AIBU to think it's fine to switch the lights off on Halloween?

[bigred26]

Saw a survey this week saying 53% of us use some sort of tactic to avoid trick-or-treaters. 27% pretend not to be home, 26% turn the lights off and sit in the dark, and 29% just leave sweets outside. Nearly half said they get "doorstep dread", and in London 48% feel under pressure to hand out sweets. Yet 73% say they love the spooky season.

One side says nobody has to open the door to strangers, especially with repeated knocking or nervous pets. The other says it's one night a year and the kids love it.

Answer the door, hide, or bowl on the step?

Agreed!

Same here. I just ignore it.

Same here! All the kids stick to it as no one knows at my next door neighbour

You have music playing in your front garden? Or have I misunderstood?

I wonder how your neighbours feel about that. Round my way, they'd mostly be fucking pissed off.

Yep, be consistent. Same as sitting in the dark, no talking, no TV, anything rather than answering the door and having to pay sixpence to the carol singers. (and I'm a JW!)

Im in London and this very much applies.

Same.

When we go t&ting we leave a tub out on the doorstep and our porch light on and decorations out. We also only knock on houses with decorations outside.

We open the door for the first few hours. Then we turn off the lights and doorbells once it's time for our kids to go to bed. We hide our pumpkins as well.

Younger kids are fine and don't knock if there are no lighten pumpkins. The issues is older teens - who shouldn't be there in the first place! There are absolute idiots hammering the door.

I actually really like seeing teens doing it, it's like the last bit of them being a knob d. But the ones near us are polite and respectful, and only go to decorated houses.

reactive dog here so have previously put a bowl of sweets on the front gate but looking out the window it seemed that it was mostly teens (not even in costumes) taking handfuls 😠

Same as a lot of early replies, no pumpkin or decorations we do not knock. My son adores Halloween more than Christmas. His birthday is October and he thinks Halloween is him. He loves it, his bedroom, front of my house and front facing rooms are decorated because he loves it so much. Honestly makes him so happy, he goes around every night turning on lights, and helped me set everything up.

Just put a note on the door saying you're not participating in Halloween. That should confirm it.

What a bizarre post and an absolute cacophony of statistics
If you don't want to engage in Halloween don't

If you do then do

Yes they do. Parking is a nightmare in our area on Halloween as people come with their kids from all over the city. Last year there were even couples walking around with buckets of sweets to give to kids as they walked around. It was very sweet and a lively atmosphere, the streets were packed with excited families and because of how well known the area has become they even set up food stalls in the park

Im not the poster you’re replying to but believe me its very believable. Around our area families were literally queuing up at some houses.

the local Facebook page puts out a map of the area with participating houses pinned for people to download

Same

it’s common sense

Yeah I'm not sure why the poster doesn't believe it.

It's not like it's kids queuing up one by one.

There's big groups of them getting driven in to the huge houses not far from me and its bedlam.

Around us, same as loads of others on this thread - kids only knock at decorated houses with lights on, so eg if the lights are turned off / blown out in the pumpkins, they won’t knock (well occasionally one might if they see there are some decorations out but no lights).

I have absolutely no problem believing in 300 trick or treaters - we don’t even get anyone coming in to the local area, it’s pretty much all local kids/ families (recognise many of them) and loads of houses get that many. The kids go round in groups with their friends, I’ll often open the door to 7 or 8 kids, with another lot coming down the path after. Some of the best decorated houses near us posted last year they gave away nearly 900 bags over the evening which I can well believe.

It’s a really lovely community atmosphere, you see loads of people out and about that you know. We are lucky it’s a safe friendly area and I’ve not heard of anyone being intimidated etc - it would definitely pop up as anonymous gripes on village fb group if it was going on!

As to “celebrating” Halloween - I like the ritual, the folk tale elements, the old stories, the connection to the past and the fun atmosphere. I don’t “celebrate” it in that I’m not honouring anything, taking any of it seriously, I don’t believe for a minute in any spirits or ghosts or anything like that.

@AliceNotInChains That sounds more like a Halloween fair. I'm glad the atmosphere is good.

@MissingMeadow That does sound chaotic for the permanent residents.

When my kids went out trick or treating we only went to houses that had Halloween decorations up. Unfortunately now our kids are adults we don’t bother decorating and don’t want trick or treaters coming but you still get idiot parents that let their kids knock on the door. Last year we chained the gates shut so nobody could get onto the driveway

Not decorating means bog all round here, people still bloody knock!
So I'm Team turn the lights off. 😁
(Not sure which way to vote in your poll though as it's not very clear which way is which.)

Anyone celebrating Bonfire Night? 5th November. Lovely tradition, celebrating our parliament being saved.

Nobody knocks here if you aren’t decorated .

My area uses a clear marker. Porch light on: open for trick-or-treaters. Porch light off: not participating or ran out of candy

even when we prep for 200 children we have run out some years. It depends on the weather.

We used to decorate with pumpkins etc and do the sweets but we now have a very anxious dog now who cant cope with repeated visitors knocking at the door.
We put a spooky.poster on the gate explaining and noone calls .
I do miss it though