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Halloween Goes On in Howard County

Sandy will not interfere with Halloween festivities this year.

 

 

The ground is still wet, some trees are still down, but Halloween will go on this year in Howard County.

The weather will not be perfect—the National Weather Service is predicting a low of 39 degrees tonight and a slight wind—so make sure your costume will keep you warm.

Howard County officials let locals know trick-or-treating is still on tonight on Twitter, but advised residents to make sure kids are accompanied by adults and to avoid hazardous areas still not cleaned up from the storm.

The county said homeowners participating in Halloween should leave their front lights on to let kids know it's safe to trick or treat at their homes.

In Ellicott City, residents are invited to trick-or-treat down Historic Main Street (which was thankfully spared from flooding) from 4 to 6 p.m. this evening.

Derek McGowan, the store manager of Party City in Ellicott City, said costumers were flowing into the store to do some last-minute costume and candy shopping.

"We've been more busy than usual because of the weather," said McGowan. "We closed early on Monday and had less hours on Tuesday."

He said they still had a good amount of kids' costumes as well as decorations and candy.

In order to stay safe on Halloween, the county recommended that children never enter a stranger's home and to make sure parents check candy before children eat them.

Also, do you have a great Halloween costume, enter Patch's Halloween Costume Contest for a chance to win $5,000.

Where do you think is the best spot to trick-or-treat in HoCo?

Related Topics: Halloween, Howard County, Still On, and trick-or-treating

Peter Monaghan

11:13 am on Thursday, November 1, 2012

I have to say that I was disappointed with the houses that chose not to participate in the festivities and did not follow the protocol of turning off their front lights. I lugged an 18 month and a 5 year old around my Owen Brown neighborhood. The poor lighting, wet leaves, fallen branches and sticks to trip over were enough to deal with. To knock on a door to have no answer became very frustrating for both me and my children.

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Ellenpb

11:49 am on Thursday, November 1, 2012

"Protocol?" Seriously? I don't have kids but I do enjoy Halloween and I participate, I suppose, according to protocol. However, I don't think it's right to assume that everyone else is obligated to do so. If walking around your neighborhood with your kids is too much of an aggravation for you, don't do it. It's great when others share your enthusiasm for the holiday-- but no one should feel they HAVE to turn off their lights because they're not giving out candy.

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Brook Hubbard

3:44 pm on Thursday, November 1, 2012

Peter may have been a bit extreme in his wording, but I support the sentiment. There are basic community guidelines that have been around since I was a little kid. One of them was to turn your light off if you didn't want Halloween visitors. It's a common courtesy, avoids unnecessary interruption of the evening (for all), and requires no effort from the homeowner.

Do you have to turn it off? Certainly not, it's a free country. Should you turn it off? It would definitely be nice. Just like you're not supposed to cut someone off in traffic, be courteous when dealing with crowds, etc... sometimes we should do things just to be polite rather than because there's a written rule.

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DawnP

3:56 pm on Thursday, November 1, 2012

Ditto. "Protocol" may have been the wrong word, but I also agree with the sentiment. Perhaps "courtesy" or "convention" would have been a better word choice?

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