Dear Abby on Trick-or-Treating

[magicdomino]

Regarding the postponed trick-or-treating, I've been thinking about this. 

As much as I love Halloween, I would not be supportive of delayed trick-or-treating.  All October, I put a lot of effort and love into my decorations.  But on November 1st, I'm putting everything away and thinking about Thanksgiving.  Without the elaborate decorations, I get less than 5 trick-or-treaters, which isn't really worth the bother.  (Obviously, superstorms trump trick-or-treating, but how often does that happen?  Unless you are in New England and get hit two years in a row.  )

Early trick or treating would be somewhat less annoying; at least I'd have a Saturday to set up, but it would make the actual holiday  anticlimatic. 

The difference between moving Halloween and moving Columbus Day is that Columbus Day is (a)  a day off for many workers, (b) was moved to make a three-day weekend for those workers, thus profiting the tourist and retail industries, and (c) is permanently set as the second Monday in October.  The date may change, but the position in the calendar doesn't.  The equivilent would be to make Halloween the last Monday in October, or maybe the last Friday, since the problem seems to be going to school the next day.  And you would have to make it national, or at least statewide, because the arbitrary declarations by individual communities is part of the irritation.

[Hmmmmm]

I am absolutely, adamantly opposed to ToT being any day other than Oct 31st.  We went out in rain, we went out in snow, and sometimes we didn't go out as children.  I do not agree with an entire community being held to the government deciding to switch the day (and sometimes for reasons that make zero sense).  If you want to celebrate Christmas or Thanksgiving or whatever on your own on a totally different day - fine.  But I will only be giving out candy on Oct 31st.  (And we do not have set hours.)

If you have (or had) young children, would you therefore insist on them going out on Oct. 31, even if the town had mandated another day?  I realize that's not the case in your town, but I'm being hypothetical.

I do not support it and would not take them out that night.  There are enough parties and fun stuff to do without the ToT part if the town did mandate that for some reason.  Heck, my office had 200+ kids come through today so those kids are getting a ton of candy anyway and that's after the parties at school!    (What a haul - going from cube to cube for 3 floors and getting candy at each desk!)

I really haven't experienced that.  TTing has always been the primary activity for Halloween.  Very few parties or other activities if it is on a school night.  There might be informal parties on Halloween night where families gather at one house after TTing, but not any other activities.  Formal halloween parties were always held on the weekend prior to Halloween unless it happened to fall on the weekend. 

Though I've worked in the corporate world for 20 plus years, I've never known TTing to occur at any company.  The closest is kids going to malls or area stores who hand out candy. 

[Diane AKA Traska]

All my life, Halloween parties have been like cake-smashing.  They're an activity seen in movies that don't exist in real life.  By that, I mean I've never heard of one actually occurring, except in distant second-hand stories.  They've never happened anywhere near me that I've known about.

[Outdoor Girl]

Weighing in on the moving the day debate.

Hallowe'en and Trick-or-Treating are October 31st, every year.  Part of the fun, as a kid, was getting to stay up late on a school night!  So I'm not a fan of moving the day just because, whether it is the community who wants to move it to a weekend or whatever.  But in the case of a disaster like Hurricane Sandy?  I wouldn't have a problem with them announcing that due to the conditions, ToTing would be moving to [whenever], as long as it was within a week.  If the conditions are so bad that a week isn't enough time?  It should be cancelled.  Have a treasure hunt at your own house with your own kids, using the candy you bought to hand out.  Or get together with your immediate neighbours and have the kids go door to door just to their places.  Or have a neighbourhood party with a treasure hunt for all the kids.

Caveat:  I've never lived anywhere with set ToT hours or days (other than the 31st) so that probably colours my opinion.  I do remember more than one Hallowe'en tromping around in snow boots because there was significant snow on the ground.  We did get driven door to door because it was a rural area but you still had to tromp up the driveway.

[magicdomino]

The civic association for my neighborhood has a Halloween party at a near-by school.  I don't know how good it is, since it is very child-oriented, and I don't have kids.  I noticed that this year, it was on a Saturday.  In previous years, it was on Halloween, 5:00 - 7:00.  I'd get a big surge in trick or treaters at 7:15.   

[WillyNilly]

The problem with moving ToT to another night is who draws the geographical boundaries?  In the quote below Breezy Point (Queens FYI, not Brooklyn) is referenced.  No one is ToT'ing in that neighborhood anytime soon... but in my area of Queens the kids were absolutely out. 
Across the street from me 3 massive trees fell taking out the power for a long block, but my side of the street is fine.  Lower Manhattan (below 39th St) has no power but upper Manhattan does.  But someone on say 40th St - the "no power" area might be their community, the kids might go to school with kids in a blackout zone but their area is not one - where is the line drawn to say "in this neighborhood ToT'ing is on Oct 31, but in that neighborhood its on Nov 3"?

Trick or treat is not a right or even a need.  It does not need to have more than one day. the difference between Halloween and most other holidays is that the entire neighborhood is not held hostage to it. If you move your family Christmas, my family is not affected. If the trick or treating gets moved...we are, even if we have lights off and no decorations, we get t-o-t'ers.
  And how far out are we supposed to move halloween? In my state there are entire communities underwater, one area of Brooklyn has an tired neighborhood of 80 homes burned to the ground - when are they supposed to hold Halloween?  And what about the areas that are not affected...do they have to wait or is everyone supposed to be holding T-or-T twice?
  Sorry, but I think that moving it is just a bit much. 

