What age is too old to go trick or treating

[Carpenters]

Any age in costume is fine with me. My worst trick or treating experience was the girl who came to my house, not in costume, holding a pillowcase full of candy, smoking a cigarette. I had to quit giving out candy then. My husband or one of my older sons stays home and hands out candy, and I troop around the neighborhood with my daughter.

 

[#1hockeymom]

I said other! I think anyone who is still in school should be allowed to trick or treat. It is good, clean fun!

What irks me are the parents with infants collecting candy, or the parents who collect it (both parents LOL) saying that they have a sick kid at home. HELLO? Who is with the kid while they're trick or treating, and why are they giving them candy? If it was that important and there really was a sick kid, buy a bag of candy at the store!

Halloween is always celebrated in our village on Halloween night from 6-8. When the siren goes off the trick or treating starts. When it goes off again, you can turn off your light, come off the veranda and stop passing out candy. I love this system! We get HUNDREDS yearly, (I think it was overe 400 last year? The rural kids are shipped into the village by their parents so that brings the numbers up), so staying inside really isn't an option. I just sit in a rocker on the veranda and start handing candy out!

 

[MushyMushy]

I have to agree with you all on the whole neighborhood thing. We get truckloads of kids being dropped off at corners because everybody knows which neighborhoods give out the best candy. It used to be that the kids who lived in the country would be brought in, but now even those communities have their own parties and such. What happens now is that people from different areas of town will go to the larger neighborhoods. I was mortified one year when I had to work, so I let DD go trick or treating with a friend and DD told me the mother drove them to three different neighborhoods.

 

[jacksonsmom]

I hate how city officials put their noses in stuff like this. First off Halloween should be celebrated on OCTOBER 31st!!! No if, and or butts!

I do not like the age limit either. I have no problem with older kids coming to my door as long as they are dressed up. Besides how is one suppose to tell what a 12 yr old looks like?

My 9 year old son often gets mistaken for being 11 or 12 yrs old because he is just a tall as your average 11/12 yrs old. So m son might be shunned because he "looks" too old? STUPID!

Let Halloween be for any kid that wants to do it.

 

[Todd&Copper]

I voted mid-teens b/c in my personal observation, by that age most kids who do go out ToT-ing do not even bother with costumes (and usually not even masks). If you aren't dressing up for me, why should I give you the Snickers or the Blow Pop????

I think my area does ToT from 6 - 8, although I think it should be 6-9. The OP's situation, of 4 - 6 on the Thursday before Halloween, is one othe dumbest things I have heard. Who is home at 4 pm these days, except a handful of SAHMs of kids who don't have after school activities? And why not on the 31st, a Friday, since it has to end so early anyway?

 

[Becky2005]

I don't think there is a set age- but I'm hoping my 11 year old decides that 11 is too old. Most of the time he can't wait to get home and pass out the candy- no idea why we have to get a costume and traipse around the neighborhood for a half hour....

That sounds like my boys! They are good for about an hour, possibly 2. I've always made a deal with the older kids that I would take them back out after DH got home, etc... Since obviously the little one doesn't have as much stamina (and if it's really cold, I don't want him out as long).

I have YET to have the boys take me up on the over! Usually, they leave the costume on for a bit, fight over who gets to hand out the candy at the door -- so we have to do turns, then finally they get tired of that -- take off the costume & are done for the night.

My DD on the other hand the past few years has gone out with her friends -- she leaves about the same time we do & I don't see her back until basically the end of trick or treating time. I might see her home to do empty out her bag & then she's back off again.

As for us, I thought HS might be too old but alas, she is planning on going again this year (her neighborhood friends are a couple years younger than her, so that's her excuse!). We don't have an official cut-off. We sort of have official times, I don't think it's really enforced other than in general hours are about 3 - 8 but it's *rare* to see anyone after 8 & of course, most kids are in school until 3-4, so during that time it's the preschoolers.

 

[sweetandsassyfl]

I went until I was 15. The last year, I had a woman ask me how old I was and give me a hard time about it (and I always dressed up in some sort of historical costume that didn't show too much.)

 

[wall*e2008]

I voted other - If you are married with children you are too old to TOT. I hve not problem with high schoolers TOTing at our home.

 

[mom2boys77]

Our town has Halloween the day before on the 30th because there is a big Halloween parade on Halloween. I think they do it so the kids don't have to decide between trick or treating and the parade. I also think any age is fine. Saying that 12 is too old is ridiculous..they are children..they should not be made to grow up any faster than they have to.

I have relatives that moved to PA. I'll never forget the time they called me and said that the kids would be trick or treating in their town on Tuesday from 5-7. (and the next town over was Monday 4-6)
I was like "but Halloween's not Tuesday, it's Friday????"

To this day I don't get it. Very, very strange. Why would you celebrate Halloween on a day other than Halloween?

