No Trick or Treat signs?

they say it is just a form of begging.
LOL yes, many a street begger started on the slippery slope by "gateway begging" at halloween...


As for kids not performing
Oh COME ON... the very people who are "bah humbug" about Halloween are the exact same people who would be the first to complain if kids went back to the rude songs/rhymes and scares we used to do for our treats when I was a kid LOL.

I used to have a ghost that lit up and wooohed when anyone came near,the wee ones in particular loved it .Though one wee guy wanted to g get his dog to sort it out.Great fun .

We always get inundated with “trick or treaters” every year. I always have a vast amount of treats ready ( would hate to run out) and have a special bowl with a grabbing hand that reaches out randomly and says “steal my candy would ya” in a scary voice .DH stays at work extra late so he can be sure it’s all over when he finally comes home .

Afraid I am not looking forward to it. My own daughter is going to her brothers house and I will be on my own (she can’t push my wheelchair to get me anywhere). 4 years ago I was ill and one affect of it is my speech is not good so never answer the door myself,no one would have a clue what I was on about lol. We always used to decorate the house right up and everyone wore costumes as get the door knocking from about 6pm onwards. Tried leaving a pot of sweets out last year with a note saying just to take a packet or two,next day sweets were all gone and so had the pot ?

still get apples and nuts and a few sweets in my bags,I make them up in advance usually 30 or a bit more if they are particularly entertaining a 50p piece is their bonus

Our town had its annual Halloween day today The shops all have buckets of sweets on the counters, and dressed up little ones go round with mum or dad with their baskets It seems to work well and the shops only give to children accompanied by an adult so no hoards of youngsters grabbing handfuls There were a few (town organised) witches floating around too I think this satisfies the little ones who may not be going out at night time
Do other towns do this ?

It's a lot better than the old Bob a Job week when young boys were encouraged to ask to do jobs inside stranger's homes!

Luckily in our road -which is a friendly cul de sac & we all know one another well -the parents go round with the children & they dress up too. They all come round en masse so we only get a couple of knocks during the evening. I love seeing them all dolled up.
However I do see the problem of this American event & I understand why my sons will not let their children take part-they say it is just a form of begging.
When I was small we had great family Halloween parties but then Gran was Scottish & it was more of a tradition there.

I do think the fun element of Halloween ( guising in Scotland) is being taken out of it now. As I said earlier of when I lived in Scotland it was completely different to how I recognised it when I came back to live in England. Not only did the children earn the sweets etc by doing a little bit of entertainment but they actually made their own costumes as well...with a little help from a parent or grandparent. I still remember having to get some grey wool to make long plaits and hair to attach to a witches hat that we made from cardboard and black crepe paper for my daughter and gathering some twigs from the garden to bind to an old length of brush handle to make the broomstick. How I had to forego one of my good white cotton bedsheets as didn't have an old one for my son to be a ghost, and find the sheet was useless after that as he decided to enhance his costume further when I was not looking by cutting out to very big eyeholes!
However these were really something the children and parents all looked forward to and lots of effort was put into everything.
It has so much commercialisation attached to it now that the original simplicity of it all is being lost.

The signs don't sound like a good idea to me, especially if there is an orange pumpkin on them. Around here we too seem to have an unwritten rule that children only knock at decorated houses and certainly all the young cjildren are accompanied by adults, as were my children when that age. My DGD is a bit young yet to go out but she dresses up and is ready to hand out treats to the callers.
I have no empathy with the anti Halloween movement which was prevalent at my children's school a couple of decades ago.

Halloween is not yet a big thing in Portugal although retailers are now selling outfits,masks etc and I saw a few pumpkins on doorsteps last year. Here the children have always celebrated All Saints day and indeed November 1st is a public holiday. I jad no knowledge if this 10 years ago and 3 sweet young children knocked on the door. They each had a beautiful home made drawstring bag for any goodies. We only had packets of biscuits to give which they were surprised to be given. The next year I bought little drawstring bags and put sweets etc in and put them in a pretty basket but no one came. Now all those children have grown up and there are very few babies being born so I doubt we will be having little visitors again.

I don't often get visitors in the evening so if the doorbell goes on Halloween I guess it is children trick or treating. I open the door preparing to look scared and offering sweets. There is always an adult standing close by. I don't think many parents would allow their young children to knock on doors unaccompanied these days. As long as the children are safe I have no objection. It's strange I always seem to buy too many sweets and have to make the supreme sacrifice and finish them off myself!

Trick or treating wasn't around when I was a child but I do remember standing outside the garden gate with a "guy" and asking passers by for a penny!!

Aepgirl 'the south' missed out then! It is NOT imported from US... Halloween /Day of the Dead etc went to the US from UK Europe and Mexico . I agree it has been taken over by the commercial world and people think they need to buy stuff.. but that goes for all sorts including Christmas and Easter!

