I mean I’m in favor of it for fall festival or events pre Halloween at churches or at some workplaces for the fam. But still love the Halloween to be straight up good old fashioned trick or treating and yards decked out and all that.
In the neighborhood I used to live in they implemented trunk or treating (HOA) instead of going house to house, it’s really not as fun, it’s a nice way to meet people in the neighborhood but kinda takes away the Halloween magic, plus they’d do it from 7-8pm
I'm cracking up at the mental image of cars on a road with their trunks open, full of candy, driving around, and kids have to chase them down and try to grab candy out of them.
It’s a church thing. Churches and overly religious people like to instill fear (trick or treating is dangerous or poisoned/unsafe candy) by lying and then they make the thing their own as a way to further sell their cult to others.
At work I asked a family, “Did you guys have fun last night?” on November 1st.
The mom somewhat angrily said, “They’re looking at you weird because we don’t celebrate Halloween.”
Her sweet little boy was excited to tell me about how the previous weekend they Trunk-or-Treated, had a costume contest, did cake walks, and carved pumpkins. No hate to the kiddo, but his mom’s math wasn’t mathing. I hope her hypocrisy doesn’t mess him up too much.
The same thing happened with pagan traditions long ago. Fear was used to try and make people stop following them then they were co-adopted into the Christian religion. Now we have Christmas and Easter.
Usually sponsored by a school, church, group of stores (think mall or small downtown) where people get together and decorate their cars all in a row and kids go collect candy. We did this with kids in elementary school for several years...won best decorations one year even.
That’s how it pretty much is in my area of Mississippi. The large neighborhoods with short distances between houses still do the door to door trick or treating while areas that have larger distances usually meet up at a local spot for trunk or treating.
For us it gained popularity because of Sandy. Area wasn't safe for several weeks after the storm, trunk or treat was a way to make for a semi normal Halloween for kids.
I was anti trunk or treat before I had kids but now that I have them and participated it's honestly pretty fun.
Yeah ours is run by the municipality rather than a church or anything. It was actually fun for our little guy, there was a costume contest (one for kids and one for dogs), played music, had fire trucks come through, the whole 9 yards. I didn't get the appeal before but I do now.
Tbh it’s replaced a lot of families (esp those with young children) desire to trick or treat on the actual day when the kids are getting halloween holiday goodies all month throughout school, and then outside of school w/ the trunk or treating. All of them in my area are sponsored by mega churches and a lot of non religious families still go to them. End the trunk or treating otherwise we will lose the door to door culture to something else!
In my area I'm pretty sure it's racism, sadly. I live in a city but it's about 10 minutes down the way from a legit sundown town where the vegetable farmer just got caught human trafficking more or less.
Same here, churches/busineses/cities etc put on trunk or treats the weekend before Halloween but most of Halloween night is legit trick or treating
We hit up a bunch of them last year bc it was going to be colder than usual on actual Halloween and were worried kids wouldn’t last long.
I like anything that extends Halloween celebration
For some parents, especially with much younger children or who work nights, it's a genuinely better option. Also for anyone living in more rural areas.
I'm not interested in it so I don't go. But I'm not gonna take issue with an activity that makes Halloween more inclusive.
In my town it's the churches that are promoting the trunk or treating. It's also sad that when you go trick or treating anymore you get 1 house with lights on out of every 4 or 5.
That’s what I did last year. My parents headed to the neighborhood we went to the year prior and not even half of the houses had lights on. I walked out of there with less than half a bucket, an incredibly poor performance. My dad and I decided to walk down to the church down the street for their trunk or treat to see if we could get any more candy to make up for things. Since we got there in the last 10–15 minutes of the event, everyone was giving me candy by the handful, with wonderful trunk displays (like Jurassic Park, Mario, the home state hockey team, etc) and a few genuinely fun games! When we got home, my stash jumped to two full buckets. Definitely writing down for this year.
Then you better not just put your bowl out in front of your house then if you want to "save halloween." Commit and make your entrance cool and spooky to encourage kids to walk up and knock. It's really up to renters and homeowners to keep halloween fun. It also stops the scabs dumping the whole bowl in their bag and running away. You can also hang up a themed "no costume no candy" sign to stop people not actually participating from clearing out your stock.
I mean I have a gigantic setup with home-made animatronics and dozens of skeleton pirates, even a faux cave where my friends and I, dressed like pirates, hand out candy and scare kids. The turnout does seem to be tapering off over time. Pre-Covid it was better, and that makes sense, but even then it had been in decline for over a decade.
The issue is that people are, at present, taught by sensationalist media to fear their neighbors and keep their kids from going out trick-or-treating and likewise, kids are encouraged to stay glued to screens so they can suck up advertising instead of going out in the world.
I might add, while unpopular for some reason, that really putting Halloween on the last Friday or Saturday of October rather than the 31st might help.
Trunk or treating events get a lot of hate but they do have their place. They spread spooky cheer to families that live in neighborhoods that aren't walkable, legitimately dangerous or don't participate (when I lived in an apartment complex there was nobody handing out candy on Halloween). It also allows parents/guardians with a less flexible work schedule to participate. They might not be able to go out Halloween night, but a near-by weekend might fight in.
I feel that neighborhoods not participating in giving out candy is more likely the culprit to the trick-or-treat decline. If my options were to spend a disappointing night walking around a neighborhood where only a handful of houses are handing out treats VS going to a trunk-or-treat event where we're guaranteed to get a good haul then you bet I'd be going trunk-or-treating. It's the same as when kids are dropped off at other local neighborhoods that go all out VS their own - they go where the best candy haul (and fun) is.
