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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.
Yep, this. Our church does a pretty cool Trunk-or-Treat. Plus, Catholics notoriously morphed existing pagan holidays into religious holidays as part of their, uh, early "outreach" program, haha. All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day are the perfect example of this.
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.
Actually, it was the Catholics who put Hallowe'en (All Hallows Eve) on the map, so to speak. Catholics, outside of some outlier traditionalists, SSPXers, sedevacantists, et al., are totally fine with Halloween (aka Hallowe'en, All Hallows Eve).
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.
The only color pumpkin I know of is blue for Autism. And it is not because of allergies, but just as a cue to those handing out candy as to why this particular trick or treater might not be saying "TRICK OR TREAT!", telling a joke, or talking about their costume.
Otherwise, no I've never heard of anyone being expected to buy certain treats. My brother is allergic to nuts. All that meant at Halloween was that I got to take all his candy that contained nuts. Those are my favorite candies, so it was great to still get a lot of candy once I felt I was too old to trick or treat.
I am fine with either one of those. A few years ago, I did a Truck and Treat with the big church I used to go to and had a great time decorating my black Jeep with pumpkin window clings and handing out candy. My son, a couple of his friends (they were teenagers), and my sister were with me. My son and his friends still went out on Halloween.
I also always enjoyed taking my son out trick or treating. This year, the G'babies are going to a Truck and Treat after they go around to a few houses in the neighborhood.
The only color pumpkin I know of is blue for Autism. And it is not because of allergies, but just as a cue to those handing out candy as to why this particular trick or treater might not be saying "TRICK OR TREAT!", telling a joke, or talking about their costume.
Otherwise, no I've never heard of anyone being expected to buy certain treats. My brother is allergic to nuts. All that meant at Halloween was that I got to take all his candy that contained nuts. Those are my favorite candies, so it was great to still get a lot of candy once I felt I was too old to trick or treat.
I haven't heard of blue autism pumpkins, but good to keep in mind if I see a child carrying one. I take it it means I shouldn't jokingly reverse the roles: that is say "trick of treat" first while answering the door in a costume. It might unsettle the poor kid, rather than make him/her laugh, like it would with a mainstream kid.
Speaking of your brother's allergies, there are teal pumpkins for that. When displayed at a house, it means they hand out allergy-friendly treats, usually small toys or trinkets, but possibly also dried fruits. When carried by the child (instead of the regular orange pumpkin), it means that child has an allergy, and can't have typical Halloween candy.
Here in St. Louis, we're expecting wet sloppy snow tomorrow night.
I can definitely see the desire for trunk or treating. And I think I bought way way too much candy.
There is only a possibility of snow in the morning. By the time trick or treating starts, any wet weather will be long gone. It'll be cold, but I remember plenty of cold Halloweens as a child. I don't think a little cold weather will stop many children from getting free candy.
Especially since a lot of trunk or treat events got rained out over the weekend.
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.
A slightly tamer version for Trunk or Treat, but one of my fellow parishioners had a candy bowl "guarded" by a plastic cobra. There was an electric eye hidden somewhere because if you reached for the candy it "struck" at your hand. Most of the kids loved that.
I'm not a fan of trunk or treat. Growing up, we probably trick or treated maybe 15 houses total. We got candy, but never had the problem of getting too much candy like my kids do.
There have been several notes sent around about the blue and teal pumpkins. I buy candy and you pretty much get what you get. I don't turn anyone away from the door even if they are a big kid.
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.
Yes I too am glad I got to experience the last years of the real Halloweens. We were out from 6-9 and walked blocks around our home. Parents seldom drove. Big paper supermarket bags filled with candy and treats and full size bars and money. That was a treat.
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Originally Posted by HappyFarm34
I agree with his perspective of the old-fashioned trick-or-treating. I think the old fashioned way works best for those who live in a busy neighborhood or subdivision.
Out in rural areas where houses spaced far in between, it's much more time consuming although, the candy or goody bags are usually better from personal experience growing up. I remember spending 3 hours trick-or-treating with my parents driving up and down driveways for me and my siblings to knock on doors to get candy. Then driving to a neighborhood where there were a bunch of houses. Even then we'd have to run up and down the driveway. And just because the porch light is on, doesn't mean they're home. My siblings and I were bummed going up to a house and nobody was home lol
Trunk-or-treating is less work. lol It's fun seeing all the decorated trunks. Some are very creative and well done. And for families with small children, it's probably easier on them. Helping kids getting in and out of their car seats/booster seats is a lot of work. Back in the day, we didn't have those laws that required kids to be in one. Kids just hopped in and out of the car.
And usually, with trunk-or-treating, there's other activities going on as well.
Yes today homes are further apart hence the driving. Yes with a toddler in a car seat a lot of hassle. Trunk or treats do seem ok today and are usually with other activities in a school or church parking lot , and the schools or churches sponsor booths as well for prizes and stuff.
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Originally Posted by hertfordshire
My objection is that Halloween has gone from a one-night event to a weeks long ordeal. There were trunk or treats (or other similar events) in my area last weekend, last week, this weekend, and of course all this week. It’s gotten crazy.
I agree with this that it’s gotten bigger and crazier every year. I believe Halloween should be celebrated on the 31, no matter what night it falls. I can see people having private Halloween parties at work or home throughout the month depending on when you can fit things in, but I think communities should just have the trick or treat stuff on Halloween night. Only exception would be the Pumpkin Patches throughout town.
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