The Halloween Thread

[hotdogPi]

This thread is about Halloween.

Are you giving away candy for trick or treating? Are you trick or treating yourself?

I am going to be a GPS this Halloween. Here is the intersection the GPS will show: http://goo.gl/maps/CiJzV


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[english si]

Are you giving away candy for trick or treating?

No. Not because I'm a curmudgeon who wonders how the 31st has come to overtake the 5th so massively these days*, but because next door's mum pops around earlier with allergy-safe sweets/chocolate for her twins, and they are the only ones who come visit.

Trick-or-treating, despite massively taking off in the past 15 years (my primary school class managed about 5 person/nights of trick-or-treating out of a potential 200ish**), is typically only done with near neighbours and family friends. Knocking on strangers' doors and demanding treats in exchange for protection from a trick is just not cricket!


*as I have no need to wonder - a mix of Health & Safety stopping fireworks from being blatantly sold (it used to be that most houses have a couple of fireworks, or friends around for a small display on the 5th and then go to a big organised display for charity at the weekend), and US television (especially the Simpsons) exposing our kids to an activity that involves getting lots of sweets. Though going to a bonfire also involved lots of sugary foods.

**though, to be fair, we'd neither heard of it, nor had it crossed our minds for about 5 of our 8 years. The concept wasn't even discussed really until '95, giving only about 60 real chances. And we were far more excited about fireworks night, other than the sweets element of Halloween.

[vdeane]

Trick-or-treating is VERY big in America, though mainly the treat part; the trick side fell out of favor over 20 years ago.  Still need to find out if apartment residents in my complex give out candy or not (my parents are obsessed with the question right now, actually).

Probably not dressing up.  I wanted to be Sailor Moon, but that didn't work out and I can't think of what else I'd do (especially since I'm self conscious about my shoulders and especially my belly, so very few sexy costumes would work with me despite my desire for one, plus I'm loathe to spend any money right now).

[Zeffy]

I haven't trick or treated since I was 8. After that, I stopped caring. For the first few years people bitched me out, but finally at middle school it stopped. It never interested me. I just think the concept is stupid, I don't know. When boys dress up like girls it's okay on Halloween, yet on any other day they'd be called some derogatory terms. Then if your costume isn't beyond expensive or isn't high quality, people don't even notice you. Like seriously?

[hotdogPi]

I have had some very interesting costumes:

Piggy bank (with New Hampshire state quarter)
Aquarium
Calculator
King of Clubs (playing card)

[NE2]

I dress up as a dirty fucking hippie.

[hotdogPi]

You already are one. Why do you need to dress up as one then?

[Roadgeek Adam]

I stopped once I turned 13. I've either given out candy or walked my sister around ever since.

I do however, have to redesign my entire dorm floor this week...

[wxfree]

I'll be dressing as a government worker and staying home.

I'll be dressing as a Republican.  I'll give one rich kid a box of imported chocolates, and make the other hundred split a Tootsie Roll.

I'll be dressing as a Democrat.  I'll get something nobody likes, like Necco, and make everyone buy it.

The truth is I'll be dressing as a sex offender and keeping the porch light off and not answering the door.  That's what I do every year.

[NE2]

You already are one. Why do you need to dress up as one then?

[Takumi]

I haven't done anything for Halloween in 10 years, but I'm on vacation from work that week so I'm considering going to a party as Al Borland from Home Improvement. I have the beard and general build already.

[oscar]

My neighborhood has no children (complex of small garden apartments).   You have to go several blocks to find trick-or-treaters, and the kids there know better than to seek treats in my neighborhood.

[DaBigE]

I haven't participated in Halloween since I was in college. Since I live in an apartment, I generally don't have to deal with the holiday. The last costume I wore was Bob the Builder.

[allniter89]

I ALWAYS t or t up to age 11 or so, we usually lived on AF bases so it was pretty safe. Now I live waaay out in the stix so no one comes around which is ok with me. Bah humbug!
Do they still soap windows, tp trees and light bags of poo (pooing is cool) on fire then ring the doorbell? Not that I've ever done any of these, I heard about them from a friend of a friend Does Detroit still experience "hell night" Oct 30th?

[Alex]

I ALWAYS t or t up to age 11 or so, we usually lived on AF bases so it was pretty safe. Now I live waaay out in the stix so no one comes around which is ok with me. Bah humbug!
Do they still soap windows, tp trees and light bags of poo (pooing is cool) on fire then ring the doorbell? Not that I've ever done any of these, I heard about them from a friend of a friend Does Detroit still experience "hell night" Oct 30th?

They called that mischief night in Delaware.  Knew several others that were big on that back in my teenage years. Never was one for it myself, nor Halloween after age 12.

[Brandon]

I ALWAYS t or t up to age 11 or so, we usually lived on AF bases so it was pretty safe. Now I live waaay out in the stix so no one comes around which is ok with me. Bah humbug!
Do they still soap windows, tp trees and light bags of poo (pooing is cool) on fire then ring the doorbell? Not that I've ever done any of these, I heard about them from a friend of a friend Does Detroit still experience "hell night" Oct 30th?

It's Devil's Night, and sadly, yes.

[SP Cook]

When I was a kid, Halloween (and you guy know where I grew up) Halloween consisted of two things.

A deal where children (which is to say those 2 or 3 up to about 10 or 12) went to nearby homes of people they knew and got candy.  Depending on the number of kids you had, it ended up being close to a wash. 