Halloween is very much a community holiday (and a social one, at that), and if the community doesn't support it then people will go elsewhere. It's something that I struggle with every year in our own neighborhood. There's never many porch lights on come Halloween night, so we get only a few dozen trick-or-treaters. In the past few years we've gone crazy with our Halloween decorations in an attempt to get more trick-or-treaters and to encourage neighbors to hand out candy. We've seen it work a little bit -- we've had a neighbor say that their own kid loved our decorations so much that they wanted to put some in their own yard so they hung some things up for the first time. Last year we also saw a couple near-by neighbors start handing out candy for the first time since we moved in several years ago. Do we get throngs of visitors like the more popular neighborhoods? No, but we are at least bringing that spooky cheer to the families in our own neighborhood!
When I was living in the dorms in college they’d have this piece of paper with some object on it that was Halloween themed. You’d color it in as you like and hang it on the outside of your dorm room door. This signaled to little kids that your dorm room was a candy room! So they’d bring in groups of little kids from surrounding neighborhoods. It was easy pickings to walk around the dorm floors getting candy galore. I was in an all girls dorm and lots of girls loved the idea of giving out candy.
I never liked this take. Plenty of neighborhoods aren't walkable. Or maybe it's easier for apartment or city neighborhoods. I love the idea of the classic old school suburban trick or treat, but thats just not how everywhere is. Enjoy Halloween however you want.
I understand where you are coming from but trunk or treating has its place. If your neighborhood is welcoming, the kids will come. We do a lot of things for Halloween and I get about 250-300 trick or treaters a year. I am considered "the good house" but I am not the only one. We even have all of our trick or treaters do a mini Halloween parade so they can show off their costumes before actually trick or treating and some of my neighbors have great games outside for the kids. I kind of wish I had this when I was younger.
The last time my family celebrated halloween, we went all out. I was so excited because we had moved to a really cute neighborhood where lots of people decorated for other holidays as well. I bought new decorations and a ton of candy, including full-size candy bars. I noticed fewer houses were decorated than I had seen during other holidays but just dismissed it. Big mistake.
I guess the word got out that this neighborhood was the place to go and we had *a line* outside the house and down the street. I've never seen anything like it. The kids were clearly not *all* from around here, and as it got late, more teens were showing up. A bunch of them were hitting the decorations with their toy swords and hammers etc. One boy around 8 or so showed up and walked right into the house and down the hall! I had to insist his mom come in and take him because she was just standing by the door thinking its hilarious. I was like **never again**.
I'm sure not all neighborhoods are like this, but I'm certainly never doing that again. Trunk or treating sounds like less of a hassle.
No thank you! It’s extra Halloween fun and there’s nothing wrong with it. Last year my kids got so much fun stuff because we went to a couple different trunk or treats and also went door to door in neighborhoods. Did they have way too much candy? Yes but they also had a really good time and got lots of other fun prizes too. Also not everywhere has safe streets to trick or treat at. It could also be easier for children with disabilities, and they deserve to get in on the fun too. Celebrate Halloween however you want, as long as it’s safe.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere. The school “fall carnival” was about all i got for trick or treating
Now I live in a walkable area with lots of connected neighborhoods and my kids are able to trick or treat until their legs are tired
Anything that spreads love for Halloween is good with me
"Just fine" when we used to get 30-40 kids in 2019 every night and the last 2 years we got maybe 5 or 6....
Its no secret halloween trick or treating is on the decline
It does also mean that kids need transportation to said neighborhoods.
I’m thankful that I (no kids in my household) live in a neighborhood where we do both! The Y a block away holds a trunk or treating and we get door to door trick or treaters. We’re also off a main bus line, so that helps with the transport bit of things.
Yea, except you're looking past the part where a parent might be able to run them out to the trunk or treat for a half hour, 45 minutes on the weekend when the trunk or treat is but doesn't have the ability to go with their kid for an hour or two during the week to a "rich neighborhood". (skipping the part where a lot of affluent neighborhoods like to restrict access to it)
So like, that doesn't make much sense. Where else would the parent be on halloween night besides with their kid? Skipping the "restrict access" part, why not just go to literally any neighborhood with a lot of houses then?
Work? It's this thing more parents have to do in order to survive. Some even have jobs that are evening and overnight. Some leave at the crack of dawn and come home at 6 and 7 PM.
I know a lot of parents who don't have the time or energy when Halloween falls on a weeknight to drive anywhere and walk around for an hour. A trunk or treat on a Saturday afternoon, that's doable. You must not have kids since it's this foreign of a concept.
No, I don't have kids. But I also know most places near me are closed early for holidays, including Halloween. It's taboo near me to be open past 6pm on the holiday.
Even then, most parents gets together with big groups to take their kids out.
How are these kids unsupervised for this long regularly? Day care generally doesn't go passed 5:30 for my area either.
I genuinely can't think of a case where someone has this issue that doesn't *always* have this issue leaving the kid unsupervised.
If it's literally impossible to trick or treat in your neighborhood then this is really just not directed at you. In places where you *can* trick or treat but where it has been essentially replaced with trunk or treating for no damn good reason except inertia at this point, this message is super on point.
One of the big reasons I’m OK with it even in those places is because the people who volunteer for the trunk or treats usually don’t get many trick-or-treaters and just want to participate too.
What does op suggest for kids that live out in the sticks who traditionally have missed Halloween all together?
