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I have never heard of this trunk thing. And why do the churches do it?
I know that the Catholic Churches have tried to discourage Halloween celebrations but obviously, they didn't succeed. I know plenty of people who take off for All Saints Day because their kids are home from school and they want to visit church.
Our Episcopal church does it because we want people in the community to know that we're here and we're approachable. People are generally reluctant to walk into a church for the first time; bringing your kids through the parking lot and meeting the members is a lot less threatening.
Parents like it because there used to be stories every Halloween about people handing out candy with pins, razor blades or other dangerous items hidden in them. Knock wood, that trend seems to have stopped, but Trunk or Treat seemed safer.
My son and DIL are conservative evangelical Christians. My granddaughters won't be trick-or-treating but he says they'll be handing out candy to the neighborhood kids and he'll make a special dessert for them that night. I like that idea. They don't need piles of candy and DS makes a really good Oreo cheesecake.
I live in an apartment building, which I'm sure is a gold mine for trick-or-treating. You have dozens of apartments in the same area normally occupied by less than 10 houses. At the same time, there aren't many kids in my building, since it's in not-the-nicest neighborhood, with warehouses nearby. So I make up for it by getting unusual candy, like gummy body parts, which older kids get a kick out of. I also answer the door while wearing a costume myself. One time, I briefly made the kids speechless by saying "trick or treat!" before they could open their mouths. After they caught on to the joke, they laughed pretty hard.
Many Catholic churches in my area aren't against Halloween. They embraced it similar to how American Jews embraced Thanksgiving. (Side note: there's a school of thought that Thanksgiving was inspired by the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.) In fact, a number of Catholic churches even do haunted houses in their basements. It's the Protestant churches, both mainline and denominational, who seem to be anti-Halloween.
Last edited by MillennialUrbanist; 10-30-2019 at 09:13 AM..
I live in an apartment building, which I'm sure is a gold mine for trick-or-treating. You have dozens of apartments in the same area normally occupied by less than 10 houses.
Not really, because apartment buildings are usually inaccessible to anyone but the residents. That can actually be a perk if you don't want to hand out candy, because you're not expected to, but probably sucks if you do want to hand it out.
The trend I hate now is that those of us giving out treats are supposed to ensure everything is allergen-free or some angry parent will show up at your house the next day to tell you that you tried to kill their child. Pretty soon nobody will be handing out treats anymore. I also can't stand the trend of putting out different colors of pumpkins to coordinate with different allergy issues, because the parents should inspect all their child's candy and throw out whatever they can't have. This should all be on the parents. Until it is, I'm not going to participate. We haven't handed out candy in years. There is too much liability now. I also don't like the political correctness that is enforced now about costumes that children wear. It's not like most of the choose their costume anyway, or might not be aware of any issues (example: dressing up as a witch is offensive to Wiccans).
The trend I hate now is that those of us giving out treats are supposed to ensure everything is allergen-free or some angry parent will show up at your house the next day to tell you that you tried to kill their child. Pretty soon nobody will be handing out treats anymore.
I know that's your attempt at hyperbole, but that's absolutely untrue. No one is expected to provide treats that are allergen free, though there are people who appreciate the few people that go that extra mile.
I know that's your attempt at hyperbole, but that's absolutely untrue. No one is expected to provide treats that are allergen free, though there are people who appreciate the few people that go that extra mile.
I agree. While it's probably too much to ask nowadays, it's on the parents to check the candy before letting the kids eat it. And older kids, who I'm sure will eat the candy while trick-or-treating, are generally aware of their own allergies. I go with the trend by not handing out candy containing peanuts or other tree nuts (which excludes Snickers and Almond Joy), but that's about it. I hand out stuff like 3 Musketeers, gummy candy, and Warheads (to older kids only).
I'm glad I came of age in a time when trick-or-treating was a fun, semi-innocent activity, and not something rife with political correctness.
I remember that too. We'd be out for at least 3 or 4 hours. Always until at least 8pm or even 9pm. I get sad seeing kids run around in the daylight until only what, like 7 if even that anymore. To me the trunk or treating thing would just be boring. I'm glad I grew up at least when I did! Too many wierdos out there sharing ideas, I suppose. My mother would tell me when she and her brothers would go out right after school and run all over the area until 10pm. That would be awesome. Probably not going to back to that, at least not anytime soon.
