A safe Halloween in your BOOO-ble

The City of Calgary announced that while Halloween and Thanksgiving are not ‘cancelled’, citizens should take some safety precautions to ensure a safe, healthy and fun holiday for all. In support of Alberta Health’s guidelines, The City shared some ideas to help Calgarians start planning now.

To hand out candy safely consider stationing yourself outside and use tongs to hand out candy, or try a new way by building a candy chute, spacing the treats out on your lawn, on a blanket or hanging them from a tree in your front yard. Make sure to wear a mask if kids are going to come right up to you and if you don’t feel well, don’t hand out candy.

“Kids should go out trick or treating with other kids in their bubble and refrain from ringing the bell” said Tom Sampson, Chief of Calgary Emergency Management. He added, “Make sure they wash their hands when they get home. For extra protection have kids wear a real mask instead of a costume mask; or under their mask if it doesn’t impact their ability to breathe.”

As an extra precaution, Sampson advised citizens to save some extra candy and put it aside for a couple of days before the 31st. Then when kids get home, “quarantine” the candy they’ve collected for a couple of days and give them the candy you previously put aside.

According to Mayor Naheed Nenshi “If you want to have trick or treaters leave your lights on so your neighbours know you are comfortable having kids come to your door for candy. Halloween is a great tradition, but some people will want to do things differently this year and that’s ok too. Whatever you decide to do, consider finding decorations, candy and costumes at local shops. We need to respect each other’s choices and above all else, we need to be kind.”

The outdoor nature of Halloween lets us be creative. Don’t want your kids going door to door? Get some trusted friends together for “trunk or treating” and have kids go car to car to get treats in an outdoor parking lot.

Want to skip the candy thing all together?

• Take your kids on a scavenger hunt;
• Have a block party outdoors;
• Do a Zoom dance party with friends;
• Attend one of several drive-in events across Calgary; or
• Consider other seasonal activities like picking pumpkins and carving them, doing an outdoor corn maze, and if it is warm enough a scary outdoor movie in the back yard.

However, you choose to celebrate, follow the guidance set out by Alberta Health, stay safe and have a “spooktacular” Halloween.

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