Count me in the “sullen teens in their street clothes get a lesser treat” catagory.
I dress up (this year I dressed as a troll), to hand out candy. I figure that is part of the point of the modern Halloween celebration, and if I am willing to go through the effort, the trick or treaters should be as well. I will even give kids who have put some effort into their costume, or at least ham it up and play the part, an extra treat or two.
Come in your street clothes, you get one Jolly Rancher.
Nicely enough, we only had one group of these last night. All the rest, even the teens, were in costume, and got good treats.
Sugerfree gum- that’s what the older kids with poor or no costumes get. The younger kids with good costumes get nice halloween toys- which the older kids don’t want anyway. (I have nothing against candy, but they get lots of it, so I get some GitD stuff and such, and they seem to like it) I have a few full sized candy bars for the occasional teen or parent in a great costume. And once in a while, you’ll get a MILF in a hot costume, and that’s a nice bonus…
But they don’t come much anymore. It seems like now-a-days out here, they hit a few neighbors, then are driven off to the “super-cool neighborhoods”. Some dudes out there get almost a 1000 ToTers a night!
When I was taking my son TOT the other night, I was mildly miffed at the folks who had their porch lights on but weren’t home (or stayed hidden). Why give us the false alarm, guys?
Whoops, my bad rjung. When I left the house, it was still hours before daylight, and I needed to see the lock. I totally forgot what day it was until I came home after all the kids must have gone, and saw the porch light on. I’m lucky I didn’t get egged, in my neighborhood.
You do realize that you posted after the guy who said that there was all sorts of criminal behavior being caused by those teens just trying to have some fun?
Anyway, I agree that the candy giver reserves the right to decide who gets what and how much. The past couple of years, we haven’t gotten any (well, one and I didn’t get to the door in time) trick or treaters, but this year, we got about eight or so groups of cute little kids. Fortunately, the kids ran out before the Snickers did… (you see, the Chairwoman bought two types of candy and when it was her turn, gave out the stuff I liked while keeping the stuff she liked safe…).
I only noticed one group of thugs walking around, but by then I had taken the pumpkin (the only indicator that we were there) down, but it didn’t look like they were going anywhere. The rest of the teens, so far as I could tell, were either walking their siblings around or smoking pot behind the school.
I recall that as soon as I hit 13 or so, I suddenly lost interestin trick or treating and we managed to combine giving out candy, scaring the pants off of kids and all-night D&D games into one…
I went trick or treating in my street clothes just once. But a friend of mine was dressed in matching street clothes. Y’see, we went as twins. We looked similar so it worked. The only problem was that we got separated a few times. Oh well, it was fun. I was also 18. Halloween was my favorite holiday.
No teens for us this year though. We live out in the boonies and had our rush of 5 trick-or-treaters around 7pm. What I don’t get is those kids who don’t say Trick Or Treat! We had to say it first to these two boys! Maybe they were shy but I don’t know.
I was over at my friend “Bob’s” house last night and we got a lot of non-costumed teens too. Bob asked one teen what his costume was (he was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans) and the kid just shrugged. Bob gave him a raised eyebrow, and so the kid said, “I’m Hitler,” and held out his bag. Bob said, “Really? I’m Jewish.” And shut the door in his face.
I scored some serious good treats. They loved my costumes, and because I came after most TOTers were finished, I got a lot of “rest of the stash” dumpings. I made out like a tall dog on garbage day.
I wouldn’t go ringing strangers bells and trick or treating, though. I pretty much did it as a joke, but by Og they filled my bucket right up!
Last year when I handed out treats, I had a fair number of sullen teens, but mostly I had truckloads/vanloads of kids. I bought a slew of candy and was out well before 8pm. Frankly, I think giving out TOT is fun, but not fun enough to spend $50 on buckets of candy for kids being trucked into my neighborhood. Maybe every other year.
Years ago when my sister was about 15 or 16 she and her friend decided at the last minute to go TOTing. My sister had her costume from a party the year before, but her friend didn’t have one. She ran home wrapped a sheet around herself like a toga, borrowed one of my flowered wreaths for her head and went as a greek goddess. From that day forward I don’t buy the “couldn’t afford a costume” excuse.
Perhaps if it were your property they were vandalizing (after you gave them treats, even) you wouldn’t categorize it as “fun”, hhhmmmmm?
I don’t care about the TOTer’s age. If they have on a costume and say Trick or Treat (say not mutter all annoyed under their breath). I don’t care if they are 50. I only mentioned teenagers because that is the offending group. I have yet to be confronted by an uncostumed, surly seven year old.