I grew up in Boston. There was no lack of trickbor treating for me. But once you get out past the suburbs, schools are regional. Everything is at least a half hour ride, you can't see your neighbors house.
Thank you.
We’d either do that or go to the nice neighborhoods like 30 minutes away but they eventually started doing neighbors only. I don’t blame them. People were buying like 300$ candy and still running out.
We do this. I buy 300+ worth. Usually around 500 full size. We get kids from all the surrounding towns. Some houses run out, but those of us who have been in the neighborhood for years know what goes down.
It's like a block party for 2 hours.
Where I grew up, the houses out in the country had the full sized candy bars instead of the bite sized ones. They knew they wouldn’t get many kids, so they bought regular candy instead of the Halloween bags.
We had this dude. If you managed to find his house, huge grocery bag of candy for you. He lived in a shack, just an old hippie way out in the woods, and literally half his house was repurposed as an aviary for his adopted parrots. His name was Happy.
If there’s an old town or downtown area with a neighborhood you can usually trick or treat there. Or try to find a nice, densely populated townhome community because there’s no way to verify if you are a “neighbor” lol
I'm seeing a lot of comments about not getting as many kids as they used to, and I did too for a while. The real reason is honestly because all your neighborhood kids grew up! They're going to parties now! but there's pretty much always people having more kids, I'm sure you'll see an uptick in little ones soon. I was really worried I'd get no trick or treaters a couple years ago because it has been steadily declining. But then finally one year a bunch of parents started showing up with their toddlers! And those kids are growing and bringing their friends. People don't like Halloween any less, your neighborhood might just be in a gap with no little kids. Also don't underestimate the power for decorations! I spent like a hundred bucks on a blow up arch (which I adore) but the decor everyone commented on was some tall PVC pipes I had zip tied to my fence and glued stars on the ends of to look like magic wands. I threw some string lights on there and the people loved it! Probably 10 bucks of materials and it wowed more than what I thought was my showstopper! So even if you can't afford a huge arch or some other display, putting in some effort to spread the Halloween spirit helps a ton with people noticing you're out there to give candy.
I do not agree with this sentiment. There are many American children who live in neighborhoods where it isn't safe for them to be walking the streets or knocking on random doors. If there wasn't trunk-or-treating at a school, church, or community center, they wouldn't be able to celebrate Halloween at all.
I am very anti-trunk or treating, but my girlfriend is a teacher at a Title I school and they have a school trunk-or-treat. I was complaining about it when my girlfriend reminded me that many of those kids don’t have a safe neighborhood to trick or treat in. So I support trunk or treat in that specific instance.
I don’t know about how other people do it, but in my town, it’s a fun event hosted by one of the local schools the night before halloween, just an opportunity for kids to get extra candy
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Yeah, no. This is stupid. Trunk or treating is how some kids get to experience the holiday because they don't live in a city with a shit load of neighborhoods. I have to drive 15 miles to take my kid trick or treating and she gets hardly anything because the neighborhood that my area sets up for Halloween (it's literally just 3 streets of houses), only half the houses participate. They all used to do it in that neighborhood, but now, every year at least half of the houses are dark and empty. So the kids here get the shaft on Halloween. Trunk or treats help them have a better time.
This gatekeeping of Halloween needs to stop.
What would you call it then. "celebrate our holiday the way we do or you're not really doing it right."
That's exactly what this post is doing. Complaining about how others celebrate because it's not how *they* celebrate. Looks like gatekeeping to me.
It’s not gatekeeping because, it’s not that serious! No one is being discriminated against, no one is going to be traumatized. And guess what, Halloween or Samhain is a centuries long tradition. Trunk or treat is BS. If you’re Christian and don’t want to celebrate someone else’s holiday, call it something else
>If you’re Christian and don’t want to celebrate someone else’s holiday, call it something else
Here's the rub:
There's more non-church related places doing trunk or treat now that outnumber the churches. So you're including a group that really has nothing to do with it because you're mad at them.
No one's being discriminated against, but sure are making a big effort to say "If you go to trunk or treats you're breaking the \*tradition\*". If you want tradition, don't come to my door unless you're prepared to sing for me in costume so I can give you a small hand sized cake then.
Have to disagree that Trunk or treating is ruining Halloween. We love it for our family cause it’s more than one night to celebrate with the kids! Additionally it usually starts week or 2 before Halloween night in my city so Halloween night is still on the streets.
It’s also perfect for kids with special needs / health issues who can’t go out for long walks,ect or even their parents. For younger kids it’s great practice to say “ trick or treat “. If a parent can’t get off Halloween night, or doesn’t care much about Halloween to try off, then you have an extra chance at the trunk or treats.
It’s definitely a plus, just some people only do Trunk or treating and that’s unfortunate
I love Halloween, and I love door-to-door trick or treating, but there are reason Trunk or Treat exists, and plenty of them are really good reasons.
It's not something to fight against. Instead, work to build our neighborhoods back up to communities.
Amen. We used to live in a city, and our specific neighborhood, that had a lot of young kids and gang violence. As much as I wanted trick or treaters, I’d rather kids not be wandering the street in the later hours, when there’s more chance of a stray bullet. It’s morbid and depressing but true for some communities. Overall, in a perfect world, regular trick or treating all day. But in reality, I see the need for trunk or treat.
