Finding their inner Halloween: Candy Cane Lane shows spooky spirit

The area of Sunset Drive in Lewiston is known as Candy Cane Lane at Christmas time, but it’s proving to be a popular haunt for Halloween.

Ruby and Mabel Royce, who live in the Sunset Drive area, were getting into both holiday spirits Thursday night. The sisters were dressed up for Halloween and selling cups of hot apple cider and hot chocolate for $1 each. The money will be used to buy Christmas presents for family members.

Last year, they got around $100 just selling hot chocolate, so this year they added apple cider. Ruby said they bought apple cider but added some spices like nutmeg and cinnamon.

Their costumes also reflected Christmas as well as Halloween, although unintentionally. Ruby was an angel and Mabel was Sally from the Halloween/Christmas classic “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

When Natasha Vanness moved to the area, she knew about the Christmas decorating tradition, but then Halloween started becoming part of it, too, which is fine with her.

“Halloween is my second-favorite holiday, besides Christmas,” Natasha said.

When she first started decorating she “dove in head-first,” and now her yard is filled with witches, skeletons, ghosts and ghouls. Her collection grew and changed over the years as some items got worn out and needed to be replaced. She’s always looking for new decor.

“The creepier, the better,”Natasha said.

One of her favorites is a motion-activated witch who talks and “looks like everybody’s worst grandma.” Another well-loved decoration is a motion-activated killer clown on wheels that can chase unsuspecting victims.

Other residents in the area focused on the treats rather than the tricks. Emmy Roberts and her mom, Jenna Roberts, were handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. One year, they saw a thousand visitors before they stopped counting. Some of that number depends on the weather — if it’s rainy or too cold, trick-or-treaters may choose to go home early or stay inside all together. This year, the mild temperature and dry weather made it a busy night.

Gary and Shari Silflow turn the evening into a party. They invite friends to come over and help hand out candy, as they have done every year for the last 21 years, starting when they moved to the neighborhood.

“It gets a little better every time,” Gary said.

One addition has been a candy dispenser slide that was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The contraption allows the hosts to drop candy into a child’s bag or bucket from afar, but some kids have trouble placing their totes in the right spot for the candy to slide in. Gary said it’s often more fun to launch the candy to the kids on the slide than simply giving the treats out by hand, so the device has made a return.

The Silflows also go the extra mile with candy, bundling 900 bags of candy and handing out apple juice. Shari got a group of friends and family together and filled the candy bags in an hour.

“It’s fun,” she said about the holiday. “It’s good camaraderie.”

The Silflows also put glow sticks in gallon jugs along the sidewalk so people could see as the night got darker. That was helpful as the neighborhood soon began teeming with trick-or-treaters dressed as Robin Hood, Superman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Wednesday Addams, princesses and characters from “Harry Potter.”

Some chose their costumes out of convenience, like Lewiston’s Thea Semmes, who had all the requirements for a good vampire costume: black shirt, cape, some makeup and fake fang teeth. She was excited to get her favorite candy, Skittles, and go through the scary — but not too scary — haunted tunnel at one home.

Others dressed as their favorite characters. Alex Foss, who lives in the Sunset Drive area, dressed as Deadpool from “Deadpool and Wolverine.” He got his costume from Spirit Halloween, but hadn’t yet met the Wolverine to his Deadpool. He knows the Marvel characters well, because he said if his Deadpool saw any Wolverines he might “try to fight them.”

Those handing out candy said they keep going until the crowd dies down around 8:30 or 9 p.m., or until they run out of candy.

Now that Halloween is dead and buried, it’ll soon be time for Candy Cane Lane to get ready for Christmas.

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.