What does Halloween actually feel like growing up in the US?
Posted by Axxtr@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 619 comments
I was born and raised in western Turkey and as a kid I always saw Halloween in movies and shows. It always felt like more than a holiday, like the whole atmosphere changes for a while. Costumes, decorations, neighborhood energy, everything.
So I’m really curious what it actually feels like from the inside.
What does Halloween mean to you personally? Do all families treat it the same or is it very different depending on where you grow up? Until what age do kids usually go trick or treating? And if you have any Halloween memories from childhood or now, I’d genuinely love to hear them.
Original_Being2545@reddit
Halloween is one my fondest childhood memories.
My family would get pumpkins and I would carve them and roast the seeds to eat (though they can be eaten raw). They didn't have the modern pumpkin carving kits that they make now, so I would just hack in a simple face into the pumpkin with a kitchen knife. It was fun and messy.
My mother made a homemade spider costume for me one year.
It was so fun to go door to door and get candy. It was such a thrill to go through it at the end of the night and then trade it with the other children.
I'm in my 40s now. I don't have children, but I dressed up for Halloween last year and I gave out candy to the local children. I like cosplay, so I made a rather impressive "Evil queen" costume that the kids really liked.
ResponsibleFly9076@reddit
It was fun as a child and it’s a warm neighborhood feeling for me as an adult. I am grateful to live in a neighborhood that does old-fashioned trick-or-treating. We get to see the kids and greet their parents. It’s a fun autumn event.
Ladybeetus@reddit
In the more modern era it is the only time people really interact with their neighbors.
jh789-2@reddit
I feel like this varies by the stage in your life you’re in. Because people with kids definitely interact with the other parents of kids in the neighborhood. But I do not have kids and I’ve lived in my neighborhood for almost 15 years and I can only tell you the name of two neighbors, and I have to dig to think of it. I’m just not out hanging out in the neighborhood
MsSamm@reddit
We offer the parents candy, too. Some happily took us up on it.
sharpshooter999@reddit
Last year we stopped at a house that was offering beer and white claws to parents lol. It's a small rural town and I knew the guy. I bumped into him later that week and he said he went through four 30 packs of beer that night
PopcornyColonel@reddit
I give out homemade limoncello shots made with Everclear. To the adults.
The kids get candy or toys.
sharpshooter999@reddit
I'm gona need that recipe for this summer
PopcornyColonel@reddit
Oh, it's really easy. It just takes time, so you want to start a month or two in advance. Basically, you take the zest of lemons (no pith or "meat" or juice of the lemon) and soak the zest in Everclear in a jar in a dark cabinet or whatever for several weeks, shaking the jar occasionally. Then, when it has soaked for a few weeks, you make a simple syrup, strain out the zests, and add the simple syrup and Everclear together. The exact ratios vary but they're all pretty much alike and you can find recipes with a quick Google search. Have fun!
P.S. The limoncello is great at room temperature or ice cold shots, or you can serve it over ice, mixed in with club soda or tonic. You can also use it over ice cream, a little bit in your espresso, or to flavor a cake or icing that you might be making. There's so much you can do with it. Enjoy!
MsSamm@reddit
This sounds delicious, thanks!
PopcornyColonel@reddit
You're quite welcome. I hope you try it and enjoy it.
Also, I forgot to add: it is often made with vodka, but I don't like the taste of vodka, so I use Everclear. Use whichever suits your palate. 😊
MsSamm@reddit
Everclear sounds like a great neutral base.
PopcornyColonel@reddit
I think so too!
loweexclamationpoint@reddit
Must be a pretty small town! Here if you treated brewskis you'd have to pull the beer truck into the driveway.
sharpshooter999@reddit
It's a town of 350 in a county of 3,500 lol
bdonahue970@reddit
In addition to candy, we offer hot dogs and beer/claws for the grownups. Everyone, no matter their age, knows our house on Trick or Treat night 😂😂
FlyByPC@reddit
Three of them by himself! /s
sharpshooter999@reddit
He was in a pretty good mood when we got there haha
BlowFish-w-o-Hootie@reddit
Who does 30-packs?
Legend13CNS@reddit
Does that depend on state liquor laws? That's the default size for Bud Light and stuff above a 12-pack everywhere I've lived except Colorado (but I think that may have changed now). Some nicer brands will do 24 or 28 instead though.
sharpshooter999@reddit
Walmart, Target, liquor stores
Wicket2024@reddit
I tell the adults to raid their own kid's candy. We get about 500+ trick or treaters in Halloween. Last year I bought over $700 worth of candy and ran out before they stopped coming. Yes, I am the prince of Halloween, but talking to my neighbors we all are, we can't afford Halloween.
Ladybeetus@reddit
Seriously, thank you. You are the "magic"
MsSamm@reddit
Wow you're in a busy area! 3 boxes of 30-48 bars usually did it for us.
Primary_Luck6165@reddit
My neighborhood offers cbd gummies, spiked hot cocoa, pudding shots, Jell-O shots, and regular shots to the adults. I love taking the kids lol
soundsunamerican@reddit
Ours does shots too! So fun (and safe bc everyone is walking).
MsSamm@reddit
Nice neighborhood! I would volunteer to take kids around.
Primary_Luck6165@reddit
I definitely volunteer to help take my siblings kids haha. I have none of my own and besides it being a family activity, it has extra benefits lol
Lovebeingadad54321@reddit
There is a house in our neighborhood that offers parents Jell-O shots, you need to up your game… LOL.
ancientastronaut2@reddit
Haha I haven't done that, but I have ran in for a few dog treats to hand out.
missxmeow@reddit
We do s’mores and adults and kids are welcome!
chillannyc2@reddit
Around here the parents are offered jello shots or "grown up potion" from a couldron
Restoretheroof@reddit
We hand out airline sized bottles of liquor to the parents.
Ladybeetus@reddit
Yeah I do enjoy that vibe absolutely. One year our "young" (30s) new neighbors were hanging out on their driveway giving out candy chilling with some friends. They offered jello shots to the adults. Awesome!
Bag_of_ambivalence@reddit
I’m sad this is your experience. 😞
Ladybeetus@reddit
I really lean in though, I got to know several of the neighbors pretty well with this inteo
linkxrust@reddit
Not in my neighborhood lol. Everyone know everyone
proserpinax@reddit
As an adult living in an apartment building I don’t want to have to deal with home maintenance but I wish I live in a house on Halloween so I can give our candy for trick or treating.
PopcornyColonel@reddit
Yes! I hated this when I lived in an apartment building.
Now I live in a house and I'm always excited every year to see the cute kids and their costumes. And they're all so cute when they thank me and wish me a happy Halloween over their shoulders as they are scampering down the stairs.
itsasecretidentity@reddit
I go to a friend’s house in the suburbs. We bundle up, pour some wine and hand out candy from her front lawn. It’s one of my favorite evenings every year.
ancientastronaut2@reddit
Same. It's one of the only times of year I get to see my neighbors and their kids too. We sit on the porch to pass the candy out. The rest of the year everyone is holed up in their homes and it's like a ghost town, lol.
Gonna_do_this_again@reddit
Seems like all the neighborhoods around me have quit the door-to-door in favor of thr parking lot Trunk or Treat while it's still daylight outside
FolsgaardSE@reddit
Yeah that really ruined it. Only TrT for 1-2 hours during the day time.
When I was a kid in the 80s we basically went ourselves and were told to be home around 10 or 11 when houses would turn their lights off. Fun times afterwards too then trading favorites with friends.
Like any good holiday it's been marketed to death and anything fun about it has been buried under fear. Kinda feel bad for Millenials and Gen Z.
Not_A_Crazed_Gunman@reddit
I'm older Gen Z (born post 9/11), I still did door to door trick or treating as a kid. I remember being told by my parents to skip houses without the exterior lights on because that meant they weren't participating.
choglin@reddit
I’m a millennial and did trick or treating till 9 or 10. I couldn’t get into too much trouble though. My parents were both teachers at the high school and knew too many people in town. I couldn’t get into trouble anywhere without my parents finding out before I even got home.
stinkyman360@reddit
Millennials still had the door to door trick or treating.
I do think that the trunk or treat stuff is good for rural communities where you can't really walk to all your neighbors, but it's also not giving kids an important chance to learn to be self reliant
MsSamm@reddit
It's so sanitized nowadays
cappotto-marrone@reddit
Sanitized is a good way to describe it.
