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

I like it when the teens come as long as they are polite-makes me happy they still enjoy a wholesome event.

Our street is mad for Halloween and really goes all out, including a parade. Some kids clearly come from a neighborhood just south of us which I think is pretty sketchy and where I wouldn’t want my kids walking after dark. I don’t begrudge those kids, it’s much safer on our street.

I agree it should be local - and definitely on foot! I remember it being fun walking round with my children and seeing other little groups all dressed up.
Only ok to knock if there’s a pumpkin!
Mine are adults now but I still put a few decorations up and have a fake pumpkin in my window!
I get sweets in - and when they’re gone , they’re gone and the pumpkin gets switched off. I stop answering the door about 7:45.
Not feasible to have any controls I guess - but I never comment on social media requests for names of good roads to visit!

I think there is a balance to be had. Halloween is often quite big in our village and I can easily get 100-150 kids. Last year people were coming in from elsewhere and it must have been closer to 300. Most people ran out of sweets and there were lots of disappointed kids and a slight edge later on. it’s one thing participating for local kids and another when large groups are going round who don’t live near-by. This year was actually back to the 100 odd mark and it was nicer. The rain probably put off a lot of the extras.

People do that here (US) too, but nobody gets their knickers in a twist about it. It's just candy and it's bought to give away anyway. Nobody wants to be left with a pile of fun size bars, after all.

And why shouldn't kids from a deprived neighbourhood have fun in a safe place on this one night a year?

...and time honoured tradition here is that Halloween happens on 31st October whether it's a school night or not, and starts at 4pm, ending at 9pm.

I live in a suburb of a big American city and I couldn't disagree with you more. In fact, I scratch my head every year at the misery guts here. Just what is so hard for some to understand about the concept of community?

DD and I set out for a walk this evening to see the fun after we had given away all the candy I had bought, to admire the costumes, the decorations, and participate vicariously in the excitement. We live on a main street and we generally don't get many trick or treaters because traffic is heavy.

DD remarked that Halloween was such a great holiday because it brought so many people out, all having spontaneous fun together, and she was right. There were people sitting out on their front steps or right by the sidewalk, giving out candy. Adults and children alike were dressed up. Neighbours were making s'mores at front yard fire pits. Kids were having a ball. It is really fantastic for children to experience kindness and generosity from people they don't know.

It is a long-running tradition in Ireland, although the phrase "trick or treat" is an American import. "Help the Halloween party" is what I remember.

someone asked earlier how early is too early, and i have an answer for them: 3.30pm is TOO EARLY!

Heard a knock then and answered the door, thinking it was a delivery, but found a child outside (with parent hanging around in the background) - our house was totally undecorated, and we had no sweets in (and nobody was going to be in all evening) - I was genuinely surprised as it was ridiculously early - surely most children are only getting home from school then?!

I don't mind people going to streets other than their own, but they should (a) at least wait until it's dark and (b) walk from house to house - if there's any driving involved then park considerately, once, and then walk - no driving from one house on to the next!

And yes, I was brought up with the tradition of guising, so if I'm at home next year will be asking young visitors to do some kind of party piece/ tell a joke or something...

We hardly ever got things like mars bars or other shop-bought sweets... it was mostly fruit and what we called 'monkey nuts' and maybe a few penny-style sweets or lollipops if you were lucky. We made our own costumes - at the very most you'd buy a plastic mask for your face - and made lanterns out of turnips - not a pumpkin in sight! I don't love the way it's all been commercialised and taken over by plastic tat.

I think people should walk in their own area too. We live in an area that people have decided is the place to go. The first year I thought, great, it's a nice community and we know the neighbors, get some sweets in. My kids were a bit young, but we'd hand them out. We had over 100 people in about 40 minutes, and you couldn't even sit down cause there was another one coming. Everyone drives to our area and there are hundreds of them, most of whom we don't know. I'd have to have at least 400 sweets to give to everyone. They park all over the grass and drive their kids door to door. It's spoiled it for the actual community, because now most residents find it too much and don't do it anymore.

We head to the cul-de-sac 5 minutes away, because there's a grand total of about 3 houses who partake in our immediate bit of the village, we tried just doing our area the first year and it was essentially just a walk in the dark

But this road is the one many of my kids school friends live on and it's where everyone goes. The houses seem ready for lots of trick or treaters and happy to see us even though we live a few streets away

I was never allowed to go trick or treating (or carol singing) as my family considered it "begging" 😱😳

We’ve always stuck to our estate until this year when we were invited to go with friends around theirs. I’m sure the kids on the bigger estates invite their friends. Our estate is quite a way off the beaten track but I wouldn’t have a problem with people coming here.

What I do think is mean spirited is taking your own kids out trick or treating but not bothering to put a pumpkin out and handing out sweets yourself. I do think it’s give and take a bit. My kids love going trick or treating and seeing the scarily decorated houses, I do make an effort with ours too. I definitely can’t afford the extravagant displays but i do buy a couple of things every year to add to the collection.

