Page 5 | Travelling to other areas for trick or treating

MidnightPatrol · 2024-10-30T20:25:57+00:00

I’d always assumed that everyone just trick or treated on their own / surrounding streets. But our town’s parents group (mainly nursery and primary school chat) has people suggesting travelling to a handful of specific streets… This does explain why there were quite so many trick or treaters last year (at least 100 - we eventually tuned the lights off and brought the pumpkins inside by about 7pm). I thought it was just the local kids pottering round, not that their parents had driven them here. Is this normal? Seems like CF behaviour to me!

mathanxiety · 31/10/2024 00:37

Carloads of kids with parents come to my neighbourhood from a very unsafe area about ten minutes away by car. Nobody begrudges them. Hallowe'en should be fun for everyone.

JSMill · 31/10/2024 01:01

I loved doing trick or treat in our old house (we now live in a very isolated area) because it made the kids so happy. However our street gradually acquired a reputation for being a good place to trick or treat so we would have whole families driving over from the other side of town because their street was 'rubbish' and I would think 'well if no one is staying home to give out treats, then of course your street will be rubbish!' I think trick or treating is about giving and taking. I would give out sweets to other people's kids while my kids went to other people's houses.

HappyAsASandboy · 31/10/2024 02:12

We live in a tiny village of mostly older people. Very very few houses do trick or treat; sometimes none, sometimes one or two.

We drive to the village that the kids go to school in. I do feel a bit cheeky as I am obviously not providing a house there for people to stop at, but I reckon things even out over time if you look wider than one event. I help at the school, I help at brownies/cubs, I shop at the shop there, I use the petrol station there, etc etc.

Driving to "good haul" streets feels cheeky. Driving to a place you have a connection with is something I have had to get used to!

CoffeeCantata · 31/10/2024 06:23

Wolframandhart · 30/10/2024 20:35

Barely anyone had decorations where we used to live so we travelled to where my parents lived instead.

now we live on an estate where people travel for trick or treating. People have their houses professionally decorated (at Christmas too). A few have marquees outside their houses with mini scare rooms. You can hear the screams as you walk around. It has a very strict 5-8 policy. But the atmosphere is always great. Parents are also dressed up when trick or treating.

I always think I'm unshockable...but this has stunned me.

Marquees? Mini scare rooms?

My God - people must have money to burn.

PurBal · 31/10/2024 07:54

This is really tricky. We live rurally. I can count on one hand the number of children that live in the village. DS is desperate to go trick or treating but I've said no precisely because we'd have to travel. There isn't anywhere to go in the village, 200 houses and mostly retired or holiday homes.

surreygirl1987 · 31/10/2024 08:33

CoffeeCantata · 31/10/2024 06:23

I always think I'm unshockable...but this has stunned me.

Marquees? Mini scare rooms?

My God - people must have money to burn.

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Yeh we have that round here too actually.

CocoapuffPuff · 31/10/2024 08:35

Meh. If you participate and signal that you do, you have to expect kids you don't know.
What's cheeky is the teenagers expecting cash.

Amyknows · 31/10/2024 08:35

It's not, the area next to mine is known as a very 'American' area and they go all out expecting a large amount of kids.

CrispieCake · 31/10/2024 08:56

PurBal · 31/10/2024 07:54

This is really tricky. We live rurally. I can count on one hand the number of children that live in the village. DS is desperate to go trick or treating but I've said no precisely because we'd have to travel. There isn't anywhere to go in the village, 200 houses and mostly retired or holiday homes.

Can you join up with friends? Seems a shame to miss out.

TheYearOfSmallThings · 31/10/2024 08:58

CrispieCake · 31/10/2024 08:56

Can you join up with friends? Seems a shame to miss out.

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Yes, definitely do this! He will have so much fun.

BigManLittleDignity · 31/10/2024 09:11

YABU, I’ve got loads of cheap chocolate and sweets. My neighbours are friendly and they do the same, I won’t be checking for proof of address before I give them out. I enjoy the trick or treaters. 🤷🏻‍♀️ If I couldn’t afford it, I wouldn’t do it. I’m not judging anyone who cannot afford to give away stuff but I am not refusing on the basis they don’t live within walking distance.

Icecreamandcoffee · 31/10/2024 09:25

I think it's cheeky to drive to multiple other areas where you have no connection to. Fine if you are linking up with friends/ family or trick or treating school friends houses.

We live on a street of mainly old people and only 3 houses have children. No-one does Halloween on our street. Instead we are linking up with some school friends and trick or treating school friends houses.

Halloween tourism can really spoil it for everyone and it does get overwhelming. My friend lives in one of the estates and is always flagged on local FB as one of the "go to" areas where the street is all decorated. There is a school on the estate and most of the children who live on the estate go to the school. A few years ago, the trick or treaters were almost all kids that went to the school and so most kids were recognisable even if they weren't in their kids year, it was a real community thing. The estate got known as a "go to" area and the estate was inundated with 100s of kids from surrounding areas, cars everywhere, damage to displays, constant knocking until late at night as the older ones came out. Last year some of the parents who had driven became quite shitty when houses had run out of sweets as "they had driven 20 mins for this". Lots of drives were blocked with cars. I know my friends street has organized on WhatsApp that they are only doing 4-5 then pumpkins and decor is coming in before all the halloween tourists start coming after 5. A lot of our school friends houses on the estate are doing the same, only putting decor out early in the evening and bringing it in before the halloween tourists start. It's a shame but they have very much become an area that has been bitten by Halloween tourism.

