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.

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.

Given that some posters have attested to the fact that things have grown so that they can be having to give out thousands of sweets, I think this is misleading. The most any house owner should expect to have to pay out for sweets at Hallowe'en is around a tenner at the absolute maximum.

No one HAS to give out thousands of sweets. They choose to so they don’t lose face with their neighbours.

There is not a chance in hell I’d spend hundreds on Halloween sweets!

I'm curious. If you run out of sweets, do kids do 'tricks' instead?

I can see how it must be pretty annoying to spend the whole evening answering the door to strange kids demanding sweets! Why should anyone feel obliged to do this?

We just have one (big) group who only go to pre-agreed neighbours and at a pre-agreed time. Much better.

Beggers flock to a soup kitchen.

Anyone who rejects my kid for the lack of a wristband or being local is getting 'tricked' by me, and will regret being such bitches.

Wow. So you take your kids to a different neighbourhood to trick or treat, expect sweets but don't reciprocate? I mean, if you don't live there, you won't be offering sweets to their kids, will you?

In fact, if you've traveled some distance, you probably won't be home in time to offer anyone's kids sweets, will you?

But if they don't provide sweets for your child, you'll vandalise their property?

Yeah, I think you'll find the people handing out sweets to strangers aren't the bitches...
🙄

Thanks for the tip @Oriunda

@ScotsinOz this is a British forum. YABU for not specifying the amount in £ or which currency your $ are in. Yes your name makes it clear but not everyone reads usernames and it’s rather entitled to make people have to do the conversion to Sterling when the majority reading live in the UK. Oh and if you’re buying 1000 sweets, you surely expect to be handing out that many or close as dammit, so its a bit silly to be so aggravated when they all go, even if you expected them to last longer.

this is a British forum

@DameofDarts No it’s not. There are whole areas of the site dedicated to living outside the UK, and many threads for users in various countries.

Should all Irish MNers leave too?

@QuizzlyBear
If you decide to decorate your home, and host as a 'sweet-bearer' as part of a national celebration, famed for kids knocking and asking for sweets, then yeah, deciding to close of streets as 'private' trick-or treating areas makes you a shitty person.

Either do it, or don't. Don't try and make it a private, invite only thing. It's not yours to take over.

Yaflamingalah
it wasn't funny. try harder.

We used to go to the village where children went to school but the last year we went there were queues at each door

Bit ridiculous so we made our own entertainment the following year

ForeverFaff
Anyone who rejects my kid for the lack of a wristband or being local is getting 'tricked' by me, and will regret being such bitches.

YOU are exactly the reason why people implement wristband in the first place. Great idea btw.

eciding to close of streets as 'private' trick-or treating areas makes you a shitty person.
Either do it, or don't. Don't try and make it a private, invite only thing. It's not yours to take over.

ahem, my house, my sweets, my rules!
Who do you think you are gate-crashing other people celebration? I am making it as private as I please.

I agree with you Op. Our neighbourhood has that reputation in the town so people don't bother decorating their houses or offering sweets. Their houses sit all dark while they go around our neighbourhood. It's miserly.

I did it last year and was pretty put off. The children who came knocking were mostly older kids (but not old enough to be without parents, which is what they were). Many hadn't bothered dressing up and lots didn't say trick or treat, they just shoved a hand out for sweets. The behaviour was generally poor from some & it scared my preschooler. I made the mistake of commenting on this locally and got an outraged response that I was unreasonable because clearly these children must have had additional needs.

Wont be bothering this year.

This year specially, as it's half term in many counties, there are loads of halloween activities for kids everywhere.

Really absolutely no need to be so rude as some posters, you can find plenty to entertain your own kids if your own neighbourhood is not big on celebration.

Yanbu, I think social media has a lot to answer for, as if it is broadcast that certain areas / streets go for it then its basically an advert, and I guess people get fomo if their area isn't that great.

I live on quite an affluent estate and lots of people really make an effort on Halloween so we do get people driving in from elsewhere but I don't think it's got to the 1000s of sweets stage yet (we're a bit tucked away and whilst I have a pumpkin I don't advertise).

I think it is a shame when it gets so excessive that people actually start not doing it. I guess it would be better if it was like America where most houses participated so then there's no need to go outside of your immediate neighbourhood.

We live in a naice village and get carliads coming from towns. I ask if they live in the village if I don't recognise them. Then I tell the chheky feckers to move along and only give sweets to the locals. One I threw a bucket of water from the upstairs window at them. Next year we had twice as many calling!

deciding to close of streets as 'private' trick-or treating areas makes you a shitty person.

I didn't say anything about 'closing off streets' I simply plan to create some fun for kids in my community, because others in my community are doing likewise for my kids.

I'm not hosting a public event for the nation. I'm not advertising my sweet-bearing services, I'm simply offering some sweets to the kids of parents who do the same for mine.

Something tells me you don't give, just take, on Halloween. Not the greatest example for your kids, is it?

Anyone who wants to understand the British mentality re: Brexit should read this thread.

I swear OP is talking about my area ..
We honestly do have people coming from all over the area to our lneighbourhood , we all joke about all the cars arriving from around 4/5 o clock and then it’s gridlocked.
A lot of people here used to really go all out but then it started to get abit nasty with people having sweet tubs nicked out of their hands on the door step by older kids and decorations being trashed .
We’ve decided to stay in this year as it’s just dd and I as dh away for work so we’ll watch hocus pocus eat Chinese and ignore the door bell ..

People on my estate go crazy. I honestly don’t know how people can be arsed with all the decorations and lights for one night but it’s meant my kids have had a decade of brilliant Halloween’s. I get where you are coming from op, ours start knocking at about 5 and the roads are really dangerous for the next 3-4 hours. Cars are parked all over and residents can’t get on their drives and little kids running back and forth when they see a door open. People do come randomly because they know it’s good but also loads of people have parties. I would say we get a good few hundred kids. You open the door and there will be 8 and another group arrive behind and then another behind them. You could quite easily stand and not close your door and have at least 4 kids on your driveway between 5.30 and 7. I spend about £10 on sweets and when they are gone the pumpkin comes in and I don’t answer the door. We don’t get any the day before or the day after which we definitely did as kids. I’m 45, it was a big deal, we had to sing and we used to get money

I don’t understand why you didn’t just charge for the event?

Because it was always meant as a free event for the kids to have a bit of fun on Halloween.

We did a bit of fund raising throughout the year so we could put on some free fun events for the kids in the village - Father Christmas went round every street on a sleigh handing out sweets and collecting letters (which every child received a reply to) at Christmas, Easter egg hunt, Halloween, a big BBQ in the summer, etc, etc.

There wasn’t room in our small village hall for everyone who turned up, there wasn’t room to park the amount of cars that turned up so people had their drives blocked, cars parked across pavements, etc.

Even after the party was cancelled, for a few years we’d still get hundreds and hundreds of trick or treaters as people still decorated their houses and went all out. It fizzled out in the end as more people got fed up and less people took part each year

@ClaudiaWankleman ok I should have said It’s a predominantly British forum, as although it started out as UK-based it’s grown and now describes itself as a “global online network but most of our users are UK-based”.

I certainly didn’t say that she should leave though, only that it was a bit unreasonable not to have specified the currency, so you can eat yer biscuit.