have made 200 of them- it took her all day and the smell was heavenly.The mailmen always gave out sticks of chalk which we would put in a sock and crush and then hit each other. We would go to every apartment in my building and if the tenants recognized you as living there you got a "special treat' -sometimes a small plastic pumpkin filled with lollipops, sometimes a cupcake with a plastic figure stuck on top.After going to every apartment in the building we would empty our overflowing bags and then hit the rest of the neighborhood.Everyone always put the candy in little white paper Halloween bags that had pumpkins and ghosts on them. We would trick or treat for HOURS -and then when we were finally done my best friend and i brought the candy to her parents for inspection (in case of razor blades) and then we would trade for our favorites. Our parents always made us eat ONE healthy thing (usually a sandwich) when we got home. We Catholic School kids had no school the next day (all saints day)so there was always a party at someones house where we bobbed for apples that had coins in them and ate balls of caramel corn. If we were lucky there would be a scary movie on TV and we would sit and watch it while we ate even more candy. Such great times!

It depends on where you live. In my neighborhood, parents are afraid of letting kids out. In addition, because there's a large population of Muslims for whom Halloween is not a tradition, we've gone over the years from three large bags of candy to one; and if recent Halloweens are any indication, we'll end up eating that one ourselves.

Oh my goodness, thank you. I grew up in public housing in the Bronx and this is what Halloween was for me and my brothers and sisters. I'm glad to see somebody else has these memories.

I grew up in a NYC suburb. It would start a few days before in school when we would decorate our collected empty small milk cartons with pipe cleaners and oak tag cutouts to collect pennies for UNICEF. Then, up to the attic to dig out our orange papier mache pumpkins in which to collect our booty (which are now worth a fortune if you can find one). Take an old white sheet, cut out holes for eyes and darken our eyes with charcoal my father made from burning the end of a cork. Voila, instant costume. We always started at our neighbor's house. Ding Dong..."Trick or Treat for UNICEF." Out would come a silver tray, full sized Hershey bars all in a row. "Pick one." Those were coveted along with bubble gum and Turkish Taffy. We didn't like raisins either. Once home, we would dump everything on the dining room table and after my Nana went through it to pick out her favorites, it was time to gorge. It was better than Christmas.

Please don't force the introverted child into this parade. He or she sees it as nonsense, as grown-up reversion. Please rethink this. It's nonsense, along with adults parading at comicons everywhere with cartoons as Art, with cartoons as novels. After age 10 or 12, keep your childhood memorabilia, your childhood treasures and memories and move on.

Hey where is Trick or Treat for Unicef? That was the New York thing to do in the Bellevue area when I was a child in the sixties Boxes were distributed in public schools. I was stunned at the scam when I visited cousins in Westchester and found we were allowed to ring doorbells and collect candy but we didn't do that at home. We went to stores not strange homes to collect coins for Unicef. One only visited known people to trick-or-treat. Some children who lived in the rare doorman building might be allowed to take friends trick-or-treating to listed apartments Large Halloween parties were an alternative to tick-or-treating. I followed the same system in Yorkville with my children. Once with my eldest , age five , dressed as Bonnie Prince Charlies ( wrong tartan but we only had one kilt) we ventures into a harmless looking neighborhood bar. We were greeted by rapturous cries of UNICEF! from the yuppies. Did he ever clean up. Later when he was older the Bonnie Prince studied the box and said "I was wasn't going to do anything important with it and donated his life saving of twelve dollars to Unicef. The most generous charitable contribution our family has ever made. Halloween is my favorite day in Larchmont. I love the costumed children the decorations and - a Larchmont tradition- the store windows painted by children. But there are Unicef boxes next to the candy on my step.

This doesn't seem so long ago--our kids are making the rounds in our Lower East Side apartment building tonight! Looking forward to the fun.

Even if it was a different time, the child in the article's photo wearing an "Indian" mask and stereotyped garb? It's offensive. The Times wouldn't put a white child in black face as part of the lede of an article, yet for reasons that continue to be made apparent, the vile and racist stereotyping of this country's original inhabitants remains okay.

