To think that if you have decorated your house, then its fair to assume you are happy to help trick or treaters knocking?

[BasinHaircut]

House down my road, went all-out with the decorations. Looked really good and as I walked past it on the way home I wondered whether DS would even want to knock there as it looked quite scary.

Anyway as we went out to knock on the few houses on my road that were decorated/had pumpkins out, I noticed that a bunch of kids were knocking at spooky house but getting no answer. A minute or two later we approached the house again and other kids were knocking there so we skipped it but they again didn’t answer. Then another few minutes later we returned and DS knocked and you guessed it, they didn’t answer. The TV was on inside and I could hear people inside.

AIBU to think it’s weird to put so much effort into decorating your house for Halloween but then not get involved?

Maybe they'd run out? Our childminder made up 90 trick or treat bags and was all cleared out by 8pm so even though her house was decorated she stopped answering after that.

We had some decorations outside our house and went out to trick or treat with the younger ones at around 5.45 before returning home to dish out sweets. DSS (16) was at home studying while we were out and gave up answering the door as it was a constant interruption. Plenty of reasons as to why people may not answer the door!

Where I live in the US most people decorate their houses. The convention here is, if lights are on (porch lights or pumpkins) then trick or treating is allowed. If lights are off or there are none, don’t knock. Makes it simple. In some towns (not mine) there are also designated trick or treating times as well.

*DeadGood

“ If I hadn’t heard people moving about inside I’d have been worried something was wrong.”

Aaaaand here is where you stray into very odd territory.*

Why is that odd?

People can decorate how they want.
They dont have to answer the door.

They were out trick or treating
Or maybe on the toilet

BasinHaircut can you seriously not see why that is odd?

It's so incredibly overinvested in stranger's lives that it's practically unbelievable.

Might have been kids from school alone waiting for parents to come in from work

Around here it's deemed acceptable to knock on decorated doors. However a few times we noticed groups of people at undecorated doors getting a wee bag of sweets (we live in a new build and halloween decorations aren't as important as setting up your new house).

deadgood not really. It’s not like I called the police or kicked the door in. It was just a thought process.

I don’t suppose some people would have given it a second thought but i don’t think it’s strange to fleetingly wonder why someone who goes all out for Halloween doesn’t open the door to trick or treaters.