Halloween Stats

This past Halloween, I decided to document every costume that children wore as they came to our house to trick or treat. Even though we don’t celebrate Halloween, we still give the visitors some candy and chocolate. From previous years’ experience, I knew to expect the regular princesses, fairies, pirates, and assorted action figures. But this time, I collected some stats about the visitors and briefly interviewed them about their choice of costumes.
I kept my questions simple and limited them to:

1. Why did you choose this costume?
2. What do you like about your costume?

I also categorized the Trick or Treaters by group, age, gender and how comfortable they were talking about their costumes.  My age groups were roughly:
Young (3-6 years old)
Older (7-11)
Teenage (12 and up)
The results were as follows:



Costume Choice  The younger kids couldn’t answer my questions, but their parents said that their choice of costume had a lot to do with what was available in the store.  The older kids, tended to be more creative and assembled their outfit from several accessories that they bought especially for Halloween. The teenagers just used one or two props like a cowboy hat or a mask.

Age vs. Costume There was a clear difference between the type of costumes kids under the age of 11 wore and those that teenagers wore. Younger and older kids got all decked out while the teenagers didn’t wear a complete costume.  When I asked the teenagers why they only wore partial costumes some said they simply didn’t feel like dressing up, others avoided the question.

Costumes vs. Gender For young and older trick-or-treaters , there was a clear difference between what boy and girls wear.   The teenagers, however, had a mixture of gender costumes.

Handmade vs. Bought Several visitors had handmade costumes, but most were store bought outfits. The handmade ones were usually more clever and the parents of these kids also seemed more organized and involved in the trick-or-treating.

Age vs. Comfort Level The young kids enjoyed talking about their outfits.  The older kids and teenagers were less comfortable discussing their costume and the reason for dressing up.  The teenagers also almost always worked in groups of 3 or more kids and tended to be loud (joking, and singing).  The younger kids, on the other hand, did their rounds solo and tended to be very quiet.


Conclusions It seems that the very young and older kids enjoyed wearing their costumes and they didn’t feel self conscious. They were just happy to be out trick-or-treating.  The teenagers seemed to be in it just for the candy and were more self conscious and almost seemed embarrassed to be dressed up. 
The older kids tended to identify with their costumes and wore them because that’s who they wanted to be when they grow up (Doctor and Soldier).
The trick-or-treating style also seemed to be influenced by age, while the young and older kids went individually knocking on the  door, the teen agers operated in a pack and stayed on the side walk.