When did you start 'Trick or Treating'?

[Kimura]

I feel like I'm seeing more and most posts from MN'ers saying that they never did 'American-style' trick or treating when they were young. I'd always assumed these posters would skew towards the older age brackets on here, but this year I'm noticing people around my own age (early 40s) and younger talking about knocking on doors for sweets etc like it's a new US fad.

I grew up in the North of England in the late 80s/early-mid 90s and I have many memories of going trick or treating as a young kid, then taking my younger sibling when I got older. I've never known it not to be a thing.

My late grandmother used to tell me about doing 'Penny for the Guy' on Guy Fawkes night when she was young...so while I don't disagree that it's become commercialised, I don't think stuff like this is new or 'American'.

Curious to know how far back other people remember doing it!

I’m mid 40s ent guising from the age of 5.

my mum was born in the 1950s and went guising as a child too.

it originated in Scotland and Ireland. But was called guising originally

I was born in the 70s and never went, few people did where I lived. DD (now 20) has never been Trick or Treating either.

I vividly remember going out and doing trick or treat when I was still at school so that would make it 79 or 80.
No fancy costumes, just a paper bag over the head with a scary face drawn on it with felt-tip!

Prior to that we had Halloween parties followed a week later by bonfire night.
Meant a busy time for Dmum & Ddad.

I was born late 80s and remember not being allowed to go, all my friends were and went but my parents saw it as begging.
My DSS is 23 we took him from when he was v young, my kids and 6 and 10 and we’ve taken them since little as well.

Born in 50s. Always had bonfire night and penny-for-the-guy as a child, never had Halloween though. My children born late 70s - used to trick-or-treat our immediate neighbours (who knew in advance and would get sweets in) but never strayed further away, definitely no pumpkins or shop-bought costumes so very low key.

I'm sure pretty much everyone grew up with bonfires and fireworks on Guy Fawkes night, everywhere in the UK. Penny-for-the-guy became unusual a while ago though, I think - my PILs talk about doing it, but I haven't heard anyone my generation. When I grew up, people did still do fireworks in the garden, but a full bonfire and fireworks display was more usually organised by some group - usually free, or sometimes paid admission to cover the cost of the fireworks (rather than sending children round the neighbourhood with a guy!)

Halloween is a different celebration, of course, and seems quite regional. I grew up in Scotland in the 70s, and there's a very old, established Halloween tradition there. We went guising rather than American trick-or-treating: carrying turnip lanterns (much harder to carve than pumpkins, but robust enough that you can carry it on a string) and doing a 'turn' (a song, poem, dance or joke) at each door to earn our treat.

I live in England now, and people my age are more likely to have just gone to friends houses, or to a party as a child for Halloween. The current trick or treating I see where I live now seems to come from the American tradition, not the Scottish one. I'm sure Scottish children still go guising though!

I’m Irish so maybe it doesn’t count because Samhain is the Irish pagan harvest festival and I’ve done it all of my life.

We used to wear plastic witch masks and wear black sacks 😂 I was telling Italian DH about my childhood experiences of Samhain and how we always got fruit and nuts with their shells on. We only got very minimal amounts of sweets. This was the 1980s.

I’m early 40s and went trick or treating as a witch with a costume made from a bin bag and a carved turnip on a string. I only went to selected neighbours I knew. It seems to become more of a thing when I reached early teens but it was only for children.

I lived north NE and there was a fair amount of Scotish influence. First footing at NY was a big thing.

I suspect it's regional - I'm early 40s and grew up in the SE, no-one went trick or treating round us. We did go once worth some American friends but it was all pre-arranged with neighbours on their street.

I'm 61. We used to build a guy for fun and to put on the bonfire, but weren't allowed to go out doing 'penny for the guy' as my parents didn't like me 'begging'. I wasn't aware of Halloween being a thing. No trick or treaters and no pumpkin carving. Firework night was the 'big' event, but it was a small box of fireworks in the garden with Catherine wheels, jumping jacks, and rockets that barely left the garden, accompanied by a light 'swiiiish'.