Borninabarn32 · 31/10/2024 09:33

MidnightPatrol · 30/10/2024 20:37

We live in a city with wall-to-wall housing on lit streets for several miles in all directions, so the children would be having to come from really a long way away to have this issue.

Albeit, I think if I lived that rurally I’d just say ‘we can’t trick or treat because we don’t have any neighbours’ and organise to do something else instead.

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I wouldn't make my kids miss out on an activity all their friends are doing for the sake of a short drive. I'm surprised anyone begrudges a kid a little multipack sized chocolate bar.

Clearinguptheclutter · 31/10/2024 09:39

I'm surprised anyone begrudges a kid a little multipack sized chocolate bar.

no of course we don't, and we tend to get around 10 knocks, which is totally reasonable. But in popular areas people can expect 50 knocks, with a bunch of kids each time and that makes it seriously expensive! I supose you can always ignore it completely but then that puts pressure on other participants.

Agree with PPs broadly that if you have a connection with a certain area it's broadly normal these days, but to go somewhere completely random would be a bit off.

Borninabarn32 · 31/10/2024 09:42

Icecreamandcoffee · 31/10/2024 09:25

I think it's cheeky to drive to multiple other areas where you have no connection to. Fine if you are linking up with friends/ family or trick or treating school friends houses.

We live on a street of mainly old people and only 3 houses have children. No-one does Halloween on our street. Instead we are linking up with some school friends and trick or treating school friends houses.

Halloween tourism can really spoil it for everyone and it does get overwhelming. My friend lives in one of the estates and is always flagged on local FB as one of the "go to" areas where the street is all decorated. There is a school on the estate and most of the children who live on the estate go to the school. A few years ago, the trick or treaters were almost all kids that went to the school and so most kids were recognisable even if they weren't in their kids year, it was a real community thing. The estate got known as a "go to" area and the estate was inundated with 100s of kids from surrounding areas, cars everywhere, damage to displays, constant knocking until late at night as the older ones came out. Last year some of the parents who had driven became quite shitty when houses had run out of sweets as "they had driven 20 mins for this". Lots of drives were blocked with cars. I know my friends street has organized on WhatsApp that they are only doing 4-5 then pumpkins and decor is coming in before all the halloween tourists start coming after 5. A lot of our school friends houses on the estate are doing the same, only putting decor out early in the evening and bringing it in before the halloween tourists start. It's a shame but they have very much become an area that has been bitten by Halloween tourism.

OK this sounds like hell.

Summerbreeze456 · 31/10/2024 09:49

There's no Halloween round where we live (we've had one solitary group venture down our road last year). We are abroad, though, and it's not really a thing here. DS8 is going to the US military base tonight. It's safer and they go to streets that are set up for it. He's going with some friends and their children. It's the first time so we'll see how he likes it.

DrRiverSong · 31/10/2024 09:51

I live in the middle of nowhere and there are only 4 houses here. If we didn’t travel my kids couldn’t trick or treat at all.

ToffeePennie · 31/10/2024 10:26

Amyknows · 31/10/2024 08:35

It's not, the area next to mine is known as a very 'American' area and they go all out expecting a large amount of kids.

I’m now wondering if we live in the same place. If so - hi from the hot chocolate lady!

CommonAsMucklowe · 31/10/2024 18:35

Potentiallyplausible · 30/10/2024 20:33

I think it’s a bit cheeky, but then I don’t really approve of trick or treating. It wasn’t a thing when I was little.

Same here, kids take the mick grabbing sweets like they've never seen them before. And not a word of thanks. Best thing I did was buy a thick door curtain and retreat to the back room.

Rhaenys · 31/10/2024 18:55

No I don’t think it’s cheeky, because some areas have hardly any people participating.

I went to a school with a very large catchment area, and I used to like to meet up with my friends, which meant I very rarely went trick or treating in my area - or if I did, I’d be accompanied by children from “out of area”.

AnnieSnap · 31/10/2024 19:08

Calccalc · 30/10/2024 20:31

I thought that was the reason some streets really go to town with the decorations, to encourage people to come?

I don't hold with trick or treating at all myself, but I like 31st much better now people seem to know only to go to decorated houses 🤣

I wish! I have 3 dogs who go ballistic when the doorbell rings. We had no lights or decorations outside our house, but have had a stream of groups of ‘trick or treaters’ at the door 🙄

TickingAlongNicely · 31/10/2024 19:09

We live on a "quiet," street in an area people don't drive to...

I've had 40-50 kids so far. The next street will get twice as many!

yeesh · 31/10/2024 19:09

I have had loads of kids knocking today, the only people I recognised was a family from TikTok 🤣🎃👻

whyamiawakestillitssolate · 31/10/2024 19:14

I’m afraid we’re CFs - we live in a very small village full of over 70s and there are literally no houses to trick or treat at - so we drive my dd to a friends area where there’s loads of houses decorated and people out and about. She’d be sad missing out on the fun.

My parents hand out loads in their area though so maybe they offset for us!

iwentjasonwaterfalls · 31/10/2024 19:16

No issue with people travelling here. We never get many trick or treaters, but we run a little free library so we encourage people to come from all over our town to trick or treat. DD only did 3 or 4 houses tonight (v quiet residential area and we only went to decorated houses) but she's loved handing sweets out to trick or treaters!