Trick or Treat has been ruined by greedy parents!

[HardyGirl]

I think I had about 30 tonight. Gave out Oriental Trader toys.

[starsky]

no one showed up over here. boooooo!!

[enyawd72]

no one showed up over here. boooooo!!

I'd have gladly sent you a 100 or so if I could...LOL

[Earth 2 Chris]

It could be that you have a neighborhood that look safe, so it's gotten around to parents that it's a good place to go. There are a few streets in my town that are jammed pack, and others are barren for this very reason.

Chris

[Spawn67]

That's funny cause we're I live we had a whopping 2 trick or treaters and there's lots of kids in this neighborhood. It's weird cause my friends nowdays either get a lot or none like me. I guess it's just regulated to certain neighborhoods nowdays at least where I live. In the neighborhood I grew up in there were hundreds of kids out and about when I was a kid and now there's none. Oh well now I have bags of candy for the next couple months..

[Hedji]

I can sympathize with you, Dwayne. But now I'll try to put a positive spin on it. I guess take comfort in knowing you live in a nice neighborhood where people feel safe to come to trick or treat. Kids from other neighborhoods come to my house too. It helps that my yard decorations are like a beacon. Shuttling of trick or treaters happens everywhere. I can't excuse parents for taking candy for their babies, but the whole tradition of Trick or Treat is sort of rooted in greed when you think about it. I'm more bothered by kids who (likely because of uninspired parenting) don't have a costume. I think Laziness bothers me more than Greed when it comes to Halloween. I'd gladly give out 800 pieces of candy to 800 kids who did their best coming up with costumes that are fun to see. Also, Trick or Treat has really evolved in my town with more emphasis on the treats and less on vandalism. So, if your house didn't get egged, or your pumpkins smashed on your parked car, you can look on the bright side.

Maybe don't give up altogether. Maybe next year plan on getting the cheapest lollipops you can find. Or you could probably go today and get them for 50% off. Save them for a year; they'll still be good. Your other choice is to go out on Halloween, like all the parents in John Carpenter's film. But that could leave your house susceptible and unprotected.

Sorry you didn't have a good night. That's a bummer. Tell those costumeless kids to have some Halloween Spirit!

[palitoy]

Do your neighbours do something special?

We got maybe 25 kids but two blocks over, the whole neighbourhood goes mental with haunted houses and people in costume popping up. It's a pride thing and they get REALLY into it. My daughter got about ten full sized bars last night.

As a result, this thing is a beacon and there were cars and families from all over, my wife recognized kids from her school and that's not near us at all. Parents were in costume with their kids, it was just a big Halloween celebration.

It was actually kind of magical.

[warlock664]

I hate it when the various communities around me have Trick or Treat on different nights; we always get those carloads of out-of-the-area kids when that happens. My community always has it on the last Saturday before Halloween, but the surrounding areas vary from year to year. This year everyone had it Saturday night, so our attendance was markedly down. I will never understand why parents would want their kids going multiple nights.

[rykerw1701]

Do your neighbours do something special?

We got maybe 25 kids but two blocks over, the whole neighbourhood goes mental with haunted houses and people in costume popping up. It's a pride thing and they get REALLY into it. My daughter got about ten full sized bars last night.

As a result, this thing is a beacon and there were cars and families from all over, my wife recognized kids from her school and that's not near us at all. Parents were in costume with their kids, it was just a big Halloween celebration.

It was actually kind of magical.

It was the same thing by me. We got about 40 or so kids, but one street over on the other side of the train tracks is a street that's become the town epicenter for Halloween. Phenomenal jobs of decorating all up and down the street, like a competition, with the home owners generally outside having parties and giving away candy, often full size bars. It's a really fun atmosphere. As a whole, Trick or Treating has picked up around me when for a while it seemed like something from a bygone era.

[LonnieFisher]

I'm sad that we only got one child to come to the door. There are two kids who live next door, that didn't come over. One neighbor had spooky organ music playing, and nobody came around. We got six bags of candy, and only one piece taken.

