Trick or treating
 

right, its coming up to halloween again and i just wondered whether you lot thought that trick or treating was ok...i'm nearly 22 and i've never in my life been t or t'ing.....my mum used to say that it was a form of "begging" and thus was wrong (however she let my brother go whose ten years young :erm: go figure)

for those who have kids, do you let urs do it.....and for those who don't would you let them if u had any?

and has anyone else been deprived of the experience?

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I think it's a bad idea, old people have no clue what's going on.
I'm supprised it's still going on in the US I would have thought someone would have sued some kid for throwing an egg already.

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Our daughter does it in a group up and down the street.
All the kids dress up so they've actually gone to some effort, where as at my old house little oiks would turn up expecting sweets or they'll put your windows through.
Oh for some laxative chocolates :D

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:rofl: @ america point

but if u went to people's houses whom you knew would it make a diff?

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Nearly 22? Why do I feel old already? (go on say it, cos you are)
Never been trick or even treating but know mates that are taking their kids. Cost me over £40 in sweets last year, kids were doing repeat visits cos we were about the only house giving anything. Still got egged though (lil sh*ts). These days parental supervision is a must for safetys sake, shame really.

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hell yeah, Il be sending my little brothers out to bring the sweet haul home :D:LOL:

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we used to have people who came round to get sweets but dad was mean and he used to throw water at them....they wouldn't do anything to our house, because dad is the care taker of our local school, so all the kids know him.......so we only get kids who are friends of my bro coming round now

sweet

p.s. paul ur not old

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Good point.
Right 5 nephews of tricking sort of age. Should get a good haul ;)
On a serious note just how many kids know why they trick or treat these days (apart from free sweets and the chance to cause malicious damage to peoples homes)

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Do they need to know? :p

I dont think Trick or Treating is a Problem, Its a tradition thats gone on for years (Am I contradicting myself here? :rolleyes: ) Although There's got to be some restrictions regarding the elderly..

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It's not a tradition here at all. It's something that has come across from the USA relatively recently (in the last 25 years or so, it seems). Last year there were gangs of teenagers marauding our estate, throwing eggs/flour/stones at windows, often without bothering to even ask for a treat first. I answered the door fairly late in the evening to find two boys, prolly aged about 13, in hoodies (with said hoods tied tight across their faces) who stood there with their hands in their pockets and muttered 'trick or treat' as if demanding money with menaces is somehow legal. They went away with a flea in their ear.

The only thing worse than teenagers intimidating old ladies is parents supervising their young kids when they go doing it. The last thing we need is kids being brought up to think it's somehow acceptable.

It isn't!

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Used to do it when I was a lad, was fairly profitable too.

Nowadays, I usually go to the local cheepo supermarket and buy a couple of large bags of sweets and crisps to make up some small treat bags.

What annoys me the most is the kids who think it's ok to trick and treat the two weeks prior to halloween.

Now that reminds me, must move the car into a secured location.

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yes i agree i think thats why my mother wouldn't let me do it. to be honest, i never had a great desire to walk around the streets on a cold night knocking on people's doors..its freaky and i dont agree with the premise of halloween anyway

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I agree, I think it was brought over with imported cartoons. Kids have no idea at an early age what is an American cartoon and what is British. Then they say "why can't we do that".

It would make an interesting study to commision :D

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Yup, there's a PhD in this for someone who's just graduated ... bex, are you busy? ;)

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wrong area...........its more sociology....lol

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Everyone here does it. The door bell rings like 30 times an hour. Grr.

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What about begging for money with a stuffed pair of trousers while sat outside some shops?

Is that more of a British tradition?

Trick or treating may be a "new" thing, however its been going on since I was a nipper & I'm nearly 40.

My kids have never done it before but want to do it this year as all thier mates dressed up & did it last year, so they have bought thier own costume etc and will be doing it supervised to ensure no untoward things go on.

Although they will be getting a talk beforehand that tells them exctly why its done (As soon as I find out myself!).

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Exactly why is it done? I know it's an American tradition but why would puritans make a holiday that involved dressing up as witches?

EDIT Never mind I've found an answer http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/...n1031_history/

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The way its done here is different to that of the U.S. I was over there a couple of years ago at halloween and actually enjoyed going round with my kids.

Out there the rule is that if someones porch light is not on they they do not want to be bothered, but if its on then knock away.

They really go to town as well some of the houses we passed were decorated brilliantly and had fog generators, graveyards amd coffins in the front gardens and some people even made the ground floor of their house into a haunted house. The atmosphere was totally friendly and all the kids were being escorted buy at least one adult.

The next year back at home I made more of an effort here and It was well worth it. Instead of the normal yobbos we got more families knocking as they could see that we were geared up for halloween and in the last couple of months we've had people asking if we are doing something for this year as they thought we really made an effort and their kids loved it.

I never used to be a fan of trick or treat but after my visit to the states I saw what a good experience it could be and now try to emulate that. At the end of the day its a bit of fun for the younger kiddies.

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Raj I like the idea of the portch light signal :)

Here, commerce seems to be trying to ignore Hallowe'en opting to push things for xmas.
It's a shame because when I was a kid Hallowe'en used to be great fun, now if feels like a bit of a non-event

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Lets face it, in this country you can turn all your lights off and close the curtains and you will still get kids banging on the door demanding their "treat". Most of them not even wearing a costume or even a mask. More often than not you will get gangs of kids going round pestering people for treats while they hide bags of eggs etc behind their backs.
(Remind me to get my pressure washer ready by the front door ;) )

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I'll also be running a Halloween party the night before for all my ickle Cub Scouts.
Anybody know a really good scary story I can tell em?