Yeah, it was always on Halloween day the 31st too no matter what day of the week it fell on. I completely disagree with the idea of having it on a certain Saturday or whatever. That is so lame in my opinion. The 26th of October isn't Halloween, sorry. I guess obviously people have the other opinion.
I had to look up "trunk or treating" - and I have to agree with you: how boring. The joy of Halloween was to come up with a great, interesting, creative costume, (not a pre-made one from the store), put it on, get your bag, and start walking around the neighborhood, knocking on doors. My favorite was when the adults got into it. And while they may decorate their cars for this new version, it just isn't the same.
I remember one Halloween, I was no more than 6 or 7 because we still lived in CA at the time, we walked up to a neighbor's house, it was all dark with a dark blue light. We rang the doorbell, the parent opened the door. It was all dark inside the house, too, and the only way we could see him was with that dark blue light from outside. He was dressed like the grim reaper but you couldn't see his face, his hands, and he was obviously standing or walking on something to make him way taller than he was. He said not one word. Just "stared" at us with his faceless face. After a moment of him just standing there, he slowly dropped candy into our bags or plastic pumpkins, and you still couldn't see his hands.
Freaked me out. I was scared, but at the same time, I was giggling like a lunatic. It's like the thrill you get on a roller coaster - scared, but having the time of your life. I will never forget that set up and his complete dedication to the role he was playing.
For me, it was fun to go door to door to see who lived in all the houses around me - people that I either didn't know at all, or people I knew but didn't know where they lived. And it was always dark when we went out.
I do feel bad for kids these days who don't get to do that. Some areas they still do that. When I stayed with my brother in Houston, the little kids still came by like we used to do. I didn't think I wanted to even acknowledge I was home, but my brother wanted me to greet them since he would be away. After the first group of kids came by, I realized I was looking forward to the next group. It was fun to see them all dressed up in costumes, screaming "trick or treat!" and skipping down the driveway after they got their goods. If I had known it was going to be that fun, I would have gotten into it with my own costume, and did what I could to look scary like that parent did way back when I was about 6/7 years old.
Not really, because apartment buildings are usually inaccessible to anyone but the residents. That can actually be a perk if you don't want to hand out candy, because you're not expected to, but probably sucks if you do want to hand it out.
True. But during trick-or-treating hours, kids often tailgate existing residents, or get buzzed in by someone they know and visit other apartments in the process. Tailgating is normally frowned upon, but is tolerated on Halloween day.
When I was a kid in the 60s, the kids who went to Catholic school had All Saint’s Day as a holiday. Always frosted us public school kids who couldn’t stay out as late on Halloween as they did.
Someone above said we haven’t screwed up Thanksgiving yet. Not so sure about that, when stores open in the afternoon for pre-Black Friday sales and serving time for dinner must be carefully coordinated with half time of an NFL game on TV.
Yeah, but it was a Holy Day of Obligation and we had to go to Mass.
We also had half-days every Wednesday so the little public school heathens could get some religious ed, lol.
Where I grew up, the public school kids got all the Jewish Holidays, plus the usual secular holidays, plus Christmas and a full week at Easter. I think it all worked out to the same number of mandatory attendance days the state required.
We were city kids -- Trick-or-Treated in and out of apartment buildings. You could get a lot of Trick-or-Treating done in a single square block. Plus everyone knew everyone, the moms all knew all the kids, kept an eye out.
I get the Trunk-or-Treat thing, though, after raising kids in a suburb. Too many strangers around, too many kids from other neighborhoods driving into ours, too many kids too old to be Trick-or-Treating, too many kids out late still ringing doorbells. Just got to be a PIA. Easier and safer for working moms to have the one thing to take the kids to.
Maybe the purpose of having multiple events is so that working families can find one event that everyone can attend?
Like most holidays, it's all so commercial, and too many kids are being brought up with a gimme-gimme attitude, grabbing handfuls of candy, pushing little kids out of the way, not saying thank you. Sometimes not even saying Trick-or-Treat. Just grab and go, on to the next. Ugh.
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