Author Topic: Halloween Question....How Did Yours Go? (Read 3558 times)

Julles · « **on:** October 29, 2009, 06:43:40 PM »

How do your kids do Trick-or-Treat?

When I was a kid in St. Louis, we ALWAYS had a poem, joke, skit, or something we did for the people who answered the doorbell, to "earn" our candy. In other words, we did a trick in exchange for a treat. And we ALWAYS said "thank you," or we were not allowed to visit the next house.

For many years now, living in Houston, NO ONE I know of EVER does this. I occasionally hear kids shout, "Trick or Treat, Smell my feet, Give me something good to eat!" which I find horribly offensive and demanding.

Is it a regional thing? Or a sign of the times, that kids just expect to get free candy and not do anything to earn it?

How about your family?

Brian · « **Reply #1 on:** October 29, 2009, 06:56:02 PM »

Julles,
This is the first I've heard of this tradition of performing the 'trick'. It is a neat idea. As a kid, we always just said 'trick or treat' and 'thank you'. I always assumed the 'trick' was something that would happen to the homeowner if they didn't give us a 'treat'. Not that I would do anything, it was just a saying.

fishlipsmcgee · « **Reply #2 on:** October 29, 2009, 07:26:16 PM »

How nice, Julles. I have never seen or heard of something so nice here. The little kids are sweet and usually polite just saying "trick or treat". The older they are it seems the more rude and obnoxious they are. We hand out candy early when the little ones are out and by the time they are finished and just the older kids (teenagers) are out we turn off the lights and close up shop.

Esther · « **Reply #3 on:** October 30, 2009, 08:16:47 AM »

Yup, the kids round here are polite and always say thanks. We haven't turned on the yard light for about 4 years now. We hide in the den and watch TV. We've been there many years and are sitting back and letting the youngsters take over.

barb · « **Reply #4 on:** October 30, 2009, 09:10:55 AM »

I've lived in different regions of the country, but it's always been the standard "trick or treat". Kids do say thank you, too. That's interesting about the "trick", maybe some regions do practice it. I guess the "trick" part had to start somewhere, right?

tugo · « **Reply #5 on:** October 30, 2009, 09:33:24 AM »

We do not have Halloween here but Martha Steward and Rachel Ray are on my home tv, that can say I know almost all the tradition and many recipie. I believe it is a very nice tradition for the community.

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #6 on:** October 30, 2009, 10:08:27 AM »

Both in Phoenix and here in Portland it has always been the standard "Trick or Treat" and not ever any kind of performance from the kids. It was the same when I was a kid as it is now as a homeowner. Never heard of the kids actually having to perform to get the candy.

mascot · « **Reply #7 on:** October 30, 2009, 10:12:10 AM »

When I was a kid, we lived in an apartment complex and pretty much stayed around our own apartments and got candy there. We didn't go too far, but it was always "T or T" and never did I see a trick performed (except how my friends made my candy disappear without me seeing it!). One couple, John and Joyce, were awesome. They couldn't have kids but loved all of us. They dressed up in gorish costumes, with make up and fake spider webs....they decorated their apartment with darkness and eerie lighting, scary music...we loved going there. John was a biker, full beard, long hair, denim, leather, a Harley chopper with wild custom paint, Joyce was the typical "old lady" and very pretty. You'd never expect them to be the people they were when you see them ride up on that loud chopper!

These days, it's not about friendship/neighbors....it's about getting as much as you can from where ever you can. It's sad. For years I left because living alone I didn't want to get up every five minutes for candy. Lasy year I decided to, and was shocked that many of the kids didn't even have on costumes...some had a simple party mask, and just wanted candy. When I ran out, I turned off the porch light and that didn't stop them. They walked up a dark sidewalk and onto a dark porch and rang the doorbell incessantly. I even heard them saying, "I think I see someone, they better answer the door". I don't even have clear windows, so to see me in the family room they'd have to try real hard.

I finally put up a sign that said I was out of candy, and I left. When I came back, someone wrote on my sign: "Buy more next time".

Screw it....I'm not going to be home Saturday. Greedy people (not just kids) from other neighborhoods driving up in SUV's. Not what Halloween used to be....

