Purple Pumpkins? My first guess was this was some sort of tribute to Prince, but that made no sense (as if anything this year does).

Turns out a Purple pumpkin hanging on the porch, or similar, means that house is a safe spot to grab Halloween candy. Cool.

Other parts of the country are doing it. New York and Texas are the example below, but this is something that could work here pretty easily.

Here's a video from a Texas haunted house explaining it.

(Dark Dimensions Haunted House via YouTube.com)

But, it does get tricky. Not everyone is on the same page for this. The CDC says trick or treating is not recommended. But, a lot of parents don't want to take this away from their kids. And some local governments seem to agree. We've seen the City of Kalamazoo just this week set out guidelines for Halloween. And here's a story from one Long Island, NY community that's adopted the purple pumpkins idea, And if you can't find a purple pumpkin, you can just print out a picture and post it by your door.

So, this is an interesting effort. In New York story, the purple pumpkin also means that the person at the house distributing is wearing a mask. And the candy is individually wrapped, and, they have pretty much followed all the sanitary guidelines at their home and are trying to keep everything disinfected.

I know there will be some homes where do-it-yourself'ers will build some sort of contraptions to deliver candy at some added distance, and those will be fun to see, just for the ingenuity that they're displaying. The idea of just leaving bags of candy out, I don['t know about that - too many variables. And Halloween is on a Saturday, so you might just have a lot of trick or treaters.

It seem like it might be asking a lot of kids to follow strict rules, but masks are the big deal, and of course, kids avoiding touching their faces or eyes with fingers. And I know, how do you ask a kid to wait to tear into their candy until you've checked it all, but if you're in the routine of disinfecting groceries when you bring them in, this might not be all the difficult or different.

One thing the City of Kalamazoo mentioned, and this might not work for everyone, but trying to keep a one-way stream of traffic to your door. And also, maybe a clean disinfected table in front of the house or on the driveway might work, if you're interested in putting in the extra effort.

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