Halloween... wtf?

[Signe]

We've seen 2 groups of kids so far, even though it's only 4 PM, EST.  Both groups were definitely over the age of 12 or 13, one group seemed to range between 17 and 20, if I'm any judge.  Neither were in costume, they were all male, and were holding plastic carrier bags or pillowcases.

Is this normal?  The last couple of years we lived in places where there was no trick or treat, so this is our first real Halloween experience since moving to the US, and years ago it was only small kids that came around.  I never liked the concept of children going from door to door  begging for food, anyway.  I feel the same about Guy Fawkes Day.

[Shockeye]

This is just so so wrong.

[Big Gulp]

one group seemed to range between 17 and 20, if I'm any judge.

Simple.  No candy for j00.  Tell 'em to beat feet.  

Is this normal?

Where I grew up it'd be bizarre to see anyone trick or treating before dark, it just didn't happen.  Pillow cases are normal, they were my preferred method of haulage.

I'd also like to add that Halloween is the greatest holiday ever, and your disrespectful attitude towards this greatest of all days disgusts me.  Carry on.

[Merusk]

We've seen 2 groups of kids so far, even though it's only 4 PM, EST.  Both groups were definitely over the age of 12 or 13, one group seemed to range between 17 and 20, if I'm any judge.  Neither were in costume, they were all male, and were holding plastic carrier bags or pillowcases.

Is this normal?  The last couple of years we lived in places where there was no trick or treat, so this is our first real Halloween experience since moving to the US, and years ago it was only small kids that came around.  I never liked the concept of children going from door to door  begging for food, anyway.  I feel the same about Guy Fawkes Day.

It's normal. I always wind up with at least 3-4 groups of 15-18 year old guys (the girls at least still dress-up).  They know people are giving out free candy and all they have to do is show up. What I do with these lackwit wastes of teenage angst is I make them yell trick or treat at the top of their punk lungs.  They don't yell, they don't get candy.  I'm not worried about reprisals on the egging front since I know where most of them live.

 I'm trying to think of something else to do that will entertain me as well, but not slow down the line of other kids.   Making them dance might entertain me for a bit, but I'm not sure it would entertain me while embarassing the hell out of them as much as I want.

Oh, and if they're showing-up before the posted trick-or-treat time for your area, just tell them to fuck off.  Most places around here do it from 7-8 but I know there's some cities worried about kids turning into car paste. So they've taken the fun of running around the neighborhood in the dark and moved the times up to 4-6 or so.

Oh, and Shockeye. The Goatse pumpkin is great. I hope that's on your doorstep.

[Signe]

Don't get me wrong, Big Gulp.  I LIKE Halloween.  I just don't like children.

[Rodent]

I never really got Halloween, the closest thing we've got here is the eve of saints comming up soon where we remember and celebrate our dead. Common practise is to go to your nearest graveyard and light candles.

Halloween and trick or treating has been knocking at our doorstep for a couple of years now but so far it hasn't catched on that much thankfully.

[schild]

Don't get me wrong, Big Gulp.  I LIKE Halloween.  I just don't like children.

And they don't like you. Halloween sucks after you get sick from the candy. This happened when I was 5. On Halloween I normally watch a few Friday the 13th Episodes and throw water balloons at the older kids from the window above the porch. Fuck'em.

[Big Gulp]

I never really got Halloween, the closest thing we've got here is the eve of saints comming up soon where we remember and celebrate our dead. Common practise is to go to your nearest graveyard and light candles.

Sounds a lot like the Mexican Day of the Dead.

From what I've been able to gather Trick or Treating is sort of an old Celtic holdover.  Supposedly spirits can come back to earth on Halloween and in order to placate them people would leave bowls of food in front of their little hut/hovel.  Apparently the custom really got revived in colonial America, especially with Scots/Irish.  Used to be a much more malicious holiday (I'm from Michigan originally, we called Oct. 30th Devil's Night.  Much of Detroit would burn down that night), where if someone didn't give you a treat you could pull a trick on them; pelt the house with eggs, TP the trees, soap the windows, etc.  That sort of stuff still goes on, but it's largely been tamed over the years.

[Merusk]

I never really got Halloween, the closest thing we've got here is the eve of saints comming up soon where we remember and celebrate our dead. Common practise is to go to your nearest graveyard and light candles.

Sounds a lot like the Mexican Day of the Dead.

