[Update] Halloween Neighbor "Candy Pass" [update post 92]

[Kiara]

Ok, so then Halloween comes, and you get this steady stream of kids of all ages.  Every once in a while, someone yells out "Trick or Treat!  Oh, and I pre-registered!"  And now the person at the door has to stop everything and check the list.  And if the kid's on it, he or she gets "the good stuff."  And this happens in full view of people who didn't know about the pre-registering bit.  So they start asking.  And now this family has a big crowd in front of their house; some are pre-registered, some aren't, some are asking, some are answering.  But, as is the nature of large crowds passing along information, not everyone is getting the full story.  So they're asking again.  And some people are voicing their disagreement with the "policy."  And some kids are saying they pre-registered, but their name isn't on the list.  Or it's there, but it's been checked off already, so they're being accused of double dipping.  So the next year, the family decides to install one of those fingerprint reading machines like they have at the entrances to the Disney parks.  And then we find that some kids are pre-registering more than once and with different names.  And if you didn't pre-register but you live close by, you can still get a good treat, but you have to swear that you are telling the truth and sign and have notarized an affidavit saying that you agree to the terms and conditions of the contract and you will give back the candy if and when someone is able to prove that you actually did pre-register AND already got good candy.

Honestly, this is way too much effort for something that's supposed to be fun.

And that's it in a nutshell!

Amen.  Good gravy.  Halloween should be simple.  You go out, buy candy, and give it out.  I'm single, and I don't want kids even if I was married.  So Halloween's fun for ME is giving out stuff.  I buy Milky Ways and 3 Musketeers (the snack size ones) and hand 'em out to everyone.  Some of the kids who come by don't have great costumes....I don't care.  We have princesses, businessmen (borrowing dad's tie), kids in their football uniform, ninjas....I even give to the parents sometimes.  (One poor woman was wrangling six 8 year old boys by herself.  I asked her if she wanted some.)

Halloween should be one of the simplest holidays ever.

[Zilla]

I thought of this thread.  I just saw in another forum where they want to post signs at the entrance of their communities that will be well lit and said, "If you don't live here, please don't trick or treat.  Thank you".


Yeah, that's really going to stop people.     It's funny how heated people get at this time of the year.

[Isisnin]

I thought of this thread.  I just saw in another forum where they want to post signs at the entrance of their communities that will be well lit and said, "If you don't live here, please don't trick or treat.  Thank you".

Yeah, that's really going to stop people.     It's funny how heated people get at this time of the year.

They should add to that sign..."Please don't egg this sign."

Doubt that'll work though.

[Venus193]

I haven't had kids at the door since the 80s, mainly because I live in a 4th floor walk-up.  One of my friends lives in a  high-rise co-op (27 floors) with the following policy:

1.  Children from the building only (There is a lobby attendant to help with this).
2.  Households wishing to participate are required to sign up by X date.  They will receive a door decoration indicating that they are a participating household.
3.  Hours for participation are set.
4.  Information is distributed to parents.

No need to complicate it further.

[Zilla]

I thought of this thread.  I just saw in another forum where they want to post signs at the entrance of their communities that will be well lit and said, "If you don't live here, please don't trick or treat.  Thank you".

Yeah, that's really going to stop people.     It's funny how heated people get at this time of the year.

They should add to that sign..."Please don't egg this sign."

Doubt that'll work though.

I also neglected to mention they also wanted to put it right above the No Solicitors allowed sign with an arrow pointing to it.  The thread is full of claims of trespassing etc. 

[MayHug]

I'm probably in the minority but we once lived in a neighborhood that was full of "trucked in" kids. While I would never do what the ops neighbor did, I did get very frustrated. The first year we had three-four hundred ToTer's and we ran out of candy. We turned out our porch light, kids still banged on our door. We turned out the inside lights and we had people (kids and adults) banging on our door and screaming at us. It was very scary for our kids who were little at the time. The next few years we lived there, we had to send our kids away and my husband stayed at the house with the lights out. We still got people being angry and were honestly afraid things would escalate. We weren't the only ones who had problems but complaining, even to the police, made us look like grinches. :-(

[lowspark]

That's terrible MayHug but it's not something that all transferred in kids do. We have kids who get dropped off into our neighborhood and I've never had this happen. When we run out, we turn off the porch light and it's a done deal. We are sitting in living room watching TV so it's clear that someone is home, but the porch light is the indicator of whether there's candy available or not.

It sounds like this was a particularly rough bunch. Maybe you could have gotten together with your neighbors (who must have experienced the same thing?) and reported it to the police together.