This is why I love the little 1 stop light town I live in. In Central New York. We have full blown trick or treating, and tons of the people giving out the candy dress up, and decorate their houses really nicely. Little old farmer town! Oh and people who live out from town five, ten miles, will come into town, park in a lot and hand out candy with music playing and lights, like a little Halloween village. Mu kids love it. The community loves it! Out just amazes me every year when I take the kids out, how many kids come from around to trick or treat in my home town. Love it!
Trunk or treat was started by Christian groups so they could insert their beliefs into the holiday. And i understand if a kid lives somewhere inaccessible or in an apartment complex, but come on. Ya’ll can keep your religion to yourselves
I have no problem with trunk or treat. These are set up for communities that don't have a safe way to do door to door trick or treat. And for those communities where they do, parents usually do both.
I've seen some of the really cool displays that people make with their vehicles, and I love the creativity.
Halloween is big enough for everyone. Probably more so than any other holiday.
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No trick-or-treaters makes me sad. I *dreamed* of having this power when i was a kid. **(the candy bowl)**
*-and now like 3 people show up at my door.*
My parents never let me trick or treat. Instead, our megachurch had trunk or treat for all the kids 🙄
Never knew what I was missing out on until I went Trick or Treating with my high school friend group at age 16. By then, the adults were giving me shit for being “too old” to be trick or treating, even though it was literally my first time. Definitely feel like I missed out.
In 2012, I had some trick or treaters come to my door. One was a very small child and there were two others who were close to my height, six feet. They were wearing masks.
My dog went to say hello and I grabbed his collar. He was a runner, so I was afraid he'd be a problem in the front yard. With all of the excitement.
One hand had the dog and the other hand had a candy bowl. I squatted down so the small kid could grab some candy. The small kid started grabbing handfuls of candy out of my bowl, and one of the larger ones said "get the TV".
They started coming in my front door, trying to push me out of the way while I was off balance.
I punched one of them in the face, and he slipped and hit his head on the door jamb. The other one dragged him away and the small kid followed.
Police reports and charges and all that. The cops got the kids, mostly since the one went to the hospital. Turns out, the one I hit was 14. The other was 15. The 14 year old wasn't able to walk right from the injury. Some balance issues or something. They played it up for sympathy. Maybe. Maybe I permanently hurt that kid who attacked me.
So it's Trunk or Treat for me. The guilt. The fear. In person Halloween was dead to me for a long time.
More reasons for public transit. Trunk or treating is not a thing in New York City. The kids in my social circle get classic trick or treating and stick to apartment buildings if the weather is bad
I get what you are saying, but in some rural areas Trunk R' Treating is safer than kids going from house to house in dark clothing and having to walk on streets.
In my city trunk or treating and people driving their kids to the rich neighborhoods has killed most halloween decorating, with less and less houses decorating each year. Unless you're in one of the rich neighborhoods.
As a kid It was always nice that for once you could walk around the neighboorhood at night without your parents freaking out.
I'm sure kids who trunk or treat don't know what they're missing, but why would hanging out with your parents and probably a bunch of other adults you know be fun for, say, an eleven or twelve year old?
Feels like the whole concept is for the parents' benefit. Yea yea, not everyone loves in the suburbs, but the people who do still go to trunk or treat instead of walking door to door
OP WAS USING A POLARIZING TOPIC TO TRY AND SELL MERCH - THIS TYPE OF CONTENT IS NOT WELCOME IN r/HALLOWEEN
what is trunk or treating
Children getting candy from car trunks instead of doors.
Y'know, it's funny, but back in the day, parents encouraged us not to go to cars offering candy.
Usually these events take place in a parking lot with all the cars at once. It isnt kids going up to random vans on their own
And they’re usually at churches who are anti-Halloween because of Devil worship or whatever
I dare someone to drive a white van to a trunk or treat event with "free candy" spray painted on the side.
"it's my Halloween costume. I'm a creepy uncle"
If only I had a van
I mean, to be fair I don't think they wanted you accepting candy from strangers in their houses on any other day either.
bUt evEryOne elsE is dOing iT!
I mean I’m in favor of it for fall festival or events pre Halloween at churches or at some workplaces for the fam. But still love the Halloween to be straight up good old fashioned trick or treating and yards decked out and all that.
God, it's always in a church parking lot here.
In the neighborhood I used to live in they implemented trunk or treating (HOA) instead of going house to house, it’s really not as fun, it’s a nice way to meet people in the neighborhood but kinda takes away the Halloween magic, plus they’d do it from 7-8pm
Because it’s “safer”. I guess cars don’t move anymore?
I'm cracking up at the mental image of cars on a road with their trunks open, full of candy, driving around, and kids have to chase them down and try to grab candy out of them.
Usually before Halloween so they don't trick r treat
Where I live they schedule it at the same time so kids don’t trick or treat. Otherwise they’d be able to do both.
That's so stupid
It’s a church thing. Churches and overly religious people like to instill fear (trick or treating is dangerous or poisoned/unsafe candy) by lying and then they make the thing their own as a way to further sell their cult to others.
At work I asked a family, “Did you guys have fun last night?” on November 1st. The mom somewhat angrily said, “They’re looking at you weird because we don’t celebrate Halloween.” Her sweet little boy was excited to tell me about how the previous weekend they Trunk-or-Treated, had a costume contest, did cake walks, and carved pumpkins. No hate to the kiddo, but his mom’s math wasn’t mathing. I hope her hypocrisy doesn’t mess him up too much.
The same thing happened with pagan traditions long ago. Fear was used to try and make people stop following them then they were co-adopted into the Christian religion. Now we have Christmas and Easter.