My DC were born late 90s and I only ever let them go to their GP house to trick or treat. I guess my childhood rubbed off on me and I just saw it as a form of begging. They were allowed to dress up and carve pumpkins, so we did have some fun.

I had to pop out tonight and saw people going round in big crowds with their kids. I don't partake because I have a reactive little dog who goes a bit mental at the doorbell, and I'd hate that many people turning up at my door in one go. Fortunately people round here do respect the 'only go to houses with pumpkins or decorations' rule, so all is good.

Exactly my experience. Everyone wore the black sacks and a mask. I remember getting a few coins in my Quinnsworth plastic bag too (the excitement!). Bonfire after then back to the house for brack and games like bobbing for apples.

Early 80's Ireland.
Do the same thing (bar the flammable plastic bags) with my kids.

I’m in my 60s and it was known about but frowned upon. It was begging from the neighbours, and would worry elderly people. At the time, that was probably a fair assessment, since householders who failed to open the door or had no treats would be subjected to vandalism on their property.

I took my own kids out for a few years when they were primary school age, to homes that we knew would welcome them, but they lost interest fairly quickly. Bonfire night was and remains a bigger deal here (southern England).

The money thing really makes me cringe looking back. I remember getting shouted at by people who were clearly sick of being disturbed as well. We thought it was hilarious as kids but perspective is a wonderful thing.

I think the organised nature of it this days is much better in that respect!

Didn't know anyone who did it in 1970s south-east. A big thing with kids though from 2005 at least. I think it's quite area dependent

I was born in the mid-1970s and I grew up in north London. I always went trick or treating as a child (just in our street and the next one).

Im the youngest so assume i went from a baby im late 30s I remember going as a kid every year wearing them plastic witch masks and hat and a black bin bag

I'm 70 and we used to do penny for the guy. It was great making the guy buying the mask from the sweet shop that was reconstucted cardboard in different colours. All the money went on fire works, the local teenage boys used to build a bomb fire on the waste ground and on bomb fire night it would be lit and we would all, parents and children, would stand around watching it and letting off fire works. It was a big thing and I still can feel the excitement we felt leading up to it. But we never celebrated Halloween, only looking in the mirror in the dark with a candle to see who you would marry. Your future husband was suppose to appear behind you. Ha ha ha.

I'm 38 and never went trick or treating. DH is 40 and says the same, he never did it either. It just wasn't a thing round us growing up. DDs are 8 and 6 and don't go either....they really do not need any more sweets! We do decorate and hand them out and have a Halloween party where we eat whatever sweets are left over 🤣.

I’m mid 40s and we definitely didn’t do it when I was a kid. My recollection is that it was sort of starting around the late 90s or early 00s. I remember going to a Halloween party at school when I would have been about 7, but other than that Halloween never really got a mention.

Born early 70s London and not allowed to go.

My older 3 kids (born 90s) were not allowed to go but we answered the door in costume.

My youngest (now 13) i did let go. I've been taking her since she was 6ish. This year is the first year she wanted to stay home and do door answering.

Our local romany discourages it and does a disco on the night which lots of parents are grateful for their kids to do instead of t&t ing .

I’m in my 50s, in SE and used to go. Didn’t have Halloween parties until in my late teens though.

I went trick or treating for the first time when I was 7, in 1993. We didn’t do it every year and we had to be home by 6:30 before the big kids on the estate went out because our mums were worried about us getting caught up in egging etc. We’d usually get about 4 or 5 houses to give us sweets. And the only halloween stuff in the supermarket was a few masks/face paint and there were toffee apples in the supermarket which were the shittest apples ever dipped in toffee so you couldn’t see what was wrong with them. Pretty much everyone had a bin bag cape or the same plastic witch hat as each other.

44, NorthWest, it wasn’t much of a thing here and I never went or heard friends talking about it. One year I was allowed to dress up and knock on my grandparents house. By the time my niece came along in 2000, it was much bigger.

Never have and never will.

I did it in the seventies in Northern England and throughout the eighties in Scotland. It wasn’t called trick or treating though and I don’t remember what we called it in England but it was ‘guising’ in Scotland