to not want to give out sweets or anything to trick or treaters and

[ButtonMeUp]

not to allow ds1 to go trick or treating? I have a young baby who will get woken everytime the doorbell goes and i hate it anyway. Think it is fun to dress up but absolutely detest the knocking on peoples door business.

Apparantly round here they get nasty and if you have lights on they knock and knock and then they damage stuff. Am actually looking at holday cottages so i can not be around for it all.

We can download a poster from the police to stick on the door-saying don't call. Not answering the door would probably result in eggs and flour or worse.

I love it but only because we only get children and they are quite sweet and do not show up really late, despite this being a pretty horrid area. I can imagine how horrible it must be for some peopple in some places.

Friend of my put a 'baby asleep, please don't call' sign up on her door at 7.30 last year. all the kids took heed, but at 9pm, some arse of a dad rang the doorbell repeatedly until he got an answer then asked for sweets for the two tiny tots in his pushchair.

I LOVE it!! (sticks her hand up gingerly) My DSs are 18 and 16 now so too old but we get LOADS of dressed up children (with parents waiting at gate). The majority of the houses round here do their bit and are decorated. I always try and get something new, Last year was a walking hand! Have already stocked up on horrid £1 shop treats - gummy eyeballs etc (and trying to stop DSs eating them). Seems quite big here in the NE and I certainly remember trick or treating (with a turnip) when I was small - and I am over 50! We have never yet had any bad experiences/teens asking for money/eggs or the like. So fingers crossed again for this year.

YANBU - I hate the whole halloween thing. I hate the way the supermarkets are full of Halloweeen tat and food that looks as though its full of orange E numbers.

I would never let my children go trick or treating. Luckily we don't get any trick or treaters here.

I much prefer to celebrate bonfire night with my children. It would be nice if there were a few decorations etc for this theme if anything in the supermarkets. The only halloween things we will be doing in this house will be hollowing out a pumpkin and a spot of apple bobbing.

I hate trick or treating!!

round here thankfully the "problem" kids have grown up a bit so we might not get eggs and ketchup all over the front door this year.

its like an extortion racket where you "pay" gangsters for "protection" isn't it? give us something "or else", dreadful. HAve a party or fancy dress competition for friends and family by all means, but do not go knocking on doors of strangers/neighbours

I DO think it sends mixed messages to kids about talking to strangers. My own have allergies and could not partake anyway.

I know lots of elderly people who are TERRIFIED on halloween (also of stupid morons doing daft stuff with firworks too!)

I must be very lucky as we get no problems. All the children and teenagers are polite enough, usually older children only come because they've been told to chaperone little ones. I know most of them. It seems to be an unspoken rule that children only go to the houses on their street where they know they'll be welcome. Older ones go further afield but still only to houses of friends.

We have 3 pumpkin lanterns, a big wooden bowl of chocolates and the DCs get some sort of costume together.

It's all over by about 9.

And this isn't exactly Stepford Ask Peachy.

YANBU - we had loads of hastle last year cos we put a polite notice on the door asking people not to knock because the baby was asleep and his bedroom is over the door and the door knocker is really loud. so some nice child set the notice on fire, resulting in a scorched door. I was upset for ages thinking how much worse it could have been if the flames had taken.
we live in a new-ish development with lots of big houses (ours isn't i hasten to add) so last year there were people carriers kids arriving thinking they would do better from the 'rich' people . i'm dreading this year ...

Around here they seem to respect the "No trick or treating" posters and also you have to make sure the lights are off.
Some years i don't want to do it at all, so we all go out for the evening from 5pm onwards and keep the lights off.
Also it means the car is not on the drive and we always tape up the letterbox also just in case.

My dad used to love dressing up as Dracula and he looked really convincing as well.
He used to scare the kids so badly they did not come again.
Also down our way, we do have some kids who will come again and again and wear different masks, but then we only have 30 houses on the estate so we know who they all are.

I had only been in my new house a matter of days last year before Halloween. Someone knocked on my door with their child, she didn't bother to introduce herself or say hello. She just barked trick or treat at me (child didn't say anything). I meekly went off and got some sweets, handed them across and without a word of a thank you, they took off down the street.

Can't make up my mind whether or not to do it this year as dd will be at a sleep-over.

Put up a sign saying that you do not want Trick or Treaters, and they won't call on you.

One of my old neighbours used to leave out a tupperware box stuffed with chewits and a note to say no trick or treaters but hoped they had a nice time and to only take 1 packet.

going to try and avoid it if i can this year.there's a "SPOOKTACULAR"going on near us so that's one way of getting out of it!!!