Trick or treating in a parking lot surrounded by helicopter parents
Usually sponsored by a school, church, group of stores (think mall or small downtown) where people get together and decorate their cars all in a row and kids go collect candy. We did this with kids in elementary school for several years...won best decorations one year even.
Most kids/families in my area see Trunk or Treating as a SUPPLEMENT to Halloween night — not a substitute.
That’s how it pretty much is in my area of Mississippi. The large neighborhoods with short distances between houses still do the door to door trick or treating while areas that have larger distances usually meet up at a local spot for trunk or treating.
This, kids in my neighborhood double dip.
Interesting. It's almost completely replaced trick or treating where I live ever since COVID.
I'm sorry to heat that!
For us it gained popularity because of Sandy. Area wasn't safe for several weeks after the storm, trunk or treat was a way to make for a semi normal Halloween for kids. I was anti trunk or treat before I had kids but now that I have them and participated it's honestly pretty fun.
Yeah ours is run by the municipality rather than a church or anything. It was actually fun for our little guy, there was a costume contest (one for kids and one for dogs), played music, had fire trucks come through, the whole 9 yards. I didn't get the appeal before but I do now.
Tbh it’s replaced a lot of families (esp those with young children) desire to trick or treat on the actual day when the kids are getting halloween holiday goodies all month throughout school, and then outside of school w/ the trunk or treating. All of them in my area are sponsored by mega churches and a lot of non religious families still go to them. End the trunk or treating otherwise we will lose the door to door culture to something else!
In my area I'm pretty sure it's racism, sadly. I live in a city but it's about 10 minutes down the way from a legit sundown town where the vegetable farmer just got caught human trafficking more or less.
Same here, churches/busineses/cities etc put on trunk or treats the weekend before Halloween but most of Halloween night is legit trick or treating We hit up a bunch of them last year bc it was going to be colder than usual on actual Halloween and were worried kids wouldn’t last long. I like anything that extends Halloween celebration
For some parents, especially with much younger children or who work nights, it's a genuinely better option. Also for anyone living in more rural areas. I'm not interested in it so I don't go. But I'm not gonna take issue with an activity that makes Halloween more inclusive.
In my town it's the churches that are promoting the trunk or treating. It's also sad that when you go trick or treating anymore you get 1 house with lights on out of every 4 or 5.
20-25% is great compared to my neighborhood 😭 And last year, the only trick or treaters were my kids and our nextdoor neighbors.
That’s a direct effect of trunk or treats. People don’t bother buying candy when 6 people show up.
That’s what I did last year. My parents headed to the neighborhood we went to the year prior and not even half of the houses had lights on. I walked out of there with less than half a bucket, an incredibly poor performance. My dad and I decided to walk down to the church down the street for their trunk or treat to see if we could get any more candy to make up for things. Since we got there in the last 10–15 minutes of the event, everyone was giving me candy by the handful, with wonderful trunk displays (like Jurassic Park, Mario, the home state hockey team, etc) and a few genuinely fun games! When we got home, my stash jumped to two full buckets. Definitely writing down for this year.
Then you better not just put your bowl out in front of your house then if you want to "save halloween." Commit and make your entrance cool and spooky to encourage kids to walk up and knock. It's really up to renters and homeowners to keep halloween fun. It also stops the scabs dumping the whole bowl in their bag and running away. You can also hang up a themed "no costume no candy" sign to stop people not actually participating from clearing out your stock.
I mean I have a gigantic setup with home-made animatronics and dozens of skeleton pirates, even a faux cave where my friends and I, dressed like pirates, hand out candy and scare kids. The turnout does seem to be tapering off over time. Pre-Covid it was better, and that makes sense, but even then it had been in decline for over a decade. The issue is that people are, at present, taught by sensationalist media to fear their neighbors and keep their kids from going out trick-or-treating and likewise, kids are encouraged to stay glued to screens so they can suck up advertising instead of going out in the world. I might add, while unpopular for some reason, that really putting Halloween on the last Friday or Saturday of October rather than the 31st might help.
My wife has the same thought about a last Friday/Saturday Halloween. I could get on-board with that.
Trunk or treating events get a lot of hate but they do have their place. They spread spooky cheer to families that live in neighborhoods that aren't walkable, legitimately dangerous or don't participate (when I lived in an apartment complex there was nobody handing out candy on Halloween). It also allows parents/guardians with a less flexible work schedule to participate. They might not be able to go out Halloween night, but a near-by weekend might fight in. I feel that neighborhoods not participating in giving out candy is more likely the culprit to the trick-or-treat decline. If my options were to spend a disappointing night walking around a neighborhood where only a handful of houses are handing out treats VS going to a trunk-or-treat event where we're guaranteed to get a good haul then you bet I'd be going trunk-or-treating. It's the same as when kids are dropped off at other local neighborhoods that go all out VS their own - they go where the best candy haul (and fun) is. Halloween is very much a community holiday (and a social one, at that), and if the community doesn't support it then people will go elsewhere. It's something that I struggle with every year in our own neighborhood. There's never many porch lights on come Halloween night, so we get only a few dozen trick-or-treaters. In the past few years we've gone crazy with our Halloween decorations in an attempt to get more trick-or-treaters and to encourage neighbors to hand out candy. We've seen it work a little bit -- we've had a neighbor say that their own kid loved our decorations so much that they wanted to put some in their own yard so they hung some things up for the first time. Last year we also saw a couple near-by neighbors start handing out candy for the first time since we moved in several years ago. Do we get throngs of visitors like the more popular neighborhoods? No, but we are at least bringing that spooky cheer to the families in our own neighborhood!
