About out of area trick or treaters

[Daisypod]

First let me say I love Halloween and always stock up for trick or treaters.
Our area really goes for it with lots of houses decorated and the streets become really busy for the evening. It's lovely to go out with the kids and seeing the community out and it is done as much for the social aspect as it is the goodies.
But it is now getting quite a reputation for it and last year many people ran out of sweets by 6pm. People are coming from miles away because it is such a good place to come to. I am already seeing on local Facebook pages about people discussing the fact they will be heading to our area.
So Aibu to say it is a bit unfair for so many people to be coming from other areas to get the goodies and leaving some of the local kids without?
If you want to experience it put the effort in in your own areas and create the same spirit there.

[midnightmisssuki]

I live in an area like this. We get about 100 ish kids - and go though 2kg of sweets. Then you have the older kids later on.

[dickiedavisthunderthighs]

Coming over 'ere, taking our sweets...

[BigGlasses]

I think maybe the key is the 'only go to houses/families that you know' rule. A few years back it was just the kids from our estate that came round and there was a bit of banter with them, and a quick chat with the parents lurking at the end of the path. Now in our estate its gangs of kids, minibuses (I'm not joking) of people being dropped off. I've no idea who they are, there is no time for chat/banter its just a quick, normally rubbish joke from them, a sweetie in each bag, invaribaly no thanks, and less than 5 minutes until the door goes again. The local kids are there too still, but there is barely enough time to say Hi to them before the queue starts building down the path.

[Beveren]

Can you just have a sign ready to put out saying "Sorry - we've run out of treats", and maybe take any pumpkins in at that stage?

How organised is this? Can you agree with other neighbours that you will all take a similar line so it is less attractive to strangers to come to your area? Maybe with some sort of password for local children if you want to keep a few treats back for them?

[Tanith]

"Perhaps families come from less well off areas where they and their neighbours can't afford all the decorations and sweets. They are just trying to give their children a nice Halloween. "

It's the other way round here. Our estate is the "sink" estate that they all sneer about on FB - until it's Hallowe'en.
It's fine then to go round to the poor people and take the sweets intended for their children. They contribute nothing to our community and could easily afford to put on Hallowe'en experiences and sweets for their own kids. They just see us as cheap entertainment.

[gettingbacktoresearch]

Our area is the same... for the last couple of years, my neighbour and I take ours out for about an hour but either side of that, we easily have around 80-100 children knocking for sweets!

Some of the side streets do lovely little shows/poems/fog/lights etc though so I see why people come but it does cost a fortune!

[MrsCollinssettled]

Small village here and previously had a lovely atmosphere for the children plus you could get round in about an hour. People started inviting friends from other places round to join them, they obviously mentioned to other people and it has steadily grown to the point that the atmosphere that drew people in is being lost due to the numbers going round.

I don't think it's poor kids being brought so they don't miss out as the poorer areas locally tend to have the biggest displays. It's more MC children whose parents want a nice event without paying for it.

This year we will not be leaving stuff out for the kids as it got abused by a couple of early visitors leaving us with nothing to give away. So it will be staying in and handing stuff out instead.

[Glitterypumkin]

I’m really surprised that people don’t understand what you are saying
People understand exactly what the op is saying. What they don’t understand is why she needs to be so miserly about it. Fog it’s kids looking for sweets.
Also to the pp who said they get minibused in, aye right

[DownToTheSeaAgain]

I hate trick or treating. I think it is encouraging children to beg with menaces. My children hate me for not letting them go but I really don't see that asking strangers for sweets is a good idea. In the 70's we had 'don't talk to strangers' drilled into us and this idea of sweet tourism goes totally counter to that.

[pigeononthegate]

I'm in the "buy more sweets" camp OP. It sounds as though you and your neighbours have created something really lovely that will be memorable for all those children - embrace it and be glad your kids get to experience it. Much better than living somewhere where nobody "does" Halloween and your kids can't go trick-or-treating. I still make a big deal out of Halloween because I love it, but boy do I miss those years when my kids were little and we dressed up and went trick-or-treating with their friends, it was magical.

[LadyFidgetAndHerHandbag]

I really enjoy the kids coming round trick or treating. Last year I was all ready for them but made the mistake of closing the curtains because it was a really cold night and didn't get a single knock. This year I'm planning some simple decorations and will leave the curtains open to make it obvious we're open for business, so to speak.
All that being said we get max 20 kids, I'd probably be less happy if I was handing out 1000 sweets!

[DareDevil223]

I had no idea that there was a kind of Halloween county lines operation going on....

