Trick or Treaters DRIVEN from House to House (Plano, Garland: how much, neighborhoods)

[Macbeth2003]

Moderator cut: orphaned quote

There still are huge numbers of kids and parents out walking for trick-or-treat. If there is one time I don't want traffic doubled on my residential street, it is while I am out walking, at night with my son. And the nature of Halloween costumes often dictates that the child will be especially difficult to see. Often masked, often in dark clothes.
I can't believe because some folks are too lazy to walk with their kids they are willing to increase the danger for other kids on Halloween. I would say if you don't want to walk to neighbors homes for trick-or-treat then don't trick-or-treat.

[grindin]

Originally Posted by tycobb2522

Ah yes, the trick or treater who actually drives himself. Very inappropriate.

They did what?! That is just out of order!

I say if they're old enough to be driving around, they should be old enough to buy their own bags of candy.

I wonder if people driving around has to do with the loss of the "innocense" of Trick-Or-Treating. But those stories about people who supposedly put razors in apples or candy bars have been around for years, and from what I've heard, unsubstantiated.

But the "trust" factor isn't what it used to be either. I used to love Trick-Or-Treating as a kid, and I don't see it as much as I used to either.

Do a lot of churches do "Fall Carnivals" in lieu of Trick-Or-Treating for Halloween nowadays?

[grindin]

Originally Posted by tycobb2522

You know, Halloween used to be such a wonderful time for me. We'd tear open garbage bags full of trash and throw them in people's swimming pools, turn over compact cars, set cemeteries on fire; you know, the stuff everybody did when they were 8 or 9...Now, it's just not the same.

ROFLMAO

[Spree]

We had several groups in from outside of the neighborhood (I recognized most of the kids/families that live here). I don't mind at all. Some children don't live in a safe neighborhood in which to go door to door, if they want to t or t in a safe, well lit neighborhood then so be it.

I bought my usual amount of candy gave one piece to each t or t'er, I was thanked by about 99% of them and when my candy ran out, I turned out my light and didn't answer the door. Actually, it was such a nice night that dh and I sat out on our front adirondak chairs w/a glass of wine and visited with the parents we knew as they walked by. If the worse thing that happened to me that day was seeing a parent cruising in their car while the child t or t'ed, then I consider myself blessed.

[Spree]

<<Do a lot of churches do "Fall Carnivals" in lieu of Trick-Or-Treating for Halloween nowadays?>>

Yes. We have moved around a lot and in various other places we have lived, the kids were invited to go trick or treating at the mall. Stores would hand out candy. Also, since Halloween was on a Friday night this year, there were a lot of football games being played. I dropped my son off at a friends house on the night before Halloween, and a street had been blocked off (like a request for a block party) and the kids were going door to door then.

[BstYet2Be]

A really great thing I attended this year was a "Trunk or Treating". This was in a rural area where houses are just too far apart for children to trick or treat safely but I can see where this would work in a lot of the communities here.

In this particular one, all the churches in the area got together at the town square, with each (church) represented by one truck backed in to form a circle of "trunks", with the back of the truck theme-decorated to the hilt for Halloween, some w/music, with members giving out the candy to the treat-or-treaters as they went around from "trunk" to "trunk" safely. There was a spokesman (mayor) that kicked it off, prizes were awarded for both costumes by age groups and for the best decorated "trunk", hayrides, etc., along w/refreshments.

Really an all-out community event attended by some 500+ and loads of fun for everyone.

[loves2read]

I think the op means having people bring in truck loads of kids from outside the neighborhood just because that particular neighborhood has good/better candy...

we have seen it happen in the past in our neighborhood in Bedford when our kids were out trick or treating and that was 20 yrs ago--definitely NOT kids from the neighborhood--most of them were black or Hispanic and our neighborhood has only one black family then and maybe one Hispanic...
they were usually yard guys or construction people who knew the lay of the land so to speak...

think it still happens but not so much in our neighborhood because lots of people don't offer candy--don't have their lights on to dispense...
we don't any more...

I have mixed feelings about the practice--mainly don't object too much if the kids ARE being trick or treaters--are dressed in costumes and don't have a pillow case they try to fill up at each house--some of these kids are basically robbing a candy store when they come to your front door and THAT I do object to---a 16 yr old kid with some color gel in his hair--dressed in whatever came to hand is not my idea of a "trick or treater"...

[tycobb2522]

Loves2read: That's really not the case. I have no problem whatsoever with people bringing their kids in from outside the neighborhood. Heck, I am happy when I make kids happy; whoever they are or wherever they're from. My only point was that it is strange and a little annoying to me to see parents literally driving their kids down the street, practically door to door. And it wasn't just one or two isolated occurances. Why in the world can't they just get out and walk with them? Like MacBeth said, at the very least it adds to traffic in neighborhoods on a night when more traffic isn't good.

Maybe it's been going on longer than I realized; but it seems to have become worse the last few years. It's just one of those things that seems wrong to me.

[fratermus]

I was very pleased to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids I who went up the street in groups. These kids were ones I recognized from their front lawns, and were appropriately and skillfully handled by the oldest kid of the bunch who made sure everyone got taken care of.

I became less pleased over time as it got later as the drive-ups started. None of the kids were from the neighborbood and the parents were obviously trolling for houses with the lights still on. That was it for us.

[Macbeth2003]

As Ty said, I really don't mind people from outside the neighborhood. Our neighborhood does Halloween in a prety big way. In any given block there might be three houses that were completely decorated, fog machines, sound effects, people in costume, special effects, etc. Also, I remember friends, in apartments, who had to go to other neighborhoods to trick-or-treat, but drive to ONE place in the neighborhood, park, and walk the neighborhood, dont put kids at risk by driving from one house, to another to another.