We're going to complete our new coffin this weekend. The kids have to come up to the "altar" to get their candy. I'll be dressed as the grim reaper with a Scream mask and skeletal gloves. The altar has a skeletal candelabra and fog machines going. The jack-o-lantern will be the dead body in the coffin. The fog will hide some of the spiders and bats that are hung about 4 or 5 feet above the ground. The front yard will have a bunch of tombstones. We were planning on having the kids reach into the guts (actually scrunched up red jello in a semi-clear plastic box that was illuminated from beneath) of the corpse to get their candy. But, there is a case of that staph infection at the nearby elementary school, so we'll be handing it out instead.
I make the kids at least earn their treat - I don't hand out candy until they said, "Trick or Treat." About 10 or 15 years ago, one little guy came dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Neither myself nor his mother could get a peep out of him. So I asked him what a Ninja does. That got to him, and he demonstrated a karate kick. And I went to the garage to get the ladder so I could get his shoe off my roof.
