When I was a child, we never went trick or treating at Halloween. We may have had a few friends round on Halloween but it was never a big celebration on our calendar and we were certainly never allowed to go trick or treating and my parents didnt respond kindly to kids turning up on the doorstep "begging".
So when did the levels of acceptance change?
As soon as my daughter was old enough to a) not be scared and b) get excited about dressing up, we started to celebrate Halloween. The first year we had a small party with her nursery friends, the next year a few more people were invited and each year it has grown. The adults take the dressing up "almost" as seriously as the children (more so in the case of my gorgeous and artistic other half), the party games have got more crazy, the pumpkin designs more elaborate but the part that the children love the most is going round our neighbours and trick or treating.
Now given that we have had up to 15 children, I have always thought it a little unfair on my unsuspecting neighbours to turn up with 15 children expecting treats for all of them, so have meticulously gone round to all of the neighbours the day before the party and given out sweets for them to give back to us the following day. (it all sounds a little bonkers but it works I promise).
So we have gone trick or treating every year for the past 4 years and the little one will join us this year, (although I am still panicking that I havent got her an outfit) so we will be traipsing round knocking on the neighbours doors, shouting "trick or treat". We never have any tricks and over the years the neighbours like to play some on the children, which has caused much hilarity, so am not entirely sure what we would do if they asked for a trick!
But as the children get older, the thought of teenagers threatening to trick or demanding a treat is a little less cute and a little more intimidating, so what age do they evolve from being adorable to menacing? I have seen teenagers simply don a "Scream" mask and try their luck through the streets at night time which is not really in the spirit of Halloween but on the flip side there are far worse things for teenagers to be involved in than a bit of trick-or-treating. Is it so wrong if they want to hold on to this childhood tradition?
Lets be honest, you are a grown up for a very long time and childhood is precious. So should we put an age restriction on how old is too old for trick or treating? Or should we simply let children be children for as long as they possibly can be?
