[Shared by Cast Away With Dreams]
As someone who has grown up never celebrating Halloween, I struggle at this time of year to see what the point of it all is.
Children parading around knocking on doors begging for sweets, when at other times of the year they’re told not to talk to strangers.
On this day, though, they’re actively encouraged to go out and approach strangers houses. Then if they’re refused sweets, it’s the norm to pull a silly prank.
Egging Mrs Bloggs’ house as she didn’t answer her door? Tying string from one house door to another? All okay to do, apparently if it’s Halloween.
So what if Mrs Bloggs is elderly and didn’t want to open her door as she lives alone and feels vulnerable at all the people roaming the street dressed up and demanding sweets with menaces?
Doesn’t stop them, does it?!
I don’t see the point in celebrating death and evil, either. Surely there are much ‘nicer’ things to celebrate?!
I have two young children, aged 4 and 8. They’ve never been trick or treating, and I’m reluctant to let them start. Why go out into the cold knocking on strangers doors when we can have a nice cosy night in?
To counter-act the lack of trick or treating, and so that they do have something special and nice to do on Halloween, we do something that we call ‘Spooky Tea.’
We’ll even buy a Halloween tablecloth for the occasion.
Tea last year was monster mash and witches fingers (mashed potatoes made green with all the peas in it! 
) and witches fingers were sausages with a slice cut off the end, and a slice of red pepper for the fingernail. The other end was dipped in tomato ketchup so it looked like blood.
Then dessert will be buns that we have baked earlier that day, and decorated with ‘spooky icing’, such as spiders webs.
Marks and Spencer’s do a great range in Halloween sweets and crisps as well.
Who needs trick or treating when you’ve got a scary tea party going instead?!
I only do it for the kids, mind you – if it was up to me we’d be sat in the dark pretending we’re not in when the Trick or Treaters came a’knocking.
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I wasn’t allowed to go begging when I was younger either. My brother and I got dressed up (in a fashion – dark clothes and maybe a pointy hat or cheap plastic mask) and mom did a bit of face-painting.
My brother and I then went about entertaining ourselves for a few hours by making halloween type things and ‘spooky’ tapes’ to play if someone did knock at the door.
I remember we did Trick or Treating once – my sister and I – back in 1980. We came back with loads of sweets, I’d have been ten, her six or seven – and my mum shouted at us, telling us we were beggars and how dare we do that. It kind of put me off for life.
I’m all for celebrating Halloween, though I won’t be quite as extreme should H choose to celebrate it in some way when she’s older. Or at least I hope I won’t…
We never Trick or Treated when I was younger either- my dad was brought up Catholic so it kind of went against everything he believed in. Didn’t bode too well when he refused people treats though- the worst occasion I remember was when I was 14 and some lad from my school threw stones at the house.
Now I have Isaac, and I’m all for a bit of crafting and dress up, I’ll probably make my garden a bit ‘spooky’ and offer sweets out for a couple of hours. As he gets older I know there are several ladies with kids the same age living nearby so we’ll just knock on each others doors and not disturb other people.
Halloween is also the perfect excuse to eat pumpkin by the ton, which is fine by me!!
My kids do go trick or treating and it’s good fun – I go with them BUT we only go to people we know. Our elderly neighbours love to see them all dressed up and actually make up bags of sweets with their names on especially for them! I don’t agree with knocking on strangers’ doors, kids going out alone or actual tricking. They say trick or treat, but only ever show off their costumes and get given a few sweets!
So when I see kids walking around saying “penny for the guy” that is not begging? I think you can’t blame a holiday for the behaviour of individuals. It is more a failure of society.
As a child I went trick or treating, and it was a community run activity and we only knocked on doors that we knew; doors of other families who were taking part. There was never any egging or other behaviour; and I lived on a council estate.
It is the same now that I have my own children. If your family wants to participate, you place your pumpkin outside, lit up. Then families walk their littles around (and the older children walk themselves) to the pumpkin houses, knock on the doors (although usually the people are already outside with the sweets, waiting) and show off their costumes to shrieks of delight. It might sound twee, but there is no begging involved, the children just love to dress up and show off their costumes. I don’t understand why a drama has to be made out of every opportunity to celebrate having fun. It doesn’t have to be deep or meaningful and Hallowe’en celebrating means nothing more to our family than a chance to dress up, be silly and make food look like ghosts, bats and other creatures.
Last year my son was 2 and I was pregnant, we sat on our tiny lawn and he loved handing out sweets to everyone. Like Paddy says on TV, no likey, no lighty!
That sounds like your assuming all trick or treaters are a bunch of youths. My little ones goes to the same friends and neighbours every single year. It’s all Pre- arranged and there is no begging nor strangers. When you live in a community things like this can be fun. Mums take there children and no eggs are thrown.
I do understand what your saying through we had our door egged last year which scared little man and today some bigger kids can be nasty. However I do think if you think it is a pointless horrible holiday maybe you should also skip the spooky tea… standing by what you believe in
We were never allowed to go trick or treating as children, and it was scary when people knocked on our door. We used to pretend we were out, or my mum would feign ignorance which totally confused people. I think if you’re willing to have kids turn up then there should be a sign like having pumpkins outside, or having had it agreed within the community which houses are taking part (easier in villages where people know each other).
Luckily we now live in the middle of nowhere so never get people coming round. My son won’t be going trick or treating when he’s old enough although a halloween party’s fun enough.