I tried so hard not to do Halloween...

[Sunlight]

no one will let me quit! :jack:
I said no halloween this year :frankenstein:
I bought candy twice and ate it :ghost:
I told Nick I quit after 34 yrs in this house :goo:
he protested and said if I dont do it he will call off his cop job and come up here and pass out candy to keep up the tradition, so...I agreed to ONE hour tomorrow night and I mean it! :sword:
I live on a nice dead end rural street with about 15 kids under age 16. people take advantage and drive in droves to get here and drop off kids til we have about 100 kids come :scared:
so the first 30 kids will get treats then the lights go out. I mean it!!

 

[SRL]

Boy, I'd be tempted to deliver to the neighbor kids myself and then turn off the light.

 

[Hound dog]

You might want to forwarn the neighbor kids to make it to your house during that first hour.

husband's brother used to have that problem. For some odd reason the street they lived on was always flooded with trick or treaters. They even came from out of town, for pete's sake. They'd have to make candy runs because they'd always run out two or three times during a 2 hr period. And I know they'd often start out with a shopping cart full of candy.

Actually, that street STILL is like that. Our family avoids it for that reason. Too crowded for me, and we figure they have enough to handle.

easy child took Darrin to his pediatrician doctor today. Now easy child works with pediatrician doctor at the hospital. pediatrician doctor asks her if Darrin is coming by his house tonight for trick or treat. easy child tries to explain to him we've been there done that cus she live in another TOWN. He says to come by anyway, they're street goes all out for the kids.

easy child reminded him that Darrin had an appoint because he was sick. :rofl:

Good grief that's alot of kids. I'd do it til the candy ran out and shut off my light.

 

[Marcie Mac]

I still do the candy thing on Halloween - I love seeing all of the little ones in their costumes.

When the boys were little, I went thru absolute bags and bags of candy, now maybe a bag or two - seems like everyone has aged out at the same time. But I do get a kick out of their friends now bringing their own little ones by the house.

I still have to keep the candy in the car though till Halloween night or for sure it will be gone before I get to pass any out. I try and buy candy I don't like or else I will be sneaking out to the driveway in the middle of the night.

Marcie

 

[busywend]

My mom's street is like that - carloads show up and follow the kids around the street. She lives on a huge circle with houses on the outside and inside of the circle. Basically you never leave the street but hit so many houses you have enough candy until Easter!

I bought 8 bags - after that the lights go out.

Well, 'bought' is a relative word. I went to Kmart several times with my free coupon! Yesterday I was just going to buy the last 4 bags and she rang me up separate for each bag so I could use all the rest of my coupons! I did have to pay tax yesterday for the first time with this coupon.

My candy cost me $1.10!

 

[Star*]

The last time we had trick or treaters (three) we gave them all the candy we had bought expecting a huge crowd and then turned out the light.

Thirty minutes later a bunch of 12-15 year old kids and their parents showed up, opened the gate (have I told you about my dogs?) and came to the door ringing the door bell and knocking, pounding.
We overheard them talking that so and so got a TON of candy and we were the house passing it out.

OH says I - AH HA says DF....and about that time we both took off -me out the locked and unlit front door and him to the gate on the side to intercept my American Bulldog and the Pitbull. I think 6 wide eyed boys got their unintended treat - a load in their pants. And the parents sitting in the car got it from DF as they were NOT neighbors - just driving to get more candy - he said to the parents "YOU WOULD THINK when the lights are OUT and the gate is SHUT you wouldn't jeopardize you kids life for a chocolate bar then an expletive." - I held the dogs, told the kids DO NOT MOVE, DO NOT BLINK and put the dogs in the back yard, shut the gate and then DF walked the boys out of the yard.

OH MY GOOD GRIEF - I will remember to put a lock on the gates this year!! All that for greed. I guess they figured they would get the REST of the Motherload we gave to the littleones....and share it - they even came in a minivan!

Despite that -

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE.

 

[Sunlight]

I love the kiddies too, you would not believe though what comes to the street and door!!
a hay wagon full of kids, grown up kids with no masks or costumes, kids who change masks and come back for seconds and thirds, a man who said his baby was sick and he was trick or treating for her (why did he not go and buy candy at the store-she would not have known better???) I also had a grown man pushing a grown woman in a wheelchair-the woman was crippled, he was taking her trick or treating. I am not talking small adorable kids in costume-it gets scarey!
there is so much traffic on our small street of 30 houses, kids, cops, cars trolling, people trampling the flower beds and yards to mud.
I used to love it and now I hate it.
ONE HOUR then the door is locked and lights go out and I go to my room in the back of the house.

