Trick or Treat nuisance

[Grandma Joan]

I'm not sure if Trick or Treaters were a problem for MIL last year but knowing how vulnerable she has become at her front door I might stick this up on October 31st.


http://www.wiltshire.police.uk/index.php/campaignsand-events/3343-halloween

click on a link at the bottom to print off a deterrent poster

 

[Canadian Joanne]

I doubt the kids would do anything but just the constant door bell ringing might really upset your mother. If you can, I recommend you take her out until it's over or go to her house till it's over. I don't think a poster will discourage a potential troublemaker.

 

[Kevinl]

We just go out now for the evening, it's a Friday this year so no problem, we can spend all the sweetie money on beer instead
Personally in this day and age I wouldn't want my kids taking sweets from strangers, no doubt there'll be some horror stories in the next days papers, another great import from the US.
K

 

[jenniferpa]

Well in the US, we only have to deal with this one day a year from x - y hours (and you can look up on your local municipality web page which day it is). Also, the accepted practice is that if you don't have your porch light on, you're not participating,

The problem is, in the UK, you can't rely 1) that it will only happen one day a year and 2) that people will follow the basic "no porch light, no candy" approach.

I'm not american but I'm sorry, I really am.

 

[Kevinl]

Well in the US, we only have to deal with this one day a year from x - y hours (and you can look up on your local municipality web page which day it is). Also, the accepted practice is that if you don't have your porch light on, you're not participating,

The problem is, in the UK, you can't rely 1) that it will only happen one day a year and 2) that people will follow the basic "no porch light, no candy" approach.

I'm not american but I'm sorry, I really am.

I'll fess up )) to having an American Mum or should that be Mom, but like you say the UK never caught on to the "no lights, no frights" rule we just imported the greed bit.
K

 

[Not so Rosy]

Round here no pumpkin outside means no knocking.

Thankfully it's usually only small children that do the rounds with a hugely embarrassed Dad dressed up to the nines in a Halloween outfit.

When I was little we didn't do trick or treat or Pumpkins. We used to do Turnip (possibly Swede) lanterns all hacked out with knives and spoons with a candle inside whilst at primary school. Probably banned now !

In the evening it was Duck Apple and Bob Apple, then a bonfire outside with sausages and melted marshmallows.

 

[Pickles53]

Well in the US, we only have to deal with this one day a year from x - y hours (and you can look up on your local municipality web page which day it is). Also, the accepted practice is that if you don't have your porch light on, you're not participating,

The problem is, in the UK, you can't rely 1) that it will only happen one day a year and 2) that people will follow the basic "no porch light, no candy" approach.

I'm not american but I'm sorry, I really am.

Agree Jennifer, also when we lived in the USA it seemed much more a thing for little kids. Mostly in our neighbourhood it would be small groups of little ones in cute costumes usually with at least a couple of parents to keep an eye. The local estate agents used to drive round and leave a pumpkin on every doorstep and most people would decorate their houses. Rarely did we have teenagers come to the door.

So can't really blame the USA if we don't like how trick or treating has developed here.

 

[Izzy]

This Trick or Treat stuff is new in Scotland.

People always went 'guising' at Hallowe'en. This meant dressing up and going to a few houses nearby and performing a song or a dance or telling a joke for a few sweets in return. We carried neep (turnip lanterns). My dad always carved mine out and a real candle went inside! I can still remember the smell. I was never allowed to go out guising but we always had the neep lantern and all the family dooked for apples and dad hung scone treacle scones from the clothes horse in the kitchen and we had to try to eat them with our hands tied behind our backs!

This article explains a bit about Hallowe'en in Scotland -

http://www.scotland.org/features/halloween-traditions/

I very much doubt if modern Scottish children know any of that.

 

[Oxy]

I always find it easier to give a wrapped biscuit/choc and get rid of 'em than interminable knocking. A friend whose mother didn't believe in giving, had the house egged one year which was more trouble than it was worth.
Where I am it isn't so much those knocking on doors with parents in tow but the teenager antics later when they have imbibed too much. Kicking wing mirrors off cars, unravelling loads of toilet paper in petrol station car park and one year garage told me that they'd had a car in where a tangerine had been put up someone's exhaust pipe!
It is just begging. One year I forgot, a group of very polite teenagers turned up well dressed up and all I put in the cauldron was a pack of oatcakes-healthy at least!
For the vulnerable alone it can potentially be a big problem. Maybe the American etiquette should be imported!
Sensible parents have a pact with friends and they only trick or treat one another, having provided friend with the treats!