I spent close to $80 on Halloween candy. We don't live in NYC, but I'm expecting upwards of 200 kids tonight. I also bought extra candy for my neighbor who is a community activist if its free an real curmudgeon and keeps his house dark. I tell the kids to go over and knock on "Scrooges" door, knock on the door, ring their bell and if they don't answer, come back over and we'll give you an extra handful of candy. Trick or Treat, Money or Eats.....happy hallo..

Wonderful story.

Nothing beat the Village in the early '80s. Man was that a blast!

To say that there is no "Halloween Like a New York City Halloween" is to admit you have never been to Mexico, where Day of the Dead/All Saints Day/Halloween is a week long party, or more. New York CIty naval gazing?

As usuall New Yorkers in their littlw world. New Orleans halloween at the top of the list.

Double dipping on this one - I also remember taking the subway - graffiti covered, at that time - from our home in Queens into the Village for the Halloween parade in the '80s. I remember taking our blue step ladder on the subway with my dad so I could see the action at the parade. Such an amazing parade, but I haven't been since the early 90s. Don't know what it's like now, but it was wild and a bit seedy back then.

Flushing,Queens, we would get on the Q 25/34 bus and visit our relatives in the surrounding areas near Main Street. We were on the bus because my mother did not drive and my father was at work. The people on the bus were kind and had candy in their handbags. Once we arrived in Mainstreet we would walk around the area and just have big fun. We were always respectful and happy to whatever we received. Our costumes all home made since we couldn't afford a store costume we were never shamed, we were accepted and every adult appeared to be in awe of our fashion statement. I know it was an adult act but they made you feel so special and isn't that is what all children want is to be special on a special day. Great to see the pictures they bring back so many happy times.

These photos bring back the best memories from Halloweens past in my apartment building in Flushing, Queens in the 1980's. Those creepy children's Halloween masks were the greatest.

Just one quibble. Candy corn is not OK.

You guys missed the boat: you should have included Angel Franco's iconic image of the little forlorn girl at the top of the stairs on a blasted out block in the South Bronx. That's THE NYC Halloween picture. In the face of adversity, she is still ready to trick-or-treat.

Seems like it’s Halloween everyday in this town.

I grew up in Tudor City and this piece nicely reflects my own experience. The residents with decorations on their apartment doors are Halloween friendly, advice my grandsons will still follow tonight in Brooklyn.

I was a kid in the 80s but I still fondly remember this - going door to door in our co-op and my friends' co-ops. The worst was Mrs. Deutsch - she gave out pennies! ugh

I hate to be the party pooper, but your lead photographic image has someone who is "dressed up" as a Native American. It's pretty textbook racism, and Halloween doesn't offer a free pass.

I have to say that a NY Halloween in the early 70s was pretty scary, but I felt a little bit safer wearing my witch costume that I got at Woolworths. Maybe I couldn’t breathe very well and the formaldehyde from the plastic mask is still with me, but it was worth it it. Between the smell of leaves burning (people still did that in Queens), the setting sunlight bouncing off the Pan Am building onto our street and my mother looking for the ragamuffin parade as it was called in her city youth, I felt scared and secure at the same time.

Thanks for these memories of Halloween in NYC. We grew up in a housing project with eight apartments on a floor and 21 floors. No way were our parents letting us hit 160 apartments! We had to decide on odd or evening floors, then took our brown paper bags to collect MaryJanes (I’m older than the writer) and Hershey’s Kisses (better). We too had the well meaning grownup who tossed in mini boxes of raisins: an abomination. We raided our mother’s closet too for costumes: scarf, necklaces, bright wide skirt, red lipstick ... Gypsy! (Sorry ‘bout the cultural appropriation.) Dungarees, a bundle on a stick, smudged face: Hobo! (Sorry, hobos!) An old sheet aka ghost: a desperate and uncreative attempt to grab candy before it was too late. Best of all about those old Halloweens: no grown ups were in costume. Halloween was the night when kids ruled and the scary grownups got to be scared by US! Booooooooo!

