to not answer door to any more trick or treaters?

[Celeriacacaca]

First knock on the door tonight and there were 22, yes 22, children with a group of adults. Who does this? Are there coach loads of people trick and treating these days? Surely you split up into little groups. I'd stocked up on loads of sweets (two tubs of Celebrations, multibags of Haribos and three bags of toffees) but cannot believe it that they took handfuls each and cleaned us out completely. May as well have just given them the bowl too. Not one word of thanks from the kids or parents. Fuckers.

I have a party most years for my kids and their friends..II have a big cauldron for apple bobbing, lots of other games...food, it gets them in the mood for trick or treating. The kids look forward to it all year.

Only had two, but they were very polite. Two small boys (out with big sister).
General rule here is, if you decorate/display a pumpkin, it's ok to go to that house.
Most obey this "rule". I don't have a pumpkin but still get the odd trick or treater. I stock up with fun sized chocs, but have loads left.

Others have undoubtedly said this, but where you went wrong was letting the kids put their hands in to take the sweets. You should have handed them out to each kid. That's also why they have buckets/bags to put them in.

We decided that it would be an ideal evening to go out and see the new James Bond film so that we didn't have to be subjected to the trick or treating. Best decision ever!

Some years we get loads, some not so many. I don't like it and no longer take part.

In the past I have toyed with the idea of coating some brussels sprouts in chocolate so that they would not want to come back to me. I didn't though, as it would have been a waste of good chocolate.

We never did it as a kid, and didn't really get trick or treaters either - I think it's only really taken off as a proper big thing here in the last ten years or so. DH and I used to live in a neighbourhood that was all retirees and no families, and we never saw a single trick or treater. Last year just before Halloween, we moved to a new estate with lots of families and were a bit flabbergasted to see how many houses were decorated and kids out! I remember coming home from work and clocking the pumpkins, sticking DD's soft toy owl in the window with a candle and making an emergency dash to the shop for supplies. This year 2 yo DD was dressed up as a mini version of the Room on the Broom witch (so cute!), but she has had croup all week and she didn't want to go outside apart from a quick dash to our immediate neighbours' houses so they could give her a few sweets. Instead she was perfectly happy answering the door and handing out mini Haribo packs from her pumpkin. A few children gave her some of their sweets in exchange so she managed to collect 12 items which she was extremely delighted with! She doesn't really have sweets normally so she was a bit bemused by the whole thing.

Here it seems to be quite restrained, small groups of tinies with parents, mostly between about 3 and 7-ish. I found the 8+ children a bit rude, and one very large and grabby group of kids had a few young teenagers embedded in the mix who just came up pushily and grabbed handfuls without saying thank you. I am not keen on teenagers doing it at all - it's quite cute when they are toddlers and little ones, and they are polite and with parents, but older than 10 or so and it's a bit cheeky I think.

I still don't quite know what I feel about it though, it's less weird if the kids are local toddlers you recognise going round the neighbours on the estate, but there were some older groups I didn't know who obviously had been round several areas and had giant buckets and carrier bags completely brimming with stuff. Now that does leave a bit of an odd taste in the mouth: then it looks a bit more like begging/taking advantage and doesn't quite seem in the spirit of things really.

DH is now downstairs gorging himself on the remaining lollies, love hearts and sherbet dip dabs. Yuck!

In the end had one set of 2 teenage lads trick or treating. They were very polite and happy to receive half a pack of lollies.

22!! Wow!

Our biggest group was five boys who I guess were aged somewhere between 9 and 11. They were very polite but seemed a bit clumsy and boisterous and only after they had left and I looked in the bag of sweets did I realise I had been very expertly hussled! Little scamps must have got a handful each.

Mind you I was still on the bag of Swizzells then. I saved the fun size Mars and Maltesers for later callers and (hee hee) there weren't many so I now have a lot of chocolate left. Well, what can you do.....

OP YANBU. I shudder at the thought of spending that much money on sugary junk for greedy coachloads of entitled kids.

At least among the people I know, more and more people seem to be opting out of the whole trick or treating thing. One friend loves giving sweets to the little kids but refuses to answer the door after 8pm when the teenagers start coming around heckling people for money. Another friend in a more rural location just locks the gate to her property. In my street, our neighbours are all out for the evening or else hiding in their conservatories or back rooms pretending they're not home.

I escaped to the cinema last light. It was amusing driving back from the cinema down a street with dark, empty-looking houses.

Some teenagers I know went on an organised spooky walk which sounded like a really fun way to celebrate Halloween without annoying the populace!

I normally avoid Halloween as I don't have kids and don't agree with it. Last night went out with my nephew and their mums. Rules were clearly stated : only went to decorated houses, knock once, only take one sweet and move on if no one answered and most importantly say thank you at every house. For my first ever experience I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, especially at the house where there was a smoke machine and various monsters hiding in the bushes jumping out at the kids.