Trick or Treat Question

[Karel]

As long as you're polite, say Trick or Treat and have a costume on, I don't care where you come from or how old you are.

My 15,14 and 12 yo will be going out. For the older two, it's become more of a social event - hanging with friends and going all over town visiting people they know. They hardly bring anything home!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

It's all about the kids and that being said we load up in our mini van and drive into town. We live in a rural area so yes we are the people that crash someone's neighborhood. If we were to TOT at home the kids would get maybe 2 house after walking a half mile down the road. Just remember it is all about the kids.

Well, and about my kids getting enough candy so that I can raid it after they go to bed and they won't notice.


The funny thing about all this talk of teens ToTing is that we've had so many threads about how teens "these days" grow up too fast. Then people get upset when they want to be kids. As a collective whole, they can't win.

So, disney junky, discard the boxers or briefs, and don't sweat the small stuff.

 

[robertsmom]

Well, my oldest niece will be 13 in December and she still trick or treats with her brothers and sister and my son. Why push kids out of childhood faster than necessary??

 

[N.Bailey]

I always send my kids to your homes to ToT, so that when our night comes around, I can give out your candy to the little ones here.

Okay, that's not at all true, and most of you probably won't find it funny.

My kids stopped ToT prolly around the time they started at the middle school. They just wanted to be so much older. Oh well, now we all dress up and stay home and get to enjoy giving it out to others, no matter who shows up. My kids are in 9th grade, and we still get quite a few of their friends here. I'm not complaining at all.

When my kids were younger, we always gave our candy to our neighbor and she gave ours out as well as her own. It's nice being on this side for awhile. When the grand kids come along (perish that thought right now), I'll go back to being the one going around and begging a neighbor to hand out our candy once again.

It's 1 day a year. Enjoy it, or simply don't participate. It's no big deal either way.

 

[lclark0621]

I dont care how old the kids are. As long as they are polite & at least say Trick or Treat.

We lived in a neighborhood the last few years where the houses were pretty close together. And we always got hit hard by the ToTers. However one end of my street hardly participated. I thought it was pretty sad. Looking down one end & seeing all the fun & then the other way was completely dark. Come on! It's Halloween, go buy a bag of candy or 2, it doesn't even have to be the good stuff. Just let the kids have some fun!

Right now we are in a neighborhood where the houses are also close together & from the looks of it, everyone is into it. All the houses have had some sort of decoration up for almost a month already. So we went & bought a lot of candy to give out.

We will go out early with DS (3) & be back in time to give out candy. I think DS has more fun giving out the candy then ToTing himself.

Next year we will have to hit another neighborhood. We are building in a small upscale neighborhood, where there are only 8 homesites in the gated section. So not to much on the ToTing.

So we will probably go to my Mom's neighborhood & let DS ToT there. We will of course be with him. I hope no one jips DS because they dont "know" him. But if we dont go to another neighborhood, there wont be much ToTing fun for him next year.

It is once a year. I bought $50 worth of candy last year & ran out twice, with DH or I running to the store for more. The 3rd time we ran out & it getting close to 10:00pm, we finally shut off the lights, but I know a lot of people kept going.

This year we will probably open the door until close to 10:00pm again. I get a kick out of seeing all the kids in costume & excited.

I dont care of you are 8 or 18, just be nice & say Trick or Treat. And a costume is preferable. But we dont question why they are not in costume. I know a lot of kids who could not afford costumes, or risk "ruining" any of their clothes by "Halloweening" them. So we just smile & hand out candy to everyone!

 

[SuperSteelerFan]

I too live in a nicer neighborhood and I know that folks just drop their kids at the entrance to the plan and let them go - they park their cars at the bank, grocery store, and school nearby and wait in their cars for their kids to come back. I give out tons of candy to kids I don't even know and many of them do seem too old, but they get candy anyway. Unfortunately, because of this practice by others, I am unable to afford to give out candy like I want - I want to buy full sized bars, but can only buy bags of "fun" sized candy (who decided that a candy bar that you can eat in 1 bite was fun?), but at least they get something.