These pictures are beautiful!

Of course NY has the best Halloween. Just ask any NY'er.

Just an observation: That is the same Batman costume in the 1977 playground picture as the Batman costume in the 1966 family picture.

I grew up in Forest Hills Gardens in the 60s & 70s. Many of the same costumes, but parents let their kids go trick or treating without adult supervision. Hundreds of kids filled he streets. Groups of kids were either in front of you or behind you. You were part of a long chain. Parents stayed home to give out the candy. Those wonderful more innocent times!

I am obsessed with New York in the 1970s, so I loved this glimpse into that era. These photos are beautiful, so vibrant and diverse.

I grew up on 169th Street in Queens in the '50s and early '60s. I wasn't big on trick or treating but I liked giving out the candy. So my younger brother went out with his friends and many times my parents went to a broadway show. Starting at age 12 it was me versus the world on Oct.31. Just my block had 54 attached houses (7601-7654) and a zillion kids. The 7501 block had just about as many houses and there was 168 and 170 streets. So probably 250-300 easily accessible abodes filled with baby boomer kids. I had enough candy to give out to fill a small room. School let out at 3 and I got home at 3:30. From 3:30 until about 9PM the game was on. I never bothered to keep count, I was too busy. But it was fun. The little kids were cute and funny. I rarely had a problem with anybody. Unlike in the suburbs their were a lot of houses and really short distance from the sidewalks to the doors. When I went off to college my parents just didn't turn on our lights.

awesome photos!

The last photo I found weird and ironic - where African American kids dressed up as scary white people. Tis true.

Oh, this takes me back! I was in NYC years back spending Halloween Day with my friend, Linda. What a woman she was! She had already been diagnosed with cancer, but nothing stopped this woman at anything. She wore a headband that day with little orange pumpkins and ghouls bobbing up and down on her head. She never took it off after she donned it in her apartment on that Halloween morning. We first went down to Occupy Wall Street. There we met a fellow nurse, like us, and we walked around talking to protestors and reporters. We ate lunch I remember at O’Hara’s and had fun with some others there. Afterwards we made our way to a bank nearby where she needed to tend to some business. She never removed the headband. The bank staff smiled so gratefully, the whim of Halloween they could enjoy too! She was tired in the evening, preparing mindfully for going to her chemo the next morning, a process she went through steadily every other week for two years. But we turned on the TV and watched all those New Yorkers in the best Halloween parade anywhere in the world. Ghosts, ghouls, witches, clowns, you name it - Halloween best - sheer enjoyment for especially this lady who knew what the next day would bring: nausea, IV’s for hours, and knowing for the next days she’d suffer at home, too. But she did not succumb. For some reason, her headband ended up in my suitcase, and now I bring it out every Halloween. As for Linda? Halloween in heaven, I know, having fun.

I split my childhood Halloweens between Brooklyn and Long Island. Kids can have fun anywhere, that's for sure. But I have to admit that the suburban experience felt like the classic Halloween. The dark streets, the leaves crunching under your feet, the houses decorated with real Jack-o-lanterns and so much more. Some neighborhoods really go all out. At the end of the day, though, it was about the bag full of candy. And trying to trick your siblings into trading their good stuff for your junk.

Great photos, bringing back fantastic memories of my Halloweens past. My fashion designer mom would stay up late at the sewing machine, creating the best costumes ever: Playboy bunny, Pumpkin, Leopard, Indian (Sorry for the Cultural Appropriation), Christmas Tree, etc. I too hated the people who gave us pennies (UNICEF treats), apples (legend had it that razor blades could be hidden in them and so they were tossed)...my favs were bubble gum and all the sugary candy to be had (the root of all the implants and root canals in adulthood)...I'm looking forward to the parade of kids at my apt. door tonight, and have the chocolate-y treats at the ready. Boo!

