Trick or treating: love it or loathe it? Please take our super-quick poll - and you could win a prize

[HelenMumsnet]

As Halloween draws scarily nearer, we want to know what you think of trick or treating.

Do you love the whole spooky-wooky, vampire-fanged sweet-fest?

Or do you loathe every doorstep-begging minute of it and wish it had never made it across the Pond?

Please take a couple of secs to fill in our super-quick survey and we'll enter you into this week's competition to win a spine-tingling two-day family visit to the Halloween Scarefest at Alton Towers.

Not that the nature of the prize should influence the way you vote, mind...

You can find the survey here

[kittywise]

Loathe it. It's begging.

[MorticiaDoom]

It keeps saying Woops we encountered an error.

[peanutbear]

The survey didnt work for me!!!

[whispywhisp]

Hate it. Most of the time the kids that knock on our door don't know what Halloween is all about. My DH may answer the door and when the kids say 'trick or treat?!' he will reply 'trick!'....and the looks on their faces says it all.....'eh?', 'do what?' !!! My DD2 is completely freaked out by it all and my dog goes absolutely loopy with all the knocking on the door...so, yes, hate it.

[Boco]

Love it. We go in a little group with some neighbours children - we only knock on doors we've prearranged to visit. Last year we had some very cross old people saying they'd bought treats and we'd not stopped at their house, - lots of the adults love to see the kids dressed up. There are two lots of people who always make a cake and we have to go in for sherry and cake!

Survey not working.

[whispywhisp]

That's just it Boco...we get kids knock on our door that we've never seen before. I'm still waiting for a trick!

Yep, survey not working for me either. Fill it in and press 'next'...goes to a page that says 'ooops!, not working'. I never win a thing, me.

[TheInvisibleManDidIt]

Doesn't work for me either.

[carriemumsnet]

This should now be fixed. Apologies to anyone who got the error message.

[Yurtgirl]

Done

[GodzillasGhastlyPutridBumcheek]

I am loathing it this year, as DTD1 and 2 want to go TorTing. I hate it, and since i am not prepared to go knocking on strangers' doors with them, i've said NO.

The main reason i hate it is because of the bad atitude alot of the kids/teens have got if you have nothing for them. I'm not going to fork out for loads of sweets on the off chance thqat we'll actually get some kids knocking this year, and then run out halfway through the night only to get our windows egged! Why would i even bother...might as well save my money and clean the inevitable egg off in the morning .

[cheerycherry]

Loved it as a kid, still get hyped up now, party every year, house trimmed. Any excuse!

[MsHighwater]

I loved going out guising as a child but I lived in a street where there were a lot of other children whom I knew and whose parents I knew and was known to. At the moment, where we live now isn't really like that and I can't imagine ever allowing dd (3) to go out as I did (accompanied only by other kids). Given that we have our own traditions I dislike the wholesale adoption of what seems like an American version of Hallowe'en and refuse to refer to "trick or treat".

[unfitmother]

I'd never encountered this before as had lived first in the country then in central London.
We moved to the 'leafy suburbs' of a northern city 11 yrs ago and were completly caught out our first Halloween, Dh had to nip out to the Spar for supplies. The kids loved it and now go as well. We only go to doors with the light on.

[wtfhashappened]

I hate the whole thing and do an alternative for my kids, but when I was having a glass of wine with a new neighbour and a few others she got really aggressive about my refusal to join in (even though I was very careful to emphasise that it was a choice I make, and do not care what others do), which annoyed me a lot, as surely I retain the right to bring up the dcs how I see fit!

[suzywong]

WE WANT COMPS!



OverseasmumsnetteRsunIteForfaIrtrEatment

[FimboGotAxed]

I am Scottish, when we were young you dressed up at Halloween and went guising i.e. you told a joke, rhyme or did a dance etc for the treat. Usually you got a mandarin.

We always went out as a group, sadly nowadays you couldn't just wander into any old house.

[LilRedWG]

We plan on making a lantern out of a pumpkin with DD (2) this year and dressing her up in an embarrassing outfit in order to take photos for blackmail purposes in later life.

[loler]

I don't mind it for little kids but really hate the 'youths' that come knocking with may be one rubbish mask between 10 of them. Never know what they want me to give them (well I guess it's money) and they always look peed off with the pick and mix type sweets the little kids love!

Am being very miserable this year and going to stay in a hotel for the night (not just because it's haloween but glad it is!)

[BigSpookyMurderingGitDad]

Love or loath is a bit extreme isn't it? Personally I like it. Something fun for the kids but in our road we have prior consent on whose doors will be knocked on.

[prettybird]

I loved guising when I was wee.

And with hindsight, I have to admire my mum who made a lantern out of a turniip every year for me

I have it much easier, making ds' lantern out of a pumpkin!

[fairyfly]

Well as a child it was a complete no no in our household, apparently it was "common". As an adult i have yet to work out how the connotations of that word effected us in such a way. It was as if we behaved in a certain manner we would all catch a deathly cold and have to guard our front doors with red painted crosses.
I held onto my mothers values throughout my twenties and as her shadow proclaimed trick and treating was wrong and showed patronising judgemental disgust at any parent that would allow their childen to pace from door to door.

Now i think it is possibly quite frightening if you live alone. I would not appreciate answering the door all halloween eve to random merchandised younglings. But i do believe that people aren't having enough fun and carry round a lot of misplaced guilt and paranioa about what they cannot or can't do.

[sandy4]

Hate it.

Never done it as a child & don't EVER want my children to do it. AND since we moved to a house only accessed by a long, dark scary drive way, nobody dares venture down it at halloween anyway.

(Wish it worked for double-glazing sales people. )

[eidsvold]

WE WANT COMPS!



OverseasmumsnetteRsunIteForfaIrtrEatment

[Everhopeful]

Too old to be more than bemused by all this malarkey that goes on now - I'm even too old to have heard of guising, but that sounds ok. Only thing I can see as a problem is that you'd have to avoid nuts these days, I guess. American friend did a great party and we took the kids t or t ing down her street, which is very into it. Ours isn't particularly and we're one of the few houses that puts out (tbh, it's a chance to use up excess sweeties my kid's been given through the year. Let them rot some other kid's teeth instead, I say). I'm glad I don't live some of the places rest of you do though - we've never had any trouble with yoofs disappointed iwth their haul (they save that for Christmas, but we get so few carollers, I'm a soft touch and only go for making them sing at least two carols with at least 3 verses each before I cough up). I never tell American friend, but I think it's a gross and loathesome tradition - guising, apple bobbing, peeling the skin and dropping it over your shoulder to find the initial of whoever you're going to marry (mine was wrong ) toffee apples, honeycomb toffee, etc - oh yeah! Love all that.