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

IMO it’s only really taken off since a) pumpkins were readily available, and b) there has been a mountain of black and orange tat in the shops.

None of that was available some decades ago. I can’t blame farmers for cashing in with pumpkins, but all the (usually Chinese) plastic tat is another matter…

How many people live in walking distance of grandparents? How is knocking on your grandparents door fun?!

The fun is knocking on doors of those who have made a big deal of it. No offence to those who have one pumpkin lit (thanks for the sweets, very kind) but the real fun are the houses who have big scary displays. So we walk across our village to those who embrace Halloween!

I think you’re being miserable OP and totally missing the point of trick or treating.

Every year Halloween brings the miserable bastards out doesn't it.

People generally only knock on decorated houses.

I know this.

I specifically asked when trick or treating came to the UK.

I have my answer. Should have used Google first, my bad.

I don’t care about the rest.

Very minor though.

I was at uni in England in the 90s and it was still barely a thing there. Coming from Ireland where it has always been huge (schools being off, which I believe we are the only place on the world where this is the case) it was quite a shock.

The practice is not "tick or treat", that is merely a later interjection that was added on to the secular Halloween custom of guising which is from here.

When I was a child if I was in England the focus was on Bonfire Night, making masks and a Guy, building bonfires. Treacle toffee, Parkin cake etc. The story of Guy Fawkes was taught at school.

If I was in Ireland it was all about Halloween with Jack o Lanterns made from swedes/turnips, colcannon for dinner and a slice of Barm Brack etc. Funnily enough the burning of a Catholic wasn't approved of. Samhain is an ancient Irish tradition not a USA import/export. Whole swathes of Scotland didn't care for Bonfire Night either

It wasn’t really a thing where I grew up (I’m 45 and grew up rural Devon).

here it is quite popular and we tend to go on our street and the street either side of ours.

The phrase “trick or treat” itself may be modern, but the very similar concept of going door to door in disguise “souling” and asking for a soul cake in return for a prayer for the dead or an admonishment to keep bad spirits away from the living is medieval.

Don't worry about any of that history, culture and heritage nonsense - if Google says no then it never happened🤷🏼‍♀️

Stay ignorant. Ha!

We always went trick or treating (with a turnip, now that took some hollowing out with mam's old spoons, with a candle in), in the 70s in our village in Cumbria. I moved to North Yorkshire in 1980 so it definitely wasn't late 80s.

Stay ignorant then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating#Guising

The Irish Times, 31 October 2014.

Scotland and Ireland started tricking

"A few decades later a practice called 'guising' was in full swing in Scotland and Ireland. Short for 'disguising', children would go out from door to door dressed in costume and rather than pledging to pray, they would tell a joke, sing a song or perform another sort of "trick" in exchange for food or money. The expression trick or treat has only been used at front doors for the last 10 to 15 years. Before that "Help the Halloween Party" seems to have been the most popular phrase to holler."

The UK is not England. The English, historically anti catholic, celebrated Guy Fawkes night (unheard of here bar it being mentioned on TV such as an episode of Eastenders when Max said "penny for the Guy"). It supplanted Halloween among the English, whereas in Ireland and Scotland Halloween remained.

It has been practiced in England as well. Mainly in the North.

Yorkshire also.

We live in a multi cultural area right near by. It isn't celebrated so much. Why not? 🤷

I mean, yeah, kids have been dressing up as ghouls and parading around the street and knocking on the door of neighbours and then those neighbours give them sweets for eons but, but ...someone changed the words!!! 😱

I typed in ‘when did trick or treating become a thing in the UK.

Answer - Late 1980s.

Anything else you have to say, I don’t care.

Incorrect. You mean England.

Ireland and Scotland, where kids going from door to door in disguise at Halloween originated, a practice that was then exported, has been done here the longest.

And "Trick or treat", a phrase I never used in the 80s, is merely an interjection.

Pretending that it is something totally other to its origin because it has evolved is pretty silly.

Maybe idiot is the wrong word. Pretentious fits better.

I asked when it came to the UK.

It came to the UK end of the 1980s.

Sorted.

No because my estate embraces the trick or treaters. There are houses that go all out, with gazebos etc. stop being a boring freak and thinking back to 40 years ago when you were a kid. The world has moved on and if your pumpkins out or your house is decorated then your fair game. If you run out of sweets just put a note on the door.

Introduced to the UK end of the 1980s.

I live in quite an American part of London and people here go BIG!! The time, effort and money spent on the houses is huge. Not just decorations, but a whole spectacle once the door is opened by people who are also dressed up and ready to play tricks or scare those who knock at their door.

It is so much fun and a real highlight for all the kids around here year. People come from far and wide to our area on Halloween. I think it’s lovely, the place comes alive. All the shops on the little high street stay open late and have grottos etc and give out free drinks to the adults taking their little children around.

Mine are teens now so we don’t really get involved any more as the teens are off to parties etc. Such a shame. I need to find a few 5 or 6 year olds to borrow!

Yeah, we did Halloweening, it involved a song; typically loud, out of tune and usually involved a rude ending.

I used to be the same but living in a village everyone seems happy to receive anyone. As long as there's pumpkins out or obvious sign of participation we will give them a knock.