Determining exactly where to take your little ghost or goblin trick-or-treating on Halloween is that last item on the “To Do” list after finally finishing that homemade costume or making sure the candy bowl is impressively stocked.

This year, Next Door (the social network for neighborhoods– We’ve written about it before here) is attempting to revolutionize Halloween by adding a “Treat Map” feature to its site. The idea of the Treat Map is to have every house in the neighborhood mark whether or not they’ll be giving out candy– taking the guesswork and aimless wandering out of trick-or-treating and helping youngsters find the fastest, most convenient route possible.

Neighbors can let each other know if they will be giving out candy this year, by marking their home on the neighborhood map with the ultimate Halloween treat icon – a candy corn.

Here’s how it works:

1. If you are a Nextdoor member, sign in to your Nextdoor.com account (or create one– it’s free and relatively easy)
2. Once signed in, go to your neighborhood map – above your address parcel you will be given the choice to plot a candy corn icon on top of your home to indicate that you are planning to pass out treats
3. Check back before Halloween to determine the best trick-or-treating route based on the location of the candy corns. You can even print out the map or view it on your smartphone.

I can definitely see how this would be useful for very spread-out neighborhoods or those where many people cho0se not to give out candy. But on the other hand, rushing through trick-or-treating by only hitting the houses where you’re guaranteed to get candy is a little sad. The oft-referenced quote, “It’s about the journey, not the destination,” comes to mind. There’s something magical about meandering through the streets and waiting on the stoop to see who will answer the door. But if this is a way to make trick-or-treating safer, and allows more children to participate, then I’m all for it.

Posted on 10/29/2013

Written by Liz Wassmann

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