Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Mini Horses Draw 581 Trick-or-Treaters to Red Hook Home
The Javsicas family has counted kids for over a decade. This year they broke the record with the help of their famous friends.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce showed up in Red Hook this Halloween, or at least their miniature equine doubles did. The two mini horses, Thunderbolt and Winnie, took over the Javsicas family’s barn, which opens right onto a village sidestreet. Dressed as the celebrity couple in wigs, jerseys, and rhinestones, The “engagement-photo” backdrop set a romantic scene for the massive throngs of trick-or-treaters that descend on the village each year.
The eight-hoofed celebrity sighting helped mark a record-breaking night for Red Hook’s most data-driven Halloween household: 581 trick-or-treaters, the highest total since the Javicases started keeping count in 2014. “It’s the biggest year yet,” says homeowner and Halloween statistician David Javsicas, clicking the metal counter that has become his signature prop. “There were 15-minute stretches where it was just nonstop, saying, ‘Happy Halloween, take two!’ over and over.”
The Swift-Kelce minis were the creation of the team Rhinebeck Equine, Dr. Laura Javsicas, wife of David, Dr. Jesse Tyma, and Dr. Cara Rosenbaum, who own and home Thunderbolt and Winnie, respectively. The playful doctors also received help from their five interns, dressed as characters from Shrek. “It’s not a horse barn by design,” David says, “but they go all-in. Jesse spent the whole night in there making sure everything ran smoothly. This is the third year. We’ve done unicorns, Barbie and Ken, and now Taylor and Travis,”
Counting Candy, Quantifying Magic
Halloween in Red Hook still has a sweetly nostalgic Americana charm. Kids and parents take over the streets, with many of both saying the night is one of their absolute favorite things about living there. The wholesome vibe has made the crowd grow each year, Not with tourists but just lucky friends and family of village homeowners. So, the Javsicases have a rotating cast to staff the porch with the tally counter tracking trick-or-treaters, calling out numbers between greetings (neighbors have put down bets).
The Javsicases started counting because they’re “scientists at heart,” David says, and what started as a candy-distribution question has become a decade-long data set. “We moved here in 2014, five weeks after our son Evan was born,” David says. “A neighbor said we should expect 200 to 300 trick-or-treaters. We wanted real numbers, so we started counting.”
The graph the family produces each year shows a steady increase, minus 2020, when the pandemic tanked numbers. They made a PVC candy slide that year, to keep neighborhood kids happy at a distance.
Candy costs have risen with the numbers. “We spent between $150 and $200 this year,” he says, “but we still ended up with leftovers—people bring us candy sometimes. It’s a strange economy.”
The Javsicas’s neighbors are drawing big numbers too with attractions like a free apple cider donut truck and bouncehouse, the McCanns’s huge haunted yard and garage, karaoke on Garden Street, and extravagantly decorated yards. “We don’t coordinate,” David says. “It just happens. Everyone kind of leans in. It’s a lot of work but it’s an event that makes us all social. It just happens naturally.”