GeneralBlumpkin@reddit
My parents neighborhood does that in goodyear
Legend13CNS@reddit
I didn't realize that was starting to get rare until my cousins had kids and were telling us about one of the little ones having her first real Halloween this year. Apparently they asked about the "old" style in their neighborhood group and didn't get a warm reaction to it.
I grew up in the most suburban suburbia and I'd go with some of the neighbor kids I was friends with. We'd end up like three streets away from our own street at houses we'd never seen before. For us it was one of the first times we really got to explore on our own once we were teenagers.
commanderquill@reddit
...what's the alternative to old-fashioned trick-or-treating?
comrade_zerox@reddit
Trunk or treat bullshit, on a saturday afternoon while the sun is out and its not even the actual holiday
doublenostril@reddit
The people who take their kids out before nightfall do not understand the assignment.
smarmiebastard@reddit
My kid’s school does a trunk or treat, but it hasn’t replaced door to door trick or treating. It’s like a supplemental fun school activity where you get to see all your classmates’ and teachers’ costumes.
The neighborhoods around the school still have a solid trick or treating culture though. Around my house we have several neighbors that give out full sized candy bars or Pokémon cards.
commanderquill@reddit
I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
ResponsibleFly9076@reddit
Some communities have people bring candy in their car trunk and kids wear their costumes and walk around from trunk to trunk in a parking lot. I think it started from fear of tampering with candy.
comrade_zerox@reddit
I'm glad to hear that. In the Chicago suburbs its an epidemic
Due-Seat-1877@reddit
Yes!! Very community orientation, fun fall activities leading up to the actual day, things like hay rides, fall festivals, haunted houses and trunk or treats. Many retail establishments, libraries and shopping malls will host costume contests for kids, babies ,pets ...you name it. High school and college kids enjoy bonfires and costume parties. Lots of fun with friends before Thanksgiving and Christmas , which are primarily family time .
madqueen100@reddit
Halloween is very different in different areas and even in different families. Some families ignore it because they feel that it is a pagan celebration. Some families ignore it because they see it as a Christian celebration. Some families (not the majority) go all-out in decorations, costumes, and so on. Most families regard it as a fun holiday for children.. Trick-or-treating also varies with where you live. There is a growing trend to eliminate it for safety reasons and have school or community sponsored parties for the kids instead. Children love this holiday.
Level-Aide-8770@reddit
Halloween is just part of the fall craze that lasts all October. Pumpkin patches, pumpkin flavored foods, trunk or treats, Halloween costumes, All Saints’ Day costumes (my kids go to Catholic school), trick or treating. There’s often a school costume dance. We decorate our whole front yard and set up a fire pit in the driveway on Halloween. If you go to stores on Halloween you’ll see a lot of people in mild costumes - like a shirt or headband.
Mousehole_Cat@reddit
It's the best holiday in the US in my opinion.
Everyone actually gets out and talks to one another for trick or treating. It's great seeing the streets of our neighborhood full of happy kids
AWTNM1112@reddit
Clear into adulthood baby!!!!! My husband had a band for over 40 years. We hosted our own crazy parties in the early days. Then he’d just take gigs at bars. It is always a blast. People who show up - show up because they’re into it, so it’s just a great time.
Unfair_Koala_9325@reddit
Hi! American here. Side note- I visited Istanbul a couple years ago and miss it practically everyday day.
Halloween season is so special. It’s when the air feels cool again and you know summer is over for the year. For some reason I associate the smell of someone’s fireplace with the “spooky season”. Also the smell of fallen, rotting leaves (it’s a comforting smell, even tho it sounds sad).
People’s yards and porches have pumpkins on display and Halloween themed decorations. Lately the trend is having Giant 13-foot skeletons on the front lawn (eye roll). Cant stand that.
It is truly a nostalgic feeling.
-ASkyWalker-@reddit
Halloween for a lot of us is the start of the holiday season, so most love it. Very cozy and comfy feeling. And we do a thing….leave your outside light on means they’re handing out candy, and no outside light means no candy. Usually too, Halloween decorations come down on November 1st and Christmas decorations go up immediately. Best time of the year
Visible-Chocolate214@reddit
I used to do Halloween big. Lots of decorations, full sized candy bars for the little kids, CupNoodles for kids over 13. Early in the day, before trick or treaters showed up, each member of my family would name a costume. First kid to show up with that costume got a giant Hershey bar. For the kid whose costume really knocked it outta the park, the super giant Hershey bar. Then, kids stopped trick or treating. We went from having over 100 kids to less than 20. So I retired from Halloween. My daughter now is the big Halloween Queen, making costumes for herself, her son, her hubby, and her brother, all with a single theme.
spaypets@reddit
I loved Halloween. When my kids were little, we went all out and had way cool decorations…fun treat bags. I still make treat bags every year.
Here is what I remember. I think most of it still holds true today. I lived out in the sticks…houses very far apart. My parents would drive to a big subdivision with houses closer together so that we could easily walk from house to house without walking too much.
There were several kinds of candy situations 1. Treat bags- My personal favorite. The family gets little bags and puts in several different kinds of candy and maybe a little toy. I always loved those the best because it was like opening a present. I never knew what I was going to get. 2. The full size candy bar people. This family just got a huge box of full sized candy bars and handed out one to each kid. I loved that. Some kids don’t. For some reason some kids would rather get the fun sized candy bars.
3. The “pick a few from the bowl” people. They had a bowl with several different kinds of candy and you could get a few pieces. I always felt that the candy in the bowls was not that great. Very few premium candy bars most of the time. Not always…but most of the time.
4. The penny people - The would give out a few Pennie’s instead of candy. I HATED THAT! 5. The families with several bowls of candy. They usually had some good, substantial candy. You could pick something from a couple of different bowls.
6. The small bowl of crappy candy- This family picks out maybe a tootsie roll and a gum ball and puts it in the bag. Always a little unsatisfying.
7. Popcorn ball people- The family who gives out these hard dried up balls of popcorn. I don’t even know where they got those horrible thing.
8. The single mint people. Mostly older ladies. They gave out a single wrapped mint.
9. The religious tract people. - I never had this, but know people who did see this. This family is SUPER religious and doesn’t believe in Halloween so they give out little religious books. Bonnie wants that. I’m a Christian and I would not want that when I’m on a serious candy hunt.
Some families had fun decorations and would try to scare the kids. I loved that.
Costumes were mostly improvised where I lived but now, the kids get a lot fancier costumes.
I still just love Halloween.
PrincessWolfie1331@reddit
It's enough of a holiday that if you weren't allowed to celebrate due to your parents' religion, it was very awkward. Oh, but I was allowed to give out candy to my friends. I'm 45 and still salty about not having been allowed to go trick or treating. I was hoping to experience it with my kids, but infertility took that away.
Top-Measurement9790@reddit
It's magical. The decor may be spooky, but the holiday is really about having fun with your friends and family. Plus, it kicks off the holiday season (Halloween, Thanksgiving in November, Christmas, and New Years), so folks tend to be in good spirits.
taxwench@reddit
Halloween is a wonderful holiday and pretty much the only one where there is zero expectation to spend time with extended family. It’s just you and your kids if you have kids.
EloquentRacer92@reddit
I mean, as a kid I never specifically looked forward to trick-or-treating but I enjoyed it. It doesn’t feel like the atmosphere changes, because my lifelong neighborhood does not have any trick-or-treaters, and nobody even comes down here for Halloween. Nobody decorates either, except my family.
little_miss_rainbows@reddit
Halloween was the best! I loved it so much. Trick or treating, wearing costumes to school, going to fall festivals, and did some haunted houses as a teenager, too.
In general most families with American born parents celebrate it, except for super religious people. Others (newer residents or foreigners) get into it as well, partly since it isn't religious and just a fun holiday (lol it sounds weird when I word it that way, but it's true).
Most kids stop around age 12-15. If you're a teen and you wear a costume, most people passing out candy will be happy to give you some and only a few will grumble.
eugenesnewdream@reddit
Definitely more than just the one-day holiday. It's a whole season, and a vibe. I feel it has expanded since I was a kid, but I don't know if that's because of where I live now vs. where I grew up. When I was a kid we were excited to pick out/make a costume and we might put up some decorations at school, but I don't think we decorated our home or did Halloween "events" other than day-of trick-or-treating. Now, where I live, we decorate houses and lawns, and there might be several trunk-or-treat or haunted-house events leading up to Halloween night itself. I'll wear Halloween-themed shirts and earrings and sometimes nails for weeks leading up to the date, and listen to Halloween music. It's all so much fun! It's almost sad when Halloween night actually arrives because then it's just handing out candy and then taking everything down.
zoranss7512@reddit
Effing magical
907HighwayCluster@reddit
It's just as fun as in the movie ET!
