To think that trick or treating should be confined to your own street or friends/family

[Moonnstars]

Showing my age here, but I remember when I was younger firstly trick or treating wasn't really a thing, but even when it started to become popular it was only your friends and family you called in on. I remember visiting my grandparents and their neighbours (who had been prepared so had sweets in) and then doing the same with my friends family.
Now it seems that people are asking where is the best street to visit, and I even saw today on social media someone saying they are on holiday in the area and where is best to go, happy to drive around to find the best places!

I have my own children who will be out, but we stick to our own street. I also have sweets in to give out, but am I being unreasonable in thinking I shouldn't have to have enough in to supply people coming over from different places and that it should just be people you know or at least living in the same street you hand stuff out to.

Also I do acknowledge some people go all out and advertise their address and want people to visit - however these are often for charity and as for a donation.

YABU - stop being so tight and buy more sweets

YANBU - it is getting out of hand, people should only go to people they know/stay local

But, but, then...how do I make myself sound like a victim?

Trick or treating became a thing in the UK in the late 1980s.

Thanks google. No pretentious bollox there.

The Celts started Samhain 2000+ years ago, and like all language and culture, it has splintered and evolved. Medieval Brits would do souling - basically trick or treating for cakes.

Lol, yeah, I'm the idiot 🙄

Strangers are just people. Children need to be taught to appropriately interact with people not be scared of them. It's not wonder we have so many kids unable to interact with adults. Adults who have actively advertised that they are welcome to trick or treaters are a great way for kids to practice interacting with adults who are not known to them.

You just go to decorated houses. My dd is going with her friends this time(11/12 year olds) but they know to just go to houses with pumpkins/decorations. If there is nothing Halloween related outside/in the window you don't knock. My DD loves Halloween. Plenty of the residents round here like seeing the kids dresses up for it. As long as they stick to the rules it's fine.

But the tradition of guising is that you perform a trick, recite a poem or in some way entertain the people that you are calling on, and then get rewarded with sweets or money. It's not just go any knock on random doors and expect them to give you stuff. I was doing it that way 20 years ago as a kid in rural Scotland, it's a much better way of doing Halloween.

I used to be the same but living in a village everyone seems happy to receive anyone. As long as there's pumpkins out or obvious sign of participation we will give them a knock.

Yeah, we did Halloweening, it involved a song; typically loud, out of tune and usually involved a rude ending.

I live in quite an American part of London and people here go BIG!! The time, effort and money spent on the houses is huge. Not just decorations, but a whole spectacle once the door is opened by people who are also dressed up and ready to play tricks or scare those who knock at their door.

It is so much fun and a real highlight for all the kids around here year. People come from far and wide to our area on Halloween. I think it’s lovely, the place comes alive. All the shops on the little high street stay open late and have grottos etc and give out free drinks to the adults taking their little children around.

Mine are teens now so we don’t really get involved any more as the teens are off to parties etc. Such a shame. I need to find a few 5 or 6 year olds to borrow!

Introduced to the UK end of the 1980s.

No because my estate embraces the trick or treaters. There are houses that go all out, with gazebos etc. stop being a boring freak and thinking back to 40 years ago when you were a kid. The world has moved on and if your pumpkins out or your house is decorated then your fair game. If you run out of sweets just put a note on the door.

Maybe idiot is the wrong word. Pretentious fits better.

I asked when it came to the UK.

It came to the UK end of the 1980s.

Sorted.

Pretending that it is something totally other to its origin because it has evolved is pretty silly.

Incorrect. You mean England.

Ireland and Scotland, where kids going from door to door in disguise at Halloween originated, a practice that was then exported, has been done here the longest.

And "Trick or treat", a phrase I never used in the 80s, is merely an interjection.

I typed in ‘when did trick or treating become a thing in the UK.

Answer - Late 1980s.

Anything else you have to say, I don’t care.

I mean, yeah, kids have been dressing up as ghouls and parading around the street and knocking on the door of neighbours and then those neighbours give them sweets for eons but, but ...someone changed the words!!! 😱

We live in a multi cultural area right near by. It isn't celebrated so much. Why not? 🤷

Yorkshire also.

It has been practiced in England as well. Mainly in the North.

Stay ignorant then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating#Guising

The Irish Times, 31 October 2014.

Scotland and Ireland started tricking

"A few decades later a practice called 'guising' was in full swing in Scotland and Ireland. Short for 'disguising', children would go out from door to door dressed in costume and rather than pledging to pray, they would tell a joke, sing a song or perform another sort of "trick" in exchange for food or money. The expression trick or treat has only been used at front doors for the last 10 to 15 years. Before that "Help the Halloween Party" seems to have been the most popular phrase to holler."

The UK is not England. The English, historically anti catholic, celebrated Guy Fawkes night (unheard of here bar it being mentioned on TV such as an episode of Eastenders when Max said "penny for the Guy"). It supplanted Halloween among the English, whereas in Ireland and Scotland Halloween remained.

We always went trick or treating (with a turnip, now that took some hollowing out with mam's old spoons, with a candle in), in the 70s in our village in Cumbria. I moved to North Yorkshire in 1980 so it definitely wasn't late 80s.

Stay ignorant. Ha!

Don't worry about any of that history, culture and heritage nonsense - if Google says no then it never happened🤷🏼‍♀️

The phrase “trick or treat” itself may be modern, but the very similar concept of going door to door in disguise “souling” and asking for a soul cake in return for a prayer for the dead or an admonishment to keep bad spirits away from the living is medieval.