County Publishes Trick-Or-Treat Times; Parents Call Announcement 'Surprisingly Coherent'

WAUKESHA — Waukesha County released its official trick-or-treat windows Monday for Tuesday, Oct. 29, setting most municipalities to a standard 6-8 p.m. slot and prompting several residents to note, mostly as a compliment, that the announcement actually made sense.

"It came out, it had the right date on it, and I understood it the first time I read it," said Donna Kowalczyk, 44, of Hartwell Avenue, in a Nextdoor post that had accumulated 61 replies by 7 p.m. Monday, 58 of them some version of agreement. "Last year I thought it was a draft."

Deb Holsten, communications coordinator for Waukesha County, said the office finalized the schedule a week earlier than in 2025, a change she attributed to "starting the spreadsheet in September instead of October." She said the county fields the times from each municipality and compiles them into a single release rather than setting hours itself.

Two towns run later, one runs later than that

Oconomowoc and Menomonee Falls both extended their windows to 8:30 p.m., a half-hour bump Holsten said reflects "local preference and darker streets at a slightly later hour, we're told." Most other municipalities, including the city of Waukesha, held to the standard two-hour block.

Pewaukee's window runs until 9 p.m., a full hour past the county norm, and Holsten said she could not offer a specific reason beyond "that's what Pewaukee sent us." Asked whether anyone had ever asked Pewaukee why, she said, "Not that I'm aware of, no."

"We just publish what comes in. If Pewaukee wants to go to midnight next year, we'll print that too."

— Deb Holsten, Waukesha County communications coordinator

A rare win for advance notice

The schedule's early arrival, three days before the holiday rather than the traditional one, drew specific praise from residents who said they had already budgeted candy-buying trips around it. Gary Puchalski, city councilman, said he received four separate calls from constituents Monday evening, "and for once none of them were complaints, which I want logged somewhere."

Ned England, 70, of Backslide Way, said he planned to use the published 6-8 p.m. window to time trick-or-treater throughput from a lawn chair positioned at the end of his driveway, radar gun in hand, though he clarified the gun would be measuring "pace, not speed," after a neighbor raised the subject on Nextdoor last year. England said he expects 40 to 50 visitors based on candy inventory, which he described only as "adequate."

Candy aisles brace for Tuesday

The Piggly Wiggly on North Grand Avenue reported restocking its seasonal candy endcap twice over the weekend, with a store employee noting that the fun-size chocolate bars move first every year, followed by the off-brand hard candy nobody admits to buying until it's the only thing left. The store does not track Halloween sales by the hour, but staff said Tuesday afternoon between 3 and 5 p.m. is always a mess.

County officials said residents who miss the posted windows for their specific municipality, or who are unsure which window applies to an annexed or split-jurisdiction address, should check their municipal website rather than call the county directly. Holsten said the office fielded 11 such calls Monday afternoon, two of which were, in her words, "just people wanting to tell someone they liked the schedule."

Trick-or-treating across Waukesha County runs Tuesday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. in most municipalities, 6 to 8:30 p.m. in Oconomowoc and Menomonee Falls, and 6 to 9 p.m. in Pewaukee, for reasons that remain, as of Monday, unexplained.