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 wont even answer the door next year.
We had no pumpkin out but we did make some pumpkin decorated biscuits to hand out if anybody knocked and a couple of little kids in fancy dress with parents did come by. Later we had four teenage boys and a teenage girl call. The boys had their coat hoods pulled up over their heads and two had balaclavas. The girl just stood behind them looking dopey. I asked where their costumes were and one replied you dont need a costume to do trick or treat. I just said no thankyou and shut the door. This morning i saw all tte planters on the drive had been tipped out, one had been tipped onto my car, one was smashed up and chucked in next doors garden.

These were somebody's little cherubs.

Well our kids would have a miserable time as being on a farm means we are the only property on our lane (street)! I drove youngest son (12) into the nearest village (5 miles away) to go trick or treating with a small group of his friends), and I drove eldest son (almost 14) into the nearest town (8 miles away) to meet up with some school friends to go trick or treating and then stay over at the friends house who lives in that town. Both of my boys and their friends are polite and know to only go to houses that have lit up pumpkins outside, and only to take one sweet if a bowl has been left outside. What worries me is how many posts I have seen trying to suggest that all teenagers are rude (they aren’t) or that we should have some sort of societal segregation in place for only certain children to be allowed to go to certain streets. We obviously don’t get anyone calling at our house for trick or treat but if we did I would welcome anyone from anywhere as long as they were polite!

What a miserable idea. In our town the general idea is that if people put a pumpkin outside or Halloween themed decorations, then trick or treaters are welcome to knock on those doors. No pumpkin/ decorations, then the children dont knock on the doors. It works. The children on our estate had a great time and a lot of houses took part and made a lot of effort to decorate their homes and bring a bit of joy. What a miserable world we are becoming.

We go all out every year. House decorated, we have a fog machine and tiki lights and we have a jump out spider. We love having a great laugh and welcoming trick or treaters. Our entire street and neighbourhood get involved. This year was quieter than recent years due to the weather. Last year we had cars arriving with kids, we didn’t mind and even once we had ran out of treats, they came to see our decorations.

Omg there’s some miserable people on here !! Personally grew up in age where “ penny for the guy” was more a thing. Yes trick or treat is American , but my daughter had so much fun with it ( when I was reluctantly persuaded to take her along with others from pre school) that I was converted ! We were fortunate to live in a lovely area with plenty of generous households who decorated/ gave out sweets. Now she’s grown and not so many youngsters libe around where I now live , but I continue the tradition and know many children come from further afield ( some I know from local school and they don’t get offerings where they live ). It’s ONE night and a few bags of sweets don’t cost much versus the pleasure they bring to little kids. I cannot imagine asking for ID / where they hail from to ration their sweets!! If you don’t want to participate, don’t. Otherwise why begrudge particular children ? And yes, if teens arrive I assume they may have additional needs / still enjoy sweets - it doesn’t harm me and not one has ever taken more than the “ take one or two” I suggest. It’s a sad day presuming of course you can afford it when someone begrudges children a bit of fun.

Personally I think people should have family/friends gatherings. That's what we did when we were young. I am 67 now. But the American trick or treating has come in, in force. So when mine were young we would agree who wanted to be involved. And the children would go to the agreed homes. At an agreed time. Then we usually went to to the local church that would do a White evening. There would be games for the children, squash & biscuits. Tea & Coffee for the adults. The only stipulation was no Witches, Devils or Ghosts etc. The children could dress up in Happy outfits. Or not dress up at all. Everyone has fun. But what I do now is put a container of sweets out, but a notice up saying to please not to please not knock the door, as I have a seriously disabled child who also has epilepsy & goes into a fit at sudden noises. So I think it is the younger ones that probably get treats, which is fair. The sweets always go. And luckily that seems to be it all that happens. But people usually older kids going round other neighbourhoods no I do not think that is OK. If in a small street, do something for your kids at home or the street together.

We love it too! We dress our window for the kids which is “code” in the village that Trick or Treaters are welcome, and we put about 6 items from Celebrations, mini Fudge, etc, in Halloween bags, because we are big kids ourselves so want to give what we would like to get if we were out there! 😆

It doesn’t bother me at all where the kids are coming from. I always think this is such a miserable attitude to have. When the sweets I have are gone, they’re gone. 🤷‍♀️

I've never heard of this, we went to the street where all the Americans lived because they always had sweets in. Except one year one man only had mince pies because he forgot.

