Tricked for not treating.

[ToadRage]

Just curious, this has never happened to me but just was curious if anyone had been tricked for not treating or not answering the door on Halloween? The only one i had heard about was before I was born one of my parents neighbours had all the plants in their garden pulled up, she was devastated. Once a toddler who didn't quite understand trick or treating sprayed silly string at my Mum so he didn't get a treat.

Same here, and another rather unpleasant more serious incident in the area. I'm so over Halloween, it's turned people into raging lunatics.

Did you pick the mess up afterwards?

When I was a child in the early 80’s my Dad chose “trick” instead of treat. No idea why! They took our garden gate off the hinges and left it a couple of doors down. Think my Dad was pretty surprised they followed through with it but it was harmless fun and he did ask for it!

We use to egg houses

One of our neighbours said this to my son, many years ago. DS was into magic tricks at the time and produced his deck of cards and spent several minutes showing them to the man. He was given a treat

I had a couple of teenage boys knock on my door years and years ago. When they said ‘trick or treat’ I said, ‘I’ll have a treat please’ and one of them gave me a full size Twix. Result!!

My DH fancied doing it differently this year. He positioned himself outside in the front garden, wearing a skeleton hoodie, and when they knocked, he advanced slowly towards them, before whipping the cloth off a table near the front door, to reveal the treats. He said that they seemed to enjoy this extra scare, but it confused them a bit, and they forgot to say "trick or treat".

We live in a nice village. Last year houses on our road who ran out of sweets got egged, including ours. The only upside is it helped me to explain to our kids why we don't do trick or treating (but we put a bowl outside for kids that do).

My dad told me he said "trick" once, and the children stood there looking confused. He then said "you should put your masks on, and try to scare me a bit!"

Tricking doesn’t seem to be a feature around here, and the kids tend to stick to houses that look inviting. When ours were little we’d take them to people we knew and they’d take a squirty water bottle as a trick and usually one of adults would ask them for the trick, just for fun. Good times.

It’s much nicer than it used to be. Egging houses where they were not participating but obviously in was commonplace. My neighbour had a brick through her conservatory that landed in the chair where 2 minutes earlier she’d been sat nursing her new born in.

it also seems to be over fairly early now we used to still get kids 9pm and later.

I assume there’s a lot of info in school these days as well about no knocking if no pumpkin etc.

we used to have eggs thrown at the house, regardless, we moved address, problem solved

All treats here. Very sweet, lots of children out with parents knocking on decorated houses and saying ‘happy Halloween’.

They all know to bypass undecorated/unlit houses quietly and to say thank you for the treat.

Once got the garage silly stringed because we were out (years ago). It took the varnish off the door - so were less than wowed.

We never had issues. For some years we had a poster at the front door but now there is a clear rule in our area that you don't knock on dark and undecorated houses.

Nobody is bothered and the kids learn good manners.

20+ years ago the corner shops wouldn't sell flour and eggs to anyone under 18 though, so it must have been a thing once.

The 'trick' part of Trick or Treat is as quaintly outdated and irrelevant to today's youngsters as the 'christ' part of Christmas. Just give them lots of stuff. That's the entire point of everything.

There was also a short lived phase (thank god) about 15/20 years ago where kids were demanding money instead of sweets and would then egg the house if just given a mars bar.

Trick or Treat isn't a question being asked to the person opening their door, it's a statement that unless a treat is given, a trick will be performed. So, if you are giving treats, you put your front/porch light on. If your house is dark the kids don't stop. But. If your lights are on and you don't answer your door, or open it, but have no treats you risk being "tricked."

When I was in my teens, that meant your house might get egged, or toilet papered.
I only heard about it, some kids bragged about having done it, but I don't recall actually knowing anyone who did. 🤷‍♀️

I also remember every now and again some smug adult would ask for a song or a joke first. 🙄

Just give some candy, say Happy Halloween and let that be it. That's all the kids want. When you run out of candy, or have had enough, turn your lights off.

We were egged once about 10 years ago, no one knocked at the door we just had a couple of eggs thrown but eggs are expensive now

It was a US tradition that we just took the nice part from. In the US you'd have eggs thrown at your house etc. That and the behaviour of school kids in films doesn't present Americans in the best light.

I wouldn't call that harmless, really - it's low-level vandalism. What if you had a pet or a toddler who escaped through a missing gate that was supposed to be there? What if you were disabled and you couldn't easily repair it? What if they damaged it whilst unscrewing it?

Where did they get the screwdriver from? Did they have a tool bag that they took with them, or did they go back later?

Maybe your Dad shouldn't have 'asked for' a 'trick', but if a treat is a small chocolate bar or bag of Haribo, that 'trick' is hardly the equivalent. If they must do something bad, at least leaving a bit of easy-to-clear-up litter or similar might be less vindictive.

I think there's less chance of egging these days as shops are wise to it, but also the price of eggs!

Why should you have to turn your porch lights off, just to indicate that you don't have sweets to give out to children? People have porch lights for security purposes, and to help them and their visitors see when coming in the dark - they aren't solely installed for the purposes of inviting kids to come and get sweets one night a year.

And what about houses that don't have porches, or front gardens/yards? What if your living room has a door that opens on to the pavement? Are you supposed to sit at home in the dark all evening, just so that kids and teenagers know that it isn't worth their while knocking?

I think there are lots of things that people see as 'frivolous' and harmless, without ever stopping to think or care about what consequences they could lead to. 'Silly string' sounds innocent enough, but it's still litter - and something toxic that wildlife could mistake for food.

Kids in 90s used water spray bottles but more of a threat , never known them used