Elivagara@reddit
Depends on the family. My family were evangelical extremists who did stupid things like hand out religious tracts and go all shocked face when the house gets egged or toilet papered. I got to go trick or treating with neighbors who felt bad for me, but since my parents didn't approve I had to figure out ways to make a costume on my own. We did do pumpkins some years, but that's because my mom liked to eat the cooked seeds.
For my kids my husband and I take them trick or treating every year and make sure they have real costumes. We often also do the trick or treat options in the area leading up to Halloween like the one at the zoo, aquarium, mall, and trunk or treat at the school.
Riker_Omega_Three@reddit
Halloween before the internet existed was amazing
Back before everything could be researched, your parents could tell ghost stories and you could believe them
the house down the street? Yeah it's 100% haunted. When in reality, the guy who inherited the house has it stuck in probate or it was simply a bankruptcy property. But if you parents told you it was haunted, suddenly, the entire neighborhood of kids created realistic backstories about the property and every halloween you'd dare your friends to go sit quietly in the house in the dark
Trick or treating before LED was also great. LED is too clear
HPS, those old Yellow Bug light bulbs, and good old fashioned incandescent had a warmth to them.
There were no blow up halloween decorations...no dancing LED light shows
You might trick or treat from a little old lady or someone with fake blood dripping down their face in a room lit by nothing but candles
loweexclamationpoint@reddit
It's gotten a lot more commercialized and spendy in the last 20 or so years. Before that nobody decorated and adults didn't do costumes.
Aromatic-Ad-9688@reddit
Very much a family event!
Available_Honey_2951@reddit
Sooo much fun planning costume, meeting friends to trick or treat, carving pumpkins and decorating the house with creepy things. I’m an adult with grown kids and I still carve pumpkins, decorate the house with spiders, skeletons and orange lights etc.
Trinx_@reddit
It really was like that in the 90s. It's not much of anything anymore.
Whole_Succotash_7629@reddit
It's honestly one of the funnest holidays as a kid. Unlike christmas, you aren't forced to be around family members you don't want to be around. For me, it's the one day in a year where you can dress up and be whoever you want without someone thinking you're strange. As a kid, it's so much more fun. It's like whole neighborhoods turning into a haunted house maze and there's a lot of creativity. As an adult, it's also fun dressing up and drinking, potlucks, party games, etc. Then when you become a parent or grandparent, it just becomes adorable seeing your kids and other neighborhood kids in all their costumes. I'd say I did trick or treating up until I was maybe 12 or 13. This was back when preteens were actually treated like children and not how they are now like young adults.
Favorite memory: Final house of the night. House already looked creepy with a dim porch light. There was what appeared to be a large slumped over clown doll on a chair. We approached and rang the doorbell. As we were waiting, we looked at the clown and were arguing over if it was a person or not, then the clown lunged at us. It was a person. Perfect acting. And as a teen TP-ing my best friend's house.
funny_bunny33@reddit
It's the best time of the year for me! The atmosphere really does shift and I love to decorate for it and hand out candy.
1Courcor@reddit
I love decorating but dressing up in a costume is not for me. I love the haunted houses and hayrides. My goal, when buying a house, is a big yard. I want to put on my own haunt. At the way our economy is going, I’ll never afford a house but my boss lets me decorate the grocery store. I can’t have kids, so Halloween is my thing I spend money on. Now stores have started doing Summerween & that’s been fun too.
TillikumWasFramed@reddit
Yeah it's kind of more than a one-day thing. Part of it, to me, is that it comes at just the time when you feel the seasons changing, so it just kind of "feels like" Halloween time. And you see the moon with flimsy clouds in front of it. The decorations are fun. And of course people get excited about dressing up (if they are going to). It's fun.
Upper_Extreme9461@reddit
It's a whole experience. The weather gets colder. People light cinnamon candles and pumpkin flavored coffees, sweets, and treats. Crisp apples are in season. People wear sweaters and decorate their homes. For me in school as a child, I associated it with the start of the new school year and I always feel so productive sitting in a cafe and working on my computer or reading a book as it rains against the window with a warm candle. Then Halloween parties with friends. If you watched any American movies with Halloween in it, it's very accurate to the feeling and energy.
Eureecka@reddit
It’s my favorite holiday.
I lived in the country growing up so our elementary school had a “haunted” gym trick or treat for us. They’d make it look scary with decorations and adults in costume that handed out candy to us.
My mom was not okay with the lack of trick or treating and organized the neighborhood trick or treat. (In the city and suburbs, kids walk. But it’s half a mile or more between houses and too far.) mom made a map of several miles that included what date and time the trick or treat was. If you were participating, you turned your porch light on so people knew to stop. After the trick or treating, everyone came over to our house for a party with donuts and cider. It was great.
In college, I’d usually go to Kent state university for their parade - all of the fashion and art students would go all out on their costumes and then walk around the downtown area.
Now, I live in the suburbs and I set a candy bowl and a toy bowl out for people while I walk around with my kid. She’s almost 13 so this is probably her last year to trick or treat but some teens continue longer.
Some grumps complain about older teens trick or treating but I love that they are holding onto childhood.
I also decorate my house, inside and out for Halloween. So do a lot of my neighbors. It’s very festive. The guy 3 houses down always does a fire pit in his driveway and has s’mores and cider. He has fireball whisky for the adults.
HeadstashedAF@reddit
As a child is was super exciting leading up to it, on the day and days after while you picked away at the candy pile. As you get older the group costumes were a blast, then the young adult Halloween parties, later horror movie nights while handing out candy to kids, and now it decorating, picking out costumes, painting faces and making up candy bags for the neighborhood kids to grab while we take our own kids out trick or treating. Even the dog wears a costume
Efficient_Wheel_6333@reddit
I've lived in both the city and the country and the attitude is very different in each place. In the city, that's where you're going to get more of the stereotypical Halloween activities of kids trick-or-treating, dressing up in costume, and some decorating of the houses, though there's going to be some understandable limits on those due to house and yard size.
I didn't see much of that living in the country and that's because most homes, even if they're close together, have longer driveways than city homes do. Not every parental unit is going to want to drive their kid or kids from house to house for candy and it wasn't unusual to see them taken their kids into cities to trick or treat and/or, if there's a place in the area that does a specific trick-or-treating event (where I lived in Michigan, it was a local living history museum; where I live in Ohio, it's a local zoo), they take their kids there. Some city folks do both as well; they go to the zoo/museum/wherever for their specialty trick-or-treating event and then do their hometown's event, depending. Depending on the neighborhood and if they can afford to do the event, it's can be safer than trying to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood.
BluebirdJolly7970@reddit
It was magical to me as a child- the only time of the year when everyone in the community would go outside into the streets at night and there were spooky decorations and little lights everywhere and everyone was dressed in costumes. It was so much fun because it was surreal. I remember once trick or treating with my parents so I must have been fairly young and one of the houses, the woman got really into it and I really wasn’t sure if she was acting or if she really was a witch. Some years I went with other family members or with friends when I got a little older. Eventually I had a Halloween themed wedding with a smoke machine and about 20 carved pumpkins. 🎃
SBG214@reddit
It feels like polyester and stale candy corn.
Fantastic-Meat7832@reddit
It’s a whole vibe and it’s not regional. In pretty much any town you can find all sorts of activities, haunted houses and corn mazes are pretty popular. Pumpkin patches are super popular in the weeks leading up to it where you can go pick out a pumpkin, have some treats, and get a hay ride. I don’t have any experience with big cities, I would assume that they still have lots of activities, minus the pumpkin and corn fields lol. But it’s definitely a celebration with stuff going on all month, not just the one day.
Heyya14@reddit
One of the best feelings in the world
madcowbcs@reddit
Halloween was the coolest time. Self expression, trick or treating, going out after dark. Scary stories. As a kid from the US, the tooth fairy and Santa were magic made by adults. Halloween as a kid, you are more of a participant than just and observer like the other holidays
longpas@reddit
It's my favorite holiday! No gifts to buy, no meal to cook, no religious purpose, people who are religiously offended just stay home and don't participate, fun even if you're poor since costumes are easy to pull from things already in the house.
Fun to dress up, fun to decorate, fun to eat too much candy, or drink too much later in life. It is the best 👌
FWEngineer@reddit
That's a good point, there are some people who don't participate for religious reasons ("devil worship" based on some costumes), but otherwise it's pretty uniformly celebrated across all parts of the U.S. and all demographic groups.
