Your Celebration of trick or treat reached the UK a few years ago. I am not happy about it as all it seems to do is give a free hand to all the delinquents in the area to cause mayhem. Last year I went out for a bike ride on the night just so I did not get bothered by the visitors.

I don't mind the local kids doing it and I dare say I will be getting a visit from the grand daughter this year- Especially as "Mum" has made a Decoration for her that she wants to scare me with.



Treats are arranged for them and it was only a few £'s to keep them happy.

But it is those older Kids that I do not know that bother me--So I am going to get my own back on them this year. Home made chocolates. Haven't worked out the details yet as I do not know whether to cook the main ingredients first or leave them raw.

Chocolate covered "Brussel Sprouts" and "Carrots" should make certain that they don't come round next year.

turn off all the lights in the place, close the blinds,and don't answer the door,,,works for me,,,
Bud

If it's anything like the U.S., the kids will go to so many houses that they will not remember which crank gave them the veggies.

Sounds like your begging for the Trick portion of Trick or Treat.

Now Britain could be different because it's not a long-standing holiday with well-established rules. But most of the kids trick or treating should be of no concern whatever their age. And you should be able to avoid the hooligans by shutting down things relatively early. The kids will trickle off so, you'll know. The worst I've heard of are putting fire crackers in available pumpkins. But those are only rumors and happen well after trick or treating.

The worst I've ever experienced personally was one year when my ex and I were at our house in the desert. The house had a long breezeway between the gate and the front door. My ex sat by the door with treats. Meanwhile, I was up on the roof with a skeleton marionette which I would drop down after the kids had passed me on the way to to goodies. Then they'd turn around to leave and a 3 foot plastic skeleton would be hovering in mid air at eye level. That was quite a shock. It was great till a middle school boy grabbed it and ripped it down with force. I doubt that anything would have happened if I hadn't scared him.

It's also a good time to give out cans of vegetables like lima beans, beets, spinich ect... A 2lb can of pumpkin pie filling will really weigh down that 5 year old begger.

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I haven't seen any "home-made" Halloween treats since I was a kid. Maybe I'll stop by your house, but not for the chocolate covered veggies.

In a good neighborhood. Nothing but small kids come to the door. THANK GOD!! But we will get some vandalism. Eggs, etc from time to time. "Rolling" doesn't bother me in the slightest. In fact if they want to do that, fine. No real damage. But eggers are about to be shot!

Oh, Stapfam! Now I know why Ferne calls you "Grumpy!" Put that Bananaman costume on and greet the wee ones at the door with a sweet and a prostate cancer awareness booklet. You'll avoid the eggers AND promote men's health!

The normal signal, at least here in Canada, is the porch light, if your porch light is on, kids know that your handing out stuff, if the porch light is off, your not, so don't bother.

And miss out on all the fun? Jeez, what a grouch.

I only resort to that if I run out of stuff to hand out. First year in quite a while that I'll actually be home on the big night, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Gotta get my pirate outfit together. Now, where did I put my eye patch?

Now that's the spirit!

We have less children every year doing the circuit for candy. I don't think we gave away a whole bag of candy last year. In the states your homemade treat would be tossed by a parent since it isn't factory wrapped. Too many jerks putting needles, razor blades and other "nice" inserts in these goodies a few years back. The local hospitals would x-ray the loot, for several years, if the parents bought the kid and the loot by.

Now many of the churches are having "Trunk or Treat" nights on Halloween to keep the kids in safe surroundings. Not like the early 60's when we would have the whole neighborhood out at the same time. The homes got into decorating and we compared takes the next day. We will have some treats and donated several bags for our church's get together. I'd rather have All Hallows and All Saints day masses at our Episcopal church myself. Much quieter and meaningful for this old crumudgeon. Hey you kids, get out of my pew!

Happy Halloween,
Bill

Better be ready to clean the raw eggs off of your doors and windows and to strip the toilet paper out of your trees after you pull that prank. One bit of advice, if you open the door and see a paper bag on fire, don't stomp on it.

Anything not wrapped in a sealed wrapper usually gets thrown away, as that is what people put razor blades, pins, and needles inside of. Best thing I ever heard was when I was in a duplex on a military base. There was a front tree with a big branch about 8' up. Neighbors friend blackened himself and laid on the branch, yelling "BOO' when people walked under. My wife said she heard a women tell her friend that she "peed herself".
Where we live now, we get ready for Halloween and stock up on candy, then get 6-8 kids coming by.