 

[shortbun]

I love the older kids on Beggars's night. They come late and I can give them my leftover candy so I don't eat it. Sometimes, I dump a whole lot in their bags and tell them it's time to go home. I love it when they actually make an effort with a costume! Two years ago, a group dressed as hippies and had learned a bunch of old protest and peace songs. They wandered through the neighborhood singing. We all loved it.

 

[golfgal]

Send the kids to our neighborhood!! I don't care how old they are as long as they are in costume. We had friends in our old town that went trick or treating as adults, although they it was "trick or drink". We kept beer on hand for them . I love Halloween. As a kid we would go all over town to trick or treat, as would everyone else. We would be out for hours. It was a blast!

 

[alldiz]

Everything comes from the childhood......
My mom would buy the 99 cent sourball bag....
she would give out 1 if she wasn't hidin from the door....

Now of course I buy $60 dollars worth of very yummy chocolate
in every variety.....I make over 100 bags.....

My neighborhood very busy.....we have sidewalks...and lots
of houses around....

Yes they literally stop the minivan in front of my house.....
I dont care i love to see all the costumes and my
daughter loves to give out the bags
Kerri

 

[Meezers]

Guess I am a Halloween Scrooge.

The words that are being repeated in this thread are "costume" and "polite".

After 3 years of no costume....no polite...no trick or treat...no English. And BIG kids...I think they could have voted the next week! I felt like it was "give me what I want or else"...I stopped...

But...my police department did have a HUGE "trek or treat" in one of our parks yesterday....hiking, hot dogs and candy! And tonight we are showing the silent version of "The Mummy" with a live band playing music in our beautiful town park! So...maybe I have just taken my spirit to the next level....

 

[powellrj]

The funny thing about all this talk of teens ToTing is that we've had so many threads about how teens "these days" grow up too fast. Then people get upset when they want to be kids. As a collective whole, they can't win.

Thats what I was thinking too.....

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Guess I am a Halloween Scrooge.

The words that are being repeated in this thread are "costume" and "polite".

After 3 years of no costume....no polite...no trick or treat...no English. And BIG kids...I think they could have voted the next week! I felt like it was "give me what I want or else"...I stopped...

But that's not what we're talking about. I don't think that I had a kid in the last 5 years not show up in costume. Some of them were a little on the lame side, but they showed some effort and my house wasn't TPed, egg'ed, or anything else bad, so I was happy. If I had bad experiences year after year I'd be a bit jaded, too. BTW, I couldn't care less what language the kids speak--I don't know why they should be penalized for that.

 

[KirstenB]

We live in the country. There are very few neighborhoods out here, but we live in one of them. I expect parents to drive their kids into our neighborhood, otherwise, where would the kids trick or treat? I like it, we enjoy seeing the kids, it's once a year. We might get a few big kids, but no big deal.

 

[poochie]

When I was younger it was nothing to go out for hours in these big developments where everyone gave out candy. You always said thank you and in the long haul you did pretty well and had a great time. Now Halloween I hand out candy, but we do not get too many kids . Lots of elderly and some people who cannot be bothered. I love the kids if you have some sort of costume I do not care how old you are. You are very welcome to our treats. Give everyone a break Kids are Kids.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!​

 

[candykisses]

I would love to see a minivan show up with alot kids.

If we're lucky the 3 boys from next door will stop over before they go to their cousins house. The twins at the end of the street are 12, so maybe they'll stop if someone hasn't told them they're too old.

I wish more middle school kids would have fun at Halloween. Those years can be brutal and recent threads on the CB will back me up on that one.

So, come on over to my house. Mine is the one with all the decorations, pumpkins and some really good treat bags. I'll be happy to see you.

 

[Stepht5]

Guess I am a Halloween Scrooge.

The words that are being repeated in this thread are "costume" and "polite".

After 3 years of no costume....no polite...no trick or treat...no English. And BIG kids...I think they could have voted the next week! I felt like it was "give me what I want or else"...I stopped...
....

This is what it has become in our neighborhood. And most of them have 2 bags --*This one is for my sick sister/brother/cousin* This year I am going to tell them to share their candy with them.