MsSamm@reddit
The kids from those homes are sad at not being able to participate. There were always one or two.
Geeko22@reddit
That was me. All my friends having fun, me restricted from participating because "Halloween celebrates witchcraft and demons. The whole thing is Satanic."
Zornytoad@reddit
Grew up Baptist Christian. Did the trick or treat thing a couple times when I was really young, but otherwise skipped Halloween growing up. We would have a carnival type event on Halloween called ‘Reformation Day.’ (On October 31, 1521 Martin Luther made a key declaration for his German church to sever ties with the Catholic Church because of corruption) Had a Halloween candy scavenger hunt before hand for the kids, and then a carnival type event at the church afterwards. Games etc. etc. it was fun. Yeah, you feel “othered” compared to normal secular society, but most of my friends were in that church mini community. At least my church didn’t just sit home and hide from trick or treaters lol. But yeah, some people believed it is a Satanic holiday whether people thought that or not.
I didn’t miss it though…maybe sometimes. I’m an adult now, and don’t go to the church anymore. My parents, (more so my mother) were more religious, church people, but I am less so. It was a pretty good church all things considered.
Yotsubauniverse@reddit
See I grew up Baptist and we never competed against regular Halloween events. Our trunk or treats were held the Sunday before or after Halloween and were seen more as a fellowship as opposedtokeep kids from trick or treating. When I was really little the trunks were themed to Bible stories and we had to dress up as Bible characters (99% of us girls were dressed up as Angels.)
Rescuepets777@reddit
So ironic since the original purpose of lit Jack-o-lanterns (carved turnips) was to keep evil spirits away.
droid_mike@reddit
It's not just hyper-christians, either. Lived in an area that had A good number of Orthodox Jews, and they absolutely did not participate in this "Christian" (ironically enough) holiday.
Zealousideal-Slide98@reddit
But the Jewish population does have a holiday called Purim, which includes costumes and fun.
CircusStuff@reddit
Holy shit there's a fun Jewish holiday?
somearcanereference@reddit
Oh, hell yeah!
There's a old saying that most Jewish holidays come down to "they tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat." Purim is like, "they tried to kill us, we survived, let's party." Traditions include dressing up in costumes, reading the book of Esther out loud with loud audience participation, putting on plays (bonus if you satirize current events when you act out the Purim story), eating cookies, and throwing insane parties where people get absolutely schnockered.
Think Mardi Gras, Halloween, the Fourth of July, and a Drag Race watch party all at once and you're about halfway there.
MsSamm@reddit
That sounds like fun! I've gone to a Jewish wedding. It was much more lively and fun than nearly all of the Christian weddings. Didn't beat out the backyard weddings and receptions though.
SandraMort@reddit
Love purim!!!!!
damangus@reddit
Yep, that was me growing up. Now I'm in my 30s and Halloween is my favorite holiday. I'll often spend 3-4 weeks prepping my costume. Last year I did Betty Krueger (Betty White + Freddy Krueger). Year before that, I did Man Spider from IASIP.
Adult me is making up for lost time and I love it.
idwthis@reddit
You can not just come in here and say you were Betty Fucking Kreuger and not give us the costume tax, dude.
MsSamm@reddit
Love this! So would Betty White. Picture, please?
ComfortableAd2324@reddit
Nah, I wasn't sad. We made homemade popcorn balls for the neighborhood trick or treaters that stopped by - obviously before it became dangerous to eat homemade goods plus we were a small community and our neighbors knew us. I loved those popcorn balls, only time of year we made them, I still think about them to this day.
ian9921@reddit
Those people are ridiculous. If you know the history of the holiday, it's pretty much the opposite of devil worship. The original idea was doing all this stuff to scare away evil spirits.
I had to put up with that a little bit growing up because I went to a religious school. For the first 4 years it was chill, then we got a new Principal who was one of those folks concerned about "devil worship".
Luckily he didn't do away with the festivities entirely, he just swapped them for "all saints day" celebrations. We could only wear religious costumes. Luckily I only had to put up with that for a couple years and it only affected school events, we could still do whatever AFTER school.
FWEngineer@reddit
There was a nearby church that had a big fundraiser every year by converting their gym & auditorium into a haunted house kind of thing. Then they got a new pastor and he stopped that, my son & his friends were disappointed (we didn't even attend that church). They used to have lines out the door for that.
Zivata@reddit
Catholic Church in our town did the same. Best haunted house every year.
Where I live now churches are trying to lure kids by having no costume game nights with lots of candy prizes that just happen to fall on Halloween. 😕 Oh and since you are here, have these super cool Christian comics telling you how to save your soul. Sadly it's very cold at Christmas here most years, so folks go for it.
Delores_Herbig@reddit
I went to Catholic school, and they didn’t have any weird shit around Halloween. We did Halloween themed parties and we could wear our costumes to school on Halloween. We had themed carnivals with bobbing for apples and scary stories and haunted houses.
All that weird “it’s a satanic holiday!” comes from the fundies. Catholics love pageantry and scary shit lol.
TrixieLurker@reddit
Old Catholic churches have the creepiest stuff on their facades, it was so very much a thing.
Zivata@reddit
Most of the churches where I am now are not Catholic. Idk what they are, other than creepy.
ZootAnthRaXx@reddit
The Catholic Church near where I grew up had the most amazing Halloween carnival and haunted house every year! They even had a guy who would chase people with a chainsaw that had the chain taken off of it! My boring church never did anything fun for Halloween, but they didn’t teach that it was Satanic, either.
Grouchy_Vet@reddit
My children’s school district ended Halloween parties and costume parades because of the number of kids who couldn’t participate.
When my kids were little, there might have been 2 or 3 kids in the whole school who didn’t participate. I guess that number went up quite a bit
msabeln@reddit
All Hallow’s Eve. The night before All Saints Day.
Feisty_Water_3164@reddit
And if you went to parochial school you often got the next day off of school.
CannaBeeKatie@reddit
But we had to go to church on the holy days. All Saints Day, we were all hopped up on candy and the blood of Christ.
SublimeCatfish@reddit
My little town had a group of people who dressed in their passion play costumes and roamed about passing out pamphlets for their fundamentalist church. A couple of years of being followed by the local coven singing their moon and goddess worshiping songs put an end to that nonsense.
North-Astronomer-800@reddit
Yes, I never understood this. Halloween represents the victory of life over death. You laugh at death, you laugh at Satan! You fulfill your fantasies, it involves family and friends, and draws upon age old traditions. What could be better?! Geez, life is too short to get hung up on this issue. Get out, have a good time, I wish you all a fun Halloween!
CheeseFries92@reddit
Yes! Also no obligation to see your shitty racist uncle. And the scenes from drunken costume parties are amazing! Plus, it's just like non-nerd cosplay. Truly the perfect holiday!
longpas@reddit
Exactly!
Halloween is a moment in time each year where the false dichotomy of cosplay nerds and those who dress up and paint their faces for sports events meet.
On this day you can dress up like your shitty racist uncle!
If you stop by to steal his ugly red hat, on this day and this day alone, he'll give you a beer and ask you to help him with his totally masculine makeup for his Ulimate Warrior costume.
CheeseFries92@reddit
🤣🤣🤣
myfourmoons@reddit
I cook a special dinner and make treats and pray a lot on Halloween lol
doublenostril@reddit
You know, though, I’m a Christian who does celebrate All Souls’ Eve. I just do it through trick or treating hospitality and gourd carving. ☺️ It feels like a religious holiday to me, with heavy pagan influence too.
MsSamm@reddit
But lots of candy to buy. Boxes of full sized bars (we were that house), more than needed for the trick or treaters because my dad was a chocoholic and we would sneak a bar or two before going out. My mom had to guard it until it was late (9-10pm).
stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit
Uh, yeah, I’m totally buying the candy I don’t mind having left over. I actually think the smaller Reese’s are better than full sized.
My current neighborhood gets a lot of kids which is nice. I am moving into a new 55+ neighborhood that’s across the street from a new family neighborhood built by the same developer. I really hope the two neighborhoods come together for this.
KinPandun@reddit
The smaller reeses ARE better because, proportionally, they have more chocolate in their chocolate to peanut butter ratio.
reapersritehand@reddit
No gifts? I think youre doing it wrong, i still get all the people close to me small spooky themed gifts every year
longpas@reddit
I love this! So, technically it's no obligatory gifts required.
reapersritehand@reddit
Its always a hit, and those who've been around for a bit start doing it too
Better-Crazy-6642@reddit
Then again, our church members all meet in the parking lot for trunk or treat. The car trunks vary from zero decorations to elaborate decoration and costumes, and all points in between.
