7 Reasons Growing Up in New York City Made Halloween So Much Better

While many may associate Halloween with celebrating in the suburbs and knocking on the doors of picturesque houses, Halloween as a kid in New York City is actually pretty awesome. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Way more candy in a smaller radius.

Depending on where you live in New York City, there's a good chance you're trick-or-treating at apartment buildings and not houses. Or if there are houses, they're going to be closer together than they would be out in the 'burbs. The amount of candy you can get on one block with a few apartment buildings would be the same amount of candy you'd get from a whole, sparsely populated suburban neighborhood. One building in my neighborhood had 21 stories. 21 stories of apartments = a whole lotta candy.

2. Trick-or-treating at local stores.

Another great part of trick-or-treating in New York City is you have the option to ask stores for candy, which is a whole different ball game. Pizza samples as an alternative to chocolate? I'll take it.

3. Better costumes.

You may have heard this before, but New York City is one of the world's cultural epicenters. Because the city attracts more creative and artistic types, the costumes are unreal. Way fewer cat costumes here, and way more Ewoks and Rainbow Brites.

4. Halloween is a little less terrifying.

OK, Halloween is supposed to be a little spooky, and some people are super into that aspect of it, but living in NYC allows you to remove yourself from all of that. You can watch Carrie or Friday the 13th without feeling like Jason Voorhees is going to come knocking on your door. The Amityville Horror never could have happened in the middle of Queens or Brooklyn. Ghost stories are more along the lines of "George Washington once slept here."

5. Decorating is easier and cheaper.

Another benefit of growing up in an apartment building — and this applies to all holidays — when decorating, you get a lot more bang for your buck. Want to cover your entire home in cobwebs? It's way cheaper and more economical to do it in an apartment than in a house.

6. Way less egging and public humiliation.

Remember that episode of Freaks and Geeks when Lindsay Weir goes around causing mayhem with her Freak friends and then accidentally eggs her little brother Sam? It's heartbreaking. That would have never happened if the Weirs lived in NYC instead of Michigan. Cops are everywhere on Halloween, and they don't mess around. While some may think this means missing out on a rite of passage, it also means keeping your mailbox intact and not getting in trouble with the law if you're the one doing the egging.

7. Unique NYC events.

One last thing that makes Halloween in NYC a truly unique experience: incredible events like the Tompkins Square Park Dog Parade. That one happens every year the weekend before Halloween. The human parade is on October 31 itself.