 

[TruBlu]

Personally, I think that if you are old enough to drive and work - you can buy your own candy.

I'm planning to discourage DS from going once he gets to middle school. He's got 2 more years. After that, I think we can set up some fun way to hand out candy at home - maybe a small haunted garage or something fun. I think he would actually enjoy doing that more than running around getting candy.

 

[RUDisney]

I told my kids that they are 12 and 13 and they will not be ToT'g this year. They'll get enough candy from us and from their grandparents, aunts and uncles. I told them we'll have fun letting little kids into our house instead of them canvassing the neighborhood.

Both of my kids are very tall. I hate when kids that are bigger than me come out to ToT. They travel in packs and honestly, they scare me. I'd say primarily because they are usually unknown to us. They also come after 8:00 when the activity level on the street has declined.

Luckily, my kids are both ok with this. Besides, my DS will still be grounded then, so he won't be able to participate anyway.

 

[TomLovesBecky]

I said mid-teens. If you're not dressed like a slut, not throwing anything at my house or car, not cursing, and not trampling on my flowers...ESPECIALLY if you are also polite, I don't mind seeing teens trick or treat. Plus some kids outgrow it sooner than others. I have one who wouldn't have been caught dead trick or treating from the age of 11, and one who still goes out with friends (young teens 14-15) before their Halloween parties.

 

[Laurabearz]

no set age as long as you are in costume and polite!!!!!

I agree with this... As long as they have taken the time to put together a costume (and NO your football jesrsy is NOT enough) I will give them treats.

 

[RUDisney]

I agree with this... As long as they have taken the time to put together a costume (and NO your football jesrsy is NOT enough) I will give them treats.

Do you turn them away if they are in their football jersey? I'll give candy to anyone who shows up at my door in the hope that they won't damage any of my property while playing pranks if I give them the insurance policy of a candy bag.

 

[MontanaZoo]

We have Halloween in my town on Halloween and let people come to the door whenever they want. If I'm not at home on Halloween, I set out a big bowl of candy and several time, there has been candy left in there the next morning! We have teenagers trick or treat here with no costume and big pillowcases to get all the candy so I think at that age it's too old if they're not really into it anymore.

 

[trip]

I admit I like set hours. 6-8 here. Gives us chance to eat and get set before kids come. As long as kids are dressed we don't care the age. We see many highschool aged and they can be the most creative.

Our town doesn't have offical hours, but kids are told only to TOT at homes with lights on. I keep my light on from 6-8 and don't care who comes to the door as long as they have a costume on. The older ones have just as much fun as the younger ones.

 

[ICF]

The only issue I have with the "older" kids (usually those in their teens) is that when you give a couple of pieces of candy to a "little" kids they seem excitied about it and move on....when you give the same amount of candy to a teen they look at you like you're crazy.

You also don't usually get 1 teen...it's 4 or 5 or 6....meaning if you give them more candy then you would a 5 year old you can run out of candy really quick.

 

[RickinNYC]

We give candy to whomever comes to the door. And if it's a tiny little kid with his/her parent or older brother or sister, we always insist that they help themselves as well.

I do give double takes when someone comes in plain clothes, no costume, but I don't begrudge them a piece of candy. Life's too short to worry about it. I just shrug it off.

What I won't do, however, is just let a kid stick his/her hand in the bowl. MAN, kids get greedy! LOL! I dole out a piece or two at the beginning and then give out bigger portions as the night wears on so we won't have any left in the house after.

All that said, where we live, we don't get many trick or treaters at all. Few years, we didnt' get a single one, other years, we'd get three or four tops, last year, we hit a record and got about 20 or so.

This thread reminds me of when I was a kid. I'd always been tall (6'4" now) growing up and when I was 11, my friends and I went out for a night of trick or treating. We were all in costumes that we made, most were pretty cool to look at it. I had made a huge pumpkin head out of paper mache, spray painted it, cut out the jack o' lantern holes, wore a white sheet over my body and called myself The Great Pumpkin. Very proud of it!

We went to one house and the lady opened the door, gave everyone candy, then looked at me, nastily said, "Aren't you too old to trick or treat?" and gave me the hairy eyeball. I was a polite kid, told her I was only 11 and apologized for it. No idea why I was sorry I was 11 but what can you do? She then called me a liar and shut the door. I was so embarrassed and felt ashamed of myself.

First and only time we "tricked" a house when we were trick or treating.

 

[clgwli]

To this day I don't get it. Very, very strange. Why would you celebrate Halloween on a day other than Halloween?

To avoid conflicts with football games on Friday & Saturday nights.

 

[tinknme]

My oldest ds is 14 & he will not be TOT this year. He does not have a problem with this as he plans to go to a Halloween party with friends. My youngest ds is 12, so he has 2 years left.