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!

Bonfire night and penny for the guy are not the same as Halloween and trick or treating

I’m 49 and grew up in the south east. Trick or Treating was certainly a thing when I was a child. My mum would never let me go though as she didn’t agree with it, but my friends went out and we had trick or treaters at the door.

My eldest daughter is now 24 and the village we lived in back when she was small was big on Halloween. The whole village would go to town with decorated houses, everyone dressing up and we’d all end up at the community centre for hot chocolate at the end.

I'm 45 and wasn't allowed to go trick or treating as a child because it was "begging"

Grew up in the 60s/70s and no such thing as trick or treating. We did do penny for the guy on 5th Nov though.

I have noticed in the last few years especially how big Halloween is becoming. All the pumpkin ornaments, cushions, tableware etc and people tend to have lights up outside houses. In the area I live people are only allowed to go to houses that are decorated and people are very good sticking to that.

Just remembered one of our family Halloween games in the 50’s and 60’s. We had a wooden pulley on the kitchen ceiling for drying the laundry. My Dad would spread treacle on a thick slice of bread and hang it on a string from the pulley to shoulder level. Then we were blindfolded and tried to take a bite with our hands behind our backs. Lots of giggling and sticky faces. We were easy to amuse back then 😆

I don't agree with knocking on doors where people don't have decorations up but think it's fine to go to decorated houses as they obviously enjoy participating.

I’m always fascinated by the significant minority on here who don’t allow theur children to trick or treat or weren’t allowed to do it themselves as children because it was ‘begging’ or ‘not nice’ or ‘blackmailing people for sweets’ or ‘American’. Is it an English thing? Or a social class thing?

I have literally never met an Irish person who wasn’t allowed to go trick or treating/‘go on the pookey’/‘go around the houses’. It’s really interesting.

Born in the 80s, we were never allowed to go. The first time I ever did it was when I took my child out. And now every year we still comment on how the first time we both went trick or treating was together! The area I live is on the smaller size and Halloween is big in the community here. Some houses go all out, like seriously creapy stuff. It’s a massive community thing that everyone comes out for and the kids love it. There’s even a map you can follow and money raised for charity. There’s upmost respect too, no pumpkin at a door, no knocking. If you’re out, you leave sweets on your door mat and no one takes the mick with it. It’s funny how as a child it wasn’t something I ever did, and now because of the area we live in, it’s become a family highlight of the year.

I'm 46. Wasn't ever a thing for me and I lived in multiple parts of England as a child.

First time anyone knocked on my door was in 2007 in London!

Born mid 60s, West Midlands. We had a carved swede when I was a child - there’s a photo of me beside one when I’m about 4. I can remember going to a Halloween party where they played ‘monster mash’ a lot and we did Apple bobbing but I don’t know whether this was at school or brownies or something a friend’s family had organised. I had heard of trick-or-treating but it’s something I never did, whether because others didn’t in my area, or because my parents wouldn’t let me, I don’t know. Bonfire night was a bonfire and fireworks in the garden with baked potatoes and ginger parkin.

As an older teenager I can recall dressing in fancy dress for the pub and going with friends to organised firework displays for bonfire night.

As an adult I’ve only ever done Halloween when DS was at an age to want to take part in activities. I don’t do it now but expect I will in the future if I have grandchildren. I’ve always liked looking at fireworks, but since having a dog who is terrified of them, they’ve lost their appeal. Especially when they are being set off mid afternoon for weeks on end.

I'm 43 and went trick or treating as a child.

I'm old and went out for Halloween in the early 60s in Ireland. Not Trick or Treat though. It was Apples or Nuts. I then attended secondary school in SE England and nobody knew what I was on about when I mentioned Halloween. Every year Blue Peter would do a ' what is Halloween ' programme. But nobody cared much - Guy Fawkes was looming up after all , so why bother? I know it was big in Scotland of course. And in North America , presumably brought over by Scots and Irish emigrants.

But having said that , Halloween was no more spooky or sinister than May Eve , or St. Stephen's Day / Boxing Day in my memory. There would be lots of dressing up but it would be home made , involving hand me down clothing and straw. No wizard costumes from the shops 😆

I’ve just remembered toffee apples - apples on a lolly stick dipped in home made toffee so sticky and hard it could take your teeth out. Always had these around Halloween and bonfire night. Does anyone still make or buy these?

My mam still makes them . Dipped in caramel and yes you wouldn't have a filling left . I did see some in a farmers market I was at a couple weeks ago. Wrapped up in posh artisan paper too!
They had chocolate ones in Aldi though my kids preferred those.

I grew up in the North in the 80s/90s. I’m 46. Some people did it but Halloween was no way as big a thing where i lived as it’s become. I don’t remember decorations or discos/parties etc. I’m not saying they didn’t happen but not round where i was. Costumes were bed sheets, bin bags or masks

We weren’t allowed as my mum thought it was begging. We didn’t answer the door or provide sweets etc. We didn’t have much money either tbh.

I remember people dressing up for nights out as i became an adult in the late 90s.

ETA: Bonfire night was a much bigger deal!

39 and grew up in the SE. Never went trick or treating as a child. Haven’t ever taken my own children either!

I never went as a kid, I’m late 30s. Grew up in a joyless town in the south east and I don’t think many people who I knew went trick or treating either. That’s probably changed now but I’ve not lived there for years. Also, my mum used our her Christian faith as a reason too.

I started taking my kids when they were tiny and we lived in the north west. Was a much bigger deal in the neighbourhoods we’ve lived in since. My gran told me about her and siblings and cousins going out guising where they grew up in Glasgow.

I didn’t grow up in the UK, but I went since I was probably a baby. I’m mid 40s so early 80s.

Dh grew up on a farm in the UK and I don’t know that he ever did as a child. Because no near neighbours and MIL/FIL likely drinking too much to bother taking him out in the evening frankly. It’s much more a town thing.

I’m in Scotland so I was guising or celebrating Halloween in some way from when I was very small. When we were too wee for guising, we just dressed up and went to visit my grans and aunties!

We did the same with apples hung on a string
And apple bobbing in bowl of water.

I know ,but ime,at least they seemed to get mixed up together.

90s kid from the north here. We (me, my brother, cousins - all 90s kids) went trick or treating, I remember going when I was around 8 making it the late 90s into the early 2000s. We went as a group so there would be 6 of us. So did most of the people I went to school with. Everyone round us always went with an adult (usually mum or aunty) until you got to secondary school then you could go with your mates and only to school friends houses.

We always went after tea time so would be around 5.30 - 6pm ish then we would all go back home to answer the door to all the teenagers who would go around from 7pm until about 8.30pm. When I was a teen I went with my mates, again the rule was only people you go to school with/ know. So usually trick or treating your mate's parents and friends.

I was born in Kent in the mid -60s, and trick or treating wasn't a thing. Nobody did it. Plenty of penny for the guy and bonfire night, though.

Bonfire night in our part of Ireland was in late June - the 6th class finishing primary school spent the week they were finished before the rest of the school got summer holidays collecting wood and building the fire. The fire was lit on 23rd June (for a pagan god, as far as I know).

@Kimura Penny for the Guy wasn't about knocking on doors asking for sweets though, it was more 'put a badly-dressed stuffed scarecrow type thing in a wheelbarrow and stand outside the local shop with it asking for money'. The Guy would then end up on the local street bonfire on the 5th November.