Halloween this year was another great night of fun with kids and candy, and as always, the adults loved the beer. I give away lots of candy every year with a slight twist. There is a game I have all the kids play where they reach into a bag and pull out a poker chip. Most of the chips are white (and I change the odds as needed), but if they pull out the black chip they win an entire sleeve of candy. For those that are older, they know the game (I think I have done it for 10 years now), and for those that are younger, they are just learning, but they all love it!!!
I had about 110 kids stop buy and went through most of the candy as well as about 30 beers. This year I had the Samuel Adams variety pack, a case of Buffalo Bill’s pumpkin ale, and a few left over Dogfish Head Punkin ales. It’s funny that there are some adults who go out of their way to come to my house just to get a beer. I had two mothers that asked if they could have their pumpkin beers unopened as they wanted to have them after they put the kids to bed. I was happy to help them out. I also bring up my projector and put It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on my garage door. I love to watch the younger kids get sucked in watching the show, and the parents who enjoy the beer don’t mind standing around with a pumpkin ale.
What was your setup like this year? Does anyone else give out beer or do prizes?
The saying in our neck of the woods is Trick or Beer.
Brilliant. You’ve inspired me for Halloweens to come!
I’ve been thinking of doing something like that with my projector – also for christmas stuff. Did you think of hanging a sheet/screen over the doorway and projecting from inside? Might be a cleaner/easier setup, and save your projector from being “borrowed” or knocked over too. Probably doesn’t matter for Charlie Brown, but most projectors have an option to set them to reverse/mirror the image for rear projection.
I actually put the projector in the back of my explorer and only pop the top glass in the hatchback. For sound I use a guitar amp. The setup has worked well for me over the years and with a trash bag over the amp, can handle the rain, as well. The screen thing is too much work, kids don’t care about video quality like adults do, so for the 2-3 hours it’s on the garage, it’s fine.
I know what I’m doing next year…
cheers
Very cool setup. We are on a side street so we only get half the people as they do 1 or 2 blocks over. This year we just had a stereo playing spooky music steaming via an AirPort express from my iPad. Next year I think we will go all out and follow your lead. Maybe we can pull a few more people our way.