I lost interest in Halloween at about 11, so no more trick-or-treat after that. If I had kids, I’d probably expect them to be the same way, though who knows.
Around here Halloween seems like a much bigger deal to the adults than the kids - it’s huge with the students here in Chapel Hill, and we got invited to two Halloween parties at least 6 weeks ago. I’ve no interest in buying or making a costume, though, and that was a requirement for both parties, so we opted out. It might be kind of fun if there was adult trick-or-treat - instead of candy you get a beer at one place, a chicken leg at another, maybe an egg roll from the house down the street …
Once my kids turned 13, I told them they could only trick-or-treat if they found a younger child to escort and dressed up (which is the part they really enjoy anyway). The older one was able to use her sister until she was almost 17, but since then, she’s had parties to go to instead. The younger one is worshipped by two tiny adorable little girls who live down the street, so she’s good to go as long as she’s willing to put up with them for the evening.
That seems to be pretty much the prevailing opinion that I hear expressed here. A few years ago my parents had a couple of groups of children knock on the door and ask for lollies. Dad just told them to piss off.
Who cares? If I’m giving out candy on Halloween night, then anyone who comes to my door gets candy. I’ll think better of you if you’re in costume, but at the end of the day, who gives a damn what I think about you? I’m just some dude handing out candy. If I were to choose to use that “power” to decide that you don’t get any candy from me, shoot, I’d hope you would laugh in my face.
If I’m not giving out candy, I won’t answer the door. You want to stand there and expect the door to give you candy, that’s on you.
Either way, everyone gets treated equally. I have a policy against judging people in general; somehow, chocolate and non-hydrogenated corn syrup fail to be important enough to go against that idea.
My rule is when you stop dressing up and being polite, you stop getting to trick-or-treat. This includes the little fuckers whose parents schlop red lipstick across their face, call it a costume and then give the kid 4 bags to get more candy for them to eat later. Sorry, no costume**, no candy.
My daughter is 15, most of her friends this yeard are juniors and seniors and they all plan on trick-or-treating. They’re a group of well-behaved kids, though and they all have pretty elaborate costumes planned. Not one will be walking around in jeans and a tshirt, ya know? They did it last year, too. The adults in the neighborhood where they go were thrilled with them last year, because they had better costumes than the little kids!
To be honest, I am a little perturbed this year, since I usually make our costumes (last year, my daughter and I were Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy – both in pink instead of blue, though) but this year, we just couldn’t find a cute pattern. We opted for some (too short) costumes in the store that I am making bloomers to go under. They’re really cute costumes, but way too short.
Oh, sorry for rambling – my answer again – when they stop being in the spirit and are just going for free candy, no more ToT’ing.
**sometimes you can tell that the kid is really poor and couldn’t afford a costume – that’s different than the kids that you can tell just don’t give a fuck.
Agreed. it seems like we’ve become a society where child-associated behavior is practiced/encouraged at an older and older age. I just don’t care for that.
Simple solution for those without kids: buy bags of candy, dump in a bowl, turn off all house lights, including the porch light, hide out in the bedroom with the candy and watch a good movie. Those with kids: if your 20-year old wants to go door to door begging for bite-sized Snickers bars, why is it any skin off your nose? Peer pressure usually dictates when people stop. Besides, you get to score the good stuff when he/she gets home.
Somewhere around 13-14, it got more fun for me to pass out candy and look at the cute little kids than to roam the streets myself. But I usually dressed up while passing out candy anyway. One year, my (huge) dorm hosted a ToT night for neighborhood kids, and we all bought candy and passed it out from our dorm rooms. I put on a prom dress and made a paper hat and was a “princess.” The little girls loved it.
So yeah, I think high school is a good time to stop, but, like most, I wouldn’t turn away anyone in costume.
Another vote for never too old. I trick or treated with my friends into high school. In costumes (sometimes lame costumes, but we were quick to apologize for anything too pathetic) of course. In Saint Louis you tell jokes to get candy. Little kids tell cute little kid jokes; older kids tell a mixture of cute little kid jokes and adult jokes. Mixes things up for the people handing out the candy and everybody wins. Also it was fun to stop by all of your friends’ houses and say hi to the parental units and all that jazz. Also people in the neighborhood would make these incredibly elaborate haunted houses and Halloween displays. They certainly weren’t just for the 5-10 year old crowd.
Another vote for “Kids should never start Trick-or-Treating in the first place”. I know, it’s an American Tradition™, but since I don’t live in the US, I reserve the right to disparage Halloween in all its commercialised forms.
A question, though- how do households in the US that don’t wish to participate in Halloween signal this? Turn the lights off? Large, unfriendly dog? Replace the water in the lawn sprinklers with mace? Politely telling Trick-or-Treaters that you don’t participate?
If your porch light is on, that means you’re handing out candy, generally. I’ve had lots of kids knock when my porch light is not on, though- in that case I just don’t answer.
