Halloween: Taking a year off?

[LSmith]

I love giving out candy.

I don't stress out about kids not saying trick or treat, thank you or anything else. They are kids, this is a fun holiday and I am not their mother.

My house is also not Halloween Runway where I judge the appropriateness of costumes. I don't care if a kid has a costume or not. Again, it is a fun holiday and I am not their mother.

I don't care if the kid is 2 or 22. I give out candy regardless.

And I would NEVER question a child asking if they ask if they can have a piece for their brother/sister/dog. If you are stressing over a 5 cent piece of candy and kids not following your set of Halloween rules, you should probably leave the porch light off. There is no rule that you have to give out candy.

So, yes, I buy lots of candy and open my door with a smile. That said, I have never had a problem with any kid in the 30+ years we have been handing out candy.

I feel the same way. I don't give a fig if a person has a costume on nor do I ask their age. It's Halloween and everyone is invited to knock at my door and receive candy.

 

[Donnainnj]

This, +1. We pretty much missed Halloween last year because of Sandy and we aren't missing another one. Never had any issues, and we tend to give out an assortment of candy to each child, the older kids that come here are all smiles and thanks. Our town has a curfew, 8pm until 2010 then I think it was 7pm in 2011 which seemed a little to early to me.
Donna

I love giving out candy.

I don't stress out about kids not saying trick or treat, thank you or anything else. They are kids, this is a fun holiday and I am not their mother.

My house is also not Halloween Runway where I judge the appropriateness of costumes. I don't care if a kid has a costume or not. Again, it is a fun holiday and I am not their mother.

I don't care if the kid is 2 or 22. I give out candy regardless.

And I would NEVER question a child asking if they ask if they can have a piece for their brother/sister/dog. If you are stressing over a 5 cent piece of candy and kids not following your set of Halloween rules, you should probably leave the porch light off. There is no rule that you have to give out candy.

So, yes, I buy lots of candy and open my door with a smile. That said, I have never had a problem with any kid in the 30+ years we have been handing out candy.

 

[powellrj]

I use to love halloween and we would go all out with the decorations, costumes and candy. Every year I got more and more upset until 3 years ago I said enough. We still do trunk or treat at our church, but we no longer do trick or treat at our home. Since we stopped all of our neighbors have also stopped. Instead of thank-yous we got static. Nobody seemed satisfied with what they got and wanted more and more and more. I think we just reached the point where I will give to people who seem to enjoy what they get and not complain.

 

[NFLDERS]

This, +1. We pretty much missed Halloween last year because of Sandy and we aren't missing another one. Never had any issues, and we tend to give out an assortment of candy to each child, the older kids that come here are all smiles and thanks. Our town has a curfew, 8pm until 2010 then I think it was 7pm in 2011 which seemed a little to early to me.
Donna

I like the curfew. Aprilgail2's house-Into the night (knocking) even when lights are out. No way.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I wish we had Trick or Treaters in my neighborhood. We just don't get kids here. I do always have candy if we are home, JUST IN CASE. If ever we get a kid, they are getting the whole bag.

 

[ksjayhawks]

I have taken several years off. Two were due to not being home as ds had football games. One was the year I had knee replacement surgery and then last year my dh was going to be out of town and I was fighting a cold and so, turned off the light.

Not sure what I will do this year yet. Will have to see.

 

[DisneyWalle]

We haven't done anything Halloween related since my DS was 5. We took him trick or treating in my mother's neighborhood and walked up to a house with a light on. You could see a dark hooded creature standing still on the lighted porch and just assumed it was a decoration. Just as soon as my 5 yr old reached into the candy bucket for a piece of candy, the creature moved towards him. Scared him silly! He dropped his bag and almost fell trying to get away from the person. He never wanted to trick or treat again.
(As he has grown, he discovered he doesn't like candy anyway and rarely eats anything sweet.)

Since we live in a rural county and 1500 feet off the road, there are no trick-or-treaters. They all head into the city crammed into trucks and dropped off in neighborhoods all over the city to trick or treat.

 

[Mokat76]

OP, I feel for you. I've skipped a few myself for some of the same reasons. Where I live now I play along because I like my neighbors and the kids are pretty nice. All are costumed to some degree and every single child, regardless of age, is polite. My ridiculously friendly boxer (in costume) and I sit on the porch to greet kids and hand out treats. Kinda fun and over with by 8:30.

 

[LisaInNc]

I was thinking about it too but decided that I am going to go one more year but be better organized.

My town has a city wide ordinance setting rules for Halloween Trick or Treating is from 6-8 and for children under the age of 13. No one follows it.

My street is blocked off and is the official trick or treat place. They advertise it in the paper and we get hundreds and hundreds of people. Last year I had 60 pounds of candy. I was warned when I moved in by the neighbors to be prepared for hundreds of people and be firm giving one piece per person or it would be impossible not to run out.

