All in the land of the free.

Meh, times have changed. Might be time to just end Halloween. Have a costume party open to the public instead. Our kids don't need pounds of sugary candy, they barely exercise as it is.

And getting treats used to be a special occasion, now it's near pointless imho.

Ymmv.

They sure Have! In the 60s, we went for UNICEF, Not Candy.
Raising funds for Children in need around the world.
Todays climate is not that.

It's a fun thing for kids. I have noticed a decline in trick or treaters over the years. Could just be my neighborhood too. Was always fun to see the decorations and compete with your friends to see who could get more. Ah youth....

If the weather is nice...approximately 250, (last 20 plus years) if it's frigged cold and rainy, maybe 75 ..depends on your neighborhood.
Kids around here have always been appreciative to us houses that bring in the fun of Halloween...They have been polite and thank-full, it's a 2 way street...if they want to take the time to dress up, I take the time to make the house and yard crazy..we both win. Something that I enjoyed as a kid ..and I want those kids to have the tradition that we all grew up with. Parties at the mall...was not. depends on your neighborhood..I feel very comfortable with mine, as do the kids and parents.

So what, are children supposed to take 2 pieces of government issued ID with them?

Yea, people are pathetic. Id like to see them lock up a 13 year old for Trick or Treating and see the outrage of that.

When teenagers come to my door and they are too old (most of the time not dressed up), they dont get any candy. I dont think we need laws for everything when the people can govern themselves.

This country has more laws than any other. Free? Far from it.

Fake News!!

Umm, we had those Unicef containers, but we still went for the candy. I used to use a pillow case that ended up half filled or more!!

Well, hell....this year I may have to hand out snow shovels or baggies of salt, the way the weather is already getting.

My wife in from Virginia. When my kids were first old enough for trick or treating she asked "what time is tick or treating?". I was like "huh?", it never occurred to me that a town would have set hours for it. We always went from right after school until well after dark. My kids go out 3 times each year. Candy lasts well into summer!

Or what day, many towns have it on different days...WTF people? Halloween is on Oct 31st...Period!!

Most people were retired in San Clemente when Nixon was President and we were trick or treat age. It sucked, so the kids would fight it out with cops in a friendly little deal where if we got caught throwing eggs at their cars we would have to wash them. About 20 years ago my old street went nuts, and now everyone is into it. People drive 30 miles to check out all the houses totally into Halloween. My granddaughter was telling me how lucky I was to grow up in a Halloween paradise. So things change for the better too.

Trick or Treating pretty much died around my Arcade. The year of the Tylenol scare did it in.

A shame too. I used to love the holiday. Put up decorations. The kids looks so great. And no relatives. The perfect holiday.

LTG : (
Disclaimer : Score the inside top of one Jack-O-Lantern, smear it with nutmeg and cinnamon. The candle burning makes it smell like pumpkin pie.

So many questions about the "tylenol scare"...

Nice tip!

They do the same thing in Pittsburgh. Something lame like 6-8. Nuts to that ! When I grew up it was 5 to when ever lights went off in houses. Here is an Arial shot of the neighborhood I grew up in. Each rectangle is a house 64 in total per block. Just in the area we visited there were 8 blocks. We filled up pillow cases at least 3 times (sometimes 4). Despite being Philly, I can say I was completely razor blade and battery-filled candy free all years I went out!
arial (resized).JPG

Around 1980. A man planted some bottles of Tylenol at a drugstore with cyanide in them. Killed 5 or 6 people. He was caught, his plan was to kill his wife and get away with it. He was convicted and executed.

That year when the deaths occurred before it was figured out. Ann Landers, Dear Abbey, everybody was preaching to parents to not let their kids go door to door trick or treating. Only go to shopping centers ?

Which blew my mind. Only proven poisoning at a drugstore in a shopping center, and we should send our kids to shopping centers ?

Anyway that year I went from giving out over 500 candy bars to less than five. It's never recovered here. I don't even decorate or hand out candy anymore. I can't remember that last year I even had a trick or treater.

LTG : )

Guessing Pinbub downvoted me due to a concern of child labor laws....if they do the salting and shoveling, maybe I could give them candy as a tip!

Just playin

Probably didn’t know what you were talking about. I know what you meant. I can’t believe that they are saying we might get accumulating snow on Thursday. We seem to always have rain on Halloween, but snow? Poor kids

Yeah...I heard low of 18. And like 1-3 inches of snow here. That's just not right so early!!

Any kids that do make it out definitely deserve extra candy this year!

Is it okay to hand out beer to the parents too? Lol.

Well if the parents did it the way that we used to do it a few years back, they would already be stocked for the walk. We used to have a stroller with a cooler full of beer and a bottle of liquor to keep us warm while the kids did their thing

1991 Halloween blizzard here. 30 inches of snow, real early. Followed up a month later with the Thanksgiving blizzard of two feet of snow and huge winds.

LTG : )

OUCH! Now that's rough!

72780319_2759286854158207_470209201340153856_n (resized).jpg

Wait,....what?!

