Trick or treating...

[bumblebee39]

AIBU or is it a bit odd/weird/rude?
Didn't want to take DC but it's become the expectation now as I don't know how I feel about knocking on strangers doors and asking for things (obviously we never do any tricks...)

Before anyone blathers on... Trick or Treating is a BRITISH & IRISH TRADITION since the MIDDLE AGES. Not American.

Know your own history. Fgs.

I put this down as one of those 'only on Mumsnet' things.

Round here, little children get dressed up and go round with parents knocking on doors with pumpkins outside. There are no 'tricks' (as in nasty pranks).

Those who don't wish to participate don't have lanterns out.

It's fun for those who want to participate, and those who don't wish to are not bothered.

I live on a new build cul de sac. We went last year and only knocked at the doors with pumpkins. It was a nice way of meeting neighbours. This year, everyone more or less knows each other and we’re all looking forward to it.

Just don’t knock on doors without pumpkins

Same here hibble, but we will be accused of living in a 'naice' area or something as everywhere else they are chucking eggs and flour about and putting people's windows through.

My mother is 78yo and from rural Ireland, and even she said they went trick or treating as kids. You got brack/ fruit etc.
It is definitely not an American import, the Irish & Scottish imported it to America!
It isn’t traditionally English though. As a child it was never mentioned on Blue Peter, I couldn’t understand why. But then they went in for Guy Faulks and we don’t have that.
Some facts on it all.

I go crazy here, a lot of people do. We decorate the outside of our houses. I sit outside, dressed as a witch, with a cauldron full of sweets, while DP takes the DC out.

It's entirely up to you what you do though, do what you feel comfortable.

It's nice as long as it is respected that no everyone wants to do it. Doesn't make them boring or whatever their choice. When I used to do it same rule, Pumpkin yes anything else nope. Especially as a there used to be and probably still are quite a few old people in a row.

Always those who take it to far however.. Which is a shame and no need for it.

We put a note on the door explaining we have an autistic child who is scared and still people knock they are the kind of inconsiderate idiots that create a problem.

The majority of children go with their parents who monitor where they knock and select houses where they know the owners or which are decorted and that is brilliant because everyone is happy!

If you're in a new area would you consider a Halloween party instead for the kids OP? I threw one for my Dd when she was 7. I think I spent about 15 quid tops. Strung fake webbing, black/orange balloons, bobbing for apples in blood (added food colouring to water in a well washed bin), green cupcakes, pass the spooky parcel (had plastic spiders/teeth wrapped in it). Kids loved it, lasted 3hrs and no traipsing round the streets involved.

We live in a fairly family-focussed kind of area so people ship their DC into our street from miles around to join in with the trick or treating.

Our area has a rule that you don't knock unless the house is decorated and people are very well behaved; there aren't 19 year olds in hoodies roaming about terrifying folk.

We dress up and scare the trick or treaters when they knock. My mum also tends to give them walnuts from the walnut tree in the back garden. Which of course they're delighted to receive. I would be very disappointed if no one knocked.

My late mother was very badly frightened by a gang of teenage trick or treaters banging on her door. She was in her late eighties and hadn’t remembered it was Halloween and didn’t know about trick or treating anyway.

I actually think it's quite a lovely thing to do  We really enjoy decorating our house and giving out sweets. The effort that goes into some of the costumes is amazing!

I've taken my DC trick or treating locally as well (following the rules of course of only knocking on decorated houses, paying attention to any signs on doors and taking off masks if asked) and again been bowled over by how generous people are and how much effort is made to make it fun for the kids!

We live in a highly populated area, but on Halloween there does seem to be a good sense of community that you don't always see at other times. And I've never had any trouble with eggs being thrown or rude teens despite it not being the "naicest" area.

Not odd, weird or rude, just something I wish was not a tradition, and has in any case become over-commercialised. Let's just have Guy Fawkes night at this time of year, and then the solemnity of Remembrance Day.

YABU. It's wonderful. I love how many people invest their time and energy to inject a bit of theatre and drama in an otherwise drab October day and how much fun the kids have.

