OT: Trick-or-Treating

[Angel]

A few days ago, I had a chilling realization.

This year may be the last year I ever get to trick-or-treat. 

I love Halloween. It's been my favorite holiday ever since I was a kid. I love dressing up like Jack Skellington or a pirate or a gypsy; that's one of the best parts, dressing up however you want when no-one can say anything about it. I love getting enough free candy to last me three weeks. I love going around with my friends to random people's houses in the middle of the night. I've gone trick-or-treatng every year of my life since I was a baby and Mom dressed me as a bunny. I even keep all my old costumes. I can't just let this holiday go...

So, tell me: How old is really too old to trick-or-treat, and is there a way I can cope with this?

[Damaris]

My last trick-or-treat year was when I was thirteen, and I only got to go then because the year before I was recovering from having my tonsils out.

I find that the best way to cope with it (I LOVE Halloween, and miss it a lot) is to go over the top handing out candy.  The first two years we had a haunted porch.  After that, it turned into a haunted garage.  We would station someone who wasn't scary looking outside with saftey pops for the little ones, but anyone over the age of six had to go inside for the candy.  The goal was to make the munchkins laugh, and make anyone over the age of twelve cry. >)  (Actually, I succeeded once.  )

We change the display every year, and are actually pretty popular.  Usually we get several friends helping us- this last year we had a masked guy chasing a girl with a (fake) cleaver that went over really well.

It's a good time, and my favorite part of Halloween, honestly.  Just make sure whatever display you do is easily secured- we lost quite a few decorations to a thief about eight years ago, and had to start from scratch again.

[Aridas]

I don't know. Last time I heard, the idiots in my high school were STILL going on about going out for halloween... It's kinda just about the time for them to be the ones inside, don't you think?

[Brunhidden]

have a kid, dress it up, make sure its supercute and people will give you far more candy then tiny will ever eat, short stuff wont ever miss it till about age 4.

its not that hard, so grab a uteris and get crackin.

Spectacles, testacles, wallet and watch

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Someone linked to a youtube of a halloween getup.

Consisted of a chair with what looked like a headless corpse sitting in it, scarecrow style, with a bowl of candy in the lap.

... until one of the little-uns walked up to it, at which point the guy inside growled and jumped. Kid screams. Funniest thing I've seen in years.... :-)

[Brunhidden]

i can beat that.

last haloween my not quite 2 at the time daughter came uppon a house with some bushes and trees by its garage and a sign on the front door saying the owner was working on his car. well, we walked over to the short driveway where you could only see the bumper of the car and the rest was obscured by bushes till you were real close. we could hear someone doing mechanic like things so we came closer. the 'mechanic' was bent over the open hood of his car and what looked to be a bloody corpse was lying on the ground. at this point the mechanic stood up, looked at you with a blood splattered hockey mask and overalls, and then let out a scream as he charged for us with a knife.

Little eowyn loved it and wouldnt stop giggling so he gave her peanut butter cups and she gave him a high five.

What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it;
boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

[Zedd]

Ever been trick or treating by Jason Voorhees? Man he almost broke my hand when I was a pup

[Ryudo Lee]

I think the last time I did anything for Halloween was... geez... back in the 90's I think, when I was still in high school.  It was around that time that people in my neighborhood realized that there aren't anymore kids to give candy to around our neighborhood.  Since then, we only see a few kids wandering around, from other neighborhoods, though they don't get much from our street as most everyone has their porch lights off.

And Halloween is my mother's birthday, so we usually go out or something for that.

[thegayhare]

It's odd ,e and my sister wer talking aboput halloween last night

about how we should dress up like chars from the venture brothers

I thought she should be Girl Hitler... but she refused,  She though she'd bee a good Molatov Cocktease but then admitted she's to shy,  So She's thinking Dr Girlfreind would be best. That or Triana and almost no one would get the referance is she dressed as triana

Myself I kinda wanna do Dr Orffous cause  I love to Orate like that,  but if I could get a thin male freind to help me out I'd dress as 21 and 24 in a heart beat. 

[Sunblink]

Bah, I'm almost sixteen and I still trick-or-treat. The opportunity to grab a buttload of candy  and dress up as obscure characters (this year I'm planning on being the Gentleman Ghost, if I can gather all the right materials and somehow turn myself invisible) is just too good to pass up. The only thing that kept me from trick-or-treating longer last year was because of a deadly combination of rain and the fact the sneakers I wore kept hiking up into my heels, creating these really nasty shoebites...

