Travelling to other areas for trick or treating

I'm surprised anyone begrudges a kid a little multipack sized chocolate bar.

no of course we don't, and we tend to get around 10 knocks, which is totally reasonable. But in popular areas people can expect 50 knocks, with a bunch of kids each time and that makes it seriously expensive! I supose you can always ignore it completely but then that puts pressure on other participants.

Agree with PPs broadly that if you have a connection with a certain area it's broadly normal these days, but to go somewhere completely random would be a bit off.

I wouldn't make my kids miss out on an activity all their friends are doing for the sake of a short drive. I'm surprised anyone begrudges a kid a little multipack sized chocolate bar.

I think it's cheeky to drive to multiple other areas where you have no connection to. Fine if you are linking up with friends/ family or trick or treating school friends houses.

We live on a street of mainly old people and only 3 houses have children. No-one does Halloween on our street. Instead we are linking up with some school friends and trick or treating school friends houses.

Halloween tourism can really spoil it for everyone and it does get overwhelming. My friend lives in one of the estates and is always flagged on local FB as one of the "go to" areas where the street is all decorated. There is a school on the estate and most of the children who live on the estate go to the school. A few years ago, the trick or treaters were almost all kids that went to the school and so most kids were recognisable even if they weren't in their kids year, it was a real community thing. The estate got known as a "go to" area and the estate was inundated with 100s of kids from surrounding areas, cars everywhere, damage to displays, constant knocking until late at night as the older ones came out. Last year some of the parents who had driven became quite shitty when houses had run out of sweets as "they had driven 20 mins for this". Lots of drives were blocked with cars. I know my friends street has organized on WhatsApp that they are only doing 4-5 then pumpkins and decor is coming in before all the halloween tourists start coming after 5. A lot of our school friends houses on the estate are doing the same, only putting decor out early in the evening and bringing it in before the halloween tourists start. It's a shame but they have very much become an area that has been bitten by Halloween tourism.

YABU, I’ve got loads of cheap chocolate and sweets. My neighbours are friendly and they do the same, I won’t be checking for proof of address before I give them out. I enjoy the trick or treaters. 🤷🏻‍♀️ If I couldn’t afford it, I wouldn’t do it. I’m not judging anyone who cannot afford to give away stuff but I am not refusing on the basis they don’t live within walking distance.

Yes, definitely do this! He will have so much fun.

Can you join up with friends? Seems a shame to miss out.

It's not, the area next to mine is known as a very 'American' area and they go all out expecting a large amount of kids.

Meh. If you participate and signal that you do, you have to expect kids you don't know.
What's cheeky is the teenagers expecting cash.

Yeh we have that round here too actually.

This is really tricky. We live rurally. I can count on one hand the number of children that live in the village. DS is desperate to go trick or treating but I've said no precisely because we'd have to travel. There isn't anywhere to go in the village, 200 houses and mostly retired or holiday homes.

I always think I'm unshockable...but this has stunned me.

Marquees? Mini scare rooms?

My God - people must have money to burn.

We live in a tiny village of mostly older people. Very very few houses do trick or treat; sometimes none, sometimes one or two.

We drive to the village that the kids go to school in. I do feel a bit cheeky as I am obviously not providing a house there for people to stop at, but I reckon things even out over time if you look wider than one event. I help at the school, I help at brownies/cubs, I shop at the shop there, I use the petrol station there, etc etc.

Driving to "good haul" streets feels cheeky. Driving to a place you have a connection with is something I have had to get used to!

I loved doing trick or treat in our old house (we now live in a very isolated area) because it made the kids so happy. However our street gradually acquired a reputation for being a good place to trick or treat so we would have whole families driving over from the other side of town because their street was 'rubbish' and I would think 'well if no one is staying home to give out treats, then of course your street will be rubbish!' I think trick or treating is about giving and taking. I would give out sweets to other people's kids while my kids went to other people's houses.

Carloads of kids with parents come to my neighbourhood from a very unsafe area about ten minutes away by car. Nobody begrudges them. Hallowe'en should be fun for everyone.

I doubt it - you’d go to the nearest town because your kids would want to. We live remotely and go to the next village where our school is - no qualms given we go to school there.

I think it’s C AF. If you’ve chosen to live in some rural out of the way area then you should take the consequences of that. Not take from a community you’re unlikely to reciprocate to in any way.

I'd rather my kids walk around a safe neighbourhood than where I live. Plus I live on a main road

I don't mind, we have a couple of boxes of sweets and lots left over at the end. I think a lot of it will be kids teaming up with friends who don't live in the same street which seems fine to me.

We're in a tiny village with a majority elderly population. We wouldn't go trick-or-treating here so we drive to my parents house for tea, they live on a large estate with lots of houses decorating for Halloween and open to trick-or-treating. It's a really fun evening and there is a real buzz on the estate, my children are really looking forward to it!

Totally cheeky but there are exceptions as people have listed. Cool if there is a connection to another area (parent, friend) and cool if you live rural or on a busy road or without pavements. Cheeky otherwise imo.

Honestly, because some neighbourhoods really suck and it’s really no fun for the kids! We’re very lucky where we are so we’ve never travelled anywhere else. We’re a close knit group of three streets that all lead onto a sports field. It’s lovely. I see lots of faces I don’t recognise and we’ve lived here for 17 years so I’d definitely recognise children from our own little neighbourhood. I think it’s great and think the more the merrier. Parents comment every year about how lovely and welcoming our neighbours are. The children get so excited about the effort everyone puts into decorating their homes. I love seeing happy children, it brings me joy. How could it not? I don’t think it’s cheeky at all. I’m like a kid on Halloween and love seeing their cute little costumes and big smiles ❤️ All my kids friends come over to ours for dinner before and then go out trick or treating because we have a great neighbourhood for it.

We live somewhere that gets swarmed with trick or treaters. Ive just been to the shop to stock up on lollies and sweets. I've got enough for the first 300 kids that knock - most of them are amazing at only taking one bag of haribo rather than grabbing handfuls - but i have learnt to speak up and say oi oi to those that try and swipe more.

Whenever my stash is gone i just bring the pumpkins inside and no more knocks.

I don't mind if the trick or treaters aren't exactly local, its a lovely atmosphere and my dc enjoy walking round for an hour filling up their bucket from all the other houses

I live in one of those places where people drive for miles. It’s amazing. I expect around 2.5k (not a typo) visitors tomorrow night - we are known as the hot chocolate house

Might try hitting up Bucky P, see what Camilla's giving out.

We live on a very quiet terraced street with a dead end, apart from the odd few young families Halloween isn’t really ‘done’ here so we’re going to my DM’s house, she lives on a new build estate that has gone all out. Plus my DC’s will be there until I get back from work at 5pm anyway so it makes more sense.

DH is however staying home with a bowl of sweets just in case we get the odd one knocking on our door.