It’s a great way to fill your bag with candy in a really short time.
ReturnMetoEarth@reddit
This!! Its always been my favorite because the only expectation is to show up and have fun!
damnyankeeintexas@reddit
I object to one point you made, in my house we absolutely have to make mummy dogs and die the ketchup and mustard green. https://houseofnasheats.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Mummy-Dogs-13.jpg
kbivs@reddit
I don't know if the going out after dark part is a regional thing or a thing of the past.
As a kid in Philly, trick or treating didn't even start until after it got dark outside. Maybe 6:00 or so.
When we had kids of our own, we lived in NJ. Here, trick or treating starts when the kids get home from school around 3:00 and they're expected to be FINISHED before dark. Like, people aren't even home from work yet to hand out candy! And the whole atmosphere is different when it's still light out.
Every year, I still feel like it's so wrong.
RedSolez@reddit
I grew up in NJ and am raising kids in PA. Trick or treating has always started after dark! Starting after school is just wrong 😂
SomebodyElseAsWell@reddit
Did you have Mischief Night in your part of NJ. We did, and that was great fun.
For those who don't know Mischief Night took place on October 30th, and consisted of kids running around and doing things like soaping windows, throwing toilet paper to hang in trees, egging cars, etc
RedSolez@reddit
We called it Mischief Night in Mercer County NJ
kbivs@reddit
We definitely still have Mischief Night around here in Camden County and also where I grew up in PA.
SomebodyElseAsWell@reddit
I didn't realize it occurred in PA. Cool!
9BALL22@reddit
We called it goosey night. (Bergen country, NJ)
SomebodyElseAsWell@reddit
I almost mentioned goosey night. I knew northern New Jersey called it that. We were in Mercer county.
avelineaurora@reddit
Trick or Treating is sadly in the afternoon here in PA too. It's so weird and just plain wrong. This is a safe as hell tiny town too, there's 0 reason kids can't be out in dusk.
Lovebeingadad54321@reddit
Our trick or treating starts at Five, but that is “baby hour”. The grade school kids mostly start closer to Six.
kbivs@reddit
That sounds reasonable
Upstairs_Highlight25@reddit
I refuse to start giving out candy in the middle of the day. Parents can suck it up and actually spend time with their kids during the evening.
splashybanana@reddit
Little kids before dark, older kids after dark.
sharpshooter999@reddit
We're from a small rural town of like 400 people. Trick or treating on Halloween night is still a thing though that time of year it's fairly common to be at or below freezing after dark, and occasionally snowing. One year we had a blizzard. That said, trunk or treating is a big thing now and my kids rake in way more candy than I ever did.
Growing up in rural town in the 90's, Halloween went like this. Around 4th grade, my parents let me trick or treat with friends unsupervised. Every small town has one bar to eat at. We'd drive to town (we lived on a farm) and I'd meet friends at the bar. Our parents all stayed at the bar while we wandered around town with instructions to either be back at the bar by a certain time or call from a friend's or relatives house (I had a few aunts and uncles in town).
That was it. No cell phones, no contact for hours. Just 10 year old me and a group of similarly aged friends roaming around. We always ended up at one friend's house because his parents bought him whatever video games he wanted and we'd spend an hour or two playing Goldeneye
MsSamm@reddit
I read recently that boomers, gen jones, and early gen x were the last generations who were able to have unsupervised play and agency. It mentioned a loss of imagination and problem-solving skills.
TrixieLurker@reddit
Later gen X an it was still that was for us, the idea lasted at least well into the Nineties.
KinPandun@reddit
Early millenials also, depending on parenting style. I was allowed to roam the park myself and walk to my friends house three blocks away and go to and from the school bus stop on my own in elementary school. In middle school, the whole town was an option.
For Halloween, as soon as I was in middle school, I was just allowed to go out with my pack of neighborhood friends instead of my parents. Pillowcases all the way, to increase the haul without having to stop at home to drop it off. We knew it was time to go home (usually at or after 9pm) when houses started running out of candy and handed out freezer pops or something instead. And when you saw roving packs of older highschoolers without costumes or glow necklaces or bracelets, it was DEFINITELY time to go home, because it had entered Smashing Pumpkin hours of the night.
Blue_Star_Child@reddit
My town is small like this too. When I was in highschool went had haunted houses in our school. Our elementary school was always decorated and we were allowed to wear costumes to school. Teachers handed out candy. Now its not so much in schools. But our town still celebrates. The community building has a town party. There's a church trunk or treat. You can get candy at the fire station and even our convince store. Its my husband's favorite holiday so our porch is always decorated and the kids remember our former themes! My mom always has a party for the grandkids who are now in thier 20s but still go lol!
sharpshooter999@reddit
When I was in elementary, the FBLA would put on a haunted house for a fundraiser every year. There was a guy down the road who had nice big red barn that he let them use. By the time I was in high-school, the guy died and his kids sold the acreage, so we never got to do that
MsSamm@reddit
You're right! Early trick or treating was for the parents to take little kids around. We didn't start until 6, finished around 9. But a huge haul. I remember a full grocery brown bag full of candy.
kbivs@reddit
I remember my bucket getting absolutely full of candy and making a pit stop back home to dump out my haul and go back out for more
KinPandun@reddit
Pillowcases are where it's at. Bigger hauls, as long as you were strong enough to tote it around.
MsSamm@reddit
Now that's strategic! 😆
9BALL22@reddit
The change occurred mostly because of growing safety concerns, not because of location. Most kids today don't go house to house, outside of the immediate neighborhood anymore. They go to "trunk or treat" events (people decorate their cars and give treats from their "trunk" or cargo area) or celebrate during/after school.
beenoc@reddit
Trunk-or-treats are a goddamn travesty. They are just stupid and bad.
You don't get the crazy decorations (every neighborhood always had that one house that went all out with fog machines and everything, and maybe someone in the family would dress up like a zombie or something and jump out from the bushes to scare the kids), you don't get the experience of walking around with all the big crowds and maybe seeing friends in their costumes, you don't get the physical heft of toting your candy bag at the end of the night all the way home and thinking "dang this bag is heavy, I got LOADS of candy!", you lose out on the exercise from all the walking (not that it would outweigh the candy, but if anything that makes it more important), and so on.
I'm not one of those /r/fuckcars "urrr car brain, automobiles are literally Osama bin Hitler" people, but trunk-or-treats are possibly the most egregiously "car brain" thing in all of American culture. Let's take this thing, that has been an established and major part of the childhood experience for decades, and make it objectively worse in every way by turning it from a pedestrian activity into a car activity.
southernjezebel@reddit
We were the crazy Halloween house in the late 90s. Once had the cops called because someone was worried one of our hangmen looked too realistic. 🙄 He was a 8ft straw man but go on, sis. The cop had my Dad take pics for his kids.
SunShine365-@reddit
Trunk or treats have definitely thinned the crowd of truck or treaters we get each year. The first year we lived in this house, over 20 years ago, we got almost 100 truck or treaters. Any more we’re happy if we get 20. It’s sad, we put up wild decorations and go all out.
hail_to_the_beef@reddit
It’s mostly at dusk now, with some kids coming a bit later. In our neighborhood the later it gets, the older the kids get, or the families who come in from other areas tend to come a little later.
Self-Comprehensive@reddit
Well we're still on daylight savings time on Halloween now so it doesn't get dark as soon as it did when we were kids, and Halloween is often on a school night. That being said, I took my nephew and my grandson last year and we started right before dark and stayed out till nearly 10
URInMyFace@reddit
Halloween 2008 - I was in 8th grade (middle school) and a bunch of kids from class went to a local haunted house. This haunted house was a yearly event setup in our Chicago suburban town, very popular. There were maybe 10-12 of us total, including 2 of the most popular girls in our class named Ashley and Dominique.
They would send us in groups of like 3 or 4. Somehow, as luck would have it, my group was the 2 girls and myself.
As the 3 of us were waiting in the lobby to enter Ashley says some along the lines of "Don't think we're going to be holding you hands while we're in there!" in a smug (and cute) way, Dominique laughs along with Ashley, we all laugh about it.
They tell us to go in. The first room we entered was pretty much just a stairwell, dimly lit, kinda scary. Almost immediately as the door closed behind us there was a creepy laugh from the top of the stairs.