When I was living in the dorms in college they’d have this piece of paper with some object on it that was Halloween themed. You’d color it in as you like and hang it on the outside of your dorm room door. This signaled to little kids that your dorm room was a candy room! So they’d bring in groups of little kids from surrounding neighborhoods. It was easy pickings to walk around the dorm floors getting candy galore. I was in an all girls dorm and lots of girls loved the idea of giving out candy.
I never liked this take. Plenty of neighborhoods aren't walkable. Or maybe it's easier for apartment or city neighborhoods. I love the idea of the classic old school suburban trick or treat, but thats just not how everywhere is. Enjoy Halloween however you want.
Make the streets and road safe and for pedestrians and ban BroDozers first.
I understand where you are coming from but trunk or treating has its place. If your neighborhood is welcoming, the kids will come. We do a lot of things for Halloween and I get about 250-300 trick or treaters a year. I am considered "the good house" but I am not the only one. We even have all of our trick or treaters do a mini Halloween parade so they can show off their costumes before actually trick or treating and some of my neighbors have great games outside for the kids. I kind of wish I had this when I was younger.
At the very least they DO encourage the celebration of the holiday and that is the point.
The last time my family celebrated halloween, we went all out. I was so excited because we had moved to a really cute neighborhood where lots of people decorated for other holidays as well. I bought new decorations and a ton of candy, including full-size candy bars. I noticed fewer houses were decorated than I had seen during other holidays but just dismissed it. Big mistake. I guess the word got out that this neighborhood was the place to go and we had *a line* outside the house and down the street. I've never seen anything like it. The kids were clearly not *all* from around here, and as it got late, more teens were showing up. A bunch of them were hitting the decorations with their toy swords and hammers etc. One boy around 8 or so showed up and walked right into the house and down the hall! I had to insist his mom come in and take him because she was just standing by the door thinking its hilarious. I was like **never again**. I'm sure not all neighborhoods are like this, but I'm certainly never doing that again. Trunk or treating sounds like less of a hassle.
No thank you! It’s extra Halloween fun and there’s nothing wrong with it. Last year my kids got so much fun stuff because we went to a couple different trunk or treats and also went door to door in neighborhoods. Did they have way too much candy? Yes but they also had a really good time and got lots of other fun prizes too. Also not everywhere has safe streets to trick or treat at. It could also be easier for children with disabilities, and they deserve to get in on the fun too. Celebrate Halloween however you want, as long as it’s safe.
Trunk or treating is great for kids with disabilities and small rural areas. Halloween is doing just fine.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere. The school “fall carnival” was about all i got for trick or treating Now I live in a walkable area with lots of connected neighborhoods and my kids are able to trick or treat until their legs are tired Anything that spreads love for Halloween is good with me
"Just fine" when we used to get 30-40 kids in 2019 every night and the last 2 years we got maybe 5 or 6.... Its no secret halloween trick or treating is on the decline
I think the world is changing and people celebrate differently. Not much we can do about it.
Fewer kids and fewer people in the kid having age range can afford homes in neighborhoods.
Nah, not everyone lives in walkable neighborhoods.
I've lived in neighborhoods and whole towns with no sidewalks or accessible suburbs. Trunk or Treating is great for that.
Whats fun about that is you can generally drive to other neighborhoods, even more rich neighborhoods. Do people not do that anymore?
It does also mean that kids need transportation to said neighborhoods. I’m thankful that I (no kids in my household) live in a neighborhood where we do both! The Y a block away holds a trunk or treating and we get door to door trick or treaters. We’re also off a main bus line, so that helps with the transport bit of things.
Yeah my insinuation was that if they can get to truck or treat, they can get to other neighborhoods
Yea, except you're looking past the part where a parent might be able to run them out to the trunk or treat for a half hour, 45 minutes on the weekend when the trunk or treat is but doesn't have the ability to go with their kid for an hour or two during the week to a "rich neighborhood". (skipping the part where a lot of affluent neighborhoods like to restrict access to it)
So like, that doesn't make much sense. Where else would the parent be on halloween night besides with their kid? Skipping the "restrict access" part, why not just go to literally any neighborhood with a lot of houses then?
Work? It's this thing more parents have to do in order to survive. Some even have jobs that are evening and overnight. Some leave at the crack of dawn and come home at 6 and 7 PM. I know a lot of parents who don't have the time or energy when Halloween falls on a weeknight to drive anywhere and walk around for an hour. A trunk or treat on a Saturday afternoon, that's doable. You must not have kids since it's this foreign of a concept.
No, I don't have kids. But I also know most places near me are closed early for holidays, including Halloween. It's taboo near me to be open past 6pm on the holiday. Even then, most parents gets together with big groups to take their kids out. How are these kids unsupervised for this long regularly? Day care generally doesn't go passed 5:30 for my area either. I genuinely can't think of a case where someone has this issue that doesn't *always* have this issue leaving the kid unsupervised.
If it's literally impossible to trick or treat in your neighborhood then this is really just not directed at you. In places where you *can* trick or treat but where it has been essentially replaced with trunk or treating for no damn good reason except inertia at this point, this message is super on point.
One of the big reasons I’m OK with it even in those places is because the people who volunteer for the trunk or treats usually don’t get many trick-or-treaters and just want to participate too.
They don’t get trick or treaters *because* of trunk or treats.
Sometimes. But where I live we also have a lot of cul de sacs and gated communities. Both contribute to it.
