Halloween night

[JCrakers]

For the past 12yrs I have decorated the house and then gone out on the cold streets with my 2 children trick or treating. I live on a newish estate and Halloween is quite a big thing. There can be around 250-300 kids roaming the streets knocking on houses that have decorations.
Kids from small to teenagers with parents in groups big and small. Its quite a nice atmosphere

Then when we get back from roaming the streets,freezing cold we answer the door all evening until about 830am and then we've usually run out of sweets. One year my husband dressed up in a black robe and mask, opened the door and scared the living daylights out of a group of girls.
Another year the house down the road turned off all his lights, and had a sensor outside his door that triggered michael Jacksons thriller with flashing lights and haunted laughter. We were all petrified. He answered the door in a costume and just stood looking at us all....

Its all a bit of fun which is an enjoyable night.

Now I know the whole point of Halloween has been completely missed and now its all about the wrong thing. Kids begging for sweets but it is all a bit of fun but then again Xmas is the same and so is Easter and bonfire night. Commercialised and off point.

Anyway this year my dd is off to a Halloween party and I don't know what ds is doing, he'll probably go out with his mates. So we'll have no kids with us.

So my dilemma is do I deck the decorations as usual and answer the door all night giving out £10 of sweets dressed in a witches hat or do we forget the decorations and sit in the dark pretending to be out like a couple of grinches??

Decisions

[AgentTink]

If i was you I would just ignore all the knocks, but then i am starting to hate Halloween and what it has become.

Dont get me wrong i love a good all party and love people who make a effort to get dressed up and enter into the spirit of trick or treating, and for it to be fun. However over the last few years i have noticed that the first hour and a half from 530 til 7 is the best time, with lots of families with young children all dressed up and having fun. But come 7 o'clock it is gangs of older girls and boys about 9 upwards with maybe just a mask, shouting trick or treat, only after whatever sweets they can get and not even smiling or saying thank you.

As we only have our dd who is 3, and is starting to talk about being "scared" of things, I am not too sure that she will enjoy people knocking on our door all dressed up. So this year me and a friend only have EYFS children on Halloween so we are doing a day party from 930am til lunch time, with crafts and games, and a chance for little ones to get dressed up, and then me and my partner in the evening are going out for tea with DD dressed up and then go and visit some family for her to do trick or treat, and aim not to be home until 830pm.

It's such a shame that i feel this way, but i suppose it is the same with lots of things now.

[loocyloo]

for the past 10+ years i've decorated the house, dressed up and played along with all the people who knock at my door. its always been a nice thing to do where ever i have lived.

however, this year my children have swimming club, and as comps coming up, they NEED to be at training! i know lots of people won't bother with training, but we will be going, so i won't be decorating the house/putting the lights on etc and its actually a really liberating feeling! knowing i don't/won't have to spend the evening jumping up & down to answer the door! my children are a bit gutted they won't get to go out and get loads of sweets, but hey! they'll survive! ( and as i had bought some sweets weeks ago for halloween, i'll make them a 'surprise' bag up! )

[kindredspirits]

Ah well I am probably not the one to ask - I don't do Halloween at all - nothing with the mindees and nothing with my own kids - IMHO kids and scary stuff shouldn't be mixed and I will do everything in my power to make sure that my kids are not exposed to idiots in scary costumes at their door.

I would not bother - spend £10 on a nice box of choccies for yourself and don't decorate for halloween!

[mushpea]

well I have the same dliema this year, I'm probably a bit strange because I wont let my kids go trick or treating as i think its wrong to go knocking on strangers doors asking for sweets yet we always decorate the house, my kids dress up and hand out the sweets
This year however they will be at my mums over halloween for 3 days , sorry too much happines I know lol,, so do we still hand out the goodies? well yes we probably will as I have built up a reputation of being the nice lady with the sweets and it seems wrong to break tradition althoug this year it will be a sweet instead of the normal goodie bags i hand out as budget is tighter and the kids increase every year

[gizzybear]

mushpea you are so right.
my 11 yr old is having a continual hissy as we will not change our view on this......
How is it ok to let your child except sweets and not just talk to strangers but knock on their door on hallowen when the other 364 days we say stranger danger never take sweets from stranges and never talk or call at houses you dont know....??????????????

[Roseolivia]

We live in a small village so my kids will be going out with their dad and going around the houses. They do only go to houses that they know as there are lots of old people in our village. The kids all meet up in the local pub afterwards, my kids love it and i don't think there's any harm in the innocent fun. May be different in other places but it is harmless here.

[karen m]

I really don't bother with Halloween , last week there was some Halloween theme at local centre and i gave in .... never again scary stories ,looking for witches mindees scared trying to get me to carry them ,had 3 ,

[Pipsqueak]

I decorate the house but I don't go along with sweetie begging - proper trick or treat....no problem.. so normally I ask the knockers (when I can be bothered to answer the door) for a trick ... they are normally stumped!!!
I don't let mine door knock and I normally put a note on my door about please not knocking....

[singingcactus]

We will decorate our house and have a blast for as long as we are able to get to the door. I love the sociable aspect of halloween. In some places we have lived it is the only time of the year that neighbours talk to each other. We love to decorate and have fun with the neighbourhood kids, and scare them. It is good fun and we will take part whether we have kids at home or not. It is fun, and it is not begging, it is a lovely sociable time where we remeber the living and the passed, and we give candy to the young.

[winstonian]

I decorate the house but I don't go along with sweetie begging - proper trick or treat....no problem.. so normally I ask the knockers (when I can be bothered to answer the door) for a trick ... they are normally stumped!!!
I don't let mine door knock and I normally put a note on my door about please not knocking....

We are the same, Pip.
We decorate, loads of craft and a big party but I dont like trick or treating and wont let mine do it so dont let anyone do it here either. We were never allowed as my mum said it was begging and thats stuck with me.

[bunyip]

We let ours go with a strict behaviour code, adult supervision, and only to the houses of people we know. We don't tell the children, but we've already agreed it with the residents, so we know they're happy and prepared with either treats or a surprise of their own to make the children jump a bit.

Our local pub has an alcohol-free under-16's halloween party in their function room. Nice idea, but shame it's on a 'school night'.

OTOH, I know of some churches who run their own 'light night' activities, as a more righteous alternative to Halloween. TBH, I'm not too sure how the diversity/equality thing sits with a Christian church taking over a Celtic-Pagan festival (they already stole Christmas).