Almost simultaneously, Ashley and Dominique grab me from both sides and hold themselves tight to my sides. I don't say a word, just the biggest smile I ever had on my face. Ashley sees me smiling, whispers "shut up" to me and I start walking.
They held on the whole time. Every scary clown that jumped out they squeezed tighter and would bury their face into my chest.
It was probably 10 minutes to walk through that crappy little haunted house, but those are 10 minutes I will never forget. It might sound silly, but that was one of the most formative experiences of my life.
Ashley became my first girlfriend, and years later Dominique was the 2nd girl I slept with.
That's what Halloween was in America, and that's why Halloween will always be one of my absolute favorite times of the year.
CahabaL@reddit
That was a great story
Derminac@reddit
Easter with egg hunts and candy baskets? Christmas with presents, cookies and tree decorating? Independence Day with fireworks shows and parades? Thanksgiving with family meals? Valentine’s Day with candy and cards/gifts?
madcowbcs@reddit
All great holidays, but Halloween was a whole community of kids and chaos. Where I lived Christmas was too cold to be outside and July is always unbearable to be outside.
Having a bag of free candy half my weight was amazing!
Puzzleheaded-Fan6111@reddit
Yeah its just a time to celebrate with friends and family
Yotsubauniverse@reddit
I had it good growing up. I got to go trick or treating 3 times. Once at the hospital Halloween party they threw for the employees kids, my church's annual trunk or treat (which was always held the Sunday before or after Halloween) and the actual night.
As I got older it involved my friends and my late older sister's friends coming over, big bowls of chilli, boiled hotdogs, snacks and eating treats out of the Halloween bucket while handing candy out with a scary movie playing in the background. Its an absolute blast.
purplepeopleeater333@reddit
As a kid I enjoyed going around my parents ts neighborhood with my friends in my costume. We usually had a costume made at school too.
Now, my friends and I set up in the driveway with a depot and drinks. We get pizza beforehand and as our kids go out i to the neighborhood we sit and gab. We hand out candy, snacks, and beers or seltzers to the parents. Families we know stop by and chat for a bit before moving on. It’s a nice neighborhood event. Almost everyone participates and we go through a ton of candy every year.
HairyDadBear@reddit
I'd say those movies are fairly accurate in representing treat-or-treating or the occasional parties. Only thing is every neighborhood is different, you could have a well decorated street and then a relatively dry street next to it lol. As a kid I always dressed up for it but hated that I needed a coat sometimes. I been a doctor, Power Ranger, discount Batman, Darth Vader, something from Mortal Kombat, and on and on. I pretty much did it until I was 17 and shared the load with my family.
shoop4000@reddit
I remember Trick or Treating back when I lived in Connecticut.
The cool autumn evening air. Orange and red leaves speckled the sidewalks and yards. Packs of kids and their parents would walk door to door. Some places were more decorated than others. some opted to have spooky sounds playing on a hidden speaker. Of course at the end of it was the pile of candy I'd have amassed by the end.
It was a fun time. Probably my favorite holiday for that reason.
Otherwise-Badger@reddit
We all dress up to hand out candy. Super fun. Later in the evening we head to a local bar for costume contest. When kids were little we parents would take them as a group carrying wine in Dixie cups. My favorite holiday.
Ericakat@reddit
For me, it’s the one night a year where you can dress up and be silly with friends. Years and years back, I was a teenager, I enjoyed it because it was the one day where you could be as weird as you want, and no one would judge you for it, so I would hold my oddness in all year long, and let it out on Halloween.
Getting Halloween candy as a kid was also fun too, but I didn’t get to eat much of it growing up because my mom would either buy my candy, or threaten to throw it away because “I didn’t need all that sugar.”
Now as an adult in my neighborhood, Halloween has kind of been ruined for the neighborhood kids for a couple reasons. #1 is the 10,000 kids that don’t live in our neighborhood that show up to trick or treat and get all the candy before the neighborhood kids even get a chance to come out and trick or treat. #2 is the party the elementary school puts on. They redistricted a few years back and you’ve got around 300 kids who don’t live in the neighborhood, or live nearby, but not in the neighborhood who come for this big, PTA sponsored Halloween party that started about 7 years ago, and come trick or treat in our neighborhood all at the same time, and then the district closed a school nearby and sent all those kids to the school near where I live, so you have an extra 450 kids who are also coming to trick or treat in our neighborhood, even though they live in an area with houses that gives out candy.
It’s gotten so bad that even adults with no kids who don’t live here are trick or treating, and they’re entitled and expect candy, and with candy last year costing $25 a bag, or more, for not that many pieces, people where I live, including myself can’t afford to spend $500-$1,000 so that more than 10,000 kids who don’t live here can get candy.
Along with that, the people that don’t live here are showing up in groups of ten and twenty people at a time, in big trucks, despite the fact that every church in the area does a trunk-or-treat for kids who don’t have anywhere to trick-or-treat, or who’s parents want a safer atmosphere for trick-or-treating. These churches literally advertise they’re giving out candy for free.
All in all, most of the neighborhood kids are having to go to other areas to get candy, and it’s gotten really bad. It didn’t used to be like this either. If it was one or two kids, we wouldn’t complain, but one year, I decided to give our candy. I had $60 worth of candy. It was gone in less than thirty minutes, and that was with giving every child one piece of candy.
It’s basically like that in most areas you go to where I live. The people who drive around looking for candy go to all the nice areas, but they don’t realize that we simply can’t afford this, and the amount of people gets larger and larger every year. Some people I know in my area definitely feel taken advantage of, and most people on my street now lock their doors and shut off their lights on Halloween as a signal that we’re not giving out candy. It’s really sad.
Other than that, the amount of decorations differ from neighborhood to neighborhood, a lot of people carve pumpkins and dress up, some adults go to costume parties, and others just sit at home and watch scary movies with their friends and family. Me, I love old fashioned halloween music, watching Halloween movies on this old tv channel like the original Hocus Pocus, Halloween Town, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and other classics.
GlumFaithlessness392@reddit
Omg I LOVE Halloween. I remember getting dressed up, sometimes my aunt or cousin even coming over to help with hair or makeup if my mom couldn’t do it. It was super cool to go out and see everyone and go trick or treating with your friends. We’d keep collecting candy far beyond what we’d reasonable be able to or even want to eat simply cuz it was fun to be out and see how much you could get. As a 20 something I loved the bar events for Halloween. As a mom I love dressing up my baby. Everyone talks to each other cuz there’s the costumes as an ice breaker. Some are funny, some intricate, some scary, some half-assed. I love them all. At my parents house, because the houses are close together and the streets are flat and safe, sometimes she couldn’t even close the door for 40 min at a time due to the constant flow of kids.
The memory that comes to mind most clearly is that there was a house in the neighborhood that had some teenaged sons that were hiding in the trash cans and popping up and scaring ppl. We got wind of it from some other trick or treaters. We were so scared to walk by the trash can but had to pass to go get candy from the house. So we sent my big cousin first and when the guy popped up she didn’t flinch at all, put her hand up like “ stop it with that” and he lost his balance and fell over and everyone laughed at him. Served him right, trying to scare a bunch of little girls!!
tai-seasmain@reddit
It was absolutely magical. I was pretty spoiled with Halloween growing up because I come from a largely Pagan/witchy family/community in Massachusetts who got to go to Salem (the witch city/Halloween capital) not just on Halloween but frequently around spooky season and even throughout the rest of the year. I'd usually have an impressive homemade costume and even got to skip school for it a couple times (the school didn't like it because they didn't consider it a "real" holiday, but my parents didn't give a f*uck). I did a lot of typical American/New England stuff like carving Jack-o'-lanterns, binging candy, watching movies like Hocus Pocus and the Halloween Tree, apple and pumpkin picking, hayrides, eating pumpkin pie/ice cream (well before pumpkin-flavored everything became available), etc. I'm 37 now, still celebrate, and it's still one of my absolute favorite times of year. 🎃
icouldofhadaV8@reddit
Halloween when I was a child was just as big as Christmas. You got to wear your costume to school and had a Halloween party all day. We would trick or treat walking home from school, then dump the candy and go back out all through the blocks around our neighborhood. Then as it was getting dark mom and dad would drive us to further neighborhoods and let us out to walk those houses. Then we always ended at the donut shop that gave out free donor holes and hot chocolate.
I think a lot of old school halloweens and feel sad because so much of it now is just a trunk or treat in a parking lot. I’ve also know several parents to say it’s a waste of time and they just take their kids to Walmart and let them pick whatever candy they want. Sad.
