Yeah, I knew it wouldn't bother you as much. Though totally apart from the expectations here, I am my mother's child: being a good hostess is a major issue for me.

I think the lack of trick-or-treaters here is a combination of three things:
1) Not a lot of children in the area. We have mostly older families and retirees.
2) Semi-rural, with houses far apart or well back from the road; lots of woods and brambles and such.
3) A decline in trick-or-treating generally due to safety concerns. It had fallen off a great deal when I still lived in the suburbs. Though I suppose that could just be due to a tendency for neighborhoods to be homogenous, and all the children growing up. But it seemed to me that people were switching to parties in preference to the dangers of going door-to-door.