 

[DammitJanet]

Antsmom...

Maybe the woman in the wheelchair had alzheimers and she thought she was a child again. Im just being kind I guess. My mom really adored the holidays the two years she was here and we treated her as if she was a small kid. She got to hunt eggs, got an easter basket, a christmas stocking, I took her trick or treating to friends houses and dressed her up.

 

[TerryJ2]

You go!


:sword:

 

[hearts and roses]

We used to live in a small condo complex and so many moms would drop their kiddos off in there - we'd go through bags and bags of candy! Our neighborhood now is a little bit quieter - so many have also aged out here.

Typically, between 6-7PM we get maybe 15-20 little ones, which I love to see! :ghost: And then it's quiet between 7-8. Then, between 8-9 we get the bigger kids, out on their own :frankenstein:. I always save a batch of candy for the big ones (don't want my house to be a target of eggs or shaving cream!). Beside, we sit outside till about 9 around the campfire and drink wine :smile: while handing out the goodies. It's a fun night and we love it♥.

Happy Halloween~ :jack:

 

[mrscatinthehat]

I didn't even buy candy. Hmmm I guess I will have to decide if I want to do that between now and tonight. I try to avoid because I resent the big kids coming.

Beth

 

[Sunlight]

hmmm now maybe just maybe with a campfire and wine I could learn to like this holiday again.

 

[rejectedmom]

Our haloween was last week. I bought novelty toys on Ebay because I am like Janet and will eat the candy myself if I buy it too soon or there's any left over. I gave the toys out until I no longer had any for the little ones. It only lasted one hour and 15 minute.) The lights then went out and the remaining toys went to my daughter who put them in the goodie bags of her daughter's birthday party attendees this past Sunday. I have no guilt. There is a parade two days later where candy is trown to the spectators and the area merchants also have a trick or treat night seperate from the residential one. The kids have plenty of opportunity to get enough candy for the remainder of the year LOL.

Here too people come from all over town in cars. It is understood that if you want trick or treeters you put the light on. If not you keep them off. No one makes any fuss if you don't. It is totally understood that it is optional. It is only scheduled for two hours and then the cops will stop anyone still out begging for candy. Because it is a city environment parents drive until they see a cluster of porch lights in a small area.
I understand why they do this but I do wish that my toys only went to my neighborhood kids. That said though I think our community has got it right. -RM

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

How weird is it that we have a whole holiday devoted to extortion? 'Cause that's what "trick or treat" boils down to: pay me off with a treat or I play a trick on you.

The past few years it seems that Halloween has been morphing into something different from what it used to be. Every year we see more and more houses doing elaborate decorations with lights and front yard "graveyards" and such. The "trick or treat" tradition seems to be waning on the whole (in spite of the evidence to the contrary on this thread) or changing from a neighborhood activity into a more structured happening. Used to be a few cheap plastic masks and paper costumes at TG&Y, with maybe a haunted house put on by the Jaycees; now there are whole stores devoted exclusively to decorations and costumes.

Last time I wore a costume for Halloween was probably in 1968. We had a lady on our street who gave out sugar cane, that was my favorite treat.

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

HWGA, you are showing your age.

There were no Chicago 'burbs in 1968, were there? maybe Oak Park? Evanston? I think that's it. The rest was a big field...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Well we lived near LA back then and they definitely had suburbs, and smog.

 

[Lothlorien]

We live on a dead end street too. We have the same thing. Last year, I turned all the lights off and the downstairs lights. We had just put the kids to bed. It was 9:00 and some lady was driving our kid through the neighborhood. They actually rang the door bell. I was soooooo mad! The ordinance is they are not supposed to ring or knock after 8:00 and any common sense would tell you not to ring someone's door bell if all the lights are out.

If it happens again, this year, I will give that woman a peice of my mind, let me tell you.

 

[Star*]

Last time I wore a costume for Halloween was probably in 1968. We had a lady on our street who gave out sugar, that was my favorite treat.

:smile: - Talk about changing a holiday! WOW!

 

[hearts and roses]

You know what breaks my heart? That so many people are so afraid of everything now. :crazy:

We always have cider on hand for the kiddos and you'd figure that since all of the kiddos know us, including their parents, that they would trust we're not poisoning them, but they all say No when we offer it! :rolleyes:

I am not insulted by this, as I know it's protocol now NOT to accept a drink or freshmade treat from anyone, regardless if you know them or not. But c'mon. It just stinks! :thumbsdown:

 

[Sunlight]

in 20 minutes we had 30 kids! I quit.