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

I could write the exact same!

Yep.

English is Nov 5th (or at least were).

I know one or two English people will say "but we celebrated halloween, we went round the doors" (we have this topic every year), yes but tiny pockets, and probably with an Irish/Scottish family influence. If it was mainstream in England, as is the case in Ireland (and I know it is in Scotland), then it would have been a big thing on television, or shop windows.

Here, Easons (and other shops) was always full of 'false faces' (masks). Went to uni in England the following decade and there was barely anything. You see it mentioned now of course on the BBC (largely English centric), with tv shows such as strictly dressing up.

Come on..
No one is going to build parking just for one night a year.

Just put up with it fir a couple of hours.
Go away for the evening if you have to.

Thats just looking for reasons to bash people.

you’re being ridiculous.

what about the families who don’t have friends or family nearby.

I’m a 90’s kids and just trick or treated on my street, we lived on a cul de sac, we didn’t have any rules, we just knocked at every house, lights on or off, decorations or no decorations.

I nannied while in london and all the kids just knocked everywhere, I don’t remember any rules.

That interjection (and there are many, but that one has recently caught on) dates from 1917. The phrase comes from Ontario, Canada. In 1911, six years before it was recorded there, guising (the practice brought over by Scots/Irish immigrants) is first recorded in North america in the same place, Ontario Canada.

It is a very straightforward chronology.

Souling is unconnected. That's a Christian practice. Guising is secular.

As I live rurally I have always taken my kids to a friend’s neighbourhood to celebrate Halloween with them. My kids knock on those doors. I bring sweets, and give them out to neighbours who are not mine. I can’t see the problem.

Well, I left a bucket of Halloween sweets on the front whilst I was doing jobs in the back and someone has taken the full bucket of sweets already in less than five minutes 😂Hard to believe some kids are so hard up for a few bags of Haribo!

I would agree it seems like a miserable complaint but trick or treat tourism is a real thing in my estate. I don't mind people who are from a quiet nearby area coming into the development, but what I really don't like is people picking and choosing different areas they have no connection with to maximise their loot. It's greedy and bad minded. I've spent £50 tonight and i choose to do it but when things have run out before my neighbours kids turn up it annoys me. The last few years we've had people arriving earlier and earlier and I would put money on it that they are being driven from here to the next place and onwards.

That's the thing, for everyone who says if you don't want kids knocking don't put out a pumpkin there are just as many who knock at every house pumpkin or not, lights on or not. I don't put my pumpkin out until 6 or thereabouts when I finish work, I've still had kids at the door since half four.

YABVVU ... I've had kids from all over the neighbourhood, and seen some parents from my DCs' old primary, which was lovely as I haven't seen them since the DCs left. It's been brilliant. The streets are humming with happy voices. I bought a ton of sweets but I wish I'd bought more!

It was never a thing when I was growing up in London.
Penny for the guy was usual, but that was begging on the street - never knocking on doors.

I used to live in a very "naice" middle-class English village.
The local Co-op took eggs & flour off of the shelves from mid-October & put them under the counter to stop the nasty little bastards lobbing them at people who refused to give them sweets.
I'd prefer to see it banned.

I think it's a mixture.

Own street? Well there's streets with only two or three houses. I grew up on one - would you say they should stick to just those houses? My road had three houses, and I'd be certain that one wouldn't have taken part. But it was off a road with around 150 houses. My friend round the corner could go all along those, but I'd be down to two? No, that would be silly.

But equally well, I've noticed the last couple of years people asking, often on multiple local FB groups where the best places to go T/Ting? That doesn't sit well by me; it just feels perhaps a bit commercial.

I'd say, you should start off at your house, then go a bit wider, but don't be out for too long. It's too cold for the parents 😁

Well we had a pretty quiet night. Around 60-70 trick or treaters. I think our street just had a few pumpkins out and not many decorations so has lost its appeal.
Though there are definitely some I think are cheeky, my partner who took the kids out came back and said he did hear some parents shouting at their kids to get in the car as they were going onto the next street - so there were still a few Halloween tourists going around from place to place.

You’re right! When I was a kid we never ever celebrated Halloween.

I’m from the NE and trick or treating was definitely a big thing. My mam used to rub the soot from the burned turnip onto my face to make me more witchy. I would stink of turnip for days. Every year these threads pop up and someone always tries to educate us all on it’s origins and how us English never did trick or treating back in their day. Except lots of us did.

Just taken the pumpkins in. We've given out about 150 - 200 sweeties (mini haribo bags etc).

Had a couple of groups come around twice but apart from that everyone was nice, great outfits and everyone had their trick ready (We are in Scotland, think it was a bit different in England).

