Should Trick or Treating be Abolished?

[gul_nodrog 2]

It also helps to make a note of the houses that give out the good candy (full size candybars, chocolate, caramel) and those that give out "healthy alternatives" like carrot sticks  so you can visit the former on your second and third laps and avoid the latter like stinky sacks of durf.

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It's also good to scope out the houses of the bachelors in the neighborhood because Halloween always catches them completely by surprise so they have to hand out cash in lieu of candy. (This doesn't always work because sometimes they give out whatever they can find in their house, canned beans, lightbulbs, ramen noodles. :) )

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I needed a laugh so much today that you deserve a big hug!

 

Have you read the Seinfeld Halloween book? You have got to read this thing. It is a scream.

 

As for the person above who said something about fireworks, I really hope you'll keep a lid on that! That is all that I need for Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky to get wind of fireworks on Halloween ... they shoot them off all year long already! Fall seems to be a down time for that brand of stupidity. Did I mention that I HATE fireworks.

 

As for trick or treating, well, it is a tiresome burden upon parents but fun for kids so I guess it is sacrosanct. Personally, I have hated Halloween and trick or treating ever since I had a kid five years ago. For the following reasons:

 

1.) My kid doesn't really like candy :)

 

2.) There's all this pressure in our neighborhood to participate in this lunacy where COLLEGE-AGED "children" are still participating right alongside preschoolers. :)

 

3.) My kid doesn't like dressing up and won't leave any type of costume on for any length of time so every year it's wasting $$$$$ trying to come up with something after three or four tries that he'll leave on long enough to go door to door for about 30 minutes at which point he is "done."

 

4.) Kids are fat enough already these days. Do we really need to add to their weight problems by doling out junk food. My niece is 11 and probably 50 lbs. overweight. She get two pillowcases full of candy every year and it is all gone by Thanksgiving.

 

5.) I never saw anyone's house trashed over not giving out candy, but if my kid wants any kind of success in our local snotty school I better pass out some name-brand goodies and plenty of 'em ... I'll get him a bad name before he even starts first grade if I don't come across with the booty. :) You think I'm kidding, but it is the truth.

 

 

I really wish that our church or SOME church around here would sponsor a trick or treat thing in the church building itself. (That trunk or treat thing sounds a little weird to me, but going from Sunday School door to Sunday School door inside the church sounds like an awesome idea.)

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I really wish that our church or SOME church around here would sponsor a trick or treat thing in the church building itself.  (That trunk or treat thing sounds a little weird to me, but going from Sunday School door to Sunday School door inside the church sounds like an awesome idea.)

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Well, it's still pretty warm here and I guess the outdoors seems more like "real" trick or treat. They close off a section of the parking lot so the children have a safe path to walk. And they have ring toss, go fish etc games set up in the cars trunks or beside the car (or the back of a pickup truck) Besides they have hotdogs and chili at the picnic tables and pony rides in the baseball field - and a cake walk - things you couldn't do indoors.

[Rivendells_king 0]

4.) Kids are fat enough already these days.  Do we really need to add to their weight problems by doling out junk food.  My niece is 11 and probably 50 lbs. overweight.  She get two pillowcases full of candy every year and it is all gone by Thanksgiving.

 

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I find that a dumb reason for some reason, even though I am over weight that hurts.

[hangon 3]

NO WAY!!!! even though i dont go trick or treating anymore i dont think they should abolish it,i used to love going trick or treating when i was a kid i think it would be ashame if kids of today couldnt do it.

[headborg 1]

yea..i say no to abolishing trick or treating....it's an American tradition....and besides when else can you go door to door and load up on candy for free..and admire everyone's hard work in decorating there front porch and yard...yes the children should have an adult near by...within sight at all times..and should know not to eat anything out of the bag ...before they get home and let their parents go through it.

[gul_nodrog 2]

4.) Kids are fat enough already these days.  Do we really need to add to their weight problems by doling out junk food.  My niece is 11 and probably 50 lbs. overweight.  She get two pillowcases full of candy every year and it is all gone by Thanksgiving.

 

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I find that a dumb reason for some reason, even though I am over weight that hurts.

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Dude, I am overweight too. Probably a good 40 lbs. I wish that the adults in my life 30 years ago had been a little less free with the junk food and starchy school lunches. Obesity is a nationwide epidemic and is costing all of us a mint in healthcare. If you are overweight, I feel for ya. I've been there all my life.