...But you probably didn't need to know that.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Boog]

There are a few methods. If you simply enjoy dressing up for halloween, set up a haunted house and scare the ever-loving crap out of those who show up for the candy. Trust me, watching both a little kid and their parents scream in bowel-knotting terror can fill the void in you that candy would normally occupy. Or, bring a sibling trick-or-treating. I've been able to wade through packs of people my age clamoring for candy and being turned away when I had my brother with me. All else fails, lie about your age. There's no exact cutoff date or anything, meaning that it doesn't matter how old you are so long as whoever's giving out the candy thinks it's okay.

I plan for that time of year, alright? It's my favorite holiday.

[RJ]

I've only ever been trick or treating once... and it was a failure.

[Eibborn]

I would give candy to anyone who put effort into a costume. If a teenager showed up in a mask, I'd tell them that it was for kids, sorry. But if they had actually done more than buy something, they'd get at least as much as any kid.

[Kenji]

I would give candy to anyone who put effort into a costume. If a teenager showed up in a mask, I'd tell them that it was for kids, sorry. But if they had actually done more than buy something, they'd get at least as much as any kid.

Yeah. Though that's horribly rare. Last year we had the usual group of teens in normal clothes. And a few came back in different shirts hoping to go unnoticed.

[superluser]

I don't know what y'all are complaining about.  Throw a Halloween costume party (or get yourself invited to one).  Then you'll get candy and be surrounded by people who enjoy the holiday and enjoy getting dressed up and so on.

As to recognizing recurrent trick-or-treaters, I'm slightly better at recognizing faces than Kilgore Trout, but when I manned the candy dish, I usually had plenty, so I could care less how many times they visited.

[Netami]

After my HS buddies and I realized we were too old for T&T, we decided to play D&D on Halloween night... on the streets. As bards.

"Hail, young mischief makers! Beware the numerous vampires and werewolves that prowl these streets."

"AHHHH RANGERS OF POWER"

[ninjannihilator]

No such thing as too old. You either get tired of it when you grow older or you don't. If people frown about some 20 year old guy trick-or-treating that's their problem not the guy's.

[Brunhidden]

i just remembered some bad trick or treating experiences as a kid.

first off i grew up in a swamp, noboy around.

second, instead of driving to a suburb or something my parents decided it was better to only visit relatives. this consumed about eight hours, only got us to 3-5 homes, and scored a grand total of one cerial bowl full of candy.

third, costume choices were limited to an elderly clown wig or a trash bag and claim your a california rasin

fourth and finally- my father and grandma both completely missed the concept of haloween in general and thought of it as begging. they disliked begging as it somehow besmirched the 'pride' of our family. yeah, the pride of a family who frequently aquired roadkill for dinner.

in all i think i only 'trick or treated' for about four years and hit a grand total of maybe 20 houses...make that 7 if you dont count multiple visits to the same house. this ended when a relative had no candy to give (they took thier own kids trick or treating, thus they did not expect anyone to be dumb enough to go to thier house) so they took a handfull of candy from thier kids communal 5 gallon bucket-o-loot to disperse between my siblings and i. my parents have henceforth ceased to celebrate haloween


its experiences like that which make someone either hate the holiday with a passion or aquire the motivation to give every haloween that special flair and effort that only a truly crazy person with acess to a manequin shop can achieve.

It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way.

[Boog]

After my HS buddies and I realized we were too old for T&T, we decided to play D&D on Halloween night... on the streets. As bards.

"Hail, young mischief makers! Beware the numerous vampires and werewolves that prowl these streets."

"AHHHH RANGERS OF POWER"

Alright, hell with my idea, that's awesome!

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Either that or get up in camouflage gear and facepaint, and sneak around the neighbourhood leaping out at people and scaring the bejesus out of them...

For bonus points, get a team together doing both. :-)

[Angel]

No such thing as too old. You either get tired of it when you grow older or you don't. If people frown about some 20 year old guy trick-or-treating that's their problem not the guy's.

I share your belief, but the problem is, after this Halloween, I'll be in college. Can't exactly go dorm-to-dorm and trick-or-treat. So either they let me go home for Halloween, or I hold a Halloween party.

I don't know what y'all are complaining about.  Throw a Halloween costume party (or get yourself invited to one).  Then you'll get candy and be surrounded by people who enjoy the holiday and enjoy getting dressed up and so on.

This sounds like the best idea. But damn I'm gonna miss trick-or-treating the old-fashioned way. (sigh)

If he was reading this, my friend James would prolly say something along the lines of "Figures how you're never too old for Christmas, but you outgrow the pagan holiday." 

[GabrielsThoughts]

the last time I ever went trick or treating was when I was 7 I got sick the year I was eight and again the year I turned nine... then I moved to Nevada when I was 14, where it wasn't called halloween but a state holiday called Nevada Day, then they moved Nevada day to the last friday of October because people were taking 5 day weekends so Halloween returned, except for once every four years.