When did Halloween get like this?

[SoEasyToFall]

When I was younger Halloween was just about a school disco, and then when I was at uni it was a night out clubbing in fancy dress (or a flat party). It was never a huge thing.

Tonight while walking home from work there was masses of teens shouting abuse at everyone, smashing bottles and just being shits. More teens on the bus shouting abuse at everyone who wasn’t dressed up. I got called a miserable fat cunt because I wasn’t in a costume.

When did this happen? When did society get like this? I only left uni five years ago and it feels like it’s changed massively since then

That sounds horrible, unfortunately you will get some idiots like that everywhere. I live in quite a deprived area in the midlands and haven’t seen any of that here. School discos, a few community events on at the community centre and library and trick or treaters. We’ve been out trick or treating and had people knock on and everyone’s been really polite, only knocking on houses with decorations, most the teenagers here are only taking younger siblings round.

We had a bad year in about 2017 and ever since them my son won't go near it with a 50 foot barge pole. It was all kids in proper horror costumes and it gave him the fright of his life opening the door to those cosumes. It's a shame because it is probably fine now but we don't look to see what it's like as he is terrified. Maybe your area is going through a bad patch too?

Our current problem is that a couple of houses locally have started putting proper horror displays outside their house a week or more before the date. One of them is truly horrible and we have to walk a different way home to avoid it. We will be glad when they are gone.

I tend to think it’s become quite lovely. When I grew up in the late 70s early 80s Halloween was overtaken by groups of teenagers playing very anti social tricks ( eggs and flour literally were everywhere, and worse too). This was shortly followed by the same groups making very half hearted bad guys and demanding a penny for the guy outside your local shop, or receive a mouthful of abuse.

Now it seems to be about cute small children’s dress up, families trick or treating together, decorating houses and lovely themed events.

Around us it’s polite kids with parents knocking on doors with decorations and confused toddlers walking round offering out sweet while wearing a pumpkin tshirt. At the shops it’s dressed up kids and shop owners handing out sweets with a lot of dogs in costume.

Been ok here - in the suburbs though. More little kids than usual but vast majority of all ages have been polite. Brought everything in now as DS is back from trick or treating himself with DH and we all want to watch a fulm

certainly not like that where we live. We have had about 100 trick or treaters raging from in prams to 16/17years old. My son 15 is currently out doing reverse halloween and stopping off to houses/local shops to give people treats

Not at all like it here. Peaceful actually, I’d quite like a bit more jovialness but just went for a walk and it was all very tame.

Well I live in an area you cant get a house for less than a million and weve got similar issues

In South London, nothing like that here. Primary shed kids wandering round with their parents trick or treating. Some houses have gone a bit OTT with the decorations (DS almost jumped out of his skin at one house, which had a animatronic zombie that popped out of a bush). Lovely festive atmosphere despite the rain.

Same here as all the others who've said how polite everyone has been. We've had so many tick or treaters I've got through around 150 packs of sweets. They've all, without exception, from tiny littlies to teenagers, been dressed up, been incredibly polite and taken one packet each. Mine are too old now so it's been lovely seeing all the costumes. I've seen many, many Wednesdays and quite a lot of film or TV characters generally.

It’s been lovely here! Lots of excited kids running around the estate getting sweeties. Some of the houses have gone all out, one house had little goody bags for them, it’s so sweet. I know there have been a few teenagers taking the tubs of sweets from houses that have left them out which is a shame. But by and large it’s been really nice. One teenager complimented my little boys Pokémon outfit and it made his night, and we saw some great costumes from the older ones too. Most behave brilliantly round here I think, it’s just a few that don’t.

I’ve never experienced that and I’m so sorry that you did.

Sounds like they were drunk and just acting like twats.
Unfortunately there’s always a few.
Don’t take it personally.

I was actually saying how sad I think it is that people don’t seem to go out much anymore.

Most young people, especially teens and their parents seem to stay in a lot more but I guess that’s not always a bad thing.

Clacton?

I’m from and live in a classically rough area (NW) and it was lovely on our estate tonight. Lots of kids dressed up., adults with them, some older kids and teens on their own.
Good community spirit.

So sorry you had abuse said to you. Rudensss doesn’t cover it, that’s awful.

How horrible. My cats have been in since 2.30pm. Some people are just brutal - and if they're kids they learned it from somewhere.

I was in a small town last year and saw lots of teens dressed up walking around. I thought they must all have parties to go to. Turns out they were all trick or treating and marauding the streets. Bit pathetic really, a load of 15 year old trick or treating. Go home!

We have had lots this evening, started soon after 5pm (tiny tots) and a steady stream right up until 7:30pm after which we brought the decs in.🎃
Very much a good natured family event, for every child on the doorstep there were usually a parent or two so when you had a group of children, there was a positive gang of parents in the background, most of which also said thank you.👍
Most children (young & teenagers) were really polite taking only a single sweet, many times we would tell them they were welcome to take more than one.
Several of the parents were also dressed up, illuminated inflatable costumes being very much in vogue, great fun.🤣

The little girl who made me laugh the most was the one holding a full sized B&Q (orange) bucket, it wasn't full to the top but it was getting there!😁

The worst bit is that we now have to eat all the remaining sweets, I already feel sick (well, you can't go offering sweets all evening without dipping in occasionally!) so maybe we should leave them until tomorrow.🤢

We only had 3 13 year old boys - they were really polite and grateful. I think it depends on the area. Here it’s about pumpkins and fancy dress. I’m looking forward to firework’s night. I love candles and dark nights.

Same here @Garamousalata

It’s been bad around here for 12 years or so. Think this was the first area to have teens making zero attempt to dress up, ignoring the protocol of only go to homes decorated with Halloween stuff, banging on doors, demanding money.

When I worked at the supermarket, we banned teenagers buying eggs and flour around this time of year as they were just going to chuck them at houses and cars. “Oh we are making pancakes” one cf said. “On houses” as I took them away from them.

Doorbell switched off so evening is undisrupted.

I’ve been out for 2 hours with my youngest. Seen nothing but good cheer! A surprising number of teens out and about- I’ve always thought of trick or treating as a thing for younger kids- but all the teens that I have seen have been dressed up and polite and well behaved.

We went trick or treating in the 90s.

We've had scum setting off fireworks here for three hours. The animals are absolutely terrified.

Yes, how pathetic that teens want to hang on to their childhoods and have a bit of fun instead of sitting inside their house all night.

I am the Grinch of Halloween. Hate it. All the plastic crap. Bring back bonfire night.