[JediJaida]

No one came last night. There was a big party for the kids, so they skipped the trick or treat. Nice and quiet.

[Donkey Hoatie]

We got maybe 15-20 kids total last night, which is about par for the course, since we live in a portion of the suburbs that's cut off from the other neighborhoods by a big park (Sleepy Hollow Park). I've never seen any of those parent caravans, but I've heard of others getting them. Dunno, guess that's just the new normal for some folks. Next year, I think I'm going all-in and buying a couple boxes of the full-size bars and a couple dozen bottles of mini liquor. Might as well try to become a "destination house" for Halloween.

I know some people have issues with the older kids out trick-or-treating. I've never had a problem with it. When I think of all the things teenagers/high schoolers could be out there doing on Halloween, dressing up in costumes and getting candy seems like it's pretty harmless and tame.

[enyawd72]

I can sympathize with you, Dwayne. But now I'll try to put a positive spin on it. I guess take comfort in knowing you live in a nice neighborhood where people feel safe to come to trick or treat. Kids from other neighborhoods come to my house too. It helps that my yard decorations are like a beacon. Shuttling of trick or treaters happens everywhere. I can't excuse parents for taking candy for their babies, but the whole tradition of Trick or Treat is sort of rooted in greed when you think about it. I'm more bothered by kids who (likely because of uninspired parenting) don't have a costume. I think Laziness bothers me more than Greed when it comes to Halloween. I'd gladly give out 800 pieces of candy to 800 kids who did their best coming up with costumes that are fun to see. Also, Trick or Treat has really evolved in my town with more emphasis on the treats and less on vandalism. So, if your house didn't get egged, or your pumpkins smashed on your parked car, you can look on the bright side.

Maybe don't give up altogether. Maybe next year plan on getting the cheapest lollipops you can find. Or you could probably go today and get them for 50% off. Save them for a year; they'll still be good. Your other choice is to go out on Halloween, like all the parents in John Carpenter's film. But that could leave your house susceptible and unprotected.

Sorry you didn't have a good night. That's a bummer. Tell those costumeless kids to have some Halloween Spirit!

Maybe you're right...maybe I'm just being a crotchety old party pooper. There were some GREAT costumes. I still wish people from out of town wouldn't come. I just don't agree with that. It would help a lot if all the local communities held trick or treat on the same night, at the same time. You could tell by some teen's school jackets that they were coming from neighboring towns 15-20 miles away.

[enyawd72]

I know some people have issues with the older kids out trick-or-treating. I've never had a problem with it. When I think of all the things teenagers/high schoolers could be out there doing on Halloween, dressing up in costumes and getting candy seems like it's pretty harmless and tame.

Good point...I never thought of it that way. I was too busy shaking my old man fist at those durn kids!

[Hedji]

Do your neighbours do something special?

We got maybe 25 kids but two blocks over, the whole neighbourhood goes mental with haunted houses and people in costume popping up. It's a pride thing and they get REALLY into it. My daughter got about ten full sized bars last night.

As a result, this thing is a beacon and there were cars and families from all over, my wife recognized kids from her school and that's not near us at all. Parents were in costume with their kids, it was just a big Halloween celebration.

It was actually kind of magical.

I love this perspective. I've been trying with my modest, but well-lit outside display to be the catalyst for our neighborhood. We do the full size bars, and I set up chairs in my driveway for the kids to watch classic Bugs Bunny/Mickey Mouse/Woody Woodpecker Halloween cartoons projected on my Garage door. (The best part was seeing my neighbors all with blankets watching cartoons and one girl saying she looks forward to the cartoons every year.) I usually dress up in one of my cosplay costumes (Stormtrooper last night). But it's not really catching on with my neighbors. For the second biggest selling holiday behind Christmas, you'd think more kids and families would show some effort and spirit. As a parent, I can say, they're only young once, and yeah it should be magical for them.