Well, mhendo did suggest a height requirement. It definitely sounds like you guys have higher standards for costumes for aller children. Like cowgirl, I was a very tall girl, and got rude remarks when I went trick or treating at age 12. It was not nice.
I got mostly little kids, but I did get a few teenagers. Most had costumes. Those that didn’t at least tried and were wearing their soccer/baseball/football uniforms. None were just in street clothes.
I got a group of three teenage boys in drag. They told me they’d decided they were too old for trick or treating, but then decided at the last minute to go. The only thing they could think of was to raid the closet of one of their sisters. I couldn’t help laughing thinking of just how mad she’s going to be when she sees what they’d done to her clothes!
No reason a teenager can’t t-or-t and attend parties. T-or-t-ing is from 6 till 8, and parties don’t start jumping off until later. Or, if Halloween is on a weekday, the parties will be on the weekend.
Only got three teens last night. Trio of girls: Sailor Moon, a vampire who showed a great deal of cleavage, and a flapper. “I hope y’all have pepper spray,” said I. They giggled.
I wouldn’t be too rough on the wee ones who don’t say “Trick or treat”, or don’t say it loudly. I was shy, and balked at saying something that I knew the homeowners had been hearing all night. OTOH, though, I wonder whatever happened to “Trick or treat; smell my feet”?
And WhyNot, I hope that teenager never gets laid as long as he lives.
I went trick-or-treating all the way through high-school. I was always in costume, and always with friends the same age. And we’d happily shout “Trick-or-Treat!” It wasn’t so much for the candy, it was just a solid part of having fun on Halloween. I remember on several occasions getting to somebody’s house and finding them out of candy, and giving them some of ours.
My first year of college, I went with about 10 other people, all dressed as the cast of the Wizard of Oz. We sang songs from the movie all around town, and ended up stopping at a house that L. Frank Baum had lived in for many years. A whole crowd of people listened to the woman (I forget how she was connected to Baum) tell a story about it, and then we sang another song and people joined in.
The other years, there was a large “Trick or Drink” costume party in one of the dorms, and each room gave out different cocktails.
I love going Trick or treating, and was seriously bummed that this year, at age 22, I couldn’t go. I’ll have to find some friends with small children that I can take around next year. So, please, don’t be down on the big kids out to have a good time.
I have no problem with anyone coming to my house on Halloween night looking for candy. I even give candy to the tired parents walking along with their kids. I don’t care if they are in costume and it doesn’t matter if they say trick-or-treat or not. We all know why they are there. This year I got together with several of my neighbors and made a Haunted House out of our carport. I teased several angry uncostumed teens into going through our Haunted House. We had three 10 year olds, two 7 year olds and two 5 year olds running the show. Let me tell you, we had adults screaming and surly teens jumping and giggling. It was fun for everyone which to me is what Halloween is all about.
The best costume of the night? A sullen teen in street clothes with a sign around his neck that said “Will work for food”.
The last time I went trick or treating was senior year of high school. Big mob of us, all in costume, wandered from one end of Berkeley to another collecting candy enroute to a Halloween party. We didn’t shove little kids out of the way or grab handfuls of swag or anything like that. When I was a kid I remember my parents and all their adult friends getting dressed up and going out with us as well.
Come in costume and say the magic words? Yer in as far as I’m concerned.
Last night I saw the crappy behavior though, friend holding the big bowl o’ goodies, opens the door and there’s about 4 teenagers there. She said “One each” and they proceeded to grab multiple large handfuls and take off. How hard is it to be a little polite and think about the fact that someone else might want some? Sheesh.
My own 11-year-old and her 15-year-old sister went out, in costume of course, with some friends in another neighborhood this year. Next year, they plan to volunteer to take two or three littler kids from our block around, which will give them legitimacy and get them in the parents’ good graces.
We got very few kids last night, but they were all in costume, and my favorites were a group of teens. The neighborhood was nearly deserted and our house was one of only two or three on the block with the porch light on, so this group came back about half an hour after getting candy from me to ask what time it was. I started automatically giving out candy as soon as I opened the door, and they were delighted and stunned that I was giving them more candy. One of the kids asked, “Can we come back again?” and I told them, yes, but they’d have to at least trick or treat one other block first, as a gesture of good will. Some time later, I heard giggling and rustling at the door, they knocked, and when I opened the door, I found my group of teens, all on their knees, shouting, “Twick or Tweet!” in high-pitched baby voices.
Today the same group of kids spotted me as I was getting into my car and they all yelled, “Hi, Candy Lady!” I believe I’ve just made some new friends.