From what I've been able to gather Trick or Treating is sort of an old Celtic holdover.  Supposedly spirits can come back to earth on Halloween and in order to placate them people would leave bowls of food in front of their little hut/hovel.  Apparently the custom really got revived in colonial America, especially with Scots/Irish.  Used to be a much more malicious holiday (I'm from Michigan originally, we called Oct. 30th Devil's Night.  Much of Detroit would burn down that night), where if someone didn't give you a treat you could pull a trick on them; pelt the house with eggs, TP the trees, soap the windows, etc.  That sort of stuff still goes on, but it's largely been tamed over the years.

History channel just did a show on the history of Halloween.  The trick or treating part comes partly from dressing up and parading around to lead the restless spirits back to the graveyard, and partly as a development of the late 30s into the 40s to keep all the kids who were pulling the pranks in-line.

Halloween as Americans know it is a weird amalgam of things.  It has it's roots in old nature worship (when early popes were trying to convert pagans to chiristianity.) irish traditions,  Protestent reforms, Guy Fawkes Day and a few things I missed.

 All Saint's Day and All Souls Day (The two days immedately following Halloween, and which I think is what Rodent was talking about) are parts of the whole "turn pagan holidays into Christian holidays" tactic of the early Catholic church.

[Margalis]

No costume = no candy!

[Rodent]

All Saint's Day and All Souls Day (The two days immedately following Halloween, and which I think is what Rodent was talking about) are parts of the whole "turn pagan holidays into Christian holidays" tactic of the early Catholic church.

Yepp, that's the one.

[Murgos]

I gave out two super-jumbo sized bags of candy.  Maybe 30 - 35 kids all told,  most of them very young.  My favorite costume this year was a four year old in sequined bell bottomed jumpsuit with side burns and helmet hair.  The kid was really cute, his mom was a bit nutty though.

[Joe]

Zero. Fucking zero. Not a soul. Last year was one group.

Fuck safe streets, fuck terrified parents. My kid's walking door to door the terrorize you for his candy, or by god, I'll disown the little fucker.

[Ardent]

I will kill you one by one.

Perhaps painting this in blood on your front door deterred the trick or treaters? Just a thought.

[Signe]

Eight kids all together.  Half a big of kit kats.  It all ended by 7 PM.  Halloween really has changed since I was a child.  We used have crazy mad fun causing chaos in the streets until, at least, 9:30 PM or so.  We'd have to run home to empty our bags at least 3 or 4 times during the night.  I distinctly remember it being the most fun night of the year... better than Christmas.

Yeah, we had paedophiles back then... some moron tried to entice me into his house when I was 10.  He offered me... wait for it... CANDY!!!  It was Halloween, for fuck sake.  I told my father and he kicked the guy's door in.  It was all very exciting and did nothing to inhibit our halloween fun.  I'm not trying to trivialise the danger that children face.  I suppose with the mobs of kids on the streets trick or treating back then, it was just safer... too many of us, too few of them.  I don't blame parents for not letting their kids out on Halloween now... the streets are nearly deserted.

[toma levine]

Dunno what kind of neighborhood most of you live in but we were inundated with kids this year. 3 large bags of candy given out, and we were stingy bastards by only giving out 1 candy per kid.
Last year we lived in an apartment in a notoriously bad city, and had zero Halloween visitors.

Moral of the story, if you move to a nicer neighborhood, be prepared to have at least a $20 candy budget.

[RhyssaFireheart]

0 kids again this year.  Granted, our neighborhood isn't exactly made for walking around in, but no kids at all since we moved out here almost 4 years ago.  And it was a completely gorgeous day/evening as well.

The trick-or-treat hours for my village were 2pm to 8pm, and they had a special event at the police dept's "safety town" from 3-6, so I'm sure that's where all the little brats were.  Weirdest thing I ever saw was when I worked retail in a mall store, and all the little kids would come trick-or-treating in the mall.  WTF?

I'm trying to figure out what's changed so much from when I was a kid in the late 70s... there was danger then as well, with having to get your candy x-rayed to check for pins/needles/razor blades.  Is it because there was less danger back then?  Or just that we are far more aware and paranoid about the dangers today?  My friends and I used to roam the neighborhoods in the dark, but then again, that was allowed.

[Dren]

We had probably 20 come this time.  That is a lot for our house.  Most of those were dropped off from outside of the neighborhood.  I think that is common practice anymore.  That's why some neighborhoods get no kids and others get tons.

I did get a lot of older ones too, but I gave candy anyway.  I figured if you are a 17 year old boy doing all that just to get $3 worth of candy, you must need it or something.  I can't imagine ever doing that at that age.  Minimum wage allowed me to buy bags of candy that would make me sick.