Jerry · « **Reply #8 on:** October 30, 2009, 10:21:23 AM »

Where I grew up in Philly we had Halloween preceded by "Chalk Night." I never met anyone who ever heard of this. We would decorate the asphalt street with drawings. It was great fun.
My sister who became an artist of note, astounded many. I was very proud.
Once she had a pretzel stick and used it as chalk and took a bite out of the chalk. All the kids had a good laugh! I still do!

Esther · « **Reply #9 on:** October 30, 2009, 01:30:41 PM »

We have neighbors who moved here from Detroit. The first Halloween Eve they were here, they soaped our garage windows. I couldn't figure out what was going on and later the mom appologized and made them clean the windows. Turns out they had something they called devil's night when they soaped windows and teepeed the trees etc. Fortunately, it doesn't happen here. Our older kids in the country used to push over outhouses and throw rotten tomatoes at houses and cars etc when I was a kid about 60 years ago.

Highschool kids caught chickens and dipped them in red paint and turned them lose in the local tavern. I know I know, not very nice to the chickens or the tavern. One year they put a hay wagon on top of a two story building at the end of the school. Noone could figure out how they got it up there.

Indiana Karen · « **Reply #10 on:** October 30, 2009, 01:44:39 PM »

We live in the country and since our kids are grown, no longer have any trick or treaters. :'(
My brother and his wife live in town, never had kids, they absolutely love Halloween and dress up to meet the kids. Sometimes she lays in a makeshift coffin on the front porch. They usually have around 200.

I have always loved Halloween and we had so much fun making our kids costumes and having their friends come trick or treating. Always a polite "trick or treat" and "thank you". Never heard of your custom Julles, but it would have been a good one!!! Chalk night would have been great too.

I can remember lots of tricking going on when I was young. We had our windows soaped about every night and corn thrown on the porch. I can remember gathering all the corn the next morning in a coffee can. It was almost treated like gold.............the older kids wanting it back so they could throw it again!!!

We have our kids over every year for soup night and pumpkin carving. This year we had vegetable soup and pumpkin soup!

Esther · « **Reply #11 on:** October 30, 2009, 02:07:41 PM »

Is pumpkin soup creamy and sweet. We had a lot of unusual sweet soups, some cold, on the cruise ship. I loved them all because they seemed to have a melted icecream base. LOL

karen J · « **Reply #12 on:** October 30, 2009, 05:53:27 PM »

We only have between 20 and 30 kids per year. We live in a relatively small neighborhood, and the kids have to walk pretty far to get from house to house. Consequently, most of the parents give out full-size candy bars, small toys, party favors, erasers, etc.

Because of the distance from house to house, lots of neighbors have started hitching trailers to their riding lawn mowers. It's so nice! They have blankets, flashlights, and hot chocolate. The best part is that the kids get to hit the whole neighborhood that way, instead of only covering half by walking.

I'm curious as to whether you folks have official Trick or Treat hours in your neighborhoods? Here it's 4pm to 8pm. I really don't like that, I wish it were earlier (SATURDAY! .... should be full day Trick or Treat...

Do I really want that much candy in my house?

).
I'm happy that the time change doesn't occur until Sunday- sometimes it occurs earlier and the kids are out there in the dark paying no attention to cars.

Indiana Karen · « **Reply #13 on:** October 30, 2009, 08:30:05 PM »

Esther, the pumpkin soup I made wasn't sweet. I found it on the internet. It was 6 cups chicken stock, 4 cups pumpkin (we grew our own), onion, garlic, butter, salt, pepper, thyme, nutmeg........cook 30 minutes, blend until smooth, add cream. We didn't have high expectations (really looking forward to the pumpkin pie), we were surprised when we liked it!!!!

Karen, I would love Halloween in your neighborhood.
The hours in town are Saturday, 5:30 to 8:30, not long enough.

Karen

Julles · « **Reply #14 on:** October 31, 2009, 02:52:43 PM »

Our kids are out mostly right about dusk. But some of the real little ones start as early as 4:00. It's 4:00 now, and I'm all ready to go. Will close up at 8:00, when I walk three blocks to a party. Any kid coming after 8:00pm is too old to be trick or treating, and I'm not opening the door to a 6' teenager in jeans and a hoodie!

