The buzz today is that Halloween is cancelled in Toronto. That's the headline you've likely seen or heard several times by now.
In reality, the directive from Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health, is this:
Traditional door-to-door trick or treating is not recommended.
No shit, Sherlock. Traditional door-to-door trick or treating is an awful idea during a pandemic. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago:
With one slight modification to the typical ritual, we can preserve this fun custom for the kids. That modification would be to the practice of trick-or-treating. Nobody wants to open their door to people during a pandemic, so we eliminate that part and replace it with a way to distribute the candy from a safe distance.
Traditional door-to-door trick or treating can easily be modified with a creative solution like the chute my wife has built. This won't work in apartments or condo buildings, but in the great outdoors kids should be allowed to safely trick-or-treat at homes that deploy a safe candy distribution system. As always, physical distancing will be maintained.
But instead, they'll just cancel it. Because that's where we're at.
On Halloween night, my two little ones will dress up and we'll walk the neighbourhood at 6pm to look at the Halloween decorations. And if a neighbour or two is safely shelling out, we'll be ready.