Our square is well known for being well decorated and lots of houses participating, but I've noticed this year a lot of my neighbours didn't bother. I know some people complained last year about the amount of trick or treaters as our roads were put on a local facebook page so people were coming from lots of other areas.

I carry on because I have a 1 year old and I want her to have fun trick or treating when she's older, so I think there is some give or take. Does cost a fortune, but I'd rather it be this way than only have 3 or 4 people come the whole night.

We did trick or treating in the early 80s, in the south west. Hand me down cloak and a home made black cardboard witch hat. And people also did penny for the guys and had bonfire parties. My mum claims that TorT didn’t happen before then but I personally can’t remember not doing it.

I didn’t say my kids are too young for it - we’ve been trick or treating for 3 years. They’re the prime age for it. I said, they’re very young so we don’t decorate our house or make an effort, just have a box of sweets to hand out for anyone coming once we’ve come home.

My kids are aged 4-8 and LOVE the scary houses. The massive webs, the creepy skeletons that light up and shake, the home owners in costumes who play the part. THATS the fun. We also stop at houses with just a pumpkin and sweets which is nice, obviously the kids want a sweet, but it’s not fun and if all houses were just a pumpkin, we likely wouldn’t go. I can easily go to the supermarket and get them sweets.

My kids would also Love a Halloween party!

How old are your kids? I’m assuming they’re 10+. Trick or treating isn’t intended for older kids, it’s a young kid activity. Of course older kids wouldn’t want to do it. I find it odd that your kids wouldn’t want to go to a party, most kids love parties whatever the age. Unless your kids are adult kids?

As someone who gives out sweets, why do you do it? Most people do it because it’s 1) fun for them, 2) they love seeing happy kids dressed up - it’s cute.

If neither of those are you, then just don’t do it. The worst thing is to do it but be stingy and mean spirited with it.

Loved going round with a turnip and getting money as a child, always in local area. Now it's trick or treat and yes also nearby. I would say about 5 PC of houses were welcoming with their decorations, the only ones you go to now. Quite miserable participation tbh 😕

We love it, it's a chance for all the kids to get involved because it's not a religious holiday. Our area is really multi cultural and it's wonderful to see everyone smiling and participating. We get a lot of cars pulling up because a few houses on our street decorate so we are a safe bet. We get hundreds of trick or treaters.

We’ve always stuck to our estate until this year when we were invited to go with friends around theirs. I’m sure the kids on the bigger estates invite their friends. Our estate is quite a way off the beaten track but I wouldn’t have a problem with people coming here.

What I do think is mean spirited is taking your own kids out trick or treating but not bothering to put a pumpkin out and handing out sweets yourself. I do think it’s give and take a bit. My kids love going trick or treating and seeing the scarily decorated houses, I do make an effort with ours too. I definitely can’t afford the extravagant displays but i do buy a couple of things every year to add to the collection.

I was never allowed to go trick or treating (or carol singing) as my family considered it "begging" 😱😳

We head to the cul-de-sac 5 minutes away, because there's a grand total of about 3 houses who partake in our immediate bit of the village, we tried just doing our area the first year and it was essentially just a walk in the dark

But this road is the one many of my kids school friends live on and it's where everyone goes. The houses seem ready for lots of trick or treaters and happy to see us even though we live a few streets away

I think people should walk in their own area too. We live in an area that people have decided is the place to go. The first year I thought, great, it's a nice community and we know the neighbors, get some sweets in. My kids were a bit young, but we'd hand them out. We had over 100 people in about 40 minutes, and you couldn't even sit down cause there was another one coming. Everyone drives to our area and there are hundreds of them, most of whom we don't know. I'd have to have at least 400 sweets to give to everyone. They park all over the grass and drive their kids door to door. It's spoiled it for the actual community, because now most residents find it too much and don't do it anymore.

someone asked earlier how early is too early, and i have an answer for them: 3.30pm is TOO EARLY!

Heard a knock then and answered the door, thinking it was a delivery, but found a child outside (with parent hanging around in the background) - our house was totally undecorated, and we had no sweets in (and nobody was going to be in all evening) - I was genuinely surprised as it was ridiculously early - surely most children are only getting home from school then?!

I don't mind people going to streets other than their own, but they should (a) at least wait until it's dark and (b) walk from house to house - if there's any driving involved then park considerately, once, and then walk - no driving from one house on to the next!

And yes, I was brought up with the tradition of guising, so if I'm at home next year will be asking young visitors to do some kind of party piece/ tell a joke or something...

We hardly ever got things like mars bars or other shop-bought sweets... it was mostly fruit and what we called 'monkey nuts' and maybe a few penny-style sweets or lollipops if you were lucky. We made our own costumes - at the very most you'd buy a plastic mask for your face - and made lanterns out of turnips - not a pumpkin in sight! I don't love the way it's all been commercialised and taken over by plastic tat.