Anyone else who is a g1t like me on Halloween.....turn all visible lights off and don't answer the door to the trick or treaters!!! Hate this American import tradition. Read on another board that someone wraps sprouts in Ferero Rocher wrappers and hands them out to the kiddies when they knock!!!! Love that idea!!
Yep - moving to the back of the house for the next couple of days. Having a small drive and no car helps too.
Don't particularly like Halloween 'Festivities' - there seems to be a bit of an unwritten rule forming in our neck of the woods, that if you don't have decorations out that you are not participating and therefore not bothered. Not had any knockers for the last 2 years!
Christ and I thought I was tight telling the kids the ice cream man only rings his bells when he's run out of ice cream.
Half of Ipswich is kept afloat by (child) benefits - if being reluctant to randomly distribute my wages amongst them counts as tight, then call me QPR Ebenezer instead!
Another of my pet hates! Why don't some of the easily led sheep in the UK move to the good ole US of A. Trick or treat for some, translates as give me cash or I'll put your windows through. 'Trick or Treat Mr?' to which the reply should be, 'Smack in the mouth you pustulous ****?'
On second thoughts, got a horrific latex full face mask I might use to scare the little mites if they knock and use the sprouts thing!!! Yeah.....!
I have a gold tracksuit and will light up a big fat cigar and invite them in … that's sorts them out
I have never really cared for Halloween, but over here it goes with the territory, and tomorrow my five daughters (aged 13 - 22, two back from uni), who have already decorated the front porch, will all be going out trick or treating in our neighbourhood, leaving me to guard home base with a more than adequate supply of mini bags of chips (crisps) & mini choc bars, to keep the wolves at bay when all the kids trooping around the streets show up at your front door. Now how many kids show up at your door is dependent on the weather (cool, clear & dry tomorrow - easy to dress for), and the day of the week Halloween falls on (Fri this year, not a school night, so kids will stay out later). My rule of thumb has always been when my porch lights are turned on, I'm open for business, but when I shut them off (generally around 9:30pm) we've shut up shop for the night. Despite that you often get older kids showing up later on, not even in costume, but more than capable of causing mischief, who still insist on ringing your doorbell expecting free candy. Now when my kids were younger, daddy of course had to escort them all round the neighbourhood, while my wife held the fort. Actually when the weather was good it was a pleasant evening, you got some exercise, plus you met all your neighbours. I recall one guy (who runs a bagel shop) used to hand out free dozen bagel coupons to the parents, good for month, and another lady always had a plate of fudge ready, only for the parents. Of course as my kids got older they wanted to further & further afield to collect more candy, and I think the last time I went out it was a 3 hour experience, with my wife calling me back to steal some of our kids candy and return home as she was running out. Now at a certain age the kids no longer want daddy to accompany them, so these days I stay home with my wife, last year making devilish sounds hidden in the background, trying to scare the kids as my wife doled out the candy. When my kids return from their Halloween night, together they will have accumulated a vast assortment of candy, chips, cans of pop etc. and will then commence trading stuff back & forth (I try and secure the mini Mars bars!), and for the next couple of weeks it will be a horrible mess of candy wrappers shrewn on the floors. One thing that does bug me is parents, who after having hit up their own neighbourhood up for candy, come trolling around yours, driving their cars, letting their kids off at each house to run up the driveway to collect even more. Also I never really got why some people give out heavy cans of pop to young kids rather than chips or candy - with several of those collected their pillowcase stash starts to get quite heavy and they hand it over for dad to carry in his emergency overflow sack. Anyway, another year, another Halloween, I'm always so glad when it's over!
Here in NY they dont go around streets knocking on house to house but go from apartment to apartment. In our building we put signs on the door and the doormen hand out a list as to what apartments to go to. It works pretty well.
And by the way, no kids would go around knocking on doors on their own, there would always be an adult present or near.
[video=youtube;pedAc8rQimw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pedAc8rQimw&feature=player_embedded[/video]
Halloween isn't exactly a US import. It stems from British and Irish Celtic customs that were taken across the Atlantic by immigrants. The US then bastardised it and sent it back to us in a form barely recognisable (they did the same with Hugh Laurie. Mind you, they couldn't make Piers Morgan more of a bastard, so he came back unaltered).