[WhenOneDoorClosesAnotherOpens]

YANBU OP. A few years ago I lived in an area that really went all out for Halloween. The local kids loved it and as I knew a lot of them it was a nice community event to get involved in.
Then one year there was so much traffic, lots of cars coming from outside the community and large people carriers full of groups of children started turning up (think church groups and community groups). I opened my door to find 16 children 'Trick or Treat' all at once. It was far too much and completely lost the community feel. The two bags of sweets that normally lasted me all night only lasted less than one hour that Halloween. The next year when we started to see the facebook groups popping up talking about going to our community for Halloween again, a lot of the residents, including me, decided not to participate. I think there were less than half of the normal houses handing out candy. After another year of still less participation people stopped coming to our area. I moved after that, so not sure what's happening there now.
I agree with you though. If you are looking for a fun Halloween night with your kids then why not create the atmosphere in your own area? Maybe group together with your child's school or play group parents and plan something?

[SunshineAngel]

Sorry but you've built a rod for your own back with this. I think on the whole, not many people bother with Halloween anymore, so if there is an area that has obviously put in a lot of effort, people ARE going to flock there, instead of traipsing round their local streets with barely any decorations, knowing the majority of doors won't be opened to them.

I know when I was a child there was a much better atmosphere on my gran's estate, so I'd go there on Halloween and she would take me round. That's a similar thing, I suppose.

If you're really going for it, you need to make sure you buy more sweets, so you don't run out. They're not that expensive, you can buy bags of 100+ sweet treats for a few quid. Or if you don't want to do that, just don't decorate and get involved.

[ProfessorPootle]

I agree. We’re in an area that makes an effort, most of the local children go to the same primary school so the whole point is we visit their friends’ houses and they visit ours. It’s a mutual thing. If people are turning up from outside the area they’re getting a whole Halloween experience without doing anything for anyone.

[sheshootssheimplores]

I’m going to be a Halloween tourist this year for the second time. My friend lives on a development where they go mad for Halloween. It’s the most magical experience. We met up with my friend last year and all the kids went out together. I can’t wait!

[BrendasUmbrella]

It may be a Scottish/UK tradition, but there was never this fuss when I was growing up in the 80s. But then we didn't do experience occasions much at all really. Now everything has to "make memories" (my SIL) or be "insta-friendly" (my DN).

Perhaps if it's really a problem, locals could get together and do Halloween for local kids on the 30th, and then be more relaxed and when it's gone it's gone on the 31st? May as well two days if you're going to effort anyway.

My area is quiet but I live next door to someone who always decorates and this year is going all out with an animatronic pumpkin people display on the front garden (he's already started setting up) so I think I will get a lot of overspill. I have bought 2 little packs of chocolate balls. Once they're gone, I'm out!

[sheshootssheimplores]

Coming over 'ere, taking our sweets...

[sheshootssheimplores]

OP you might get lucky and it pisses down with rain. That’ll put people off.

[Oriunda]

@LadyFidgetAndHerHandbag you need a lit pumpkin or light outside. Round our way everyone follows the pumpkin rule - no lit one or obviously lit candle, no knock. I can’t wait. I get masses of sweets in from Costco ready for it.

[elloelloello]

YANBU

We used to live in a little village that made a pretty big deal out of Halloween. Lots of houses were decorated and it all ended with a little party/fancy dress parade/hot chocolate in the village hall.

It was a fab little community event, all put on for free by the village hall committee and had run for years

Then one year it was just a nightmare. Cars everywhere, even a couple of mini buses were rocked up, hundreds and hundreds of trick or treaters, the village hall part of the evening was just chaos.

The following year was even worse and people mentioned they’d seen posts in Facebook groups asking for the best place to trick or treat and our village being mentioned

The year after that the village hall committee cancelled the party/parade part of the evening and the whole thing fizzled out over the next few years

It had been going for years. We were pretty rural and there wasn’t really a load of other events for the village children so it was a real shame it stopped but it got ridiculous in the end

[sheshootssheimplores]

elloello I don’t understand why you didn’t just charge for the event? You could have raised some money for the local area.

[QuizzlyBear]

We had this in our last house - everyone in our area put loads of effort in, decorated, put on costumes and shows etc - a great (if very expensive) night!

I bought over 250 chocolate bars last year and they'd all gone by 7pm. I hated disappointing those kids who showed up after then but there's a limit to how much we could spend. In the last few years people were definitely driving in from other areas, as there was simply not that many kids in the immediate vicinity and I admit it became a bit frustrating.

This year though we're in a quite village, tucked away from the road and I've got the feeling we'll be lucky to see any trick or treaters. In all honesty I'd rather have too many than none at all! 👻