Will people be trick or treating this year?

[LadyFidgetAndHerHandbag]

I'm not a parent so I don't know what people are planning for this year. I love it when the trick or treaters knock on the door and enjoy pumpkin carving and making something spooky for my front window. I'll still do a display but I don't know whether to get some Halloween sweets in or not. We live in a tier 1 area but I realise people will still be anxious about mixing. I also realise this question anticipates some psychic ability but parents of MN what are your chances of going trick or treating?

No way will we be trick or treating nor opening door to any

It's mad to think ...oh but this will be ok ..
We love Halloween and will miss it. We are Tier 1 but There's still vulnerable people out there and this would be unnecessary exposure & not covidsafe to the trick or treaters and households of the doors they knock on . Makes no sense to socially distance and then ignore it by encouraging trick or treating

Children have to attend school it's a risk worth taking but not this

I’ll be two weeks from giving birth at Halloween so I certainly won’t be answering the door if anyone knocks. I’m not a huge fan of Halloween at the best of times but I’m not risking all the keeping away from family and friends I’ve been doing so that I minimise my chances of giving birth alone to break it all at the last minute!

Why the hell would anyone think this is a good idea?!

We are tier 1. I have decorated my house, took the 3 dc to a pumpkin patch today and we will have a little party on the 31st (Just our household) and I am planning a Halloween sweet hunt, like an Easter egg hunt but with Haribo.

We love Halloween in our house and it will be our first where we can't go trick or treating, but as others have said, its an unnecessary risk. Imagine if someone is positive without knowing and you or your kids get Covid-19 for the sake of a 10p pack of sweets. This includes sweets in tubs on the doorstep, it is a lovely idea but you are relying on other peoples hygiene and infection control.

No Halloween is cancelled that way this year.

@LadyFidgetAndHerHandbag I was considering leaving sweets out in a cauldron and decorations in house but I realised that I’d only be rewarding those who go out to trick or treat not the children whose parents are doing the right thing and keeping them home this year.

Don't leave a Covid bucket of sweets outside! Honestly, what the actual fuck are you thinking with that idea? I don't want to answer the door because it's not safe, but it's a great idea to leave a bucket of germs outside for the kiddies?! Either:

(1) it's a relatively safe outdoor activity (which is my position) and you open the door when people knock and drop a sweet into each child's bag.

or

(2) it's incredibly risky to go out touching things that other people have touched and you don't want to answer the door - in which case don't leave out a tub of sweets which many children will inevitably touch!!

@PracticingPerson, could you explain the risk of TorT compared with going to the gym, travelling on packed buses, eating out or in busy shops? Bearing in mind that for the last examples, I encounter the over 70's doing those things daily 'for something to do'. But our not-at-any-risk children are under restrictions.

I've got Halloween sweets in and I'm hoping we will get children knocking, it's bad enough that the soft play has been closed, which means that the parties have been cancelled.

I don't know why it's just being accepted tbh.

We won’t be, so I plan to do a Halloween hunt, something akin to an Easter egg hunt, instead.

We wont be going trick or treating or answering the door. We are putting up some decorations indoors and doing a few games for the kids (just my kids) including a treasure hunt for sweets as they love halloween. I hate it usually as I am a miserable cow but want them to have fun.

I'm going to make up little bags and put them on my front hedge. We are usually away at Halloween obviously not this year. But in previous years we have used Atmos FX projected on the windows. Will project pumpkins this year and decorate the outside for any children doing a pumpkin trail.

Go ahead. Covid 19 realises that the poor darling children have had a hard time and won’t infect anyone as it’s Halloween. Let’s cheer them all up by spreading a potentially lethal virus around so they can have a mini Mars bar from a neighbour they barely speak to the rest of the year. Seems worth it to me!

Thanks everyone. It seems like the consensus is nobody will be out. I won't put a pumpkin outside as that's the signifier round here that you're open so hopefully people will enjoy the Halloween display without expectation. I always do displays for Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc so that won't encourage my neighbours to knock if they are out.

I've said no to my children. We will have some sweets in case we get any callers though

No, we won't be going out or opening the door. We will be celebrating inside. Things have to be different this year.

My two love it and I thought a while back it probably wouldn’t happen so I ve booked a day at Alton towers, we won’t be back til gone 11. However we are heading for tier 3 this week I think so it will be a night in with sweets and Halloween movies. You can’t see our street from the main road unless you know it’s there so no one ever comes trick or treating in normal times.

We are going to decorate the back of our house (which you can’t see from the road) and won’t be trick or treating or opening the door.

Doing Halloween games and sweeties for our kids inside

We are tier 1 and our local council has asked that people don't trick or treat. They've recommended the Pumpkin Trail idea that's been doing the rounds on social media - find pics of pumpkins in windows and the adult with you will give a sweet for every X number you find. Our local FB page has created a list of streets where you'll find pumpkins on the 31st

No, we would normally be tho, we love Halloween in this house, however ds1 tested positive to the virus yesterday due to a fookwit parent in his class sending their child into school with clear COVID symptoms and the teachers giving him a glass of water instead of isolating the child.

You are not going to catch COVID from a fun size Mars bar FGS, especially if the parents in charge remember their hand sanitiser and common sense. Let's have some perspective please. And yes, I'm vulnerable due to several underlying conditions but honestly.

@Rockbird you are right let’s have some perspective. Children dressing up and celebrating Halloween with a hunt in their garden etc is a perfectly good way to celebrate Halloween. Trick or treat is not the only way to celebrate Halloween (ask any kid who grew up in the countryside!!) and we are in the middle of a pandemic. Honestly is it that parents complaining don’t want the bother of planning something nice for their children themselves or why all this upset over trick or treating!?

Apple bobbing, ghost stories and spooky music, sparklers, dress up, sweets and getting to stay up late where how I spent my Halloween’s and I loved them. Something different for one year will be just fine.

And before people jump on and say some children don’t have a garden you could do a perfectly good Halloween hunt indoors too.

We don’t usually trick or treat but would normally have a big Halloween party and decorate outside but definitely won’t this year.

I hope that parents will have the commonsense to keep their children indoors.

People should be very wary about answering the door around halloween, apparently the kids round here are planning to cough into the faces of people who don't give them what they want!