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Kids love Halloween. As adults we tend to forget just how exciting it was to dress up and trick or treat. Besides, where I grew up, tricks were the night before and not as a result of not getting candy. We called it Goosey Night, which is a name that will be recognized only by people who grew up very close to where I did (she said mysteriously). I actually even soaped a few car windows in my day. The "bad kids" threw eggs...that was pretty much the extent of it.
We used to “corn” houses. We’d strip the kernels off field corn into small bags, pack them into our pockets, run around the neighborhood and throw handfuls of kernels at picture windows, doors, what ever. Made a heck of a racket, dads would come out and holler at us from the front porch.
Birds and squirrels got some food, we had a blast, no harm was done.
In contrast, I have a friend who turns off all of the lights in her house and hides (her term) in a backroom watching TV until trick or treat hours are done.
Back in the 50's, in my neighborhood, this friend of yours would have been very busy the next day cleaning the soap off her windows and pulling the toilet paper from her trees/bushes. Back in those days, we carried soap and toilet paper with us on our rounds, and knowing that, just about everybody passed out candy, or else!
When I tell trick or treaters that today, they're absolutely shocked! One year, when I was the only one on my street passing out candy, I even offered a couple of them soap bars, but neither of them would take them, for fear of being arrested. Won't these kids make great revolutionaries some day!!!
I'm now living in a 55+ community and, sadly, trick or treaters are not allowed in here. I will sorely miss them. What I plan to do is buy some candy and go to a neighboring free style neighborhood and give it to someone passing out candy, as an extra giveway, so I won't feel so guilty!
One fun thing about living next to colonial Williamsburg is the kids can trick or treat in the colonial area. "Colonial halloween" is pretty cool looking, and CW goes out of their way to put up decorations and lots of interestingly carved pumpkins. The horses are painted to look like skeleton horses (very cool looking, and the horses love it. The paint feels good to them.) The kids can go in and out of the restored buildings and get candy from the re-enactors, who have appropriately somewhat-ghoulish-yet-colonial makeup. Meanwhile the adults have a costume ball in the governor's palace. They only do this for a few hours, and then the town returns to it's normal routine--but for those few hours it's awesome.
After moving from a very rural area (500 ft driveway) I am now one house from the town common. Last year I expected a lot of kids, got TWO. I will still put the light on this year, but within walking distance, the school, library, and fire station all have events, so.....��
One fun thing about living next to colonial Williamsburg is the kids can trick or treat in the colonial area. "Colonial halloween" is pretty cool looking, and CW goes out of their way to put up decorations and lots of interestingly carved pumpkins. The horses are painted to look like skeleton horses (very cool looking, and the horses love it. The paint feels good to them.) The kids can go in and out of the restored buildings and get candy from the re-enactors, who have appropriately somewhat-ghoulish-yet-colonial makeup. Meanwhile the adults have a costume ball in the governor's palace. They only do this for a few hours, and then the town returns to it's normal routine--but for those few hours it's awesome.
Wow, the Williamsburg traditon sounds great and what great memories for those kids. My biggest memories consist of the year the guy who drove a truck for Wonder Bread passed out mini loaves of bread, the house that had a display of candy and you picked a number to see what you got and the year my little brother was SO little he was dragging his paper bag on the ground and did not realize that by the time he got home there was a hole in the bottom and all of his candy was gone. Fortunately for him, he had three siblings and we all shared from our hauls (under duress from our parents, I am sure). I recall agonizing over giving him a Butterfinger (my favorite, before I became a vegan) which was a full-size candy bar in those days. Who decided that making candy smaller made it "FUN size?" What is fun about less candy??!!
Wow, the Williamsburg traditon sounds great and what great memories for those kids. !
It's pretty awesome, and definitely more interesting for the kids than our neighborhood would be. So, win win! We can wander over to the restored area and see hundreds of kids having fun, without having to deal with them on our street.
Here's a youtube to give you an idea of it. It was from 2 years ago, when they also had a "Curse of the Sea Witch" event, which doesn't always happen. So ignore the pirates, it's the trick or treaters and the painted horses that I'm showing you.