We love it, it's a chance for all the kids to get involved because it's not a religious holiday. Our area is really multi cultural and it's wonderful to see everyone smiling and participating. We get a lot of cars pulling up because a few houses on our street decorate so we are a safe bet. We get hundreds of trick or treaters.

Loved going round with a turnip and getting money as a child, always in local area. Now it's trick or treat and yes also nearby. I would say about 5 PC of houses were welcoming with their decorations, the only ones you go to now. Quite miserable participation tbh 😕

I didn’t say my kids are too young for it - we’ve been trick or treating for 3 years. They’re the prime age for it. I said, they’re very young so we don’t decorate our house or make an effort, just have a box of sweets to hand out for anyone coming once we’ve come home.

My kids are aged 4-8 and LOVE the scary houses. The massive webs, the creepy skeletons that light up and shake, the home owners in costumes who play the part. THATS the fun. We also stop at houses with just a pumpkin and sweets which is nice, obviously the kids want a sweet, but it’s not fun and if all houses were just a pumpkin, we likely wouldn’t go. I can easily go to the supermarket and get them sweets.

My kids would also Love a Halloween party!

How old are your kids? I’m assuming they’re 10+. Trick or treating isn’t intended for older kids, it’s a young kid activity. Of course older kids wouldn’t want to do it. I find it odd that your kids wouldn’t want to go to a party, most kids love parties whatever the age. Unless your kids are adult kids?

As someone who gives out sweets, why do you do it? Most people do it because it’s 1) fun for them, 2) they love seeing happy kids dressed up - it’s cute.

If neither of those are you, then just don’t do it. The worst thing is to do it but be stingy and mean spirited with it.

We did trick or treating in the early 80s, in the south west. Hand me down cloak and a home made black cardboard witch hat. And people also did penny for the guys and had bonfire parties. My mum claims that TorT didn’t happen before then but I personally can’t remember not doing it.

Just taken the pumpkins in. We've given out about 150 - 200 sweeties (mini haribo bags etc).

Had a couple of groups come around twice but apart from that everyone was nice, great outfits and everyone had their trick ready (We are in Scotland, think it was a bit different in England).

Our square is well known for being well decorated and lots of houses participating, but I've noticed this year a lot of my neighbours didn't bother. I know some people complained last year about the amount of trick or treaters as our roads were put on a local facebook page so people were coming from lots of other areas.

I carry on because I have a 1 year old and I want her to have fun trick or treating when she's older, so I think there is some give or take. Does cost a fortune, but I'd rather it be this way than only have 3 or 4 people come the whole night.

I’m from the NE and trick or treating was definitely a big thing. My mam used to rub the soot from the burned turnip onto my face to make me more witchy. I would stink of turnip for days. Every year these threads pop up and someone always tries to educate us all on it’s origins and how us English never did trick or treating back in their day. Except lots of us did.

You’re right! When I was a kid we never ever celebrated Halloween.

I think it's a mixture.

Own street? Well there's streets with only two or three houses. I grew up on one - would you say they should stick to just those houses? My road had three houses, and I'd be certain that one wouldn't have taken part. But it was off a road with around 150 houses. My friend round the corner could go all along those, but I'd be down to two? No, that would be silly.

But equally well, I've noticed the last couple of years people asking, often on multiple local FB groups where the best places to go T/Ting? That doesn't sit well by me; it just feels perhaps a bit commercial.

I'd say, you should start off at your house, then go a bit wider, but don't be out for too long. It's too cold for the parents 😁

It was never a thing when I was growing up in London.
Penny for the guy was usual, but that was begging on the street - never knocking on doors.

I used to live in a very "naice" middle-class English village.
The local Co-op took eggs & flour off of the shelves from mid-October & put them under the counter to stop the nasty little bastards lobbing them at people who refused to give them sweets.
I'd prefer to see it banned.

YABVVU ... I've had kids from all over the neighbourhood, and seen some parents from my DCs' old primary, which was lovely as I haven't seen them since the DCs left. It's been brilliant. The streets are humming with happy voices. I bought a ton of sweets but I wish I'd bought more!

That's the thing, for everyone who says if you don't want kids knocking don't put out a pumpkin there are just as many who knock at every house pumpkin or not, lights on or not. I don't put my pumpkin out until 6 or thereabouts when I finish work, I've still had kids at the door since half four.

I would agree it seems like a miserable complaint but trick or treat tourism is a real thing in my estate. I don't mind people who are from a quiet nearby area coming into the development, but what I really don't like is people picking and choosing different areas they have no connection with to maximise their loot. It's greedy and bad minded. I've spent £50 tonight and i choose to do it but when things have run out before my neighbours kids turn up it annoys me. The last few years we've had people arriving earlier and earlier and I would put money on it that they are being driven from here to the next place and onwards.