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Tell them they can only get NTL in their area :) That should scare them :p

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I only ever did it once as a kid, but I just don't answer the door if I can't be bothered.

I think it's alright for kids to get dressed up and go round with their parents, but it's the teenagers with Scream masks that just stare at you that get me :grind:

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Hmmm, pressure washer ... I have one of those in the garage. Must dig it out ... :D

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i dont mind them myself.....we put a lit pumpkin up and give all the local kids lollys and stuff , my 5 year old girl will get dressed up and go with her friends and one of thems mum around the cul-de-sac carrying a plastic pumpkin.
we are going on holiday this year though at halloween so she will be taking her outfit with her and going to a witches disco or sommat like.

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I dont mind it too much infact I look forward to it. I have an automatic paintball rifle I've not used for a few months now :smokin:

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:rofl: u would get one well with my dad

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Just ordered a new mask for the halloween night.

what do you think too scary for the little ones or not?

just hope i've done the attachment right!

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bah bloody humbug, the lot of you!!

I like it. I always buy loads of sweets, waiting for the children to come knocking. Last year, a young girl even dressed her dog up as a fairy - I had to give her the whole bag of sweets, just for the effort! :D

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I wouldn't be quite so worried if that's all it was, although I don't like the idea of kids getting into witches, monsters and other blood-curdly stuff (Hallowe'en isn't a B-movie come to life, it's a festival based on the assumption that such nasty occultic things actually do exist).

Nevertheless, my major problem with it is that the older kids really do use it as an excuse to wreak havoc, and if you live on an estate which already has youth mayhem problems the other 364 days of the year, giving them an official 'excuse' to throw eggs/flour/dog mess/etc at people's windows is just asking for trouble. I can just yell at them (I'm a nice person really, but I can pretend to be scary :Peace: ) but a lot of elderly people who live alone get very scared at Hallowe'en. It's not fair on them.

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Been going on here far longer than that, double at least.

What I don't like about it these days are the large gangs that roam around trampling all over peoples gardens and littering the streets with goodies they don't want.

Most people on here are talking about giving sweets, but the kids around here look down their noses at sweets, they want money and lots of it. Just listen to their comments as they walk away from houses. Some of the gangs of kids are accompanied by adults who you can't see if you answer the door and who are quick to hold their hands out for the cash. Wonder if the kids ever get it back.

My favourite ploy if I answer the door and get asked the question "trick or treat" is to answer with "I'll have a treat please" and hold my hand out. You should see the look on their faces.

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Whats all this handing out the hands for cash bit?

Just remind them that it is traditional to give out sweets fir the treat.
But what about the trick?

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I used to know someone when I was about 14 that had a similar idea but in reverse. They would say "trick" and then have someone pour water out of a bucket from an upstairs window and stuff like that :D

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i'm actually quite surprised at the amount of people who are against trick or treating (atm 59.26%).....i thought that the majority would find it to be acceptable......

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Personally I just dont like the idea of it. Asking for a treat is fine, but the whole concept behind threatening a trick I just dont like, especially when older children are trick or treating

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i agree.....i dont like the general concept to be honest..........but the tricking bit is the worst......

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No one should be trick or treating when they are older than 12.

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Although I dont agree, Im gonna get dragged around very soon with the daughter and Co.

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Re not being a British tradition; only too true, and I wouldn't say it's even 25 years old over here. Over the past few years we've also had the supermarkets (surprise, surprise) getting into the act and using it as an excuse to sell pumpkins; I noticed today that Marks & Sparks had them on sale.

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I'm sure one of the previous links points it's origin to the Irish giving soul cakes.

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Actually from what I understand (from hearing this from a Scottish person years back), is that it's not a British tradition, it's a Scottish (and, to some extent) Irish tradition.

AIUI in the 19th (and possibly earlier) centuries, on Halloween, children would go out "guising" (as in "disguise") and, in a similar way to carol singing, would offer some small entertainment, eg singing a song, in exchange for a "treat".

I would presume that this got transported across the Atlantic with settlers and has then been re-imported back into this country (after it died out here) as the American "trick or treating", but the "trick" now seems to be something unpleasant, rather than a "trick" to get a reward.

I'd post some links, but there are so many sites with contradictory information that it would be rather difficult to pick any "valid" ones out from the rest.

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rofl @Xaccers--me going to stock up on Ex-Lax :smokin:

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we did that one year when i was still living with my parents.. a whole bucket of cold water from the window above the front door.. but the people at the door turned out to be .. JW's lol

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JW's dont call here anymore either...stopped doing that once i got my bible out and started explaining the gospel the them :rofl:

dad used to use the water thing........always made me laf

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I'm not particularly fond of trick or treating, I get embarrassed when the little kids sing. I usually avoid opening the door, or go to the pub. One of my mates brings his kids into the pub with a bucket, 50% goes to charity the kids get the rest. They usually make a lot of cash. I dont mind that so much.

JW rarely call at my house, ever since I opened the door with a "666 the number of the beast" t-shirt on and told them I was a satanist.
Water bombs used to work effectively too.

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i know this is totally off topic...but hey it's my thread ;)
my dad has been known to chase the JW's down the road, picking at their beliefs...it's annoying them stopping you on the street and proclaiming their tosh.......... they don't like us anymore :cry: ;)