I didn't really care why you downvoted my earlier post. I was just teasing and being funny about getting kids to shovel my walk soon. Lol.
All good

Around here, the schools, malls, and community centers are the main places everyone goes. Neighborhood trick or treating pretty much died out at least 15 years ago.

But, today's gathering places do offer some interesting activities for the kids, plus it's a bit safer for them than just running around in or near traffic (many neighborhoods don't have sidewalks).

Must have been an accident. I don't know how to downvote anything! Must be sausage fingers!
There,...upvoted! I have 4 kids,I'm all about child labor!

Trick or Treat is still alive and well down here in south-central Louisiana.
Local news station post extensive list of Tr-or-Tr times for each town/city.
Most towns have the time set for 6 to 8 pm, or 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Some towns have it from 5 to 7 pm.
Some towns may have it on a different day on some years if they have a good reason.
(Examples: avoid conflict with Fri night high school football, or if bad weather is forecast for Oct 31st, etc.)
https://www.katc.com/news/around-acadiana/2019-trick-or-treat-times-in-acadiana

Groups of parents/friends often go out together pulling wagons, so they can walk along with their kids and keep an eye on them.
Yes, adult beverages are sometimes being consumed.
Over the years I've noticed that everyone follows the sets times quite well.
I never had kids come by before or after the set times.

Local police often are out monitoring for ashhole drivers that are impatient or drive too fast on busy neighborhood streets.
Trunk or Treats at safe places are getting more common each year down here.

I remember having Halloween parties in grade school too. Little parade around rooms in costumes, getting a few little treats, misc activites, etc. It was just simple safe fun then.

See, that's just messed up. Halloween is October 31st.

Besides, skankoween at bars/clubs is usually that weekend anyway
Not that I go out and do that kind of stuff really anymore...

hi where can I go trick-or-treating to get all of the marijuana edibles and prescription medications I keep hearing about.

We did a lot for the parents on my street
We would hand out Jello shots, other houses handed out beer, and another nachos and yet another pizza slices, it used to be a great time until someone complained and got the police involved and all the parent stuff dried up.

Someone always has to ruin it

Every year, I see at least a couple local area parents walking around with a couple of drinks. I always laugh as if it isn't obvious; But that's because I usually have mine tucked behind the railing while I'm outside too. Lol.

yeah it was a shame, it was a real cool neighborhood thing to do and no one got smashed or insane (Well the Halloween that landed on a Saturday was a different story) it got shut down due to some "unpackaged food and beverage requiring health dept approval" to be distributed or some other nonsense

Funny, we always started trick or treating when it got dark. Ive never seen kids out at 5:00 really around here.

Someone complained about adults also enjoying the holiday with their children, family, neighbors and friends?
WTF?
What’s next banning egg nog in December ?
The PC / SJW movement is ruining our country.

9EC2F048-D8BD-4775-B907-73BAD0B16D07 (resized).jpeg

B3F1E95C-7CFD-4FCB-B5D5-0A4A9C170315 (resized).jpeg

CE9345BA-4309-4703-93A4-8506ACBF2D91 (resized).jpeg

I always decorate each year. A ghost above the walkway on a piece of fishing line, a fog machine in the bushes and a boom box playing some spooky music.
Nothing crazy but enough to make it fun for everyone!

Please note :
The werewolf costume I’m wearing is for after 8:30pm when a few adult friends stop over.

5D12AD41-2688-46BB-8E00-41446096412A (resized).jpeg

8A826F09-CBE9-414C-B9C0-9051CC7ACFC8 (resized).jpeg

B9840495-38C8-41B1-A39E-40F3AAE2DA1F (resized).jpeg

how the heck do you get from NIMBY neighbours to whining about social justice?? Calm yourself, you might have ODed on your kids' halloween candy.

I feel bad for kids in the areas that don't get to go door-to-door. I live in a development with one way in. Essentially one long loop with streets connecting north to south. Parents from other neighborhoods drop their kids off here because they can walk with no issues with cars and it's safe. We literally have hundreds of trick or treaters... except this year. 34 degrees and a constant rain mixed with snow knocked us down to about 75 kids. Our sub allows trick or treating from 6-8. I didn't see but 2 kids after 6:45. Weather was a complete party pooper. I feel really bad for the kids.

And to the above comments about communities moving Halloween to the last Saturday in October... I agree that is ridiculous. Halloween is October 31st. HOWEVER, there is absolutely no reason why November first isn't a school holiday when Halloween falls during the week. School districts already have a litany of half-days, teacher training days, PC holidays, etc. Why not simply put a school holiday where it would be really useful?

Wound up with maybe 40-50 kids. More than expected in the weather, but not the usual 200+ that's for sure.

Out of the few kids, I noticed at least 2 different groups of parents walking with alcohol in hand. Lol

We live in a pretty nice neighborhood so we get a lot of kids. Last night was the best yet even though it was pretty cold out . We had 167 kids. First kids came at 5:30 and last was 9:00. I look forward to it every year.

Wait, you had kids Trick r Treating on Friday??