SL13377@reddit
Southern California here. I used to get nightmares of forgetting it was Halloween and not having a costume. It was so much fun, as soon as dusk started you would set out knocking on random neighbors doors for free candy. Some houses do mazes or haunted houses inside their garages or houses. You could be scared by a guy dressed up as a skeleton who's just sitting still in a chair looking like he's a prop. Now a days some people participate as hard but many now go to trunk or treat or smaller events or don't turn on their porch light (the universal sign for we dont have candy) light on. Candy here! Light off: keep moving
soundsunamerican@reddit
I grew up in a Christian home. We didn’t celebrate Halloween at all. We watched movies and ate lots of candy on the day, but we were not allowed to go trick or treating and tbh I feel like I missed out on something uniquely American. For my own kids, we plan costumes months in advance. We decorate our home inside and out and give out lots of candy. Our neighborhood goes BIG! There are decorating contests and I feel like families compete on candy giving too.
perfectcosimagifs@reddit
I'm lucky enough that there's still traditional trick or treating in my neighborhood. I love decorating my porch and handing out candy and toys (most people don't do both, I'm just extra 😅) and getting to see all the cute costumes. I know personally I'll give stuff to folks of any age as long as they're dressed up (and even some non dressed up parents too)
Usually kids start to trick or treat less in their later teens but honestly teens are some of my favorite trick or treaters. They really appreciate still getting to participate in the tradition and it's so cute pressuring them to take a toy as well.
I think I went trick or treating up until early high school when I was growing up. It was a great time.
Black_Bird265@reddit
Growing up it was a fall festival on the closest weekend before, pumpkin carving (either contest of with family at home), then dress up and go trick-or-treating.
For a few years my friend had a Halloween party with pizza and candy trades after trick-or-treating because she was born on Halloween.
In my young adulthood, it was casual Halloween parties with candy bowls, fancy handmade horror themed desserts, costumes, Halloween music, and passing out candy while watching a horror movie.
In my less early but still relatively early adulthood (now), my partner’s family hosts a massive Halloween party on the weekend before with a buffet, costumes, a piñata, and Halloween music. Then the day of we pass out candy while watching a Halloween movie (no horror cause my partner doesn’t like them).
BigPapaJava@reddit
As a kid, I loved it. It was my second favorite “holiday” after Christmas. Schools would decorate classrooms and do Halloween parties for the early grades where kids would wear their costumes to school, then play games. Then we’d trick or treat that night and watch a horror movie before bed. Most kids would trick or treat until they got to about 12 or so.
Families treat it differently even within the same community. A lot of people do not celebrate Halloween for religious reasons, particularly a lot of Christian’s who think it’s a holiday for the devil. They may do nothing at all on Halloween or organize a religious-themed counter-celebration.
SteelBallWinner@reddit
Growing up, it was similar. Now, due to annoying millennial Karens ruining everything fun, Trick-Or-Treat is slowly being replaced by trunk or treat, which just isn't the same.
alicat777777@reddit
It is very fun for kids and many adults enjoy it too. In our neighborhood, everyone sits in the driveway and hands out the candy as the kids come by it’s fun to talk with the neighbors and see the costumes and the kids love all the candy.
Sometimes as adults, we go to Halloween parties in costumes and that’s fun too.
mcgoran2005@reddit
It varies from place to place and generation to generation.
I grew up in the 70s and 80s and we loved Halloween.
Dad would follow in his car as we went door to door with our costumes (these varied from homemade to those weird plastic ones that were popular for a while - the masks were cheap and the elastic holding it on your head would often break).
We used a pillowcase for holding the candy and would frequently dump out what we had into a larger bag in the car so that people handing out candy would feel bad about us not having a lot and would give us a few extra pieces.
One year a friend’s dad dressed up as a scarecrow and would sit still on the front porch looking like a decoration. He would lunge out of his chair at the kids giving them a scare.
He did this to my brother and I and we took off in terror. I was a good block and a half down the road (screaming and crying as I hauled ass) before anyone caught up to us. They felt so bad that they brought us inside and gave us hot apple cider and cookies while we calmed down.
When my daughter was little, things had started to switch to the “trunk or treat” that a lot of folks do now. And people who didn’t do that would “bus” their kids into the “nice” neighborhoods for trick or treating. You could barely get down the road due to the huge number of minivans full of kids all over the place.
There used to be a bunch of cool neighborhood or community run haunted houses and going to see cool, old, horror movies as double features at the drive-ins.
Lots of Halloween parties for adults back then too.
I kind of miss the whole community feel of it.
2baverage@reddit
Generally as a kid it's extremely fun and it's a night full of laughter and running from house to house.
For me, Halloween would start around dinner time, we'd have a quick meal and then go visit the elder relatives to show them our costumes and to trick-or-treat at their house before they went to bed (these were the more homebound relatives who also usually were in bed by 6pm) then my siblings, our cousins, and I would meet up at a relative's house then go trick-or-treating while the adults stayed at the relative's home and socialized (there were usually 10+ of us kids going together) and along the way we'd occasionally cross friends and trade candy or tell each other what houses had good candy or which houses were empty even though the lights were on...etc. then we'd make our way back to the relative's house or we'd come across one of our relatives and they'd escort us back because we were out for too long.
When we were under 6 years old then adults would go trick-or-treating with us but everything else still remained the same. Now that we've all got kids things have changed so there's usually A LOT of community events the week of Halloween so our kids get to wear their costumes a few times and we'll go to school parking lots, charity events for my work...etc. and then on Halloween night we go to a relative's house and trick-or-treat their neighborhood.
Dapper-Presence4975@reddit
Halloween doesn’t have a deep “meaning.” It’s basically just a milestone to acknowledge fall has definitely arrived. For kids it’s just a one-day evening to dress up and get candy. The childhood experience there is just having a really good costume idea. For adults, it’s an excuse to have costume parties.
Important-Job-7917@reddit
Where I live presently the community has a town wide Trick or Treat on Main Street and another similar event at the shopping mall.
The house where I grew up was too remote for trick or treating and so I never saw folks in costume or whatnot until I went to college. My Dad and I usually watch Young Frankenstein every other year.
the-wxtch-bxtch@reddit
When I was a kid, it was MAGICAL. Everyone decorated and had haunted houses and handed out snacks, parents would have a little fire pit on their porches and it was such a social event. SO much fun. Now though, it’s died down a lot. It’s hard to find neighborhoods that all give out candy. The houses are usually scattered throughout neighborhoods and you have to go to the extra rich neighborhoods to get that sense of community again. I still try to make it magical for my kids, but it’s so hard when that sense of community isn’t there anymore.
Ginger630@reddit
I grew up in NYC in the 80’s and 90’s and Halloween was AMAZING! Lots of kids and candy. Most people decorated and some went all out. We knew the neighborhoods with the best size candy and full candy bars.
Coming home and dumping out the candy to go through it while warming up was awesome too. My feet would be numb from cold but I was too excited to care.
Certain-Monitor5304@reddit
Cold rainy and snowy. Allot of driving to relatives homes for a quick trick or treat.
KirbyRock@reddit
It’s hella fun as a child. Kinda stressful as an adult not trying to lose said kid in a crowd of candy-hungry children.
cara8bishop@reddit
I went to a friend's house who happened to live in a neighborhood, and we gave candy to the kids and margaritas to the parents lol
theresuscitator@reddit
Your first paragraph describes it perfectly. Most Americans absolutely love Halloween but certain religious groups do not celebrate it. It's my favorite time of the year and I'm over 60 now. When I was a kid we didn't have money for store bought costumes so we had to make our own. Want to be a ghost? Sheet with cut outs for the eyes. Scary dead person? Dark makeup around the eyes. I live in a neighborhood with many children and I schedule Halloween off so I can great them and pass out candy.
hydradamas99@reddit
Used to love handing out Halloween candy. But after getting our home egged in two different states for not allowing teens not in costume grab handfuls of candy, we no longer participate.😢
Bla_Bla_Blanket@reddit
Definitely as depicted on tv, one of the few times. 😆 Not like the whole breakfast scene shown normally in movies. (No one has time for that.)
this_curain_buzzez@reddit
Halloween is one of the the things that movies and TV get pretty much exactly right. It’s just like that in real life in most places. There’s a whole season around it and people look forward to trick-or-treating, taking their kids trick-or-treating, or handing out candy for weeks. As an adult I still go all out for my Halloween costume but alas I can’t trick or treat again until I have kids.
