Neighbours all gave money, not sweets on Halloween in 80s

[ofwarren]

I was born and brought up in a working class town in Lancashire and on Halloween I'd always be a witch. My mum would dress me in a bin bag with a witches hat and I'd take out a swede (which they called a turnip) with a face carved in and a candle inside.

We would go door to door, usually only a few streets where my mum knew people and we were not given sweets, everyone gave money!

These days everyone gives sweets there but I'm just wondering if giving money was normal where you grew up?

@Brogues we had the exact same song, SW Scotland. And yy to getting invited in, usually by the old buddies, and doing a wee turn, like a poem or a song. We got a mix of cash, sweets, nuts and toffee apples. One guy gave us each a pile of really posh sweets, like hard fruit ones in individual wrappers, which caused an enormous stir. Even years after he'd gone, whenever I visited my parents I would see his old house and remember how we referred to him as "the man with the good sweeties".

It wasn't a thing where I lived in the 80s and 90s. It was considered an American thing. "What would the neighbours think if we went door to door begging!?"

Dublin in the 1980s - we would get apples, monkey nuts, sweets, the odd satsuma and coins only from young adults who had failed to get the proper offerings in.

Whereabouts in the country out of interest?
It's a very old Gaelic tradition called guising thats been around since the 16th century so Northerners in England also did it due to the close proximity of our Celtic/Gaelic neighbours.

I grew up in the 80s in South Northamptonshire. I wasn't allowed to T 'n' T but we used to go to Hallowe'en parties. It was sweets, toffee app,es and crisps. No money.

Penny for the guy wasn't much of a thing for me but we used to go up the school fields in our village and enjoy a huge bonfire & fireworks display. Our volunteer fire brigade used to supervise (because sometimes it got dangerous!). There was Heinz tomato soup, baked potatoes, and...yet more sweets! Biggest draw of the year.

Oh yes, the food!
We would also have baked potatoes wrapped in foil and a lovely Northern cake called Parkin which tastes of treacle. Also cinder toffee and actual treacle toffee that was so hard to eat.
My mum would sometimes make a corned beef hash thing too.
Ah the memories.

Hated parkin as a kid. Blacklisted the houses that gave parkin or bonfire toffee. Love buying it now it must be one of those things you grow in to like sprouts.

Halloween wasn't really a thing when I was a small child. It was mostly penny for the guy. Trick or treat did start to creep in but they'd come knocking every night for about a week before Halloween! Used to drive my dad bonkers. He never gave up telling them that Halloween was one night only!

I think because they came knocking every night for bloody penny for the guy they treated Halloween the same way when they started doing that.

Where I grew up though, you gave some change every night or you got your windows put through.

I was northern

Hallowe'en much bigger than bonfire night
Everyone dressed up and had parties and turnip lanterns - still love that smell

We never went door to door and no one ever called

We were also given money in South Wales in the 90's. All sweets now though.

Halloween wasn’t a thing when I grew up and our children were actively discouraged from trick or treating. I think they went to visit neighbours once because the neighbours were lovely and had bought the biggest pile of confectionery in the world for them. It would have been rude not to pop them in bin bags and a bit of white face paint to walk down the road and let them stuff themselves whilst the neighbours smiled benevolently. Only time, I think.

I did get given a rather sweet knitted pumpkin when someone came for a kitchen supper last night, if that counts.

We were more "penny for the guy" in the late 60s/70s.

Trick or treating wasn't really a thing where I was in the 80s (South East)

We were given a mix, money or sweets. I always thought money was by the people who didn’t have sweets to hand or were caught unawares- I didn’t realise it was actually a thing.

We got monkey nuts or apples. I don’t remember sweets or money

We got fruit in the 80s and 90s in Ireland.

Guising was massive when I was a kid.
Occasionally got money from one or two of the “big” houses or from someone that had forgotten. Generally though ended up with bags of monkey nuts, apples and satsumas and enough sweets to use as a play piece every day for weeks and weeks.

One year I still had a couple of things left in my Halloween bag at Christmas. I remember being miffed because that was the year my Nana put a stop to the extended family and neighbours buying me selection boxes and Easter eggs. I can remember her saying “It’s too much. She’s got Halloween chocolate left at Christmas, Christmas sweets left at Easter and more Easter chocolate than bloody Cadbury’s” 😁(I was neglected and abused by my parents so when I went to live with my grandparents lots of people used to give something in to give the “poor neglected wee soul a wee treat” but it just got silly)

1980s Dublin: we'd get plenty of sweets, mandarins and monkey nuts (for the older neighbours usually), the odd coin. But sweets comprised the bulk of our swag.

Baffled at the hilarity about fruit. It was traditional where I lived. Sweets were not, and definitely not money.

Just because we weren't used to it I suppose.
My DS got given an apple a few years ago and thought it was hilarious. He still ate it though.

In working/lower class Newcastle in the 90s we used to get mostly money, with some sweets (lollies, Parma violets, penny sweets, etc) and we had a song

"The sky is blue, the grass is green,
Have you got a penny for Halloween?
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha'penny then God bless you"

We also had the standard bin bag "witches outfit" with a plastic witches hat and a carved swede! No idea how my DM didn't loose any finger trying to carve a swede! I can barely cut through them!

We didn't have costumes for Halloween. Just a carved out turnip/swede which we called a Jack O'Lantern. We would go door to door with these and get money if we were lucky.

Before bonfire night we would go door to door with a Guy made like a scarecrow. One year I was made to wear a big Parker back to front so that the hood was over my face and I was wheeled from house to house in a wheelbarrow. That was penny for the guy.

The night before bonfire night was Mischievous Night where kids would knock on doors for money and if none was forthcoming then the door would be 'egged' or a washing line was cut. A variety of pranks were played depending on the age of the kids in the area. One year our car aerial was snapped off - dad was apoplectic.

That was three events for this time of year. It just seems to be the one larger Halloween American trick or treat thing now where people seem to spend a fortune on paraphernalia and sweets. People around here decorate houses and gardens weeks in advance - it almost lasts as long as Christmas.

90s here and Scotland. We went guising and got sweeties and monkey nuts. Money sometimes but that wasn't as common as sweets!

Oh and one of our songs was
"Halloween is coming,
The geese are getting fat,
Please put a penny in the old man's hat,
If you haven't got a penny,
A handkerchief will do
If you have got a handkerchief
Then god bless you,"

Doesn't seem so scary 🤣 I used to tell jokes instead.

If you haven't got a handkerchief*