Since we've been living on our own, we've been in and out of apartment complexes each year—without a single Trick-or-Treat'er to be seen. The costumed tots usually stick to house-lined streets to meet their candy quota. But if you've just moved up from renting an apartment to owning a house, you've got a lot to learn about Trick-or-Treating Halloween etiquette. Lesson one: The Porch Light Code
Ever since we were a little Ninja Turtle (Donatello, four years in a row), there's been unofficial rules to trick-or-treating safely. Rule #1: Only approach well-lit, decorated homes.
A major clue that a homeowner is game to dish out treats on Halloween is if their porch light—or driveway light—is on and blazing in the October dusk. If the lights were off, we knew they were out of candy or off having some grown-up Halloween fun.
So even though you might ordinarily leave your outside lights on to guide you to the door after an all-night bender, it's best to leave it off on October 31st, or your doorbell will get a workout with unwanted visitors all night.
And make sure you've turned off any motion sensor lights, too.
Now, on the other hand, if you're excited about your first homeowner Halloween and eager to hand out candy to your first Trick-or-Treaters, we have some advice for you: Turn on your porch light and go for the full-size Snickers. You'll be the most popular house on the block.
(images: Flickr user peffs under license from Creative Commons, Flickr user ChiBart under license from Creative Commons)
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Agreed. Halloween is the greatest holiday and I can't wait to move on from the apartment life and spoil Trick-or-Treaters with king sized Reese's Cups.
My first Halloween not in an apartment complex, I was really excited to see kids dressed up. Growing up in the middle of the country (about 2 miles from the closest town of 900), we never had trick or treaters. Then I moved to the city, turned on my porch light and waited for little witches and ghouls. I got a few adorable kids, but I'm pretty sure I got more teenagers. And they didn't even have on costumes! So from that point on I quit turning my light on. Am I crazy in thinking that once you reach a certain age, you shouldn't be trick or treating?
Why? Were you going to run out of candy if you gave it out to people over your cut off age? Crazy for not giving out candy to anyone out the the fear someone you find undeserving might get candy too? A little.
You must obey porch light etiquette! Or....I will ring the door bell A LOT and knock REALLY LOUD before heading to the next house
You're never too old for Halloween!
You might never be too old for Halloween but there is an age limit for trick or treating.
Last year I ran out of candy (6 large bags) by 6:30pm because half of the people I gave it to were the adults chaperoning the little kids. Or the I've got an infant in my arms/stroller/at home.
Not this year, costumed children only.
I give candy out to everybody that comes by. I'm afraid that if I say "sorry, you're too old and where the heck is your costume?" to the wrong group of kids that something bad will happen to my house (either that night or in the coming days)...
How about giving candy AND "where the heck's your costume?"
Yeah, half-arsed teens can be a pain; and getting your house egged is not fun (seriously, why do people encourage their kids to egg houses?!) Maybe there's a happy medium somewhere in here. Me? I just buy a bag of Tootsie Rolls in addition to the "good" candy. That way everyone gets candy, and I can passive-aggressively punish the non-costume wearers :-)
My take on trick-or-treat etiquette.
http://queenofthefall.blogspot.com/2010/10/trick-or-treating-etiquette.html
I live in the city neighborhood area, we call it the "Fan", mostly residental, there's a couple shops/markets here and there. On Halloween they shut down the cross streets to Hanover Ave for the length of the road and ALL the kids from the area come and trick-or-treat there. It is like Mardi-Gras for kids, and instead of beer and beads, it's candy and costumes. I think it saves the kids from fruitless trick-or-treating at the college kid's keg party, and saves the residents that don't give out the candy from being disturbed. The residents on the street go all out decorating and stocking up on candy. I lived on the street for a while and the land lady told us she went thorugh $300 the previous year. It's incredible.
what do I do about the people who return repeatedly for treats? I've had the same people come around 5-6 times.
Buy a bag or two of the crappy candy for the no costumes & repeat offenders :-) Something like Good N' Plenty or those nasty no name orange & black ones
What's your least favorite?
Personally, I don't care so much about the age of the trick-or-treater; if you went to the effort of putting together a (decent) costume, you deserve a candy from me. Besides, the little ones always come out either before dark or just when it gets dark--the older teens or whatever tend to come out a little later anyways, so I've never had an issue with running out of candy for the little ones because the older kids came and got it all.
Mind you, I live in an area that is very old (demographically, I mean) and only recently have there been younger families that can afford to live in this area so I almost always have candy left over. It's kind of disappointing, since I love seeing all the kids dressed up in cool costumes having fun. Hallowe'en was by far my favourite holiday as a kid.
Fortunately, we'll be living in a very young, cool area outside Toronto next Hallowe'en so I can't wait to stock up on decorations.
DH & I are looking forward to taking our baby trick or treating when we have one. But I plan to tell people just to give him/her one piece or none at all because geez...it IS a baby who can't eat candy. Save the candy for the older kids who can enjoy it. For us it would mainly be about experiencing Halloween with our little one & showing him/her off in their costume. :)
I really don't get the vitriol towards older people who take the time to dress up for Halloween. I can see not giving candy to people who don't bother to dress up - but if someone wants to put on a costume and go door-to-door for fun, why do you care? I think refusing to give candy to costumed people because they're over your arbitrarily set "acceptable age" is mean-spirited.
I agree with giving the older ones less candy or not as good of candy. I trick or treated a little older than I probably should have with my little sisters and wasn't really upset even if I wasn't given candy (I think that happened once) but I know other kids my age would have been. Also, if you give repeat trick or treaters junky candy the 2nd time around, they're less likely to want to make a 3rd trip to your house!
And it's silly to think that little troublemaker kids don't exist in the US. We stopped carving pumpkins when we were kids because my mom got tired of having them smashed by neighborhood kids that wanted to cause trouble. They knocked over Christmas yard decorations... too. That was a mid-range neighborhood (price wise) but even in their neighborhood now which is a nice one, there's a teenager a few doors down who has stolen things and spray painted an innapropriate picture on their fence... a stranger- My family has never spoken to the kid.
Wait, a Tootsie Roll is punishment?! I'm sorry but Tootsie Rolls are all shades of awesome.* You want "punishment candy" for Halloween, go Raisinets or candy corn. Yeah, I just said candy corn. That's your punishment candy right there.
*Exception given to the fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls. I just shut my eyes and pretend they don't exist.
@reginamonster I love the fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls! You can just send them all to me :D
I wasn't even allowed to Trick or Treat until I was 18 years old because of my minister father. I made a costume and excitedly ran out to do so and some little old lady yelled at me. =( Her next door neighbor said not to worry though...she'd seen an old man out trick or treating by himself earlier hahah.
@Reinamonster = awesomeness! I heart you!