Last year was the first year we have lived in this house and I was shocked at how terrible people acted. Grown adults trick or treating, I would say more than half the people didn't have a costume at all. People grabbing at my candy, asking for extra. I was mobbed.

We had people not using the sidewalk or walkways and walking right through my Halloween decorations.

It was really disheartening.

This year we are going to try to have people come up the front walk and leave through the driveway to cut down on the congestion. I am going to make some cute Halloween signs.

I am not going to be rushed. I will pass out candy one KID at a time and no costume no candy.

It might sound like I am being a Scrooge but the teenage girl that sighed and rolled her eyes at me and stuck out her purse was my final straw.

I am going to give it a shot.

Lisa

 

[trip]

Most houses here have sensor lights so they don't come on until someone walks right up to the step.

We have them also but we can shut them off and use our regular porch light.

Not sure if we will bother giving out treats this year. Our neighborhood on the whole is aging, mostly empty nesters. Last year I only had 21 kids come to the door. Years past we would run out of candy! One thing I do like about our area is everyone follows the "go to houses with the porch on" and "between 6-8 pm" only rules.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I enjoy handing out candy because I love seeing all the creative costumes! But I don't think you should feel guilty if you don't want to do it. Plenty of people around skip it for religious reasons, and the kids just move on to the next house with a light.

 

[hereyago]

I love Halloween. Unfortunately, my cul de sac is the very front of the housing development and we don't get hardly any kids because they are more concentrated further back. So I help with the trunk or treat at the church a couple nights before Halloween.


But years ago, I dealt with bad seeds.

You are in control of your candy bowl, dont want people to grab? Have bowl near you and hand candy out that way.

They want to exchange candy or want something else? Why not trick them? Say I can give you something else give me back the candy. When they do, give them a gag gift like a toothpick with a note saying this is what you get for being too picky.
People running through yard? Sprinkler go off or big water gun for those who live in warmer areas.

People not saying thank you? Yell you are welcome and yell you are so astonished by their manners,lol. Or, water gun to the back,lol.


A teenage girl rolls her eyes? Offer her some used eyes drops since she apparently has something in her eyes, lol.

I don't care who shows up, costume, no costume.

 

[LilyWDW]

I don't care how old you are... if you are in costume. Sorry, but that is a huge aspect of the holiday. No costume, no candy (though I have broken this rule for very polite teens who are taking their younger siblings around and did not EXPECT anything). Put some effort into it.

I won't do it this year though. For one, we get so few kids that it is not worth buying candy. Most go downtown or into a nearby larger town. Second, I have a new cat and don't want to have to keep him locked up or have to worry about him getting out. Third, it is now just me so I don't want to deal with it.

 

[hereyago]

my husband who wants me to hand out candy but doesn't bother to be home to do it himself have burned me out.

I'm undecided about decorating outside at all this year and don't want to give out candy but my husband wants *us* to (but it will be me doing it).
.

No offense, but this should be nipped in the bud. If YOU don't want to do it, then don't, you are a grown woman. Let him,know that volunteering YOU to do it all isn't going to be allowed. If he wants it done, he is capable of getting candy and decorating.

 

[TiggerTails57]

I make goodie bags for the little kids and give out full size bars for the older kids.........no costume, you still get a full size bar! We don't judge

 

[mom2rtk]

I make goodie bags for the little kids and give out full size bars for the older kids.........no costume, you still get a full size bar! We don't judge

That's awesome!

 

[LisaInNc]

I make goodie bags for the little kids and give out full size bars for the older kids.........no costume, you still get a full size bar! We don't judge

I WISH I had the budget to do this with 300-400 people on average it's impossible. In my old neighborhood I did give out full size candy bars to the kids that I knew.

It's just too expensive. I have already started buying candy so it's not such a financial hit.

For me the difference between begging and Halloween is a costume, I mean take some effort, even a special hat or a little makeup counts it does not have to be a big thing but this year do nothing and get nothing....from me.

Lisa

 

[tchrrx]

I haven't done Halloween in years. It started because no one else on our block did it, so we'd only have a few kids come by. Now it's because our church has a festival that night and we help with it. Last year we could hardly get out of our neighborhood due to the amount of cars and people. I don't like Halloween because it has become too much of a greedy holiday.



ETA: Reading through the responses reminds me: We have people that don't follow the porch light rule or the timing rule. We'll be sitting in the living room watching t.v. before or after church, and the doorbell will ring. We just sit and ignore it.

 

[pigletgirl]

I make goodie bags for the little kids and give out full size bars for the older kids.........no costume, you still get a full size bar! We don't judge

I guess some people are more generous than we are!

 

[coneeny4]

I just leave my bowl of candy on my stairs and let them help themselves. When I come home and check it there is usually some left.