[Yillara Skye 1]

I am not particularly sure if I would want Trick Or Treating to be abolished. This probably stems from the fact that almost every year since I was very young I had gone trick or treating. True I was one that would go to a different neighborhood, but then I went to the area near my grandmothers house, as well as near one of my aunts, and a friend of my little sister. Until they stopped doing it, we would go to the local mall where each of the stores would set up a table or just stand at the opening of their shops to offer candy to children. there would be a long line, but if you think about it the place was indoors, well lit and the mall employees were incredibly friendly. Also at least a couple years there was a costume competition in the center of the mall.

 

My neighborhood never had much in the way of homes that would have trick or treaters over. The people here, just did not wish to participate in it. Even my home, since we were out trick or treating ourselves.

 

My high school years, at least my sophomore & junior years, I participated as a part of the cast of the schools haunted house & then haunted trail (as did most of my family)

 

 

Plus, in a way, I kinda hope that Trick or Treating stays around at least long enough that I can go along and take my niece out at least once when she gets old enough.

 

 

 

Though I do, and do not like the curfews they set up for children trick or treating here. In a way I do like having them go out just prior to sundown and it ending not too long after sundown. THe reason I do not like it, I used to be a gymnastics teacher and some of our students' classes did not finish until after sundown. Halloween falls right in the middle of competitive season (on more than one occasion, I had competed myself on Halloween Night), so they really cannot take time out to collect candy and when they finally can the Trick or Treating curfew has begun and tehy cannot participate. And some parents do not get off of work until the sun is setting, and if the children have siblings in HS or college many of them are not out of work in time either.

 

I know that it is in all safety of the children, which I am completely for 100%. Since later on in the evening is usually when the older kids and some young adults go out on the town. Especially if Homecoming falls on that evening (like it did in my senior year, and on at least one year after I graduated.)

 

I also have been to, and heard that many churches hold Halloween celebrations throughout town (true in a bunch of cases they are referred to as Fall celebrations, so as to remove themselves from the reference of Halloween). Also when I was little one of the local fire stations had a little celebration where kids could get candy, play games, and visit the Haunted Fire Truck. It was truly cute. As well as I had gone to several of the Halloween party/celebrations at one of the local Burger Kings here in town, which would even feature a Costume contest for several age divisions (right up to I believe 14 years old).

Edited October 4, 2004 by Yillara_Soong

[Gotabite 0]

Well UH, I guess you and I will have to be "the bad guys" on this topic. When my son was a boy he too enjoyed Halloween, and the trick or treat activities............But it was all so sad to me that I had to check everything that he brought home before he ate it.........Why?......not because I was paranoid, but because of the people who use Halloween to do evil, and try to hurt children............There have been many children that have been poisoned, with candy filled with arsonic on Halloween, I can even remember one man who poisoned his own children to collect insurance.......

I also think that people should have the right not to celebrate Halloween.....and not have their windows soaped, eggs thrown all over their houses, their trees and yards papered with toilet paper, their yard furniture moved all over the neigborhood,garbage cans emptyed in their yards, the antennas broken off their cars, or their cars scratched and scraped............

See, what I don't like about Halloween is that it is often used as coersion by some. In other words.......either you give me a treat, "or you'll be sorry."...........I'm also not a great fan of a day that seems to celebrate evil......As I said, I did allow my son to engage in the tradition........But his costumes definitely had to meet my approval.......I always checked what he brought home before he ate it, and went with him when he was a small child. As an older child, when he was with a group, I always knew where he was going. He also knew that should someone refuse to give him candy, etc., he was simply to move on to the next house.........

These are just my thoughts about Halloween. Obviously they are different from most.......But it certainly would not upset me, should Halloween suddenly disappear from the calendar.............children have been hurt and killed because of this tradition, and many people have endured property damage because of this tradition.

[Jeanway 0]

[fenriz275 0]

Maybe I was lucky or a stupid kid but I was eating my candy in between the houses as I walked. Of course that was more than a few years ago, I suppose it's different out there now. I do know that I buy candy to hand out but I've yet to get any trick-or-treaters. It's not like it used to be, with the streets crawling with trick-or-treaters. On the plus side I usually make myself sick on November 1st on leftover candy.

[WEAREBORG4102 0]

It's a little out of hand...

People keep knocking at your door.

People actually pound on the door. It's a little annoying.

 

My church hosts a big carnival on Halloween night and they host games, food, etc.