A deal where teenage boys up hollers got out of school the next day by cutting trees across the roads. 

That was it.  It was a one-day event.  Nobody decorated their house (other than the occasional pumpkin).  There were no pre-made Halloween decorations.  The candy showed up at the store maybe two weeks before.   If you were an adult, it was a non-event.

Today it seems like Halloween has moved next to Christmas as some kind of month long event.  People decorate houses.  Adults have parties.  Parties are scheduled over the entire week so people can attend several.  They decorate the mall.  People ware costumes to work.  Kids are given presents at school (bags of candy, or, worse yet, bags of tofu based Soylent Yellow and pamphlets full pf bad of bad advice).  I don't think we are too many years from some pol lighting the National Pumpkin on the Mall.

And depending on what day of the week it falls on (around here the county or city governments will "decree" when trick or treat is allowed, and if its obvious (like this year, where its universally Thursday) you just get your local kids), but if it moves around (like next year, being Friday, some places will be Friday, some Saturday, some Thursday, etc) you will get roving bands of kids from other towns.

Don't get it.

[Laura]

I went through a phase in middle school where I didn't trick or treat, but then started walking around again in high school. In college, they had a trick or treat event (usually the friday before halloween) where the local neighborhood kids could come to the college and trick or treat in the dorms and we had games set up for them in our practice gym.

I think Halloween has changed a lot since I was a kid, good and bad. I love the fact that its more acceptable to dress up as an adult and to have adult parties - I've been to parties every year since I was 18. I usually wear my costume to work, too. What I don't like is how Halloween is regulated to be "safer" now for kids. A lot of HOA communities have set hours and times where you can trick or treat, and a lot of the time, that isn't on Halloween. When I was a kid, you went out at dark (5:30) and stayed out until 8:30, and these were universally accepted times . Now with daylight savings pushed back, kids don't usually come out until 6:30, and neighborhoods force them to stop at 8. We also could walk around our neighborhoods ourselves, which I see less of these days (the adults were too busy giving out candy or trying to scare us to walk with us!)

I'm dressing as a monarch butterfly this year. I like to dress as things with wings. Last year I was an owl, the year before I was a bat! I loved that costume - I took a black umbrella, cut it in half, and sewed it to the sleeves and sides of a black hoodie. My favorite costume as a kid: I dressed as a "puppy for sale". I wore a Dalmatian costume with a box around me painted "puppies for sale" and stapled some stuffed animal puppies around the box.

[NE2]

Get off my lawn.

[1995hoo]

I resent the high school kids who don't bother to wear any kind of costume and just show up wanting candy. They know people will give it to them because we don't want our houses egged or something. Some years I just darken all the lights so nobody comes to our house. Depends on my mood (also some years we haven't been home due to football or hockey and so we darkened the house then too).

I think if we give out candy this year I'm buying all Reese's peanut butter cups. We like them and it will annoy the legume-loathing freaks out there.

[corco]

I'm going to be a white guy for halloween, same as the last several years.

I live in a really small town and I understand trick or treating is a Big Thing here, so we'll see what happens. I've mostly kept off the radar with my neighbors though, so we'll see if my house is avoided. I'll buy candy I like and eat it if nobody else does. 

[Thing 342]

I resent the high school kids who don't bother to wear any kind of costume and just show up wanting candy. They know people will give it to them because we don't want our houses egged or something. Some years I just darken all the lights so nobody comes to our house. Depends on my mood (also some years we haven't been home due to football or hockey and so we darkened the house then too).

I think if we give out candy this year I'm buying all Reese's peanut butter cups. We like them and it will annoy the legume-loathing freaks out there.

Same reason I don't plan on giving out candy this year.

[Molandfreak]

I stopped actually trick-or-treating when I was maybe 12, and only gone to a select few friends' houses until I was 14. I've had a bonfire in my front yard the past few years and handed out candy from there. We don't get very many trick-or-treaters, though. There aren't too many small children in my neighborhood. My brother gets the leftover candy because I don't like candy very much. If we hand out any Snickers or Reeces, he gives them all to me because I like them and he doesn't. That lasts me a good few months stashed away in my room (I can't handle more than one at a time).

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[hbelkins]

Most communities around here limit trick-or-treating to kids 12 and under. Also, many communities are beginning to sponsor community events where businesses and organizations hand out candy and/or other stuff (like dentist's offices giving out toothbrushes) and individuals can buy the candy they normally would hand out at their door and donate it to the community effort and then they get a sign for their door saying they're participating in the community event and go there to get the candy they otherwise would get at that home. (How's that for a run-on sentence?)

I live in a rural area, so when I was a kid trick-or-treating was done by car. We only went to houses where people we knew well lived, and there were a few places where special treats always awaited (one former co-worker of my mother's who always fixed popcorn balls for a few select kids).

I'm living at the same place where I grew up. We're in the country, off a main state road in our county but with a long driveway off the road. We haven't had trick-or-treaters since we lived there, and my dad didn't have any for several years prior when he lived there before he went to a nursing home and then died. He always bought candy to give out just in case.

Trick-or-treat is usually limited to the hours of 6-8 p.m. on Halloween or the designated trick-or-treat night (often Saturday night if the 31st falls on a Sunday). Now that the time changes in November instead of the last weekend in October, there's still usually daylight for the first hour of trick-or-treat.

[Big John]

When I lived in suburban Milwaukee, there would be a few vanloads of children who obviously came from the inner city to go trick-or-treating there.