I really don't like this Trick or Treat thing - just something else 'imported' from USA. We never did it in the south when I was a child. Fortunately I will be at one of my clubs on Wednesday evening so it will all be over by the time I get home.

of course its not begging its a very old tradition ,pagan.that has continued in Scotland in spite of the American trick or treat influence.
This was posted on my daughters FB page this morning by her neighbour who is in her mid 60's .

This year I am open to Guisers as usual,treacle scones from pulley,dookin for apples etc etc. BUT this year I want a bit more theatre from my guests . There will be a £5 prize for the best "turn" lets try to get away from a one line joke...a bit of imagination ,a trick a ghost story, something scary!!!! ANYTHING. Remember Bea with her lion jumping through the burning hoop last year..lets aspire to that. If possible. All welcome though,even the one liners.

Sme of us are delighted the old traditions are being kept alive .

When I was a child my dad forbid me to go Trick or Treating. He said it was nothing more than begging. We used to get little children knock on our door, but there was always an adult standing nearby. I dread Halloween night. The constant door knocking drives me mad.

My 3 older girls went trick or treating and when they said it to an elderly couple they replied ooh a treat please. I was proud that the girls gave them some of their goodies

I must be extremely lucky. In the 10 years I've lived here, I've never had a single Halloween trick or treater call and be anything other than pleasant, funny and sweet when theyveknocked on my door. All of the little ones are accompanied by a parent who hovers close by and they all say "thank you very much, Happy Halloween" as they leave. The teenagers are polite and friendly too.
I won't be here this Halloween and I'll be sorry to miss my usual callers because I really enjoy seeing them, especially the little ones.

lancslass1 there are a lot of longstanding British Halloween traditions including asking for treats.
They have, like so much else, been appropriated by the world of commerce, keen to increase profits wherever they can!

I had trick or treaters last night. (I dont have a sign but I also dont have a punkin either and it was not the right night .) There were 3 small kids I said you are too early in the sweetiest voice I could muster. Their parents where at my gate and called over we are going to a party on the day so we dont want them to miss out on treats so we doing it tonight so they can go to the party too. If you dont have sweets money will do . I just said sorry and shut my door. It seems too me a lot of people have a feeling of entitment in society today and haloween is just an example of this in some people. Last year my neighbour had a sign which was lit up people still knocked and said things like money will do . I also think all this goes against encouraging heathy eating. The problem with these signs is that they can encouage ticks from older children I have heard of people having eggs at the windows when they have had a sign .

When living in the US the practice was that children only knocked on doors when a porch light was left on, they were always with adults who mostly filmed the encounters. In 'my' part of California there were also adverts on the TV to detail which hospitals you could take sweets to be X-rayed to check for any contamination! Not sure if this was every year or just because of particular problems at that time.

When I lived in the north of Scotland for a few years my children did exactly what Paddyanns children did/do. It was very entertaining in as much as they used to sing a song, recite a funny poem, or tell a couple of jokes. All the children knew one another and went round together in a group just in the road we lived in. I used to make toffee apples and Scottish tablet and small cakes to give out. No-one had pumpkins in the windows in those days,
Children seemed to actually earn those sweets then. Once we returned to Somerset it was completely different, don't knock unless there is either a pumpkin or other Halloween displays showing from the house. Then kids would knock and say trick or treat just expecting to be handed something without any of the sweets being earned as in Scotland.
As I understand it this tradition started off in Scotland centuries ago, and was taken to America by people who emigrated ....it then took on the Americanisation of becoming trick or treat.

Another unwelcome (Imo ) import from the USA. like Mother's Day instead of Mothering Sunday.
We never celebrated Halloween but used to have a big bonfire and fireworks on 5th November.
Bonfire Night was for one night only .
Having said that if we get trick or treaters I always give them a treat -usually the soft centred Quality Stxreet Chocolates we don't like.

Someone stole my pumpkin a couple of years ago but I just went & bought another & it will be outside, with candle lit, to welcome any little ones. Bowl of treats ready. Love the Little Ones all dressed up & enjoying themselves!

I think signage discouraging guisers may set people up for egging or worse.
In my neighbourhood we have online forum where neighbours can buy and sell things, advertise for tradesmen required etc. This week they have asked people to add themselves as happy to receive guisers or not happy. While I think saying you're happy to receive guisers, I wouldn't be advertising that I wasn't, for whatever reason.

We live close to armed forces married quarters. Sailors hide in dustbins, soldiers are ready to spring out, dressed amusingly. It is huge fun and all the little kids go round with parents and the bigger ones in wee gangs. I love to see them at my door. But we do make it very clear that they are very welcome with pumpkins etc on show