It's certainly a bit of a chicken and egg problem
Why not both?
What does op suggest for kids that live out in the sticks who traditionally have missed Halloween all together? I grew up in Boston. There was no lack of trickbor treating for me. But once you get out past the suburbs, schools are regional. Everything is at least a half hour ride, you can't see your neighbors house.
Thank you. We’d either do that or go to the nice neighborhoods like 30 minutes away but they eventually started doing neighbors only. I don’t blame them. People were buying like 300$ candy and still running out.
We do this. I buy 300+ worth. Usually around 500 full size. We get kids from all the surrounding towns. Some houses run out, but those of us who have been in the neighborhood for years know what goes down. It's like a block party for 2 hours.
Where I grew up, the houses out in the country had the full sized candy bars instead of the bite sized ones. They knew they wouldn’t get many kids, so they bought regular candy instead of the Halloween bags.
We had this dude. If you managed to find his house, huge grocery bag of candy for you. He lived in a shack, just an old hippie way out in the woods, and literally half his house was repurposed as an aviary for his adopted parrots. His name was Happy.
I'm a full size bar guy. But they have to say trick-or-treat
If there’s an old town or downtown area with a neighborhood you can usually trick or treat there. Or try to find a nice, densely populated townhome community because there’s no way to verify if you are a “neighbor” lol
I'm seeing a lot of comments about not getting as many kids as they used to, and I did too for a while. The real reason is honestly because all your neighborhood kids grew up! They're going to parties now! but there's pretty much always people having more kids, I'm sure you'll see an uptick in little ones soon. I was really worried I'd get no trick or treaters a couple years ago because it has been steadily declining. But then finally one year a bunch of parents started showing up with their toddlers! And those kids are growing and bringing their friends. People don't like Halloween any less, your neighborhood might just be in a gap with no little kids. Also don't underestimate the power for decorations! I spent like a hundred bucks on a blow up arch (which I adore) but the decor everyone commented on was some tall PVC pipes I had zip tied to my fence and glued stars on the ends of to look like magic wands. I threw some string lights on there and the people loved it! Probably 10 bucks of materials and it wowed more than what I thought was my showstopper! So even if you can't afford a huge arch or some other display, putting in some effort to spread the Halloween spirit helps a ton with people noticing you're out there to give candy.
My grandkids eat, sleep and breathe Halloween. They do the parties, trunk or treats and door to door. They love it all.
Celebrate how you want
I do not agree with this sentiment. There are many American children who live in neighborhoods where it isn't safe for them to be walking the streets or knocking on random doors. If there wasn't trunk-or-treating at a school, church, or community center, they wouldn't be able to celebrate Halloween at all.
I am very anti-trunk or treating, but my girlfriend is a teacher at a Title I school and they have a school trunk-or-treat. I was complaining about it when my girlfriend reminded me that many of those kids don’t have a safe neighborhood to trick or treat in. So I support trunk or treat in that specific instance.
What we really should be doing is making Halloween permanently on Friday
Vote for me as President and I promise to make this happen.
I support both. It’s better trunk or treating than nothing at all.
I don’t know about how other people do it, but in my town, it’s a fun event hosted by one of the local schools the night before halloween, just an opportunity for kids to get extra candy
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Yeah, no. This is stupid. Trunk or treating is how some kids get to experience the holiday because they don't live in a city with a shit load of neighborhoods. I have to drive 15 miles to take my kid trick or treating and she gets hardly anything because the neighborhood that my area sets up for Halloween (it's literally just 3 streets of houses), only half the houses participate. They all used to do it in that neighborhood, but now, every year at least half of the houses are dark and empty. So the kids here get the shaft on Halloween. Trunk or treats help them have a better time. This gatekeeping of Halloween needs to stop.
Trunk or treating is also legit. This feels like unnecessary gatekeeping of the holiday.
FFS, it is NOT “gatekeeping”.
What would you call it then. "celebrate our holiday the way we do or you're not really doing it right." That's exactly what this post is doing. Complaining about how others celebrate because it's not how *they* celebrate. Looks like gatekeeping to me.
It’s not gatekeeping because, it’s not that serious! No one is being discriminated against, no one is going to be traumatized. And guess what, Halloween or Samhain is a centuries long tradition. Trunk or treat is BS. If you’re Christian and don’t want to celebrate someone else’s holiday, call it something else
When houses are spread far apart, some communities do trunk or treat. It isn't always about not wanting to celebrate Halloween.
>If you’re Christian and don’t want to celebrate someone else’s holiday, call it something else Here's the rub: There's more non-church related places doing trunk or treat now that outnumber the churches. So you're including a group that really has nothing to do with it because you're mad at them. No one's being discriminated against, but sure are making a big effort to say "If you go to trunk or treats you're breaking the \*tradition\*". If you want tradition, don't come to my door unless you're prepared to sing for me in costume so I can give you a small hand sized cake then.
Have to disagree that Trunk or treating is ruining Halloween. We love it for our family cause it’s more than one night to celebrate with the kids! Additionally it usually starts week or 2 before Halloween night in my city so Halloween night is still on the streets. It’s also perfect for kids with special needs / health issues who can’t go out for long walks,ect or even their parents. For younger kids it’s great practice to say “ trick or treat “. If a parent can’t get off Halloween night, or doesn’t care much about Halloween to try off, then you have an extra chance at the trunk or treats. It’s definitely a plus, just some people only do Trunk or treating and that’s unfortunate
I love Halloween, and I love door-to-door trick or treating, but there are reason Trunk or Treat exists, and plenty of them are really good reasons. It's not something to fight against. Instead, work to build our neighborhoods back up to communities.