[Signe]

I don't know... Princeton, NJ, is a pretty nice area - 8 kids.  Yardley, PA was a pretty up market area - 0 kids.  It seems that you can live in the nicest, most up market areas but many local governments discourage trick or treating.  Evidently, there is a child molestor behind every tree, regardless of what sort of area you live in.

[El Gallo]

We got about 30 kids this year.  I live in the gentrified part of the city, where most of the residents are gay couples or young professional couples with no kids/very young kids, but we are still in walking distance from real, live un-gentrified neighborhoods with actual elementary school aged kids.  Sadly, there were only about 5 people giving out candy on my block.

I was happy to see the re-emergence of traditional costumes.  Had 2 skeletons and 3 witches.

[Shockeye]

Evidently, there is a child molestor behind every tree, regardless of what sort of area you live in.

It doesn't help to have shows like CSI showing sex offenders as living anywhere and everywhere around children whether or not they have registered. Plus, sometimes the molesters aren't hiding behind the tree, they're dressed as the tree.

[Shannow]

Considering the complete lack of Almond Joys, Milk duds and kit kats my son got I think Halloween sucks.

edit: Kids to came to our house after 7:30-8 did well, I wouldn't let them leave until I'd given them 3 huge handfuls each. F'ed if Im gonna have a big bowl of candy sitting around all week tempting me with that sweet sweet sugar.

[Rasix]

We bought 6 bags of candy.  I'd guess that we went through about 3-4.  We started the night giving out 2 per kid, but after a rather large African American group we had to cut that back to one per kid.  It must have been at least 14 kids.  My wife still gave all little princess girls 2 or 3.

A lot of teens though.  This wasn't too bad, as most were polite, costumed and said "Trick or Treat" and some were even toting along their younger siblings.  While I remember trick or treating until 9 as a kid, it pretty much died at 8.  Only ones past this point were teens.

Wife's going out of town on business and I've got a giant bowl of candy in the kitchen. I'm going to get so goddamn sick this week.

[Polysorbate80]

My daughter is 15 months old now, so I said "Fuck it; she can hold a pail, she's old enough to trick-or-treat."  Dressed her up in her little Red Sox outfit and we hit the streets with some friends who have kids to learn the 'good' spots.  Apparently, while we get jack and squat for visitors at our place, the rich neighborhoods are inundated with children (and teenagers) whose parents drive them in from all over town.

Bet they love handing out all that candy to the local white trash like us.  But what the hell, they got the money.

Not sure why everyone gets freaked out about safety.  Poison/razor blades/etc. in the candy was a hoax, and any kids not old enough to be responsible for watching out for pedophiles or traffic or such on their own damn well ought to be with someone who is, so what's the danger?  Hell, I *love* Halloween; I'll be going out with my kid well past the time she's annoyed with me and just wants me to go home and leave her in peace, just so I can share in the fun too.

[Fargull]

My boy is four this year and racked in a three pound hall of candy.  He was dressed up as Leonardo from the TMNT.  Had a boat load of kids out last night, was fun.  I plan on the same game Poly, I plan on taking him till he is big enough to drive.

[shiznitz]

The trend here is to do away with home visits altogether. The stores in town stay open late and hand out candy. The cops can patrol a small area and the parents like all the bright lights and crowds.

Things change I guess. I used to get dropped off in semi-strange neighborhoods for an hour with a few friends to be picked up at a scheduled time and place. You think in this cellphone age that would be a viable method.

[WayAbvPar]

Not a soul came to our apartment, even though we had 3 bags of candy on standby. We were in bed at about 10:30 watching TV when we heard a knock on the door. I crept out in my boxers and checked the peephole- 4 teenagers trick or treating. AT 10 FUCKING 30! I really wish I had a Super Soaker so I could have drenched the little fuckers (especially after one of them yelled 'These people are ASSHOLES!" since none of my neighbors answered their doors either. Did I mention it was 10 FUCKING 30?).

[Roac]

This was a good Halloween year where I'm at.  The last few years I haven't had many people come by my house.  Four or five groups maybe.  This year we had that many come by within 15 minutes at one point.  There were bunches of kids.  Couple teenage groups, but they dressed up, so they got candy.  

BTW, it's fun to give out the good candy (snickers, reeces cups, etc).  We had a good laugh listening to one little girl scream "I got skittles!" as she ran back to her parents.

[Rasix]

BTW, it's fun to give out the good candy (snickers, reeces cups, etc).  We had a good laugh listening to one little girl scream "I got skittles!" as she ran back to her parents.

Ahh yes, it was nice to be known as "the people with the good shit".  M&M, Snickers and Skittles.  All the little girls asked, "OOOHHH, can I have Skittles???"  I swear some little girl said the exact same thing (as yours did) as she ran back to her mom.  

