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.

Porch light not on.

DD only went to houses with lights on as I told her not everyone likes to answer the door, very few people decorate around here and we didn't have time for it ourselves but had plenty of kids at the door to the point I ran out of sweets with the last group that came round. If we didn't want to hand anything out then we just wouldn't answer the door. I made the mistake of giving out money one year when we hadn't had time to buy sweets and they told every kid they saw it seems, so we ended up with a queue at our door. I'll never do that again.

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

That's a little disingenuous.
It's Hallowe'en night. The chances are very high that people knocking are Trick or Treaters.
9/10 high.

Any other night you could be excused for answering.

YY to ChanklyBore's comment.
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.

DH was embarrassed and gave them money

I should imagine, decorations out or not, your DH will see them again next year as well OP.

Our area is the same as @Purpleartichoke we only go to houses that have the outside light on. Even if a house is decorated but has the light off you don't go! Just seems to be the unspoken rule in our village!

Well we decorated, had a few trick or treaters before our son (4) went to bed and then they just carried on and on, sweets had almost run out and I didn't want him being woken up so I took the decorations down and the pumpkin in. They still kept coming 😩 The last one was just before 9 which was starting to get a bit late for my liking. Still, we did decorate.

You're not unreasonable for not wanting callers.

My village is very friendly and people go to every house. I didn’t have any decorations but had a fair few kids round. They were all very polite.

So I have to sit in the dark, and not answer the door. Great.

As children we were only allowed to houses that had decorations or pumpkins.
Last year I had a pumpkin and heard the mum say 'they have a pumpkin so you can knock'. This year I didn't bother and had none. So YANBU.
I think it's rude to knock if they clearly don't have decorations up.

A couple of years ago we had sweets ready but no decorations and no callers. Last year, a lit pumpkin and plenty of knocks. This year we had nothing (as busy getting ready to go away) but still a couple of knocks. For the first - and second - time in my life, I didn't answer the door!

No one said you had to sit in the dark. If you don't want to deal with trick or treaters though you don't answer the door. They'll leave

If you put a sign up saying no knocking we don't want trick or treaters then they won't knock at all

In our street you decorate and put out a pumpkin if you want trick or treaters. We do 100 then call it a night. At that we put the pumpkin in and took down the decorations. From that point on nobody knocked. Works well round here.

Just don’t answer the door! Stop making a big deal out of nothing. It’s one night a year.

These days most people know and abide by the rule that you only knock when there are obvious Halloween decorations or at the very least, a lit pumpkin. (And most people also know that if you don't put some sort of decorations out then there's not much point buying sweets unless you plan to eat them yourself).
Yeah, you'll get the occasional knob disturbing you anyway but then you can get unwanted people knocking at any time - double-glazing sellers, god-botherers, market researchers.

My Ds was out this evening so didn’t plan to spend my couple of hours free time answering the door how my delivery was arriving between 5-7 🙄🤣

I unplugged bell after parcel arrived

I'm the other way. I can't be bothered to put decorations up so put the outdoor light on. No trick or treaters tonight at all. I had sweets all ready to go and my poor son asking why nobody was knocking.

It's making me feel old tbh because when I was younger nobody really did decorations but we knew everyone and nobody would mind a knock from trick or treaters.

It might be one night of the year, but lack of decorations should be a clear sign that we are not participating. We were having dinner, and It didn't occur to us to think, let's not answer the door because it's one night of the year that it's okay to disturb people by asking for sweets etc

So I have to sit in the dark, and not answer the door. Great.

Are you 12? Or not from the UK? I mean - how can this be news to you if you're old enough to use the Internet?

I just join in. No kids but I have some reusable decorations (no pumpkin carving though) and I buy a tub of sweets. I open the door about twenty times to kids and feign shock and horror. It's one night a year, the kids are polite.

You don't have to sit in the dark but if you don't want to face trick or treaters, don't answer the door.

Yes, they should only go to decorated houses. No, they don't always follow that rule. It's really not a big deal.

We don't get any usually round here, but on the odd occasion we have I don't answer the door and certainly wouldn't give anything same way as any other begging at the door

We haven't decorated either, doesn't stop people knocking though.
Luckily for them I do actually buy some sweets and put in a bowl for those who knock though.
Once we run out it's lights out and nope we're not in though

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
What? Not Scotland here but fairly Northern, here that'd class as you've decorated and actively encourage the feckers lol

It didn’t occur to you that someone knocking on your door on Halloween might be a T or T?

When I was a kid if a light was on then we could knock.

It must of been such a hassle walking to your door once.

It might be one night of the year, but lack of decorations should be a clear sign that we are not participating.

That really depends where you are. My local council made free signs people could put up on their door if they did not want to be disturbed. They were aimed at the elderly and vulnerable but there’s no reason why you couldn’t have done something similar.

I have 2tubs of Swizzles and not one person knocked on the door.

Ah yes just don’t answer the door.. as they bang on it like coppers trying to raid the place. While my child is trying to sleep but as my dogs think it’s the end of the world they’re barking like lunatics every 5 minutes... because I have the cheek to be in my undecorated home, with no outside lights on and one bloody lamp. It’s worse when the parents are standing with them like come on.. we’ve all been there either childless n can’t be arsed or kids are too young yet.

We were told only decorated houses from a young age.. two reasons not to go to others people who don’t want to be bothered and people who’s houses you shouldn’t be wandering into.