Halloween, should I?

Im not keen on trick or treat since the time we were away and had eggs thrown at the door which dried and was difficult to remove and took off all the varnish ( it was a new door!) however only children we know, with their parents ever come these days so I try to have some sweets ready. The trouble is,sometimes so many come I run out of sweets and other years hardly anyone comes and I have loads left over ( only buy ones I dislike to avoid temptation!)

me neither , not a festival I celebrate.
As a retired professional in the child protection area it has always concerned me that all year we train our children about 'stranger danger' then on one dark evening a year we actively encourage them to knock on strangers doors demanding sweets!

phoenix do it the kids will love it and so will you. I hope you have a lovely time.

Yes, JanaNana. You've described exactly what happened in the North of Scotland in the early 50's. We loved dressing up (not always scarily) and we had great fun rehearsing our songs or poems. There was nothing scary about it and it is still more or less the same nowadays except that Mum or Dad is usually hovering in the background to make sure kids are safe.

Somewhere I have a large, green, bumpy, warty witch's nose that I have been know to wear while answering the door to trick or treaters. The only person ever to be freaked out be it was our dog, RIP, bless her.
She was frightened of pumpkin 'faces', too - once found her barking furiously at the large grinning pumpkin left on our garden table.
I now buy a relatively small one and turn it into Thai style pumpkin soup next day - with chilli and ginger and coconut milk. Pumpkin needs something to liven it up! Waste not want not...

Yes all our little visitors have grown ups with them if they don't I ask them where they are! They wait at the gate and we put porch light on when we answer the door so everyone can see. If any big ones turn up I give them a sweet each as their handfuls would empty my basket of goodies quickly! Then either when sweets run out or at 7.00 I turn off all the decorations in the windows and that's it, don't answer the door anymore.

I have a were-wolf hand/glove that I wear when I hold out the basket of sweets to the children. It gets some interesting reactions!

All this 'how to have fun at Halloween' has restored my faith in fellow GNs.

As a childe I would have been absolutely terrified to see a witch with a green face. I used to have nightmares about green witches after seeing The Wizaed of Oz. But then we didnt go trick or treating in those days.
I dont mind children dressing as witchs or ghosts but some of the costumes you can buy today are most unpleasant like axe murderers etc. Apparently there was even an Ann Frank costume but it was withdrawn after protests. Really appalling taste!