We even got comments on our decorations (my wife insisted, we drove around for 2 hours yesterday getting stuff).

[UD_Delt]

Ahh yes, it was nice to be known as "the people with the good shit".  M&M, Snickers and Skittles.  All the little girls asked, "OOOHHH, can I have Skittles???"  I swear some little girl said the exact same thing (as yours did) as she ran back to her mom.  

We wound up as that house by accident this year. I own a duplex (actually a 2-family if you're picky) so it's a nice double bonus for the kids that come up to our porch since they get candy from the wife and I as well as the lady who rents our downstairs. It was a triple bonus this year since the downstairs neighbor was giving out the full size candy bars and let the kids choose from about 10 different kinds.

I think the word got out on our house as we had bought 6 bags of candy and we ran out around 6:45 (6-8 is the scheduled time). I'd say in the first 45 minutes we had over 100 kids come by.

This year I think we had more than last year but we usually have a good crowd in our area. It's a mid-income type area with small lots. So, you can hit a lot of houses without having to walk too far.

Certain areas like that seem to draw more of a crowd. My sister used to live in another starter-house type community and the one year I went to visit them on Halloween they had probably over 300-400 kids come through. It was a steady stream of kids coming up for almost the entire 2 hours. I think they went through 12 bags of candy then had to dip into the candy my niece collected in order to give out to the final few stragglers.

[sidereal]

I'm not trying to trivialise the danger that children face.

Please do, because there isn't any.  The razor blade bullshit is an urban myth, and has contributed to killing off the only holiday that makes any sense.

We live in a residential area in Seattle, and get maybe 20 trick or treaters a year.  So we're pretty generous.  This year we were invited to hang out with some friends in a nice little gated community down south, so we left our candy out in a bowl with a talking skeleton and headed down (we apparently have polite neighbors or watchful co-parents.  Only half the bowl was gone when we got back and the skeleton was mostly recognizable).

That was BANK.  Apparently Halloween works like it used to if you can gate out all of the undesirables.  People had smoke machines and talking door knockers and fat candy supplies for the massive roaming mobs of children.  Suffering an incredible dose of manicured Stepford suburbia for a few hours was worth the candy tonnage and general good time for our son.

[Dark Vengeance]

In parts of Detroit, we have trick or treating every day. Only they don't wear costumes, they smell like cigarettes whiskey & piss, and instead of candy, they want money for crack or cheap wine.

No kids in my apartment complex this year, which was surprising. Had about 6-7 last year. Good thing though, because more than a handful and I'd have been handing out cough drops or shots of scotch.

Today, however, is the veritable bounty known as the November 1st candy clearance. Diabetes, here I come!

Bring the noise.
Cheers............

[HaemishM]

See, I don't get my apartment complex for Halloween. We live in a complex with probably 300-400 people at least. Plenty of kids. We live in the back of the complex, near the walking track and woods. And we NEVER get trick or treaters anymore. NEVER. The only reason we got any this year is because my sister brought over my niece and nephew. Other than that SQUAT. And it ain't like there ain't kids around. Hell, somebody's fucking junior high band needs fucking nipple clamps and we have sixteen of the little bastards beating down my door to sell me apple-ass flavored candles, razor-blade laden cookies or some equally useless magazine subscription. But when I'm here ready to GIVE them some goddamn shrink-wrapped cavities? Not a fucking one.

Little bastards. I look forward to owning my own lawn so I can tell them kids to stop smoking grass and get off my property.

[Shockeye]

My boy is four this year and racked in a three pound hall of candy.  He was dressed up as Leonardo from the TMNT.

My son was Raphael and he had a shell of a time.

[Teleku]

I grew up in a small town out in the country, and Halloween was very big there.  EVERYBODY in the town was expected to have candy, and children went everywhere.  Just as many people would decorate there house for Halloween as they would for Christmas.  Which was just about everybody in town.  We would just start from our house and walk down the street going door to door, working our way street by street till we where to tired to go on anymore.  Usually didn't have any sort of adult supervision either.  Just endless groups of children rampaging through the city, usually till 10:00 at night or later.  I always got a couple bags worth.  Think I stopped offically trick or treating around 8 or 9, but when I was forced to escort younger cousins around later I always made sure to get candy for myself at every house.  Damn parents.

I live in San Diego now, and haven't seen a trick or treater since.  Granted, I live next to the college and I don't always feel safe walking around at night myself.  Still, its kind of sad not to see any.  Halloween is the greatest holiday ever.