Esther, there are lots of versions of pumpkin soup. I love pumpkin and eat it all ways, including sauteed as a vegetable. I have a WONDERFUL Mexican pumpkin stew, with tomatoes, pinto beans, and a touch of cinnamon (that's the Mexican part), and it's hearty and sooo good. I had a lot of it in the freezer, but Hurricane Ike and the loss of power - had to dump all of it.

After Halloween and Thanksgiving, people around her put their pumpkins at the curb, I scoop 'em up, cook and freeze away. Yum!

Jonna · « **Reply #15 on:** October 31, 2009, 03:18:53 PM »

Halloween is gaining ground here but the traditional holiday is Hanal Pixán or Day of the Dead. I wonder if we will get any T & T kids since they know there are gringas living here, perhaps. I have some candy if they come. The main holiday here is tonight, tomorrow and monday. There are already temporary altars everywhere and all of the cemetaries have been cleaned and painted and are open for the next few days 24 hours. We had a traditional Pib or Mucbil Pollo the other night, delicious! It's like a large tamale made in a pan and wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in an underground oven. The corn meal covering gets very crispy and crunchy and the chicken and pork filling is incredible.

Here are some of the traditional candies, meringue ghosts and sugar skulls.

Here is the Pib unwrapped and on the table.

Mikey · « **Reply #16 on:** October 31, 2009, 03:37:31 PM »

Your pib looks tasty Jonna. Looks like half is covered with some dark things on the surface that were not put on the other half.

I also never experienced anyone doing a performance of any kind for a treat. Most of the kids here, even the older ones who aren't in much of a costume, are polite. Most of the parents are out walking with the kids and sometimes I see a car with the parents inside following the kids around.

The fetching Mrs. Mikey has been fighting a cold all week and because of the flu going around we decided not to participate this year by allowing the little flu carriers to come to our door.... Our gate will be closed and our porch light off.... Yes, I'm a party pooper....

Jonna · « **Reply #17 on:** October 31, 2009, 03:42:54 PM »

I got the mixed Pib, half chicken and small black beans and half pork. So, the little black things on half of it are the beans.

Esther · « **Reply #18 on:** October 31, 2009, 04:07:38 PM »

Jonna, your posts are so interesting as you live in a culture so different from here.

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #19 on:** October 31, 2009, 06:53:57 PM »

It is almost 7:00 and we haven't had a single trick or treater. :'( It has been dark over an hour.

Jerry · « **Reply #20 on:** October 31, 2009, 08:35:13 PM »

Our litttle cul de sac gets zero trick or treat kids. The area is all grown up, the kids are gone.

My daughter lives in a guarded gate community, they get dozens of kids. The are is decorated like Christmas

Kittyzee · « **Reply #21 on:** November 01, 2009, 06:53:26 AM »

Yes it does seem that our childhood experiences shape us and help to make memories: good or bad.

I love Halloween, but have always loved trick or treating as a kid and then when my kids grew up I took them trick or treating in the same neighborhoods where I went. We would go to my Mom's where my oldest daughter would hand out candy and then youngest daughter and I would head out to go door to door. It was a way for us to socialize: Mom would put on the coffee and have a pumpkin pie for later when we got back and youngest daughter and I would see the neighbors and they would remark "my how your kids are growing--how is your mother"...oh, how I love that little town I grew up in....and how I wish my mom was alive living in that house to make us coffee once again.

It's also a holiday with no pressure--meaning no gifts to buy, no big dinner to prepare for, no house to clean anticipating large hoards of guests--just pure fun and relaxation with kids.

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #22 on:** November 01, 2009, 08:34:36 AM »

They finally started coming but there weren't very many. :'( Our neighborhood has small homes and not very many kids I was surprised the two that do live on our street did not come. I've always loved Halloween.

Julles · « **Reply #23 on:** November 02, 2009, 06:10:59 AM »

I had my candy and toys all set up on the porch by 4:00 p.m., but never got a visitor until one family with a 6-month old babe-in-arms, and one 4-yr-old visiting from out of town, they stopped by, and the girl got some candy and a toy.

By dusk, my neighbor had her traditional set up of table and chairs, loaded with candy, pizza, soft drinks, and, for the adults, bloody Marys, beer, and wine. So I was hanging with them, waiting for it to be time to go to a party at 8:00.

