In my day, trick or treat meant exactly that....

[ReplacementBusService]

When I were a youngun, back in medieval London, going trick or treating involved mild levels of hazard. So a lot of people either didn't go, didn't want anything to do with it, or a few stayed in to do the "trick" part. You could choose to knock on a door and say "trick or treat" the householder could a) say "treat!" and offer you candy/chocolate b) say "trick" and throw water/fake blood/an egg at you or c) tell you to clear off/get outta here or I'll call your mum. Sometimes, if the householder chose b) or c) the trick or treaters would opt for "trick" and egg the house or similar annoying as f- behaviour. Perhaps I just grew up in a ghetto. It was the last century as well.

Now, it's lost all the halloweeny danger and is just a bunch of cute kids and often their polite charming parents in outfits expecting sweets. It's rubbish, just another reason for shops to pump out cheap plastic crap before they hit the main Xmas shopping fest. And if I dared to adopt the old school approach and throw a bucket of water or fake blood or slime or real blood at the supposed "trick" or treaters, they'd probably think it was reasonable to call the cops or something. And if they egged anyone's house, all hell would ensue.

So:
YANBU - If you're going to say "trick or treat" expect tricks. Otherwise just state that you're on a freeloading chocolate mission.
YABU - You are Halloween's equivalent of Scrooge. Wind your neck in and get the haribo ready

how old are you? i grew up in london and it was never like that, although we did have fireworks thrown up our bums solidly between october and late november- in school, outside the school gates, and onto the buses.

Im in Scotland so the 'trick' is the visitor saying a rhyme or a joke or a singing a song so they get the treat. Have never heard of the homeowner throwing anything at the children!

Hmmm, could be an age difference thing, could be different parts of London have different ancient rituals. We didn't do the whole firework bum thing in my area, but it sounds hazardous

This sounds like a happy medium

Yeah I remember this In London - rotting pumpkins or eggs being thrown or houses covered in loo roll. Sorry but I prefer the cutsie version!

I remember trick or treat actually meaning ‘trick’ or ‘treat’ (teenager during eighties). After Halloween, you’d see flour and eggs in people’s gardens.

Nowadays, Halloween is an excuse to dress up, and increasingly in any outfit, but in those days (or seventies), you dressed up a cat, witch, wizard or ghost (sheet over you).

Personally I quite like the adorable kids roaming the streets one early evening a year.
it brings them so much joy! and I get to go wirh them and I was never allowed as a child.

I thought the trick was played by the visitors if no treats were forthcoming.

I too am in Scotland and never heard of stuff being chucked at people or houses!

I have noticed an increase in kids just grabbing at sweets and not doing a joke or rid anything when ive been out with my kids, I make mine tell a joke before going for a sweet

I don't remember there being any treats involved. Just tricks. Knocking on doors and running off etc.

I am a Londoner born and bred and still live in Outer London now.

I agree with you OP. Except the householder wouldn't do the tricks, it was the kids who went round asking for the sweets. They would egg houses and sometimes throw flour as well. But only if you answered the door and didn't have treats.

As a child, I wasn't allowed to participate in any trick or treating as my parents considered it like begging. It's safe to say I often feared someone sticking a firework through our letter box as a result of not answering the door 😲

So yes, it's a lot tamer nowadays and thank goodness for that!

If the house didn't give you a treat, they had a trick played on them, like egg the house.

We have had eggs thrown at our house before on Halloween, in the 90s. I think they were just chucked for the sake of it. I'm sure in some places sale of eggs to under 18s is stopped around Halloween even nowadays

In the London borough I went to secondary school in, it was the done thing for teenagers to egg and flour people’s houses, and sometimes their occupants if they came out and had a go at them - it was horrible.

I live in the same London borough now and at around 8.30pm this evening there were two fireworks released in my road followed by around 12 teenage boys suspiciously running like the clappers up the road while wearing hoods up and balaclavas.

That’s not what it was around me. You said Trick or Treat because the householder had to either pay you off with a treat or you’d trick THEM by throwing eggs etc.

In Edinburgh we used to go guising so you had to sing a song, tell a joke, do a dance and earn your orange / monkey nuts / sweets.

I'm thinking the Scottish version is consistently sounding like the way to do it

Yes there was definitely gunk being thrown around in the late 80s. I remember people saying trick and we really did play a trick on them.

I grew up in north London in the 70s / 80s and we were just like you described OP.
Tricks included shaving foam around letterbox, wrapping front gate in toilet paper, and stink bombs on doorstep. A bit horrible but no lasting damage caused. The treats were generally sweets, but one memorable offer was for us (group of young girls) to come in the house of the man wearing nothing but a towel round his waist. Last time we knocked on that particular door! (We also did penny for the guy!)

I’m in Scotland too, my kids go guising and the deal is they tell a joke or sing a song and get sweets in return.

Guising is the original version(first revirded in 1500s) . It was taken over to the U.S. by Scottish immigrants and morphed into trick or treating a hundred or so years ago.

I always thought the trick part came from Irish immigrants into America after the potato famine. It was like a kids evening of racketeering. The kids say trick or treat and either the kids get a treat or they play a ‘trick’ on the homeowner for not getting paid.

We're in Scotland and all the kids have said jokes as the "Trick".

My DH is a bit rubbish at talking to kids, so just tries to give them sweeties as quickly as possible, but even when he says Treat, most of the children insisted on saying their joke.

I think it's quite nice really.

When I was young (80s) trick or treat meant give us a treat and we won’t play a trick on you. So my parents sent us out with loo roll and rubber gloves that we would blow up and put in letter boxes or put in the gardens (that was a nice version).

Older kids were much worse and anyone with plants lining their garden path who didn’t answer their door with sweets or a few coppers from their purse would often have them pulled up and yes houses were egged.

Same here (though grew up in Yorkshire). The trick is a joke or song. My kids still do it (now in the south). The joke this evening that my 8 year old told was:

Why don’t vampires bite clowns?

Because they taste funny.