to really hate the idea of trick or treating and wonder why the fuck it's become a 'thing'?

[Excitedtoday]

I find trick or treating really quite anti-social. Why is it acceptable to be rocking up at someone's house on a dark evening basically begging for food? You don't know who lives there or what the effect of you knocking might be. For example, an elderly or disabled person who can't get to the door easily or someone who, for whatever reason, feels vulnerable in their own home.

Perhaps it's just because an anti-social cowbag and I hate people knocking on my door that I'm not expecting, especially at night.

And I also wonder how recently this has become a 'thing' that loads and loads of people do? When I was younger, I'm 25, no-one went trick or treating but over the last few years I've noticed my friends who are parents and family doing it as a matter of routine and I just wonder when that happened?

Is this just me being an anti-social bastard?

BTW, no children and never answer my door after dark whether its Halloween or not.

I dislike it too OP. Some children came to my door a couple of years ago dressed up and there I was with my big tin of Roses. They just pushed each other out of the way and grabbed massive handfuls of them and run away. One of their mum's with her big hoop earrings stood behind texting, not saying anything about .. I vowed never again.

I was chatting about this thread with my Mum today and she said she used to trick or treat at friends and neighbours houses when she was a girl and she is 76 so that's OVER 66 years ago . She lived in Lancashire.
She said they would make scarey paper decorations, turn the lights down and tell scary stories. She said they didn't used to dress up though.

So all this talk about Halloween being a recent import is bollux.

I've never trick or treated - we always went round the houses at halloween though and I always take my kids now.

This basically depends on where you love and local behaviours

I'm 39 and we never went trick or treating but did have parties.

Local to me now some neighbours do the sweet trick or treating thing with the rules. However we also have gangs of teens from neighbouring estates and I have even witnessed adults dropping car fulls of kids on our estate (1 entry road) from down the road or next village.

I don't want to join in - so no decorations. We are frequently egged and vandalised - one year I got back from work at 10pm to find our garage door pretty much kicked in. This year we will have security cameras in situ and I will take footage to police I am so sick of it. We live in the epitome of middle class suburbia.

My 92 year old recently widowed dad has a rough time but he has taken to going to bed early and watching telly upstairs.

I wouldn't object if it was truly a family event and people stuck to the rules but that depends on where you are. If the OPs Halloween is anything like mine then hating it is allowed

We live on a fairly family-friendly estate with mainly younger parents so trick or treating is a bit of thing here. But there are rules, and woe betide anyone found breaking them; you don't knock at the door unless the house is decorated, you don't leave sweet wrappers anywhere and you absolutely do not ignore the note blutacked to the front door stating "YOUNG BABY LIVES HERE, PLEASE DON'T KNOCK" unless you want an irate new mother after you.

It's all a little civilised. We did get some teens last year around 10pm knocking and shouting 'trick or treat'. Instead of ignoring them I opened the door, looked them up and down and refused to hand over the sweets on the basis that they'd made no effort. They looked suitably sheepish and shuffled back down the street in their oversized jogging pants. I shouted after them "If you come back next October make sure you bloody well dress up" and DH had to wrestle the door closed before I could be any ruder.

What about considerate dressed up teens who follow the pumpkin rule and accept whatever they are offered with thanks (so sweets and the occasional apple or pack of biscuits in our village)?

I agree you can't trick or treat without a costume, or it isn't trick or treating at all... but why is 10 the cut off age? DD is 10 and she trick or treats with 2 older friends (the other 2 are 11 and 12), they make a huge effort with costumes (planning weeks in advance, meeting an hour before to do each others' face paint) following all the same rules as her little brothers and their friends and I follow - we're all out at the same time but the older girls go separately. I know the girls behave because we cross paths and because we live in the kind of village where everybody knows who each child belongs to and they absolutely would tell you if your kids caused problems.

There is another group of young teens (13-14) who trick or treat "properly" around here too, I'd hate to tell kids they are "too old" though I have also turned away some older kids not in costume before (the costume and attitude are what matters, not the age!). Big kids (and adults) like fancy dress and going for a walk in the dark by lantern light, and M&Ms and mini milki bars too...

Cut off for me was 12. So this year DS2 can still dress up and answer the door to the younger children. He's having some friends round for a bit of a Halloween get together.

