Trick or treat with no decorations

[DanceMonkeyDanceMonkey]

Hallowe'en wasn't such a thing when my dc were young, compared to now. I have never taken them trick or treating. My road has 9 houses, and no one puts out pumpkins or decorations.

AIBU to be annoyed by someone ringing the bell? DH was embarrassed and gave them money, but I feel that we should not have to partake if we choose not to.

I wouldn't open the door.
We only call to houses with decorations though I noticed we were in a minority tonight. Yanbu.

They were CFs ! Was it young children or teenagers ? That said, a friend of mine was pelted with a raw egg at her door step tonight for saying she had no sweets (she also had no pumpkin outside)

We just dont answer door on halloween, yanbu if you dont want to take part then dont

I just wouldn't answer the door

Don't answer the door.

We only go to decorated houses.

The protocol here is your porch light. If it is on, you are accepting trick or treaters.

That way you can decorate, but if you want to finish dinner first or later are just done for the night, you have an easy signal.

We only knock doors with a lit pumpkin and my children know to only knock on those doors.

They are a nuisance round our area. We don’t decorate the house and still get bombarded.

DH moved the cars to block the drive so you couldn’t squeeze past to get onto our boundary.

Obviously had no knocks as they couldn’t get through!

In our area the police visit the schools just before Halloween and do a joint Halloween/Bonfire Night assembly with all the do's and don'ts. One of which is drummed into the kids is only knock on decorated houses. My parents always buy sweets but dont decorate their house and then wonder why they get no callers.

No pumpkin, no T or T's.
Why does anybody assume people want to answer the door endlessly to random people? We go out to the pub every Halloween to avoid the hassle.
If you enjoy it, fine, signal it with a pumpkin out. Leave everybody else in peace.

I thought it was standard practice that you only knock on the doors of decorated houses. We don’t do trick or treating with ours. Makes me feel so awkward.

We turned our hallway light off in the hopes that no-one would knock. But Plan B would have just been to not open the door.

Loads of undecorated houses answer the door here. Lots don't as well.

Just don't answer the door. Or if it really bothers you you could put a sign up saying don't knock we're not participating.

This happens every year! We don’t participate so no decorations and still the doorbell is going all evening, setting the dogs off. I just ignore it but it’s rude. Even had kids with a parent (!!) yelling trick or treat and screaming outside my front door after I ignored the bell. Fucking hell. I know it’s only one night a year and not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but it’s really bad form imo. Not like it’s compulsory to join in.

I don't have any decorations either

Didn't stop people repeatedly ringing my door bell knocking on the door ( literally thumping)
And banging on my kitchen window

I'm just glad my sons at his dads
It made me anxious so god knows how my 3 year old would of felt 😬

We don't go to non-decorated houses. Even if it's obvious someone is in.

I know people on MN find this idea abhorrent, but you could just not open the door.

Yep you only go to decorated houses with lit pumpkins outside. You shouldn't have opened the door.

I had a sign on my door all night asking people to not trick or treat, politely of course. Only one person knocked, when I looked after they left they had adults with them. It enraged me that they allowed them to rudely ignore my request...
(I'm heavily pregnant so probably hormonal rage)

Those saying don't answer the door, why shouldn't I? There might be other reasons for someone knocking on my door.

No we only go to houses with pumpkins/decorations. There are more than enough of them round here so no need to go to the undecorated ones.

Even had kids with a parent (!!) yelling trick or treat and screaming outside my front door after I ignored the bell

Wow - great example to their kids.

Does anybody consider - night shift workers asleep, babies asleep, dogs getting unsettled, elderly or isolated people being afraid, people enjoying the evening meal or good film not wanting disturbed etc etc. I can think of so many reasons not to knock on random strangers doors at night.

I have lived in my house for 15 years, and have only ever had one lot of trick or treaters who I was expecting, as they were a neighbour's children and she had phoned me to check it was ok. Every year, I have had a halloween bucket full of sweets, but no one has ever called (house isn't decorated). So this year, I decided to not bother. What do I get - yes, trick or treaters! I had nothing to give, and I won't give money, so didn't answer the door.

I’m in Scotland and had no idea that the sign for telling people you were giving out sweets was to put a pumpkin out - until this year.

As a kid we went to every house on the street!

We only go to decorated houses.

Not sure about porch light rules, as we don’t have a porch and most houses round here don’t either.

Clearly Halloween decorated houses only. We saw a few with no trick or treat signs, which of course we didn’t approach, because we aren’t dicks. There were also a few with bowls of sweets out on the doorstep, easy enough.

But really it’s only a few children out having fun for a couple of hours once a year. (Teenagers are also children, btw) Most aren’t out to impose it on anyone.

I’ve had loads of trick or treaters, I don’t mind joining in but was really shocked at the amount who came.....I normally buy a couple of bags of those mini mars bars or such and have plenty left - this year ran out and had to make house dark and shut shop. The streets were dead by half seven but it started as soon as the sun started to drop. I would say 6 or 7 times more children than last year. I think it’s def becoming a big thing more than it ever has before. I’ve never seen such a large participation