KINGMAN — Trunk or Treat seemed to be the way to go for a Kingman Halloween 2025. Numerous locations, to say nothing of mountains of parents, chose to go that way rather than the old traditional door to door.
Final figures are not yet in on Halloween spending this year, but estimates for that spending this year is expected to top $13 billion. If that turns out to be true, it would be a record setting year. Statistics show that in the past 8 years, Halloween related sales have jumped $6 billion.
That jump is certainly reflected in Kingman, according to Gene Kirkham, who is the Director of Chillin’ on Beale, sponsors of large downtown event.
“We’ve been doing this Halloween Bash for 23 years. What we do is “Chillin’ on Beale” raises the money all year long. It takes about 9 thousand dollars of candy, and we work all year long to put on this event. On most years, we get anywhere between 32 hundred and four thousand kids.”
Kirkham continued, “It was started originally by the Route 66 Cruisers Car Club, and I took over “Chillin’ on Beale” after about four or five years, I had to drop out of the car club and focus on “Chillin’ on Beale. And that’s when we took over the Halloween Bash.”
Beale wasn’t the only place Halloween celebrations, large or small, were going on. The Elks Lodge had at least a half dozen cars ‘serving’ treats from trunks, as lodge volunteers gathered candy donated by members, and handed out the treats, to anxious children, some apparently on the receiving end for possibly the first time.
At Castle Rock, just north of the Highway 68, 93 merge in Golden Valley, another Halloween event was happening. There were plenty of costumed kids enjoying a jump house and bobbing for apples, while adults keeping watch enjoyed a mild, pleasant evening. The restaurant combined the Halloween event with an arm-wrestling championship that started later in the evening.
A major amount of costumed folks, large and small, showed up at the local Martin Swanty car sales lot on Andy Devine. Company spokesperson, Al Bigelow, talks about their event.
“We try to do this every year. We’re happy to see everyone from the community come in and we just appreciate their just coming by. I think Cody, especially, he likes to support the community. He’s been supported here as a family business for probably 40 years now, and it’s great to give back to the community anyway you can.”
Cody, as referenced by Bigelow, is the owner of the dealership, founded by his late father, Martin Swanty.
Trunk-or-treating has “exploded in popularity over the last few years” and is becoming a new Halloween standard in many places. It originated in rural areas with too much distance between houses. The move to the cities was, unfortunately, due to a rising number of negative incidences involving tainted or sabotaged treats being handed to children by people with criminal intent.