 

[jeany123]

What we did when we were young is very similar to Izzy apart from the song and dance, we used to knock on people who we knew doors and say penny for halloween, sweets were scarce then and people hardly ever had them in the house,

I can also remember the smell of the candle in the turnip we used to buy matches to light it again when it went out, anyone could buy matches then you didn't have to be 18,
nowadays it seems to be just little children dressed up with there parents stood in the background or the occasional teenager looking embarrassed under their fancy dress, I always have a bag of lollies or sweets to hand out
never any bother but perhaps a nuisance to the elderly just by knocking on the door,

 

[Ann Mac]

I'm afraid Trick or Treat, Penny for the Guy and Christmas Carollers are now a pain for us We have to keep doors locked to stop Mil wandering, can't just use the latch to stop the door being opened from the outside only, so each knock means us having to produce the keys (Obviously can't leave them dangling from the lock or hanging nearby), with Mil hovering to see who it is knocking, and she invariably starts to get agitated at the locked doors. We say we lock it because its just 'more secure', because its what the police advise, any number of excuses - and it then goes into why hasn't she got keys?, why can't she leave when she wants?, why is she not allowed to open the door? Why do we keep the keys on us/put them out of her reach? What about when she goes home later?

Its not just 3 nights a year either, I find these days that the door knocking can start as much as a week in advance of Halloween and Bonfire Night - and the Christmas Carollers can start as early as the first week in December

 

[WILLIAMR]

I'm afraid Trick or Treat, Penny for the Guy and Christmas Carollers are now a pain for us We have to keep doors locked to stop Mil wandering, can't just use the latch to stop the door being opened from the outside only, so each knock means us having to produce the keys (Obviously can't leave them dangling from the lock or hanging nearby), with Mil hovering to see who it is knocking, and she invariably starts to get agitated at the locked doors. We say we lock it because its just 'more secure', because its what the police advise, any number of excuses - and it then goes into why hasn't she got keys?, why can't she leave when she wants?, why is she not allowed to open the door? Why do we keep the keys on us/put them out of her reach? What about when she goes home later?

Its not just 3 nights a year either, I find these days that the door knocking can start as much as a week in advance of Halloween and Bonfire Night - and the Christmas Carollers can start as early as the first week in December

Trick or Treat should be banned.
An elderly man by me now deceased had a big stick behind the door and waved it at the children if they called.

William

 

[cobden28]

Trick or Treat is a pain in the backside. I never answer the front door on October 31rt to anyone as a matter of principle.

 

[Tin]

I see no place whatsoever for Halloween or Bonfire night, both are completely anti social celebrations and are dangerous for everyone. 31st my door is firmly closed, outside lights off, if anyone manages to get through my dark garden to the front door, then they have a barking dog to deal with. Lots of other things to celebrate throughout the year, these two dates should be wiped off the calendar completely. Am I wrong, but isn't All Hallows Eve a religious thing? Bonfire night, well parliament and the king were save, all were caught and yet we build a bonfire and burn an effigy of guy fawkes, how sick is that.

 

[Trisha4]

This Trick or Treat stuff is new in Scotland.

People always went 'guising' at Hallowe'en. This meant dressing up and going to a few houses nearby and performing a song or a dance or telling a joke for a few sweets in return. We carried neep (turnip lanterns). My dad always carved mine out and a real candle went inside! I can still remember the smell. I was never allowed to go out guising but we always had the neep lantern and all the family dooked for apples and dad hung scone treacle scones from the clothes horse in the kitchen and we had to try to eat them with our hands tied behind our backs!

This article explains a bit about Hallowe'en in Scotland -

http://www.scotland.org/features/halloween-traditions/

I very much doubt if modern Scottish children know any of that.

My Scottish Mum used to go out guising but only to neighbours who knew the local kids. I think trick or treating to strangers' houses is not appropriate for anyone concerned, the children or the homeowners.

 

[Witzend]

My kids used to love it - although they would only go very locally, with neighbours' kids - so I don't mind them coming. I always put a pumpkin lantern in the window, so they know it's OK. The vast majority who come are little, with a parent hovering in the background. If anyone comes on any other night they get a firm no. That is usually the older ones, but I get very few of them. One once said, 'But we're busy on Halloween night - we're going to a party!'
'Well, tough!' sez I.

Can see how it would be intimidating or a nuisance for some people, though.

Oh, PS, must tell you - I was once mistaken for a witch in Homebase! Around this time of year we had gone to buy a besom (witch's) broom, purely for sweeping leaves off the lawn. While I found it OH had done his usual disappearing act - he ALWAYS does this in shops. So there was I standing by the checkout, fuming and clutching my broom, when I became aware of a little boy of about 4 close by, looking nervous and half hiding behind his mother. But I did quite clearly hear his anxious half-whisper: 'Mummy, is she a witch?'

The poor mother was quite embarrassed. My daughters found it utterly hilarious!

 

[lulubel]

We found that if you had sweets on offer, each group of kids would go off and tell all their friends, so you'd be inundated all evening!! We started a few years ago to offer pieces of fruit. Never saw any more kids!! I don't let my children indulge in Hallowe'en, because I just don't like it, so now I take them out for the evening. Will be doing the same with mum this year..... xx

 

[Trisha4]

I believe some church schools stopped teachers doing creative Halloween stuff like poems and art work because it's a pagan festival.

 

[cobden28]

If only 'trick or treat' or the bonfire night fireworks could be confined to just those dates, October 31st and November 5th, it wouldn't be so bad, but the knocks on anyone's door late at night and the noise of the fireworks is just an excuse for general anti-social behaviour, in my opinion. I don't celebrate either occasion.