To think that trick or treating should be confined to your own street or friends/family

This is actually what I love about Halloween. For one night we get to freely interact with strangers and well..just trust that what they give is fine and have rhem trust us that we are not trying to poison anyone.

We only got trick or treaters one year. I buy sweets every year and I know so do my neighbours but we just don't get trick or treaters. I take my kids to rhe neighbouring streets and it's lovely to see how warm and welcoming people are. It's also another opportunity to see how nice people mostly are. I remember two incidents from last year. My 3 year old was freaked out by a man who was wearing a were wolf mask and when he started to run away the man removed his mask to show him that he was just human. The other one was when my kids stood behind a large group of children. Group of children got their treats and then my older one got the last sweet that the family had but they had nothing left to give to ds. We told them obviously that it's no problem at all but their daughter asked ds to wait and then returned a few minutes later with some of her own sweets that she had got trick or treating. And she gave them to ds. I thought it was the kindest thing ever. Strangers can be lovely. Halloween is a great opportunity to remind us of that.

No-one is forcing anyone to answer the door, but if you don't then your neighbourhood kids miss out. I enjoy passing out treats, but I don't think it's absolutely unreasonable to get a tad annoyed by so many people driving in that locals struggle to find a parking space in their own street or that (in my small town) dozens of visits would cover the local groups of childrenn but we usually end up doling out 100+ - this year was unusual as the monsoon weather put many off. I think it's greedy to drive around with the sole objective of collecting as many sweets as possible and not a good example for their kids. People coming in from rural areas without near neighbours would be acceptable to most I would think.

On localish SM someone in Portsmouth posted a doorbell cam of a CF man (with a bunch of kids) who took the bucket of sweets the householder had left out for kids to help themselves. Typical of the selfish FU attitude.

There's about 5 kids on our street, grandkids live 5mins away & I knew they were coming with friends" they are all under 9yo" i decorated front of house & between 4pm & 8pm we had 200 kids, my wife & i also dressed up to answer door, it was brilliant & seeing the smiles on kids faces was great, we are living in a time where everything on news etc is dark & depressing, remember you can turn lights off, turn tv up & no ones forcing you to answer the door, OH & merry Xmas when it comes lol

My DC are getting older and last year was the last time we did trick or treating, but we would travel a mile to an estate where everyone went all out. We are the only people on our street who would decorate and offer sweets, so there's no opportunity to do it here. Even offering sweets, we'd only get a couple of kids round

Which cost money they may not have

That’s what she said.

I honestly don’t get it and I don’t particularly like it.

Fine if it’s a couple of little kids from down the road with Mum in tow but that doesn’t seem to the case. When I drove home the other night it was big gangs of kids, some quite grown up and several parents.

It’s just something else that’s become commercialised and grabby. I bet the likes of B&M are clapping their hands in glee at the opportunity to push more plastic tat from China.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

Some people, not all.

I always go out for a drink on Halloween night. It's not my job to treat your kids.

Entitled attitude? Behave yourself.
If your house is decorated, surely you expect people to knock - who’s policing if they’re local kids or not?

Halloween is a neighbourhood and community thing? Says who!

I decorate my house so expect kids to knock. I wouldn’t have a bloody clue if the majority of them were ‘local’ kids or not. I don’t care.

And then when I run out of sweets, I bring the pumpkins in and stop answering the door.

I’m 72 and trick or treat was not a thing when I was a kid . I think the etiquette now is that if you want children to knock for a treat then you decorate your front door with stuff , maybe a pumpkin or a skeleton etc . This lets the children know that it’s ok to call at your house.. If the house is bare they know not to knock . I was home alone for a lot of last evening so I put a big bowl of haribo sweets out and a notice on the door for children to help themselves and to not be too greedy. I noticed at 7pm that the bowl was nearly empty so filled it up again. I’m disabled so this worked well for me.