I used to like having trick or treaters. It was fun to see the little guys and girls in their costumes. We would always get a few WAY too old kids, like upper teens and we'd give them candy but give them a bit of stink-eye for not even attempting to make a costume other than some bad attempt at zombie makeup. Then we moved to the country, 5 acre+ properties on dark, twisty roads with 300+ foot driveways. So no trick or treaters there. And after that we've moved to a community that is primarily retirees, so very few children in the neighborhood, no little tykes at all, so no trick or treaters here either.
I've never liked Halloween, either as a child or an adult. To be honest I always hope for rain on October 31st from noon until midnight. I definitely am one of the lights-off, hide in another room, people.
As a child I never enjoyed it because my mom always made me wear a coat over whatever costume I had chosen (which was embarassing and defeated the entire point); many allergies meant that I wasn't allowed to eat any candy until I got home and it was checked first to make sure no nuts or chocolate; and I always felt that the whole procedure was (as my British aunt once put it) "just like poor children going door to door begging for food." So I went for a few years during grade school and then stopped. It was just not any kind of fun, IMO.
As an adult homeowner starting in the 1970s, I resented that if one didn't hand out treats there'd be retribution in the form of eggs, paintball shots, toilet paper, firecrackers in the mailbox, etc. IMHO that's not "harmless fun", sorry, it's vandalism. Call it what it is.
I hate that in my current house the car has to be in the driveway (no usable garage) and so I worry about it bigtime on Halloween night. At least in all my previous houses the car was in the garage. And this year it's a brand new car, not the 15 year old one I got rid of in January. I wonder if it's too late to order a car cover from Amazon? lol
I hope to be spared this year though, because due to exterior remodeling I will need to cordon off the front of the house and the yard directly in front. There are big holes due to recent excavations in the process of settling and the ground and walkway are either unstable or very broken up. It's an accident/lawsuit waiting to happen and so I'll be putting red Danger tape all around it which hopefully will get the message across. Someone walking across the yard from the street or on the sinking front walkway could easily fall and hurt themselves, especially after dark. Due to the remodeling there are no working lights on the front of the house either. Everything's pretty much ripped out/up and won't be finished until mid November.
By the time i was 10 or so, i was done with Halloween. I never really enjoyed it. In the 60s you could still give apples, popcorn balls and the like. I never liked the "chewy gummy " candy anyway.( Bit-o-honey, tootsie rolls, etc.) Never much cared for gum either. Never liked lollipops.
I hung in as i had a sibling who was 4 years younger i took around, who loved it and trick or treated till 18 when mother said "no more ".
Since i didnt enjoy the hallabaloo as a kid. I havent, as an adult, ever but once given out candy on Halloween.
Im so glad that they came out with the "lights on for candy" rule.
When we got together, my OH would love Halloween, but that faded within 4 years. Why? Because the kids would come around repeat times, the older kids didnt bother to dress up, and we lived in a mobile home park, and people from all over would drop off kids as it was considered "easy pickins".
So even now my OH hates Halloween. My OH liked a Halloween decoration, at Walmart the the other day, but said " it'll attract kids and i dont want that".
So, NO we dont do halloween, keep our lights off and go to bed extra early on Halloween.
Plus. Neither of us ever had kids, so we never participated in it any way.
Im so glad that they came out with the "lights on for candy" rule.
Wow, I didn't even know there was such a rule. Is it really a thing? (if so, great!)
Honestly if someone were to ask me which holiday I dislike the most, I'd say "I hate Halloween" with no hesitation.
I used to make costumes for my son when he was in grade school, because he always wanted to be somebody for whom there was NO ready-made costume on the market. For example, Gambit from the X-Men one year, and Mr. Mistoffelees from Cats another. Or he'd want something more generic but the readymade ones all looked like garbage. Because the ones I made were pretty elaborate we'd go to the local photographer for a picture when they were done. When he was 3 years old he wanted to be Luke Skywalker (that was an easy costume to make but a working lightsaber was kind of a challenge) but insisted that I be in the picture as Princess Leia. That was the only time since grade school that I've ever worn a costume. (Carrie Fisher had zero worries about competition from me, LOL)
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Solly says — Be nice!
Won't these kids make great revolutionaries some day!!!