Our neighborhood kids are usually finished by a a quarter after 7 (sometimes 7:30) and all the ones after that are dropped off by the van load. And I am talking way over 100 people.

I bought the bags of Play Doh (2 bags w/80 in a bag) to give out this year. 15dd thinks I should buy candy instead. I told her that all kids love Play Doh.
BTW 15dd is going TorT with her younger db & ds BUT, she is dressing up. Her Dad and older Brother will probably walk with them in costume, also.

I would say that al least half of the houses on our street don't turn on their lights -- but their kids & their friends go TorT after they do *church* stuff because Halloween is so evil.

 

[Poohnatic]

I consider ToT part of the 'pay it forward' part of life. I won't give it out if it's not chocolate and yes, I give to the teens out of costume, too.

I lived in the middle of nowhere for several years (literally, next house a mile in each direction) and only had 4 trick or treaters in the whole time I lived there. I was ready, though, with packages of oreos.

We moved to a very large planned community. Our section had a neighbor that went all out-one year was a huge pirate ship with cannons, another a 20' tall skeleton. Always a haunted house. Our tactic was to ToT to the house and back, going through the other townhouses. Can't tell you how many friends with kids from the other side of the neighborhood we'd encounter. They'd drive over to see the cool house and then ToT. Word got out, and people outside the community would come see this house (it was REALLY cool). We'd plan for 200 kids, and that was with us handing out for the second half of the ToT time.

Our neighborhood now is small, but new. Last year, seemed like a lot of kids not part of the neighborhood and a bunch of high schoolers. DH and I both hand out to all and just smile and say 'cool costume, disaffected teen, right?'. Always gets a laugh.

Yes, I get into the halloween thing, too, so I dress up to go out with the kids, too. In our old neighborhood, most people would give me candy because I dressed up-and I'm clearly not a kid. Pretty funny.

Suzanne

 

[Disney Doll]

We turn our lights on early in my neighborhood because that's when the little kids start coming out...usually around 5PM.

At around 6-630PM, the elementary and middle school aged kids come, which is OK too.

When the kids who are taller than me and shaving start to come, I turn the light off.

We have kids who get dropped of fin our neighborhood too. I often wonder what the parents are thinking, since they don't know the area at all or who could be living there and so forth. I mean,l for all they know, they could be dropping their kid off in a neighborhood of pedophilic candy poisoners!!!!!!!!! Back in my T or T days, you pretty much kinda knew everyone who lived within a 10 block or so radius from your house...you either went to school, church, Girl Scouts or something with them.

 

[alldiz]

In my neighborhood not everyone has sidewalks....
i think that is why they do the drop off near me...
I have a sidewalk and there are other roads near
me with sidewalks....making trick or treating
chocked full o treats
Kerri

 

[EthansMom]

Prior to our moving here, our current neighborhood used to get ~200 ToTers, with many people coming in by the vanload. There were a lot of teens from other towns coming in and doing vandalism. The year we moved here, the police shut down our neighborhood to outsiders on Halloween by stationing a police car at the entrance to our neighborhood and questioning anyone who wanted to enter after dark. It's really cut down on the number of ToTers and on the vandalism.

We get around 40 to 50 kids. We do get some older kids, many of whom aren't in costumes. I let the little kids pick out their own candy and tend to pick out the candy I give the older kids myself (like giving the older kids the Snickers bars, if that's what I've got lots of).

We also still get some vandalism (TPing, shaving cream, egging) and I'm slightly resentful of the fact that I feel like I'm being extorted by some of the older kids (give good candy or we'll make a mess). But, with no streetlights and long driveways, it's difficult to tell exactly who is doing the vandalism and when.

This year, I'm giving out full-sized candy bars, which I buy by the case from Costco. If our neighborhood went back to having 200 ToTers, then I would give out a couple pieces each of smaller candy and have goodie bags for the kids I actually know.

When my kids get older, I'll let them invite friends over for a party (scary movies, candy, treats, soda) at my house on Halloween. I'm happy to pay out of my pocket so that I know they are safe and not causing anyone trouble. But I don't have any problem with the older kids who are dressed up and being good going ToTing.