We've got a local orthodontist who is offering to trade the kids cash for their candy haul. He is either looking to drum up business, is truly concerned about juvenile oral health or else he has the world's largest sweet tooth.

That's brilliant guerrilla advertising. He probably gets covered on TV and the newspaper and he gets parents to drive to his office where he can talk with them. Whatever he has to pay for the kiddies candy is a bargain.

Here is a Halloween treat for you all. Some people put a little more effort in than others..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAXMtUCcp7o

Other churches repudiate Halloween, having either a Harvest Festival or the gorier Hell Houses that celebrate Holyween.

Tyler Texas Hell House.

(content is NSFW and children)

I went out for a ride to check out the local decorations. No decorated churches. https://retrocycler.blogspot.com/2011...corations.html

Some of the neighbors a few streets away go way overboard with decorations. Needless to say, their street is jammed with "Trick or Treaters" all evening. Our street is kinda quiet as the most recent generation has grown up and moved on, leaving all of us "Blue Hairs" behind.

Prior to Mortimer's Incredible Adventure last Halloween...

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...light=mortimer

....our most memorable "Fright Nite" was when our twins were in their mid teens. I had been in the habit of placing four foot tall ply-wood headstones out on the front lawn and mounding fallen leaves at their base to simulate a grave yard. We always play spooky music on the "Boom Box" much to the neighbors delight (they actually call and ask why it isn't playing yet if we get a late start).

So this one particular year it was kinda warm out, so I asked for a volunteer to help me prank the parents waiting out on street while their little ones were collecting treats at the front door. I stationed myself in the dark in one of our vehicles with a "Walkie Talkie". My daughter hid under the leaf mound nearest to the sidewalk with another "Walkie Talkie" next to her ear at very low volume. As the spotter I would inform her when to rise. Did you ever see a grown man run down the street screaming like a little girl? I still get people around who bring up that night and we all have a hearty laugh.

I was out in the garage last night and Mortimer is ready for another night of touring the "hood". He has a Cutlass this year, otherwise he is mostly unchanged from last Halloween. We may take a mid-day spin down to the local diner as they are celebrating with a Halloween Menu and will all be in costume. If we get out of our morning appointment in time, this old Pirate will be sailing down for some lunch with his Boney Buddy on the EZ Tandem.

BOO !!!!

Here in Toronto it's one or more lit Jack o'Lanterns (or sometimes a display with or without sound effects) that signal availability of treats. The little Batmen and Sailor Moons come early with their parents hanging back on the street and if you can get it right you run out of treats before about 8-9.00 when the belligerent older kids come along.

When I was a kid in England we didn't have pumpkins and we used rutabagas - much more difficult! I agree with Stapfam that Britain doesn't really need Halloween - Guy Fawkes Night is just around the corner - bonfires, fireworks, cinder-roasted potatoes, treacle toffee, parkin cake and toffeee apples!

As a student, I preferred watermelons over pumpkins. Much cheaper, and if you carve carefully, you keep the red pulp in the watermelon and get cool red eyes, nose and mouth. Spooky, especially if you put the melon in the dark where only the red light can be seen.

Lure the kids in with something like this.

8 pm on halloween and no visitors. Looks like the rumour about chocolate brussels worked.

But yesterday I had a little visitor in the Grand Daughter. I was down in the bike shed and I heard a voice shouting "Grumpy-Trick or treat" I made a remark like "be up in a minute" and all I got was--"No-Now---It's trick or treat"



All dressed up a day early so she could do the rounds of the other grandparents and Aunties and Uncles. Well she is only two and she is in bed just as it gets dark so it had to be done in daylight. She stayed in the costume all day and even went out to a Garden Centre all dressed up. She had an almighty tantrum which was caught on Video and it is hilarious but I won't show it here as every one knows what a tantrum is like but Mum and Dad did the right thing and laughed it off.

But in the local area there are Pumpkins galore. All as scary as the next but a new feature this year in the "Artistic" bent is coming out in some of the carvers. Ferne is into the film "Tangled" so dad got carving and made this Pumpkin.

Not a bad likeness of the Heroine in the film.

But still a few hours to go and I have to admit that the Brussel sprouts were not made. But if I don't get any visitors then I will be putting on a few lbs with the amount of sweet sugary stuff we have ready for them.