Riding the Number 1 local on Halloween night on the way to the parade. Nothing else equals that.

Amateur night? Like New Years Eve and St. Patrick’s Day. Got it.

Great article. Who didn't do an outfit that was low-budget in the '70's? I was a "hobo" one year, with a cigar butt, shabby old hat and coat and burnt-cork beard. Little did I know my job prospects as an adult would lead me perilously close to the real thing... Happy Halloween everybody!

I grew up on the lower east side in the 1950s. People gave money, pennys nickels and dimes mostly. Never got candy back then

NYC Halloween forecast: 69 degrees with a chance of rain. Chicago Halloween forecast: 34 degrees and snow (it's snowing now). Yes, I would rather be in NYC for Halloween.

Rasins? Raisins! The first Halloween in my building I forgot to buy candy and the store nearby had completely sold out. I had several packages of boxed raisins. I received such contempt from the trick-or-treaters with the worst stink-eye coming from boys, age 9-13. I love the photos. I think I'm the same age as the author and the costumes bring me back.

What a delight those those thin plastic masks were! I remember the smell, the touch of their molded shapes, the little aluminum pin that held the rubber band. I remember this very Batman. We bought them at Woolworths, and the night was ours. Childhood in America.

Our little four-year-old granddaughter from Portland, Oregon was visiting us last year for her first "real" Halloween. She donned her Elsa costume from "Frozen" and proceeded to the top of our 19 story co-op. It took her two Trick-or-Treat apartments to get the hang of it; after which, she ran from door-to-door down the entire building harvesting a massive amount of sugar. Back home this year, she has demanded to return to New York City where Halloween is so much easier...and more rewarding!!! Here in the Big Apple we just do some things really well!!!

These photographs are delightfully funny and so sweet.

Good memories for hard times. Thank you! In my Upper West Side childhood '60s and '70s, before fear of malicious grown-ups handing out dangerous treats, there was one treat that ranked below raisins (hardly seems possible): apples. "Wow. Really? This is the best you could do?" Of course, if you, like so many, were children of divorce, you could reap *two* apartment buildings' worth of candy. We were set for WEEKS of sugar shock. Oh, for the days of innocence.

This is a nice reminder that less is sometimes more; and, that the original holiday got its magic among people fleeing famine.

when I lived in Brooklyn 5 years ago, Halloween candy was nowhere to be found - I had to buy snack cakes and chips to give away to trick or treaters. it was very odd that none of the local groceries had any Halloween candy for sale days before the holiday!

I remember Dunsky's up near the SW corner of Columbus and 89th St. A good little candy store, but I never got that far on Halloween. The 20 cavities that appeared in my teeth in 7th grade may have had their beginnings there. Our building was largely inhabited by Jews who had survived the Holocaust. When we trick-or-treated in the building, as princesses or gypsies or with scary masks, some orthodox families would peek out their door when we rang, then throw up their hands and cry out, then slam the door, as if we truly were a group of ghosts or dybbuks come to do them harm.

True. I always liked New York at Halloween. Halloween fits the city right or, the city fits the event.

Wonderful article. Mom would dress me as a gypsy (sadly, what might be considered cultural appropriation now) as I ran wild in Queens with my friends. Somehow the costume mirrored my "woman who runs with the wolves" free spiritedness, even as a little girl. How I loved to be on the city streets with my friends. The volume of candy was amazing, the reward for living in a city with such a high concentration of people living elbow to elbow. And the author's closing remarks on the spookiest of NYC on any given day is right on target. I grew up pretty unflappable, as we kids encountered odd things on the streets all the time. It also made us highly aware of when it was time to cut and run in a potentially dangerous situation. I continue to get a great kick out of city kids running around my huge apartment building, hyper-excited and marveling over their goodies. I admit I don't always recognize whom their costumes depict. But no matter. I always give chocolate.

How quaint. There used to be candy stores on Columbus Ave. Those days are gone forever.