Excited - you don't just rock up to any old house - only the houses that are decorated for Halloween and have lit pumpkins etc. That way you don't disturb people who don't want to participate. If you stick to that rule, you will find it's actually a fun and social activity!

There are loads and loads of enjoyable activities that occasionally get spoilt by arseholes with no manners barging in and wrecking the event. That doesn't mean that all the vast majority of people who enjoy the event are on a mission to persecute the rest of the world (and go especially hard on their local whinyarse). Most people who let their kids trick-or-treat generally abide by the rules of either only houses where you know the inhabitants or only houses with decorations, and have no intention of harassing anyone who doesn't want to play. Where we live, there are several houses who really make a big deal of the decorations and have loads of sweets to give out: DS and I have often had a bit of a dilemma about when to go for our annual walk around so that we don't miss out on too many visitors. This year he's going off to a party (including T?T walk) at a friend's house so I will be able to spend the evening jumping out at children with my skull mask on...

SolidGoldBrass, if you and your children trick or treat responsibly and follow the rules, this rant isn't about you.

Some people just want to be left in peace that night and that should be respected by everyone, without calling these people 'whineyarse' just because they don't want to play along.

My dc love guising. I was never allowed to go as a child still haven't forgiven parents

The cut off for me is that the dds will never go trick or treating without me.

I honestly don't know who these people are who only knock if you have lit pumpkins. We get about 500 trick or treaters every year (yes really!) and once you've run out of sweets taken the pumpkins inside and turned outside lights off the hammering continues.

Its really hard because you either have to do it and be mobbed or be a real bar humbug. I honestly don't know what it is about our road that attracts these numbers and quite obviously I don't know all of them.

I can have a laugh about it this year but next year when its a Monday I've been up since 5.30 and I'm trying to get the tea and the dds to bed it'll be less funny.

We have never ever put out a pumpkin or any decorations whatsoever and we still get beggars trick or treaters. The only year we didn't DD was 2 weeks old and we were holed up in our bedroom (which being at the back of the house cast no light to the front).
I'm considering doing the same (but calling it "movies in bed night") this year.......

I honestly don't know who these people are who only knock if you have lit pumpkins.

Everyone in my area. I haven't had any Trick or treaters for the last 3 years because my children were with their father and I didn't put decorations out.

I need to get in my loft and find my voice activated spiders...

Everyone in my area too. It works really well.

I also think there should be a cut off time after which it's not acceptable to go knocking on people's doors. Elderly people I know do not welcome callers after about 8 o'clock on dark nights.

We never did it as kids but had mischievous night on 4th November.

It is apparently a Druid tradition so is very old.

I think the commercial aspect of it comes from America.

We ate having a party this year and I have spend hours on home made decorations.

Our rule is only knock on houses which are decorated.
Where we use to live it was like a film set.
I have never seen anything like it it was fabulous. The homeowners would proudly show off their homes along with eerie music playing and gardens transformed into graveyards.
It was more about the atmosphere than the sweets tbh.

squoosh I think we lived the same life :o black bin liner cape and a turnip lantern.

The best bit was we carved our turnips at primary school. We brought a turnip and each got handed a spoon and a Stanley knife, aged about 8 or so. It's amazing how much less concern there was about health and safety back then and yet I don't remember anyone ever cutting themselves.

"Id say the op might just be an irritable antisocial kind, I think I recall her name from the judgy thread as one of the posters whose lists of things made me say ' Alrighty then'" [quote]

I really cannot bear posters who go around making comments like this. So spiteful, really.

I'm happy to judge anyone who calls trick or treaters 'cunts'.

Only a few more days and it will all be over. Then the firework moaning can commence.....

Mitzy

She called kids who threw eggs and dogshit at her house 'cunts', not innocent trick or treating children.

Also, if you don't like an expression someone uses, just call them on it. Going around raking up posts on other threads and making snide remarks is really unpleasant.

Wellies

You're incorrect.

She said 'it does make a difference to me if I'm not taking part (i.e. no decorations, just in my house living my life) but cunts people are knocking at my fucking door.'

In fairness, I realise she also used it on the first page, which could have caused offence. But as I said, just call her on it, as other posters did.

Sorry, X pos