Travelling to other areas for trick or treating

We travel because we're rural and our kids go to a friend's for Halloween party followed by guising in their estate. But the families in that estate also have kids who go to our school, because our school has several rural villages, and we know a lot of them. Those who don't know us are always just as lovely to my children as the others are. We only go to decorated houses in the streets where friends live. In Scotland the children have to be do something like a poem or joke to be given a sweet and it's hilarious listening to the kids getting the punchlines wrong or making it up on the spot. They love it. I never did Halloween growing up so it's new to me. It's so much fun

Our area is ok at Halloween but there are lots of elderly neighbours who don’t want to participate (fair enough).

Our dc were always happy staying local when they were younger but one year one of ds’s friends (he’s an only child) asked if our 2 could go with him.

He was invited up to ours but his mum wanted them to go where they live (about a 10 minute drive away).

I didn’t think about it in advance but there were way more houses taking part and they came home with way more sweets than usual!

I did feel guilty, especially as the bucket of sweets that I’d left out was empty when we got home so I can see both sides.

I've never seen anyone doing Halloween in my 50+ life. Not once. My area must be full of miserable gits. It sounds like fun but it's no point if nobody is trick or treating. Imagine how depressing to buy sweets and get no kids knocking. I live in a big town not rurally but it might be because it's a rough low wage area, not sure.

that's funny, because when I lived in a small, rural, no pavements, no streetlights village, people would drive from other places to come to our house, because the local children told their friends how great our house (and treats) were.

maybe Charles will be dressed as a tampon 😂

oh, that's good. I was worried about how sad that would be for the nine year olds.

leftover sweets? oh what a hardship! :P

we were out looking after my mums dog most of today, so we didn't get a chance to decorate. even when we don't manage it, we usually get some, as the locals know we always have plenty of sweets and love Halloween, even if it's not obvious from outside on some years.
I think we got back a bit too late and missed them this year, so tomorrow I'm going to the decorated houses and giving them some sweets, then we'll eat the rest ourselves.

back when we lived in the village, before we moved out, we'd all decorate, and quite early, I'd take nephews and neices trick or treating, before heading back to ours to finish hosting. my mum would stay at home and hand out to any early ones we missed. but most people saved our house for the finale of the evening, because we REALLY went for it.

all my life (in my mid 40s) I've loved how a lot of people have always been delighted by our house all done up, and some were even almost too scared to knock. but they'd do it, because they knew we weren't actually going to do anything bad, AND that we gave out generous goodie bags. but I always love when you can hear them almost trying to dare each other to be the one to knock

One of the dj's on a local radio station said to text and email him with the best displays and where to go for the best candy. He then posted it on Facebook. I was glad my street wasn't listed as I often get 100-125 kids. I'm fairly close to 2 elementary schools and one high school
The bigger kids have had some great homemade costumes this year.

My mother had 70 trick or treaters. There's no way 70 children live in walking distance of her. She loves it though, so she wasn't complaining. She had to close up early to go out to dinner, or there would have been quite a few more.

I thought it’s quite normal to travel. There are streets that go all out on decorations and threats and are well known for that - many people go out of their way to go to those.

if he still enjoys it, he's not too old. he'd get treats from us, no questions asked.

it's sad just how young children are encouraged to grow out of things these days. even the adults and the dogs get treats from us. if you're out, enjoying Halloween, you get treats.

how old ARE you? it was a thing in the 80s, when I was little.

when we were in a small village, we were THE Halloween house. we carved about ten pumpkins (made spicy pumpkin and bacon soup, and pumpkin and cranberry muffins, which we also shared out to the parents coming round. they really appreciated a cup of the soup when weather was bad)
for the smalls, I made up goodie bags with lots of sweets, choccie, glowsticks, tacky little bits and pieces like fake bugs and so on.
over time, people at the schools heard about it from our local children, and we got a lot of people who would drive over after doing their local area, and those kids got goodie bags too. and dogs would get dog treats. parents got non goodie bagged sweets and an offer of soup and muffins.
it's all about sharing the fun and the love.
and the fact people would drive over from nearby villages to see our house was fantastic. it made us even happier about how much of a big thing we put on about it.