Well, around 7:30 the kids started coming. Not a lot, but small groups of them. They would visit her place first, or mine, and then move to the next. Since we know most of the people in the neighborhood, the parents were not shy about allowing the kids to eat the pizza, and the fathers were sooo happy to grab a beer!

One group of kids, obviously from out-of-the-neighborhood, and of a different ethnicity from most of us here, they came tearing down the street like a herd of mad elephants, literally. Tore up the stairs, grabbed and grabbed without any concept of "take just one," and shouted "thank you" over their shoulders and then raced off to the next house. Even the adult woman accompanying them was racing around at ninety-to-nothing.

I can't imagine living with that energy 24 / 7, nor the lack of paying any attention to what they are doing, savoring the moment, respecting the people who were giving them candy, appreciating anything, just grab-and-go.

So different from the people who live here, who took time to survey the setting before they took a bag of candy, who stopped to chat, who showed off their costumes, who made eye contact.

Quite an interesting study in cultures. Or maybe just differences in child rearing.

Anyway, many of the families in the 'hood had been to a party in a park nearby, which ended up having about 40 people mill in and mill out, and once that was over, they started out Trick-or-Treating, and that's why the late start. I gave up going to my party at 8:00, and hung around for another hour, as it was so fun to see the kids and costumes, and the kids were so excited.

One group had a positive ball exploring the alcove underneath Judy's staircase - shows you how easy it is to entertain a child. The Herd of Elephants never even noticed things like that.

A new couple was out walking their dog, just moved in the day before, and she's expecting a baby in March. What a change, from when I moved here, and it was a mostly gay neighborhood with virtually no kids, maybe a couple teenagers, and now we have about 50 kids under age five!

Another intersting thing - the curmudgeon neighbor across the street was also giving out candy. Only thing was, it was not easy to see the orange Jack-o-Lantern paper tacked to his door (our neighborhood uses that to designate the homes that are welcoming trick-or-treaters), so, on our side of the street, we had all the kids, and were having a ball, and I think only one group even noticed their sign, so they only got one group of visitors. Gee, all they had to do was put their orange sign out by the street, not taped to the dark front door.

Anyway, by 9:00 it was all over, and I left the stuff out of the porch for any stragglers, and went on to my party. Which was great. In the end, I ran out of candy for the first time ever in my 20 years here, having had 20 kids come by.

Sorry for the long story. Gee, I feel like Esther.

But it was a good Halloween.

Desertponder · « **Reply #24 on:** November 02, 2009, 09:07:40 AM »

I think the trick for a treat thing is an old tradition. I remember when I was a kid and we would go T&T'ing we would sometimes come across a person that would say "what trick are you going to do for a treat?" I was so shy that it would scare me off and I would run back to the sidewalk and my parents. LOL!

T&T'ing is not what it used to be. We have Trick or Treat Street at the mall and on the main street downtown. The businesses hand out candy.
In the small community where I live we also do Truck or Treat. The Saturday before Halloween they block off the main street in front of the community center and local businesses, our fire dept., etc. bring their large trucks to show off. The kids can look at them, climb on them, etc. and we hand out candy. This is the first year I had done it with the fire dept. and there was tons of kids in their costumes. I had the ambulance and I went through 4 1/2 of those really big bags of Halloween candy. I think the engine went through 3.

On Saturday night I didn't even see any people trick or treating with their kids around the fire station so times have really changed.

Bartman · « **Reply #25 on:** November 02, 2009, 01:14:10 PM »

I was curious what kids would do here after reading this thread before Halloween.

I had only 18 which is the worst showing yet in the three years at this address. There is never a lack of kids running around the rest of the time so not sure what was up this year. A beautiful evening as well.

Of the 18 there were probably only 5 that said, "Trick or Treat". I was suprised. Most just stood there clearly knowing it is candy time, but no one ever taught them the "rules". Here "Trick or Treat?" was always a question. You get a choice to either hand out a treat or take a trick. The whole song thing was an option before handing out the treat.

They all said, "Thank you." and some even added to have a happy Halloween. The costumes were all rather off the shelf boring! :-)

The last two at the door were two little boys who came quite late (around 8:30 which was a good hour after the last ones had been through) and the oldest, who might have been 7, commented that they "had to hurry because they were catching up." I guess it was ghosts catching up since there wasn't a soul on the street except for them!

Bart