MostlyYank

No worries Tea_and_biccies, it's completely expected, not considered bad form or begging in any way, one of the few visit-the-neighborhood things left here in the US.

If you're lucky someone will be giving out jello shots or the like to the adults I do.

When I was a kid we still 'tricked' people who didn't give out candy (toilet papering houses, soaping windows), and our immediate neighbors gave out special treats to the kids they knew.

There is an excellent sequence on 'old' halloween in the movie 'Meet me in St Louis'.

Pete

WEBlue

I agree with MostlyYank, just join in however you feel most comfortable, Tea_and_biccies. There are no hard-&-fast rules. Last Halloween (my first) the parents seemed to hang back & were not really dressed specially, though I think one dad had a spiderman T-shirt on (not a full costume however).

From what I 've heard, the same rule for ignoring dark houses works here, just like in the UK. I will turn on my porch lights & have a lit pumpkin in the window (not outside but inside). Just got a huge bag of Tootsie Roll pops for cheap, so I'm starting to get ready.

joto

We put our porch light on from 6pm - 8pm. If anyone comes either before or after, then they are out of luck. We get sweets that we can eat ourselves if we are left with any. Mini milky ways, twix's, skittles, that type of thing. We do pick at them ouselves during quiet moments as well.

Bob

Porch light on, they're game. Light off, leave them alone.

Parents don't have to dress up.

Hit as many houses as you can be arsed.

We still have sweets from last year, as it pissed it down like a beast when the town did their trick or treat so not many people bothered, so our kids got loads from the businesses

Bink

Our token effort. The wife may persuade me to add more lights...

MostlyYank

I like the cat on the pumpkin

If you see older kids coming hide in the bushes and jump out at them They love it.

Pete

Bink

Me too! I'm just a big kid really! It moves it's head and everything!

cluedweasel

That's the way it works here. One of the richer neighbourhoods even have rent-a-cops out doing parking enforcement and traffic control because it gets so busy.
To be fair, trick-and-treating in my locality isn't much fun for kids. The houses are all on 1+ acre sites with long drives and no street lighting or pavements. Not very safe.
Did anyone grow up in Scotland and go guising instead of trick-and-treating? Kids have it easy today. Back then we actually had to earn our sweeties

Bob

Back when the missus was a kid, up in Maine, they had to do it in snow suits and drive around for miles to get to the handful of houses in the area

Katsu

Does anyone opt for a trick instead of the treats? How bad can/does it get?!

Tea_and_biccies

Ok, so the kids went to their first pumpkin carving-party. Can you guess which pumpkin belongs to one of mine..?

I guess she felt carving 50 stars was a bit challenging.

yellowroom

MostlyYank

Unlikely nowadays, but soaped windows, egged house, toliet papered yard...

Smashing pumpkins was always on the list

Awesome!

Pete

Bink

Awesome!

WEBlue

Most of these "tricks"--I can them vandalism!--happen on both sides of the Atlantic.

Our village in England had all outside pumpkins smashed every single bloody Halloween! Anyone who didn't want that orange mess spread in chunks over their garden or drive one morning had to keep their pumpkins safe in the window, looking out.

And our local village Co-op stopped selling flour & eggs to minors the weeks before & after Halloween. That didn't stop THAT particular mess from happening though.... Cars were often the target, sheds, bushes, etc.

Never did see loo-roll papered gardens or trees the way I used to in Houston though. Our Houston neighbourhood in the 80s were full of toilet-papered yards the next day. So annoying & what a mess! (Especially if it rained!)