Yes, guising 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 I did try carving a turnip once but pumpkin is a bit easier 😆

We call it guising here 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and it’s happened for decades .
When my children were younger we lived in a city suburb where quite a few houses were decorated and gave out sweets so we would participate in that , but only our street and the surrounding streets ( so not too far )
Each year we would get lots of sweets 🍬 in plus apples 🍎 and tangerines 🍊 Dog and I spent ages answering the door to children and young teens who had made such an effort with their costumes and had their party piece all rehearsed.
Where we are now lots of houses were decorated, lots of kids enjoying themselves .
I think 🤔 kids come from neighbouring estates too .
I left out a big tub of sweets because current dog goes 🤪 when doorbell rings and when it was gone I just put the lights out

I get your point as you can't have never ending sweets but you can find apps that you put your house on and off the app like I did and another person who commented. It's a hard one because like someone else said your stuck if you live in a flat you will go to local houses. I usually take my decorations down if I run out of sweets. First time using the map.

@thisfilmisboring123”if they’re on holiday where are they supposed to go” - well they enjoy their holiday that they are privileged enough to be taken on - get dressed up and let the parents buy sweets - trick or treating isn’t an entitlement or necessity, it’s a neighbourhood and community thing. I don’t open the door unless it’s children with adults I know. For the first time ever in the neighbouring village eggs were thrown at non participating houses - that’s what your entitled attitude leads to.

It’s one night a year where children can dress up and collect sweets. Let them live, and enjoy themselves going wherever they want.

Some of us have had bad experiences with a certain type of teenager (completely unrelated to Halloween) and even the idea of groups of teens in hoodies and masks roaming the streets after dark makes us very uncomfortable.

Of course many teenagers are perfectly decent. Those who are need persuading by their parents that going around like this simply isn't socially responsible. And that quite frankly they're too old for this sort of thing anyway.

We had approx 70 children in the end, all given sweets and crisps. I saw a clip online with a Dad saying they deliberately went to the nice bit of town as people had more money and could afford to give sweets at the door and I thought fair play to him.

I don’t care if people are from my road or not, all the kids were polite, all dressed up. They appreciated the compliments about their outfits. DH scared a few as he was dressed as a werewolf and growled when he answered, made the parents laugh.

I find it weird thats it’s ok to knock on strangers doors and ask for sweets. But on the other hand the kids make a real effort to dress up and it’s a bit of entertainment.

when I was little at this time of year it was all penny for the guy I really enjoyed that.

I think it depends where you live. My parents never let me trick or treat and it made me mad as a kid, but I’ve found myself doing much the same with my own kids. I don’t like it because it feels like begging. Last year, we had so many visitors, I ran out of treats and it cost me a bloody fortune. It’s a shame because I quite like Halloween, but people are so greedy these days. I tend to buy a ludicrous amount of treats and I’ve told my kids they can have whatever is left which is usually a lot more than they would get if they went out. I once went for a meal on Halloween and came back to an egged house because I wasn’t home to give out free sweets. Some people ruin it for everyone else, and I worry about my elderly neighbours feeling coerced into it.

It is not American, it is Irish and Scottish

My friend took her two kids a several years ago for a few days to York when Halloween was on.

I remember she took a photo which she sent to.me of the outside of a house in the centre of York
The.house had a bowl.of cheap sweets balanced on a chair outside the front gate of the house with a note saying.

"TAKE ONE AND FUCK OFF".

Sorry have really searched my phone but can't find this photo.

I'm in America and decorate inside and out a couple of weeks ahead. We have mini pumpkins and small knobbly gourds in various shades on the mantelpiece and as a table centerpiece, with black candles in the candlesticks, little ceramic ghosts my DCs made in school arranged on bookshelves, and bat cutouts on the windows. Outdoors I have larger pumpkins and orange fairy lights. The squirrels love the pumpkins.

Absolutely us!! We go all out with decorations and give away 500-990(non half term) full size candy bars every year. Bring it on! Highlight of my year.