Thread: Halloween... you're doing it wrong

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Just about 20 groups of kids this year, almost half of them without costume. Some groups of three, had two kids in costume and one without. Another group, 2 kids no costumes at all... I looked at their mom standing on the sidewalk and she just waved like she was having a grand old time. One kid showed up with no costume and no treat bag, just said "Trick of Treat" and stuck his hand out!

Next year, 2 bowls of candy: Bowl 1 - premium brand name candy for the kids in costume. Bowl 2 - a pamphlet explaining the error of their ways.

Yeah, I agree. I go out of my way to run off the teenagers that show up on rollerblades/skates, without a costume and demanding candy. I had a little guy that showed up in a homemade Rubik's Cube costume. He got three handfuls of candy that would otherwise have gone to those lazy teenagers.

On the flipside, I got two large groups of teens this year that worked hard on their costumes. They got extra candy as well. I like rewarding the ones that get into the spirit of the night.

Where we are located at, we don't get any TOTs. I went into town and there were a lot of kids in costume. We had some parents and some kids come in costume to our haunted barn. I believe the majority were in costume.

I'm not sure what happened to this generation. When I was younger, as a teenager we dressed up and went out. It was great. Hopefully these kids now don't lose it.

One thing that definitley does not help is TV. I get over 100 channels and not a single one with the exception of Teletoon, who did a scooby doo marathon, deviated from their regular programming to show Halloween programs. There were plenty of Halloween Movies (Horror and not appropriate for children) but no Charlie Brown, no disneys Sleepy Hollow or Mickey mouse's Haunted house. None of the programs that I watched as a kid were being played on any channel. Just the same stuff they play every day.

Glad to know I'm not the only one who noticed a severe lack of halloween programming. I live in South Mississippi where the attitude towards Halloween deviates between those of us who love it, and the religious majority who... Well I'm sure you've all had run ins with that.

I don't get trick or treaters as I live so far out in the country. :-( So I typically run the party circuit like a social butterfly on Halloween night. But once upon a time long ago when I lived on a military base in Germany I got plenty of trick or treaters. I was torn on the costume thing really. Teenagers that are obviously American with no costume, um yeah they had to do a trick for me if they wanted candy.

The thing is the Germans don't celebrate halloween. They have a larger festival around the February time frame called Fasching. It's like a cross between Mardi Gras (has the same roots in Carnivale) but with halloween type costumes. But the German kids put two and two together, they figured out if they went on base on the night of October 31st and said trick or treat they got candy. So it wasn't unusual to see cute German kids at my door, usually the didn't have a halloween costume per se, but they'd do things like the classic sheet over the head ghost, or a paperbag mask etc etc. I ALWAYS gave them candy, because at least they were trying. To me the fact that they had homemade costumes rather than the storebought fancy ones was more in teh spirit of the holiday anyway.

Programming sucked this year. Most of what I watched were the documentaries on History Channel. The Real Wolfman was such a waste of time. Come on... some peasant trained a hyena to attack and kill people so he could "save" the village and get in good favor with the church? That was so pulled out someones arse and I was pissed when it was over for wasting my time.

AMC did play quite a few more classic flicks this year. More than Cinemax, HBO, and the others combined.

awww..... please don't hand out pamphlets without candy.

Have one bowl of the premium candy and have one bag of smarties or something else less premium with the pamphlet.

TOTing is becoming a dying tradition.... please don't add one more nail to the coffin.

Some of these kids who are TOTing don't have costumes for a variety of reasons other than they just don't care.

I use the two bowl method too. Premium for tot in costume and candy the parent will thow away because its not sealed for tots with out costumes -

I had a teenager come to the door in costume but wouldnt accept candy. He said he was too old. My 3 year old son grabbed a handful of candy and walked down the driveway to the street and gave him some. My boy knew he deserved it! I dont think I saw any TOT this year that wasnt dressed up.

I was surprised how few TOTs we had this year. We had great weather and I did get quite a few TOTs but I kind of expected more. I did get a lot of Out Of Neighborhood TOTs that came just to see my house and that felt good. They said they come every year to see what is new.

My wife is a teacher and she actually had a student that the parents asked to be excused from the Halloween party because it was against their "Christian beliefs". When the kid left he nearly cried.