With freezing hands and warm smiles, people of all ages headed out into the “coldest Halloween in a decade” to get their tricks and their treats. The cold weather wasn’t going to keep Minnesotans from celebrating!

The difference this year is that it didn’t keep some Minnesotans from trick-or-treating. On Halloween Tuesday night, there was a noticeable difference in the trick-or-treaters population compared to the past.

North High junior, Jenna Farah, says of the night, “I think less [people celebrated] because there wasn’t that many children that came to our house this year. Usually we have a fair amount of kids, but this year is seemed to have decreased.”

“A lot less people have celebrated Halloween this year. When I was younger, it was hard to walk around the streets there was so many people. Now there’s like 10 kids going trick-or-treating,” Madeline Jagerson, also a junior at North, said similarly.

The surprising and eye catching headline going around was that this year’s Halloween could be the coldest Halloween in a decade! So was that what led to the decline of trick-or-treaters on Tuesday? Farah and Jagerson both agree that it’s pretty likely.

“I think the cold might have persuaded people to not go to many houses this year. For me, I could barely be outside for longer than 10 minutes, so I can only imagine how cold everyone was that went door to door,” Farah said.

Farah continued, “I think in the future, less people will celebrate Halloween. Even now as I drive around I see fewer decorations on people’s houses. I also think that there won’t be as many trick-or-treaters around because of the dangers with the candy. I can only hope that people realize that Halloween is supposed to be a fun yet scary holiday, and not a burden.”

Jagerson has high hopes and an optimistic idea for the future! “Maybe people’s houses will have a theme and each one on the street is different. That would be so cool. Maybe a lot more people will dress up with costumes that are riddles that you have to try and figure out [because it’s] not so obvious of a costume,” she said.

The verdict is to be determined. The fate of Halloween is in our hands!