Families escape the cold by trick-or-treating indoors

To the disappointment of some, Winnipeg is still under a blanket of snow. But not to be deterred by the weather, many families have decided to take their trick-or-treating to the local shopping mall.

“Because it’s cold so we preferred to just come into the mall,” said Joanna Santos, a Winnipeg parent.

Another Winnipeg parent, Ernest Kwan adding, “Outside, the weather’s not that great. Little wet, little slushie.”

Kwan brought his daughter to the Outlet Collection Mall. T His family regularly does their trick-or-treating indoors when it’s too cold outside. Though it is their first time in this mall.

“Having a lot of fun, seeing a lot of action, seeing all the different costumes, all the different events. Looks like everyone’s having all the good times.”

Macy Mai and her family also decided to spend their Halloween indoors.

“It was so cold today, especially have the little one – I think the mall was the best place,” said Mai.

Mai says she prefers it indoors. This way her children have a bigger space to explore.

“Kids can see more people, instead of in the block.”

For some, the allure of trick-or-treating door-to-door will have to wait for next year.

“We like it outside, too, because there’s more treats and we see a lot of decorations, like the houses – all their efforts – so we appreciate those ones. But if the weather doesn’t permit us to go outside, we’d just rather go to the mall,” said Santos.

Amy Sinclair is the mall’s marketing manager. She says every year, the place becomes a sort of ‘catwalk’ of costumes.

“We’re lit, we’re warm, we’re indoors. There’s tons of parents looking out for other parents. There’s kids, there’s no traffic. You can run across a hallway. There’s no risk in the mall,” said Sinclair.

“How amazing is it to have every sparkle not fall off and not to have to fit your costume over your snowsuit, and come in and parade around and show everybody else how much you put into it? I think that’s really what kids are getting out of it. It’s a costume parade and they don’t have to be cold. They can show it off and not have to wear a snowsuit.”

Sinclair says the choice to host Halloween is an easy one for the team.

“The biggest benefit to being indoors is, a mall is sort of a community as well. Neighbourhoods are communities but this sort of brings a whole bunch of neighbourhoods together and it really lets parents interact and have their own experience, so that’s why we do it,” said Sinclair.

Sinclair says snow or shine, trick-or-treating at the Outlet Collection will be back… so families can rest easy in knowing there will always be a warm, safe place to spend Halloween.