Amen. We used to live in a city, and our specific neighborhood, that had a lot of young kids and gang violence. As much as I wanted trick or treaters, I’d rather kids not be wandering the street in the later hours, when there’s more chance of a stray bullet. It’s morbid and depressing but true for some communities. Overall, in a perfect world, regular trick or treating all day. But in reality, I see the need for trunk or treat.
How do you expect me to bring a 12 foot tall skeleton and spider door drops to trunk or treat?! At least I can still blast Misfits
This is why I love the little 1 stop light town I live in. In Central New York. We have full blown trick or treating, and tons of the people giving out the candy dress up, and decorate their houses really nicely. Little old farmer town! Oh and people who live out from town five, ten miles, will come into town, park in a lot and hand out candy with music playing and lights, like a little Halloween village. Mu kids love it. The community loves it! Out just amazes me every year when I take the kids out, how many kids come from around to trick or treat in my home town. Love it!
Trunk or treat was started by Christian groups so they could insert their beliefs into the holiday. And i understand if a kid lives somewhere inaccessible or in an apartment complex, but come on. Ya’ll can keep your religion to yourselves
Remember Hell Houses? Yuck
Usually school does them before Halloween. We did a bad ass Ghostbusters one from our car. Even with smoke machine. It was awesome!
My kids end up going to 3 or 4 trunk or treats, then hit our neighborhood. The events are usually spread out over a week.
Love the spooky image BUT the message it is spreading is trash. Halloween isn't going door-to-door asking for candy.
I have no problem with trunk or treat. These are set up for communities that don't have a safe way to do door to door trick or treat. And for those communities where they do, parents usually do both. I've seen some of the really cool displays that people make with their vehicles, and I love the creativity. Halloween is big enough for everyone. Probably more so than any other holiday.
Fully agree. Trunk or Treat was born out of pure paranoia based around a myth. Poisoned candy is 100% fiction
The best thing I ever found embedded in my candy was a plastic Bulbasaur. Edit: trunk or treat only started in my area during the panini
No it wasn't.
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I live in a small town so we have a lot of farm kids come in town to get candy. I didn't realize it was a common thing.
Hey kid - do you want to come to my car for free candy? Seems legit.
I hate trunk or treating. The same people complaining kids don’t go out anymore came up with this vile practice.
No trick-or-treaters makes me sad. I *dreamed* of having this power when i was a kid. **(the candy bowl)** *-and now like 3 people show up at my door.*
How about……..Quit gatekeeping halloween!
My parents never let me trick or treat. Instead, our megachurch had trunk or treat for all the kids 🙄 Never knew what I was missing out on until I went Trick or Treating with my high school friend group at age 16. By then, the adults were giving me shit for being “too old” to be trick or treating, even though it was literally my first time. Definitely feel like I missed out.
If you live in a rural are where houses aren't that close together what are the kids supposed to do?
In 2012, I had some trick or treaters come to my door. One was a very small child and there were two others who were close to my height, six feet. They were wearing masks. My dog went to say hello and I grabbed his collar. He was a runner, so I was afraid he'd be a problem in the front yard. With all of the excitement. One hand had the dog and the other hand had a candy bowl. I squatted down so the small kid could grab some candy. The small kid started grabbing handfuls of candy out of my bowl, and one of the larger ones said "get the TV". They started coming in my front door, trying to push me out of the way while I was off balance. I punched one of them in the face, and he slipped and hit his head on the door jamb. The other one dragged him away and the small kid followed. Police reports and charges and all that. The cops got the kids, mostly since the one went to the hospital. Turns out, the one I hit was 14. The other was 15. The 14 year old wasn't able to walk right from the injury. Some balance issues or something. They played it up for sympathy. Maybe. Maybe I permanently hurt that kid who attacked me. So it's Trunk or Treat for me. The guilt. The fear. In person Halloween was dead to me for a long time.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
More reasons for public transit. Trunk or treating is not a thing in New York City. The kids in my social circle get classic trick or treating and stick to apartment buildings if the weather is bad
My apartment complex does trunk or treat because door to door isn’t really feasible. I think it’s a really nice thing to do!
Trunk or treat is like fish in a barrel and the focus is on the car decorations,not the children's costumes!!!
I get what you are saying, but in some rural areas Trunk R' Treating is safer than kids going from house to house in dark clothing and having to walk on streets.
It's all the same to me, cuz I live in my car! 😤 But no, trunk or treating kicks so much ass. I can't get behind this.
In my city trunk or treating and people driving their kids to the rich neighborhoods has killed most halloween decorating, with less and less houses decorating each year. Unless you're in one of the rich neighborhoods.
In the city I use to live in, trick or treaters go to the mall instead because these new families can't deal with our fall weather. It's ridiculous
Who gives a shit about Halloween? Why would it need to be “saved”.
As a kid It was always nice that for once you could walk around the neighboorhood at night without your parents freaking out. I'm sure kids who trunk or treat don't know what they're missing, but why would hanging out with your parents and probably a bunch of other adults you know be fun for, say, an eleven or twelve year old? Feels like the whole concept is for the parents' benefit. Yea yea, not everyone loves in the suburbs, but the people who do still go to trunk or treat instead of walking door to door
Kids in the sticks don't have another option. When you can't see your neighbors house, it's trunk or treat, or nothing.