[TootsNYC]

I haven't had kids at the door since the 80s, mainly because I live in a 4th floor walk-up.  One of my friends lives in a  high-rise co-op (27 floors) with the following policy:

1.  Children from the building only (There is a lobby attendant to help with this).
2.  Households wishing to participate are required to sign up by X date.  They will receive a door decoration indicating that they are a participating household.
3.  Hours for participation are set.
4.  Information is distributed to parents.

No need to complicate it further.

This can't possibly apply to the OP's story--that high-rise is in no way analagous to a neighborhood.

Oh, except that the high-rise residents *also* only wish to "play the game" with kids who live in their neighborhood. So they *have* "complicated it" in exactly the way that the OP's neighbors have.

They simply have better tools (four walls and a doorman).

If someone is feeling really taken advantage of by having hordes of kids who have no connection to them, coming by, perhaps they'd have a happier Halloween night if they simply approached all their actual neighbors to say, "We're not going to give out candy, but we really want to see your kids' costumes, so have them stop by to see us before they go to the rest of the nabe." And get some full-size candy bars to pass out to them.

I was not allowed to trick-or-treat; my mom thought it was greedy, I think, or too risky in terms of misbehavior, etc. But my neighbor lady always insisted that we had to come show her our costumes (we did dress up, for school and for giving out candy), and she gave us some candy from her stash.

[hannahmollysmom]

My daughter takes my granddaughter back to our old neighborhood. Not so much for the candy, but to show her to the old neighbors. This year might be different though, as my granddaughter has a taste for candy now!

I'm making her costume and I can't wait for Halloween. That is what it is all about, children enjoying themselves!

[pinkflamingo]

My neighborhood is within walking distance of three elementary schools, a middle school, and the border of two different towns, so we get a lot of kids transported in from other areas. I don't really care where the kids are from as long as they're in costume and polite. Thankfully, most of them are. I've had a few people knock on the door after I've turned the lights out, but they've all taken it well when I told them that I'm out of candy.

I do like the idea of the A bowl for little kids and the B bowl for teens. I'm not organized enough for that, so maybe I'll just start heckling the ones who feel that a Batman t-shirt is a sufficient costume.

[KenveeB]

I do like the idea of the A bowl for little kids and the B bowl for teens. I'm not organized enough for that, so maybe I'll just start heckling the ones who feel that a Batman t-shirt is a sufficient costume.

Mine is all in one bowl, I just pay attention to what I pull out. No costume gets one piece of blah candy. Any costume gets 2-3 pieces of regular candy. (And I'm lenient -- even if you're not really dressed up, if you can give me any kind of explanation of what you are, you're considered a costume.) Creative costumes and ones I really like get extra candy.

[GlitterIsMyDrug]

My neighborhood is within walking distance of three elementary schools, a middle school, and the border of two different towns, so we get a lot of kids transported in from other areas. I don't really care where the kids are from as long as they're in costume and polite. Thankfully, most of them are. I've had a few people knock on the door after I've turned the lights out, but they've all taken it well when I told them that I'm out of candy.

I do like the idea of the A bowl for little kids and the B bowl for teens. I'm not organized enough for that, so maybe I'll just start heckling the ones who feel that a Batman t-shirt is a sufficient costume.

This actually reminded me of a kid who came by year before last, he was dressed in a little suit, hair slicked back, might've been 6 or 7. So we ask if he's a lawyer or a business man and he goes "Well...kind of...can you keep a secret?" so we nod and he motions us closer and whispers "I'm batman! Shh...secret" and then stands up straight and says "I'm Bruce Wayne, I run Wayne Industries". He got so much candy from us!

[hobish]

In my world Halloween is for everybody, not just kids and not just some kids but not others; but this sounds like good intentions gone really awry.

[MyFamily]

This actually reminded me of a kid who came by year before last, he was dressed in a little suit, hair slicked back, might've been 6 or 7. So we ask if he's a lawyer or a business man and he goes "Well...kind of...can you keep a secret?" so we nod and he motions us closer and whispers "I'm batman! Shh...secret" and then stands up straight and says "I'm Bruce Wayne, I run Wayne Industries". He got so much candy from us!

Where is the LOVE button?  So freaking cute!!

[TootsNYC]

This actually reminded me of a kid who came by year before last, he was dressed in a little suit, hair slicked back, might've been 6 or 7. So we ask if he's a lawyer or a business man and he goes "Well...kind of...can you keep a secret?" so we nod and he motions us closer and whispers "I'm batman! Shh...secret" and then stands up straight and says "I'm Bruce Wayne, I run Wayne Industries". He got so much candy from us!

Where is the LOVE button?  So freaking cute!!

I am over the MOON about this one!