I think trick or treating should be somewhat local. You should be able to walk to the areas 30-40 mins walking. The only people who should be driving are those that live very rural. I find it hard to believe that within a 30 minute walk of your house there is not a single house participating. It's fine to go to friends and go with friends in their area but purposely driving to other areas after doing your own area is distasteful and plain greedy.

Sadly we are surrounded by elderly people and only a few families on our road so we don't get any trick or treaters but I did put a pumpkin out and post on the class Whatsapp that people were welcome to call on us if they were passing. A friend lives on a street that is "the street" for Halloween, lots of people decorate and go all out. There are lots of children on the street (a lot of DDs school friends live on the street). Someone recommended their street on a FB post asking for good areas a few years ago and sadly they have been swamped with the "driving to a good area" crowd. Whilst not quite mini busses, a substantial number of cars full of children park up and do the street. Last year people were running out of sweets before the children who live on the street were getting chance to trick or treat. Also people were getting blocked on their drives and the road was blocked due to double parking. This year most of the street decided to trick or treat early so the local kids got a look in. My friend and I know several other school mums on the street also swapped out the treats, so early trick or treaters got better sweets (gummy sweets in bags, mini chocolates) and after 5pm it was cheap lollies, chews.

Small children is one thing, bloody teenagers is something else altogether.

Yeah teenagers, they're horrible them. They should be indoors surfing porn, not trying to cling on to childhood and wondering if they can do trick or treating for one last year.

No, it was absolutely my DC who wanted to get more goodies. They led, I followed. Usually until the youngest's legs were tired, then we'd somehow make it home for dinner.

Yes, because the only alternative is to surf porn.

Same they can join other teenagers who are already doing "teenage things" and go to parties, cinema for 15 or 18 movies, or Halloween scream parks or fear events 😂

It’s the sense of entitlement, excess tat and greed I can’t stand now. The travelling out of neighbourhoods, expectation etc. On our local FB group somebody has even posted moaning that there weren’t enough houses giving out sweets past 6.30 and people are miserable, people asking for the best place in town for sweets to do it etc.

15 years ago when my kids were little in the same area one of us would stay in for trick or treaters and the other parent took them out quite early for an hour down our road to neighbours.They got what they got. I’d get a few sweets in and they’d eat up what we had left and we’d have treats for tea and sometimes went to a friends house for Halloween tea. The door was shut by 7. They were grateful for a handful of sweets and liked being out in the dark more than anything.

Now we have a dog so don’t open the door at all she’d go nuts with the bell going continuously. Why does it have to be so full on like everything for kids now. Why is expectation so high and why do they need so much?

Many of those things cost money. Many of the teens in our area don't have the cash, or the ability to put a costume together, get themselves to scream parks etc. They have no help from their parents to achieve these things. We live in a really deprived area.

I'm happy for the teens turning up with their crumpled carrier bags, and hoodies they were all polite and respectful.

Yep I never used to mind teens. They were often politer and I’m not sure the toddlers and tweens own Halloween.

... some people ...

... some people ...

Sent it to America, got it back in spades.☹️

A big group of scary looking teen boys told my little spider man last night that he looked cool! He is only 2 so was terrified of them, so they took their masks off and said 'look, we are just people!'
Sweet.

I really, really like trick or treating. I was never allowed to do anything for Halloween as a child as we went to church instead 😐 I took my little girl out for the first time just after COVID lockdown. People were so kind, so friendly, so nice to the kids. It is something we don't see lots of nowadays- that human connection of talking to strangers. I think it's nice.

One of the residential homes near us posted on our local FB page saying trick or treaters were welcome and the residents would like to see them dressed up.

What they actually meant was younger children (lower primary age) coming trick or treating dressed up.

From what was posted later online (asking for people to stop going) it sounds like it got a bit out of hand. The post asking for trick or treaters was shared amongst numerous local boards and it seems the home was swamped with trick or treaters. They also seemed to have a lot of teens and large groups.

I had lots of teens yesterday, I don't really care as long as they are local.

I have no idea how old they are, if they are with a little one hiding behind the bush or anything. I know some of them are teens because they're in class with my own kids 😆

I hated Halloween as a child and I hate it now as a 48 year old adult.

I never had any desire to go trick or treating as a kid. Which is just as well because my own mom saw it as begging and I didn’t disagree with her.

Those kids that did go trick or treating when I was young, tended to stick to the houses in the cul-de-sac. And their parents certainly weren’t trying to find out the best roads locally to go to.

I was born in the 50s so never heard of trick or treat as a child. It seems to be an American thing that we’ve adopted. I’m not a fan to be honest although I quite enjoy a good Halloween party: