Halloween- abit of fun or abit of a headache?!

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london_dan

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Just fancied knowing what people's views on Halloween were?! :shrug:I have a little boy who's 6. This will be the his first time going out tonight having a bit of fun trick or treating. In my opinion it's abit of fun, and don't really see any harm in it. I've heard really negative comments today about how it should be banned and it's classed as 'begging'. I remember going out myself as a kid with my siblings and never once had any trouble. :D

Would be interested to know what other people thought about it, and if you have kids yourselves - are they going out tonight?
 
I'm fine with it, however I've been cleaned out. 30 bags of haribo, gone. I'm onto the Christmas chocolates now.
 
I'm going to a halloween party tonight - for us it will be a bit of fun (My wife and I, we don't have kids). Like every year there is a sign in my window that says 'No trick or treat'

If trick or treat was the same as when I was young I would have no issue with it. THe problem in my opinion is twofold.

1. Teenagers who think buying a £3 mask from the local garage and going round in their hoodies begging for money is OK. Yes, money - these folk aren't interested in a few sweets etc they are wanting cash. Well they can tootle on down the street as far as I'm concerned.
2. Kids who get driven from street to street often from totally different parts of town to do it. It should be your own area or not at all - going to 'nicer' streets is targetted and yes, that is just begging.

If I knew that it would only be kids on my street and the couple either way then I wouldn't put a sign up and I would buy some sweet in. Then again I would also rig a smoke machine up to my letterbox and have speakers outside playing scary music :D
 
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the problem is that 'kids' go around in gangs (usualy 14-16 year olds etc), no longer do they want sweets its cash they want, i dont mind groups of parents with young kids coming around however i rarely answer the door on haloween and certainly not if its after 9pm.

we had some kids come round where i used to live gang of 10 of them with 1 mask, i gave them sweets, 10mins later another knock on the door, same kids, different kid wearing the mask....

personally i never went trick or treating as a child, its not fair on old people to have people trying to scare them at their front doors. instead we always used to have a haloween party where we would bob apples and stuff, much more fun!


i always like to park outside someone elses house on haloween....
 
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When I were a lad (apologies for the cliche) I'd get taken trick or treating by my mother, and she would only take me to her friends houses. No pestering strangers. Also, what is this "trick or treat" rubbish? What happened to the traditional song? "The sky is blue...etc..."
 
Last year we didn't get many and it was the first time I'd ever given out sweets to the Trick or Treaters. Most tend to avoid my place anyway cause of the ramp and the front door being in a dark alley. Last year I put hallowe'en balloons up the ramp and decorations etc and I dressed up for the trick or treaters coming.

This year I have a sign on the door saying no trick or treaters please.

Last year was an exception, new area etc and I wanted to do something I'd never done and maybe my opinion would change. It didn't change. I still think that it's the one night of the year that children are encouraged to go and knock on a strangers door and ask for sweets (or cash!) and that's begging. It's the one night of the year that it's accepted.

Knocking on friends and families doors IMO is fine, but strangers, well....it's just rude.
 
There's sort of an unofficial "rule" in the village I live in, if there's a lit pumpkin in the window/outside the door etc.. then feel free to knock. If not, leave them in peace.
Seems to work quite well to. We put one out last year and had quite a few kids with parents come knocking. The old dear that that live next door didn't, and had an undisturbed night :thumbs:
Not bothered doing it this year as the other half's away on a hen weekend, and I'm off out for the evening.

We also have a funfair & other activities in the village over the week around halloween and that seems to keep the teenagers busy so we don't get the gangs walking round demanding money.
 
I've only been in this gaff since Christmas, so wasn't sure what to expect. Sixth floor flat with resident only access. Thus far it seems like a successful deterrent. :D
 
I have mixed feelings about it, mostly negative. I had my car paintwork actually damaged by eggs a few years ago and had to have it resprayed. I dont like groups of older youngsters going round strangers houses making threats, which is what trick or treat is. However I am a sucker for my darling grandchildren coming round to me dressed up and I always have some sweeties for them.
 
I have an eight year old and we trick or treat with half a dozen friends.

We ask the neighbours around our house and the friends houses if we can trick or treat and if the answer is yes we tell them what time we will be there approx.

We even supply the said houses with the sweets.......although the kid always get more.

No harm if sense in used with young kids.


Teenagers just want cash......dont answer the door......

Will turn out the lights and watch bon jovi on the x factor .......heaven!!
 
I am enjoyng dropping a spider on a string onto the kids heads as they come to get the goodies of my 2 girls. Scaring the cra out of them makes it worth while!!
 
We very rarely get any 'trick or treaters' where I live now, and when we do, it's the neighbours' kids. The parents even come round during the day asking if it's OK and as the children are quite young the parents accompany them. I have no problem with this as it's people I know.

However when I lived in Manchester it was quite a nuisance. You would receive several visits in the evening and ultimately it reached a point where you'd ignore them. One neighbour actually told me some of the kids lived several miles away, so they must have had a lift.


MagicMynx said:
I still think that it's the one night of the year that children are encouraged to go and knock on a strangers door and ask for sweets (or cash!) and that's begging. It's the one night of the year that it's accepted.

Knocking on friends and families doors IMO is fine, but strangers, well....it's just rude.
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I think this is true. The parents who perhaps encourage their children to go knocking on strangers' doors are probably the same parents who kick up a fuss when a photographer takes a picture of them.
 
Jim.R said:
There's sort of an unofficial "rule" in the village I live in, if there's a lit pumpkin in the window/outside the door etc.. then feel free to knock. If not, leave them in peace......
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What a great idea :thumbs:

My beef is not with the children dressing up in their Halloween costumes and going out with an adult in toe, trick or treating. Yeah it's a pain but they're just having fun. What pees me off are the teenagers who don't even make a effort to get in the spirit of things. We actually had one lad last year say "I'd rather have some money mate" when offered a bowl of sweets to choose from :bat:

I just don't answer the door any more :shake:
 
I'm sick of the doorbell. I'm locked in my office upstairs letting my wife deal with it, and she's just informed me that we've run out of sweets now. Unlucky kids, too late :D
 
Its encouraging kids to dress up in a manner that will scare many people go and knock on complete strangers doors and beg,yep that just about sums up the values that abound in Britain in 2009
 
Well it got a bit nasty tonight. Sue answered the door to 3 "lads" who had masks, although they weren't wearing them. When she offered a bowl of fun size and said take one each, the lad at the back reached over and grabbed a handful and bogged off. She then withdrew the bowl and told the other two they'd have to get theirs off their mate, then she closed the door and switched off the doorbell and came back upstairs where we were watching iplayer in my office.

We won't bother next year. I know it's a shame for the other kids who make the effort each year but we can't see who is at the door before we answer it and there's no way we're putting with that sort of crap again.
 
I live in a fairly good neighbourhood, me and my friends were never allowed out "trick or treating" as most of the people in out town are O.A.P's.

As such I personally don't see any interest in halloween, and luckily the kids around here don't seem to do "trick or treating" either.

Though there are several halloween parties, which I personally find a lot more tasteful than door to door begging for sweeties :p.
 
theres a haloween party in the church across the road (:shrug:) parking is bedlam round here tonight so im parked three streets away, not answered the door but it has rung a few times.


pretty much sums it up when you see 2 children going trick or treating one in a pushchair with their mum, the older kid was sat on someones garden wall feet in thier flowerbed as the mum and kid went to the door......
 
Like most people on here I have mixed feelings about Halloween.

Where we live now it's a real pleasure.
We only ever have young kids (aged about 4-9) from our street and the neighbouring streets coming around.
All of them are accompanied by adults and they all make a real effort. In fact most of the parents dress up as well and almost every other house has a lit pumpkin outside the door.
The kids are polite, don't grab at sweets and say thank you afterward and there are never any knocks after 7 o'clock.

As I said it's a pleasure. We get to laugh at our neighbours in whacky costumes and it's lovely to see the little ones so excited.

In our last house, we got to see the more sinister side. I used to dread Halloween. Teenagers not even bothering with a costume, more interested in money than sweets and the pavements covered in egg and flour the next morning.

It's a real shame that a minority have to spoil it for everyone else. I just wish that everyone who's having a bad Halloween could experience just how positive it is here.
 
I just carved a potato. :p

4061126565_f6ee35a058.jpg
 
ive never really been in the spirit of halloween.

I live in the start of the countryside in York so i have never been trick or treating, and we have never had them come round

I cant believe it that people are going around asking for money though!! thats just bloody rude!

i know what i would do if we had lads coming round trick or treating. lets just say i would have to stock up on these

asp610k_FULL.jpg
 
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Flying colours BBs are crap mate, they split in the barrel half the time.

Try these:
sf50-bmg.jpg
 
Well looks like we are done for the night and it's been fine. Not one of the kids was over 9 years old I would guess, most had parents accompanying in the background. Two poor parents had a group of 12, not all theirs they shouted to me when I looked a bit puzzled :D

Anyone who asked for money would have been laughed at, but then I suppose I'd have had to keep an eye on the car. Fortunately we live up a culdasac within a culdasac, only the locals venture up here.
 
well, we moved in to our first house on Halloween 3 years ago today, the first day was mental, trick or treater's all night long but we didn't even have seats, everyone was sitting on the floor.

The next year we spent £10 on a massive bucket of sweets, used about half of it. Problem is, my dogs are lovely but are loud and have nasty barks so it scares most of them off.

Last year we had 1 trick or treater, this year we had none.

I think for next year I am going to put some work into organising some trick or treat routes for the kids, do some calling on houses to find people willing to participate. I never got to do it and it's a real shame if the young kids of today don't get the chance to dress up and have fun :)
 
whitewash said:
the problem is that 'kids' go around in gangs (usualy 14-16 year olds etc), no longer do they want sweets its cash they want, i dont mind groups of parents with young kids coming around however i rarely answer the door on haloween and certainly not if its after 9pm.

we had some kids come round where i used to live gang of 10 of them with 1 mask, i gave them sweets, 10mins later another knock on the door, same kids, different kid wearing the mask....

personally i never went trick or treating as a child, its not fair on old people to have people trying to scare them at their front doors. instead we always used to have a haloween party where we would bob apples and stuff, much more fun!

i always like to park outside someone elses house on haloween....
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Fortunately Halloween has just about died out here. Never saw a soul last night. 10 years ago I noticed a change with kids saying they did not want fruit, nuts or confectionery - only money. Folks quickly got sick of that and stopped opeing their doors.
 
I love halloween! I'm very much into arts and crafts so love nothing better than making homemade decorations and of course the yearly costume, I had a ball this year.

In regards to the little kids, I dont see a problem with them and I certainly dont see it as begging! As long as they make an effort they get a little stack of change and we even had a few of the little ones tell us some cracking jokes "Whats black and white and eats like a horse? A Zebra" (sounds funnier when its from a 4 year old) :D

But i agree with the teenagers who just take the mick, they just get told that we have nothing left.

Vicky.
 
Well I didn't answer the door last night. Just sat eating my pizza and watching a film.
What's the problem with that? Well my wife had taken our kids out with some others, trick or treatin'
Hypocritical I know. :p I'm a bad bad man.

In my defense, when I'd finished my pizza I did start to answer the door :p (There were only 4 trick or treaters all night anyway).
The first one I answered the door to was a girl about my daughters age on her own (her dad was at the end of the path), so I offered her the sweet tin and she took one with a "Thankyou very much".
So I said "Go on, take loads", and she only took a couple more, bless. She was so polite and sweet it did make me feel a bit guilty for not opening the door earlier to the 3 others though...but I was cooking / eating :p

When my wife came back, the kids had plenty of sweets. She said she'd seen loads of trick or treaters down the road, but I said only a couple of them had been near us and our street was deserted.

I think the problem is the lack of community spirit (yes I know that's hypocritical considering my earlier stance). I mean the lack of community spirit in general. How many of us know the names of our neighbours, let alone are likely to organise a big trick or treating event with them?
I don't think anyone's that fussed any more either. Some regard it as begging, but if done properly, it's not begging at all.
The idea is that children get dressed up and scare people into giving them treats. Harmless, mock scaring and just fun. Think of the phrase "Trick or treat". It's a choice...

You may say it's demanding goods with menaces or begging but so is charities knocking on your door....or companies cold calling.
When you look at it properly, its a community spirited event based around the kids playing pretend at being scary.

If it was a more established practise within a whole community like it is in the US, and not the half-arsed version it is here....then there would be more codes of practise like you see in villages.
Those who welcome trick or treaters have a pumpkin in the window, or maybe leave a porch light on, so the families and children know.
 
I think part of the problem stems too, from the giving of money. It's not about giving money, it's about giving treats....

So some people run out of treats and instead of saying 'sorry, youre too late', they give money. This has caught on, especiallly with the older ones who would prefer the money. That, coupled with the lack of social respect in alot of children now means that some older kids will actually specify they want the money.

If someone had said to me last night "I'd prefer money to be honest", I would have replied with "Well get a job then".
 
I guess we're pretty lucky in the fact we dont get too many yoofs knocking, and so far in all the years we've played, noone has asked for money. The house gets decorated with stuff and pumpkins go out (although one was missing this morning. Who would nick a big arse pumpkin in the rain :cuckoo: ). I do tend to set up the doorway with a big backlight from the kitchen to the front door, and have the rest pretty dark. One little girl wouldn't come near the door last night and her mum had to grab the sweets :lol: Maybe i'm just too scarey for `em :D
 
It was fine when I was a kid - all we did was dress up and go to parties...
With the recent Americanisation of the event it's become more about what kids can get out of it in material terms rather than putting effort into costumes and having fun with your mates...

I never succumbed to Trick or Treaters and if anyone dared to egg the house (I watched) then they found just how fast ex-infantry NCOs can run!
 
Well for once, I wanted to answer the door to a ToT'er as we were all dressed up for a party ourselves, but no-one knocked.

However, I agree with the previous sentiments, that it's okay for the little ones as a bit of fun, but it's too intimidating for the older kids to be doing it.
 
We must have had about 40 callers last night, mostly youngsters with a parent in tow. A lot of them has gone to a great deal of effort with their costumes and were very polite and I was happy to give them sweets and choccie biscuits.

Only had one pair of 'youf' knuckledraggers who rang the bell FOUR times in under 2 seconds.:nono: I could see they were not little youngsters through the glass panels and when I hurled the door open wearing my 'preferred' rugby scowl and growled deep in my throat, they took a look at six foot and fourteen stone of bad attitude and said sorry for bothering me and took off.:bat::D

If they had not given the bell plenty and if they had behaved properly, they would have been treated nicely.
 
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i had an amazing halloween. shooting a goth wedding/reception , and then to the abbey for the spooky photos. all during whitby goth weekend.
then off to the Spa pavilion second night in a row) with some of the wedding guests.
four bands and some laughs.

when i'm at home, i fill a big bowl with sweeties.
the little kids that go round with parent/ big bro and make an effort with costumes/facepaint are ok.
the chavs with a hoody pulled over their face get told to fu....erm ... go away.
bloomin annoying american pastime.
 
I went to a party.
Apple bobbing, donuts on strings, fireworks (:thinking:) and rum :D arrrr :D

Round our area loads of little kids come dressed up and it's a bit more community like.

I was shocked when I heard that people ask for money! Never heard anything like it! I stopped going trick or treating when I was about 11. I used to go around with my little brother, but I was never really into it very much anyway. The thought of knocking on a stranger's door and asking for sweets was just too peculiar for me, even as a little kid.

I'd be well up for getting in the spirit of things when I have my own house though!
 
I must say I'm bemused by people's reactions to kids asking for or expecting money. When I was of an age, in Middlesbrough in the 1960s, it was normal for kids to go from house to house on Hallowe'en and beg for "a penny to keep the witch away". Sweets were neither sought nor offered.

Since bangers were priced at 1d, 2d or 3d each and sold in packets of a dozen, your begging success or failure determined what quality of bangers you could buy the following day.
 
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woadrage said:
I must say I'm bemused by people's reactions to kids asking for or expecting money. When I was of an age, in Middlesbrough in the 1960s, it was normal for kids to go from house to house on Hallowe'en and beg for "a penny to keep the witch away". Sweets were neither sought nor offered.

Since bangers were priced at 1d, 2d or 3d each and sold in packets of a dozen, your begging success or failure determined what quality of bangers you could buy the following day.
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Yea, but today the same yoofs who would ather have money are the ones that chuck bangers under your car or into your garden because it's funny for them (OK, not all of them, but you get the general idea). Times have changed - it is no longer normal for kids to ask for money when trick or treating and it is not acceptable either.
 
Well, I've just experienced my very first Canadian Halloween, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was astonished at the amount of stuff in the shops related to Halloween - I'm talking 4-5 aisles of the stuff. Everyone down my street seemed to decorate their houses up with lights, tombstones, ghosts, zombies etc. I was up and down like a yo-yo answering the door all bloody evening, and in the space of 2 hours we had over 100 trick or treaters :eek: I ran out of sweets and stopped answering the door in the end (I bought a big 3.6kg bucket of sweets!!). Everyone that did come to the door was dressed up, ranged from the ages of 2-10 and were accompanied by parents, most of whom were dressed up too.
 
And did you dress up and join in scaring the children at the door? :D
 
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