I mean, how nice to know, the kids had gone to school and told their friends about this house in their village, and they were excited enough about what they were told to convince their parents to drive over and drop them off at the gate to be part of it.

I hate how "trick or treat" has taken over from our traditional halloween. When I was a child we would have to tell a joke, sing a song or entertain in some way before getting a reward usually fruit or nuts of some sort. Also most kids don't even attempt to "dress up" and just demand money or chocolate and seem upset when they don't get what they want.
There is one thing that is better though, pumpkins are a lot easier to carve than turnips.

No one on our street really takes part. It’s mostly older couples. Not many kids live on our street. We aren’t on an estate. But there are family orientated streets and estates in our town. One of my children doesn’t like to take part. The other goes out with their friends on the estate where their friend lives and usually comes back with plenty of swag.

Our area goes mad for Halloween and people do come from other areas of the city because of the atmosphere. I think it's great, the streets are packed and it feels like a mini carnival with people making a huge effort with decorations

We live on a street of mainly elderly people. There’s literally 2 pumpkins on the whole street, so yes we travel to the streets where her school friends live. She is an only child and doesn’t have an easy time for various reasons so I am not letting her miss out. And bluntly it’s a thing that nearly everyone does round here. I am surprised that you think that every street is good for trick or treating?!

Our road is one where people come from other roads. It’s safe for traffic, lots of houses, lots of kids and some great decorations.

the only thing I mind is the kids all over the road when I’m driving home!

this year I was home early enough to take part. Pumpkin out and we had well over 50 kids. I took the pumpkin in at 7ish and no knocks after that.

loved all the costumes, especially the older kids in full combat gear who were super polite!

We live in a good area for Trick and Treat. Lots of cars parked for people that drive in and lots run out of sweets by 6pm!

What annoyed me this year was the amount of parents driving slowly down the road whilst their kids walked door to door! Wtf?!?!

We live in "the" halloween estate for the town and we personally go all out on the decorations and we do a different game/experience/challenge every year.

Last year we had 300 kids by 7.30, this year we bought for 500 and we've got about 80 left.

Everyone comes into the area, only a handful of kids are local but we couldn't care less. The only problem is we do get quite a bit of trouble from teens which was really bad last year and I'd say there's only half the houses taking part this year - most likely because of how bad the vandalism got last year. We've actually got a riot style police van going round and round the estate this evening and no signs of trouble so far.

Yes it costs us a fortune in sweets and it does wind me up when kids complain about "getting just one" but the pay off is our kids get an amazing Halloween experience every year and we have so much fun seeing the littles and having a laugh with the bigger ones!

It's not cheeky. I live in an area which has lots of houses decorated and we love it. We get in loads of sweets, always run out. We're not bothered whether these are local kids or from miles away - it's the same basic transaction.

We are in a village known for good trick or treating and apparently some people have driven here. I don’t mind really. Dd (3) enjoyed handing out sweets and ds is out with friends. I know they’ll be polite though.

I have just left no pumpkin, locked the door and turned the hall lights off some years and not got any knockers (eg when I had a baby to get to bed). The picking through my sweet bowl is pissing me off though so next year I’m getting all the same sweets and handing one to each child to avoid that!

eta I actually used to find it all a bit cringey and firmly didn’t take part but when ds was maybe 9 ish and desperate to go and I agreed to take him, he was just so shocked and grateful that “people I don’t know have given me all these sweets mummy!”. Just the kindness of people was amazing to him and it has sort of changed my mind about it all. It’s nice to touch children’s lives, maybe some of them will be ungrateful but some will be amazed at the generosity and really grateful and that’s just so lovely to be a part of.

I think it’s fine as long as kids don’t bother houses that aren’t decorated, are polite and not teens who cba with dressing up etc. It’s supposed to be generous and fun.

It's not something we've ever done here as I do think it's a bit weird, however I'm starting to understand why some parents do! I took my son out trick or treating around our village tonight and there were less than 10 houses decorated for Halloween, most of the residents of the village are older and their children have long grown up so they don't bother!

We've not had a single visitor tonight. Most of our neighbours are elderly and not very much into Halloween. I've got the pumpkin lit up outside and the lights are on but it would be unusual for anyone to walk down our road during the day, let alone at night.