I never said it was an American export. Just not sure how comfortable I am going to strangers houses... Seems to contradict the stranger danger thing and I don't like DCs having sweets too often... Party is not an option personally but they are going to a party anyway (not on Halloween but it's got Halloween due to not wanting to have on a school night), I think I will just play it by ear and maybe do some spooky stuff at home and go to a few well decorated houses on well lit streets if older DC isn't too tired after school and really doesn't want to miss out, I would have a party if knew more people and had planned one, might do one next year and make a new tradition X

Not done where I live but have known it on odd occasions. Don't approve at all, witches and wizards etc not very healthy imo. Certainly wouldn't have allowed my kids to do it but subject never came up.

I'm Scottish I didn't go guising when I was a child. As an adult I don't like it and my ds has never been. There is very few houses in my area that even celebrate it and I'm not walking the streets just to look for houses. I don't answer my door and I know my immediate neighbours don't either. So that means I would need to take ds to strangers doors which kind of goes against the whole stranger danger/don't take sweets from thing

Round here it isn't too bad, anything from 2 - 5 groups of small children escorted by adults or teens who stay at the end of the path & let the little ones come up & knock. I rarely decorate the house so people outside can see, but that makes little difference.

One year I had to put a notice in the window saying "Please don't knock, cat is ill" and wasn't bothered at all. Then again, one year a single child about 12 showed up at the door 3 days later (Halloween had been at the weekend that year) explaining he'd been away on holiday on the correct date. He was MOST miffed when I said words to the effect that it was his problem, and I only handed out sweets on 31st October to properly dressed (i.e. fancy dress) children.

Ghosts & spooky things should definitely be the order of the day, as the original festival that All Hallows Eve took over (Samhain) was the day that spirits returned to walk again, as the veil between the worlds was thinnest.

Pp always say it's Scottish but still, the way it happens in England and Wales IS an American import . Id never heard of the kids doing a 'trick' for their sweets, the 'trick' is what they do to you if you don't give them sweets. Like smashing up my grans front garden, terrifying her. I know lots and lots of young families do it in a friendly way, but the other kind does happen.

My first experience of trick-or-treating was in the USA in 1987. The school and nursery went in for Halloween in a big way, with special parades and activities. All the local children up to the age of about 12 did trick-or-treating, so I cobbled together a costume for my kids (7 and 4) and we joined the group of neighbourhood kids and moms and went out in the afternoon with them. My neighbours knew which houses to call at (basically we all called at each others houses).

None of the younger children (below age 10) went out on their own without parents and only the older kids called round after dark. We had no teenage trick or treaters.

When we returned to the UK a couple of years later, we never even considered going out trick-or-treating, as it wasn't the done thing in the UK at the time.

Halloween merchandise seemed to arrive with a vengeance in the UK in the early 1990s and from then on the practice of trick-or-treating began to take off.

I think there is a protocol for door knocking, adopted from the USA, which is if you don't want callers, don't put a pumpkin in your porch. Any house with any Halloween decorations or a lit pumpkin on Halloween night, is inviting you to knock.

Let's just have Guy Fawkes night at this time of year,

Yep let's all celebrate someone being tortured and narrowly missing being hung drawn.and quartered (just cos he died first) Thats much nicer.

I bloody love bonfire night! now THAT is a real English tradition!

Id never heard of the kids doing a 'trick' for their sweets, the 'trick' is what they do to you if you don't give them sweets

My American colleague, who was in her 60s in 1987, told me that Halloween in the USA had completely changed since she was a child. In the 1930s, she and her friends used to bake cookies to hand out to neighbours and learned songs and poems by heart. Then on Halloween they took the cookies door to door to their neighbours, saying "trick or treat". If the neighbours chose "trick" then the children performed their song, dance or whatever. If they chose "treat" they were given one of the homemade cookies.

My colleague was saddened that it had all changed into, what she called "begging with menaces".

My non verbal autistic child loves halloween he hands his bag over and gets loads of sweeties but i do get some kids cant do noise.