I’m sure this has been covered here at some point, but I thought today would be a good day to revisit it.
What are everyone’s opinions on Halloween and trick or treating? I remember it as being the next best thing to Christmas when I was a kid in the '60’s & '70’s. We wore our costumes to school (elementary), each class would parade through the other classes, then we had a party in our classroom. That night we’d go trick or treating. My dad would make us wait until it was dark before we could go!!! Our amazing costumes were always handmade/sewn by our mom.
Nowadays there’s no Halloween allowed in the schools, trick or treating has really declined. There are so many churches that are against it. As kids, it was an amazing day just for us! It was all about the costumes and candy.
It was a big thing when I was a kid too, mid to late 60s. (only difference, my mother had no skills in costume design)
By the time my kids were that age, it was still a pretty big thing. I have some very cute photos of my little girls dressed up in various costumes, and they had fun for a few years.
I have no idea what is happening now. I assume it varies from place to place. Like all holidays, however, I’d be perfectly happy to see it forgotten completely. It’s one of the many things I consider the effort far outweighing the benefits.
Halloween is still allowed in the schools here, just no props that can be used as weapons.
Trick or treating is still a big deal, but the idea of 5 8 year olds wandering around without a parent or at least an older teen is gone I believe in my area at least.
I’ve noticed more older teens go out now then when I was a kid.
If the local churches are against it, it must be a minority of them.
So I’m reporting from Central Jersey, what region are you in?
As to Holiday pecking order, yes, Halloween was #2 for me.
As a kid, it was my favorite holiday. Much better than Christmas.
All the kids wear costumes to school where I live. Trick or Treating is huge. People decorate their houses more than they do for Christmas, streets are closed off, and if I decide to give out candy I have to buy about 1,000 pieces. It’s a street carnival for several hours every year.
I certainly enjoyed it when I was a kid. How can you not love free candy? Also when my kids were trick or treating (“truc ou traite” in French). Now that I don’t have kids at home, not so much.
I went to a Catholic school and we had to be in uniform - no costumes allowed. But as soon as school was out, we rushed home, donned our costumes, and began making the rounds on the streets farther from home. Then we’d come home for supper and go out again in the dark on the streets nearer our house. I can’t recall what our curfew was, but I do remember that my mother absolutely hated bubble gum, so she’d go thru our bags and give the gum to kids who came to our door after we got home.
I grew up in suburban Baltimore in a row house among a gazillion rowhouses. If you google Amuskai Road and look at the map, you’ll see what I mean. So in a short amount of time, you could bring in quite a haul! And teenagers wouldn’t be caught dead doing something as childish as that!! Nor did parents accompany anyone unless the had a toddler. It was kids’ night!
Unfortunately for our daughter, we lived in fairly remote areas. One of our neighborhoods did a carnival, and residents brought treats to be given out as prizes for the games. A couple of times, we took her to go around with a friend who lived in a more densely packed neighborhood. Now we’re old grouches and we turn out the lights. OK, we’re still in a fairly sparse area and I don’t think there are 2 dozen kids in the neighborhood, so we just don’t bother.
I loved Halloween! I didn’t care about costumes, but I was into it for 2 reasons, one obvious and the other not as much:
Candy (duh!)
Getting to look inside of everyone’s houses. It’s the one day you get to glimpse inside of all those mysterious doors that are closed every other day of the year.
As an adult, I can buy all the candy I want, whenever I want. But I still like to peek inside of strangers’ houses, and Halloween is still the only day to do it without being (legitimately) creepy.
I still see a lot of Trick-or-Treaters although it varies some year to year (and by the weather). My kid brought his costume to school for the Halloween parade and party. Like others said, no weapons/gore and they don’t want you wearing it all day but, halfway through, the kids can dress up.
Many more kids these days with parent escorts than back in my day where we just wandered feral from street to street but them’s the times for ya. Still, Halloween is still most definitely a thing in my neck of the woods.
Seems odd for the local Churches to skew towards restrictive in this area. The churches in the town seem to be a range of Protestant. Maybe an outdated location?
Halloween is definitely not dying here! In the last 3 weeks in my area we’ve had at least 4 Trunk or Treats (made popular by churches but other orgs are doing them now too), Boo at the Zoo (at both Akron and Cleveland zoos), 2 local fire station Halloween parties (tradition for at least 40 years now), some fall festivals, haunted houses everywhere, amusement park Halloween festivities (Cedar Point, King’s Island) and several of my neighbors have their houses decked out for Halloween more than they do at Christmas. I’ve personally been to 2 adult Halloween parties at peoples’ houses, my friends with kids have been to 2 others, and people were leaving those parties early to get to more.
Today and last Friday I’m seeing a lot of pics of my friends’ kids at schools in their Halloween costumes. Most of my friends’ kids have at least 2 costumes for all of their various events.
So, I don’t really know what the OP is saying about Halloween becoming less popular or less of an event. It’s crazy here in NE Ohio!
Is it because of a general decline, or more because, say, kids now tend to go to group events (things like people giving candy out of the trunks of their cars in school parking lots) rather than house-to-house?
I’m (female BTW) in NE Minnesota. When my kids were in elementary school they were still allowed to do costumes in school. But my grandkids won’t do anything for Halloween at school today. We do live on a busy road, so that is why we don’t see many trick or treaters at our house - they all go to the developments where the houses are closer together. The elementary school used to do a carnival on Halloween night so kids would go to that instead of trick or treating.
Halloween seems to have become more popular with adults. Other than when my mom and her other mom-friends did a spook house at our school carnival (not on Halloween night) I never saw adults dress up in costumes.
We trick or treated until we were in high school! By the time we were 10 we were out on our own running around the neighborhood. How times have changed! We also were able to eat as much of our candy as we wanted. None of the “one piece per day” or donating it. We got tired of it within a few days. You could usually find a bowl of forgotten Halloween candy under our bed around Christmas time!
Some churches (mostly the Covenant & Evangelical) around here won’t even mention the “H” word. They take the youth groups bowling, etc so they aren’t participating in the “satanic holiday”!! My Catholic church is fine with it.
I guess it’s because we live in an area where houses are far apart - kids don’t trick or treat around here so I don’t experience it like I used to. But I know the schools have changed their policy on it for sure.
in my town its that and weve never quite recovered from the last 2 recessions … that and the churches here are mixed about it but they have parties of their own …but other than a few haunted houses (the guy who owned the to go to neighborhood sold all his duplexes off so no block long haunted maze …) and the like trick or treating here hasn’t ever been that big of a deal
In fact the last 2 years I went out I waited until about quarter after nine and went about 12 blocks because people weren’t getting that many so they just dumped the left overs in my bag and shut off the light… I had more candy than half my schoolmates …