On the October 30th T-or-Ting it's called beggars night, devil's night or mischief night here...kids in some communities like to extend the holiday. It''s part of the reason why communities started setting hours when I was a kid and why some people take a hard line with regards to it.

[Rohanna]

I think in the case of a natural event it would be better to suggest that, once things have settled, that people bring candy to donate and one of the local malls or highschools holds a trick or treating party. Then no one has to be bothered and the kids still get to have some fun. This year is was VERY cold, so there were not many ToT'ers. The local shelter house has asked that people with leftover candy bring it, and they will use it to throw from the parade floats and hand out through the crowd for the Xmas parade in late November. I think it's a great solution as it distributes the candy to kids anyhow. Last year they had hundreds of "elves" walking through the crowds handing out candy canes and other treats

[jedikaiti]

All my life, Halloween parties have been like cake-smashing.  They're an activity seen in movies that don't exist in real life.  By that, I mean I've never heard of one actually occurring, except in distant second-hand stories.  They've never happened anywhere near me that I've known about.

I've been to them as an adult, but never as a kid. We went ToT'ing! In my experience, Halloween parties are for those of us who still want to dress up and have a good time, but are too old to ToT and don't have kids to escort around. :-) (They also tend to happen on nights when we don't have to be at work the next day!)

[stargazer]

Some of the parties I'm also referring to are in school.  From what I hear around here, it's a party at school with candy, they come here and ToT and get candy, and then go out at night and get candy.  No wonder their parents bring it in the office the next day!

[Sharnita]

Some of the parties I'm also referring to are in school.  From what I hear around here, it's a party at school with candy, they come here and ToT and get candy, and then go out at night and get candy.  No wonder their parents bring it in the office the next day!

I think even parties at school vary.  I know my sister was saying she talked to somebody who was saying their district did away with holiday parties entirely rather than worry about offending/leaving out anybody.

[Tierrainney]

Some of the parties I'm also referring to are in school.  From what I hear around here, it's a party at school with candy, they come here and ToT and get candy, and then go out at night and get candy.  No wonder their parents bring it in the office the next day!

I think even parties at school vary.  I know my sister was saying she talked to somebody who was saying their district did away with holiday parties entirely rather than worry about offending/leaving out anybody.

Yes. My second grader is having a "Fall Party" tomorrow. It is not a halloween party. This was emphasised several times by the teacher.    The school does not celebrate Halloween anymore. But it doesn't matter because my child was still very excited that she gets a party in school tomorrow.

[Giggity]

Unfortunately, you are not the arbiter of all language subtleties.

Be a lot cooler if I were, and easier because there would be no subtleties.

[AngelBarchild]

All my life, Halloween parties have been like cake-smashing.  They're an activity seen in movies that don't exist in real life.  By that, I mean I've never heard of one actually occurring, except in distant second-hand stories.  They've never happened anywhere near me that I've known about.

My friends throw a Halloween party every year, now that the kids are in school it sometimes has to be the Saturday before but we always have one.  I thought they were normal.

[kareng57]

Some of the parties I'm also referring to are in school.  From what I hear around here, it's a party at school with candy, they come here and ToT and get candy, and then go out at night and get candy.  No wonder their parents bring it in the office the next day!

I think even parties at school vary.  I know my sister was saying she talked to somebody who was saying their district did away with holiday parties entirely rather than worry about offending/leaving out anybody.

Yes - I never said anything but I did feel that Halloween was getting out-of-control at my kids' elementary school, though I never said anything.  I'd have been fine with a 1 hour or 1 1/2 hour party in the afternoon - but really, it was an all-day event, starting with a costume-parade for the whole school at a morning assembly.  And of course, for a lot of kids (not mine!) this meant two costumes; they couldn't possibly be seen ToTing in the same costume that they'd worn that morning at school....

I know some parents who did not observe Halloween would keep their kids at home that day.  Not really a great loss, since so little work got accomplished, but still.

Overall though I do feel for kids who expected to be able to go out to ToT but couldn't.  Not every community offers alternate celebrations.

[camlan]

An update on my town's decision to hold TOT on October 30.

October 29, Hurricane Sandy blew into town. Here in New Hampshire, we were not as hard hit as New York and New Jersey, but many people were without power for up to 4 days, and several streets in town were closed due to downed trees and power lines for two or three days. 

In anticipation of power outages and downed live wires and the need for repair crews to move around freely, the town decided on Sunday night to move TOT to Saturday, Nov. 3, from 5 - 8.

Since no one ever comes TOTing at my house, I have no idea how many people were out last night. From what I understand, about half the cities and towns in the area held TOT as usual on Wednesday night. The other half moved TOT to some time this weekend.

I can understand moving it because of the storm. But I am still puzzled by what prompted the original move from Halloween to Tuesday. Someone upthread mentioned church services on Wednesday night--while there may be a church in town that holds services midweek, the majority do not, so I don't think that was the motivation here.