I can’t speak to how it is everywhere but around me you could trick or treat about until you were in high school, but a high schooler with a costume that took effort (ie not just a football jersey) would normally get candy.
The best memories I have of Halloween are my and my cousins dumping our candy out on the floor in my basement to count who got the most and then trading pieces.
myfourmoons@reddit
I love Halloween. The entire month of October is special. Where I grew up high schoolers didn’t even have to dress up to get candy, heck adults were given candy if they wanted some.
AlwaysBored1990@reddit
“But alas I can’t trick or treat again until I have kids.”
I trick or treated till I was 23 years old lol no kids with us
jseego@reddit
Even in grown-up workplaces, some offices and employees go all out for it, wearing costumes to work, having costume contests, decorating the workspace, bringing in treats, and having office parties
clairew88@reddit
Even more than the trick or treating itself, I remember trading candy afterwards with my brother.
Mediocre-Oil-5322@reddit
Yeah, I imagine that people watching movies and shows that include Halloween from outside the U.S. must think, "surely, that's not real." But it is. The absurdity of it is what makes it fun.
Loud-Necessary7824@reddit
It’s a little different for everyone. I love Halloween. I trick or treated all throughout high school. Now that I’m an adult, I decorate my house inside and out and still dress up to hand out candy.
soundslikeautumn@reddit
It was absolutely incredible! I'm 37 and it is still my favorite holiday to this day. In my house Halloween starts September 1st and ends November 1st and in that time I try to squeeze in as many Autumn and Halloween related activities, parties, decorations, foods, drinks, movies, outfits, manicures, books, music, etc. as possible. We go HARD in my house for Halloween. I just really love it!
Loganpowered@reddit
I live in the subarbs outside NYC. My (now) ex grew up in upper Manhattan. The first time he saw our neighborhood on Halloween he said “this is like something from a movie”.
It literally looks like the trick or treating scene from E.T.
I love it, Halloween is really big here. So many people have amazing decoration’s. One year someone had a “scary” Photo Booth and gave out candy AND Polaroids of you (and family)! It was like 10 years ago and still hangs on my fridge.
mrggy@reddit
One thing that might not be obvious from the movies is that Halloween is not a day off. Everyone goes to work/school on Halloween (though some schools may do something festive) and the festivities are in the evening. Then people go to school/work the next day
PCBassoonist@reddit
A really rainy Halloween is always a bummer.
Footnotegirl1@reddit
Minnesotan here... you cannot spend more than 24 hours in Minnesota without having someone tell you the story of what they were doing the year of the big Halloween Blizzard when the kids still went out in 2 feet of show.
I, as an adult, TOTALLY give myself Halloween off every year. Because my work has a 'floating holiday' so that people can take off whatever holiday is sacred to them, and for me that's Halloween.
bub166@reddit
Very true. I remember once as a kid we had to postpone Halloween, there was a bad blizzard and over a foot of snow. Some of us still went out of course, and some of us double dipped the next weekend when the real deal was supposed to go down.
And at the same time, it wouldn't be unheard of for it to be nearly 90 degrees in a different year. Just gotta roll with the punches, having to change the theme a little bit at the last minute was part of the fun!
Ladybeetus@reddit
New England chiming in. Definitely had years where the costume was bikini based and it was below freezing and years where the fake fur gorilla costume had sweat running down my face. Los Angeles was amazing for Halloween because every costume was comfortable and you knew it wouldn't rain.
avelineaurora@reddit
I'm laughing because I'm talking to my SO while reading this thread and right before coming across this comment said to her, "See, one of the best parts about living in the North is having an environmentally appropriate halloween" lol. Could not begin to imagine Halloween in LA or the south, fuck that.
Xocal812@reddit
LA has great weather, though
avelineaurora@reddit
Not for fucking Halloween.
Intrepid_Ad2920@reddit
Weather-wise, it’s often still warmish on Halloween in the Northeast. It’s actually atypical that you need a bulky coat. October is the best month of the year IMO
mrggy@reddit
I went to college in Wisconsin so that's my basis for "The North" haha. It wasn't unusual for Halloween night to be in the 20s
Intrepid_Ad2920@reddit
Ooh, Wisconsin. Yeah that would be big coats!
sharpshooter999@reddit
Same here in Nebraska. Rarely we even have snow. One year we had a blizzard on Halloween night and had a snow day off from school the next day
Intelligent-Invite79@reddit
My oldest brother lived in central Illinois for a few years, he said my nieces and nephews had to wear coats on Halloween! Even had a few years where they hopped back into the van to keep warm between houses lol.
LesNessmanNightcap@reddit
I grew up in a Chicago suburb and the years when you put all this time and effort into your costume and then had to wear a hat and winter coat over it all was THE WORST! And it happened A LOT. I am getting sadmad just thinking about it. O
ian9921@reddit
From the north, I remember listening to the radio like the week before, and one of the hosts said "Great news, we're looking at a warm Halloween this year, so you can dress up as Batman instead of "Batman battling The Penguin at the north pole""
For some reason that's always stuck with me.
malinagurek@reddit
The north can have any kind of weather, could be a perfect autumnal day, could be cold, could be hot, could be rainy, could be snowy. I’ve experienced an 80-degree F Halloween.
PCBassoonist@reddit
I love Halloween. I loved it as a kid and I love doing it with my kids. It's almost magical to see all the little kids walking around in their costumes. Even when I didn't have kids, I loved passing out candy.
GrimSpirit42@reddit
Some kids lot forward to Halloween more than Christmas.
Some neighborhoods go all out in decorating. There's a REASON I have a 12-foot skeleton in storage.
But, as with anything in the US..it varies. Some people do not participate, some do.
I love Halloween. Unfortunately we have a basic disagreement on what constitutes 'appropriate' Halloween decorations.
My things Halloween decorations should be hay bales, cute witches, etc.
I, personally, like corpses roasting on a spit and various bloody body parts lying around the yard is appropriate. (I once made a 9-year-old throw up. DIdn't mean to, and I felt bad, but it was just bad timing.)
Responsible-Read-468@reddit
For some neighborhoods it really is just like tv shows and movies. Going trick or treating with a parent. Later getting older and your friends. (My personal experience in my state and neighborhood).
Coming home and sorting candy.
Dressing up school usually in the lower grades. (My personal experience).
It’s not a day off for adults. Some businesses may let you dress a little sillier or have treats/candy. I’ve usually worn a Halloween/fall related shirt. Maybe have potluck.
Carving pumpkins is totally true for some adults and kids. Toasting pumpkins seeds, again my personal experience.
groundhogcow@reddit
Halloween was great. Put on a disguise and go threaten the neighbors for candy.
The police protect you instead of try and stop you and the neighbors are willing participants.
It really is an opportunity for a community to get together and have a little low key fun with the children.
browncoatfever@reddit
The air is crisp and cool, the decor everywhere changes and becomes spooky with ghosts, werewolves, vampires, etc. Lots of orange, yellow, red, and browns. There's also a coziness to the season as well. As a kid the deeper into Autumn you got the more the excitement ramped up. You knew Halloween was coming just by how everything felt.
Buying your halloween costume felt like a yearly right of passage. Trying it on multiple times before the big day, and talking to your friends at school about what they were dressing as was exciting. Checking out all the special Halloween season foods and candy at the grocery store built anticipation. The creepy movies that played all month always felt sort of forbidden as a kid because you saw the commercials or clips, but your parents wouldn't allow you to watch them. It gave everything a fun "foreboding" feel.
The night of always had a ethereal quality. Like it wasn't quite real. Walking up and down streets in the dark, everyone dressed up and going up to strangers' houses for treats was weird any other day, but on this one special night, it was free game. I lived in a place where Halloween was huge and one guy would rent a popcorn maker and hand out bags of popcorn, so that smell always reminds be of Halloween too.
If you couldn't tell, it's my favorite and most nostalgic holiday lol.
ProfessionalRolls333@reddit
Halloween in my life time has been warm/cold/snowy. Finding your perfect costume, carving pumpkins! As a little kid it was fun to go out with my mom and aunt , making them dress up with me. As a preteen it was butterflies of excitement that I could go out on my own and get as much candy as I could! Always ending the night the same way: criss cross applesauce on the floor organizing my candy by favorite to least favorite. Giving my mom her cut (whoppers and raisinets 🤢).
Now, being an adult with kids. Halloween is my Christmas. I have just as many bins of Halloween decorations as Christmas. I throw Halloween parties for my kids. We play gross games and go for spooky walks, last year we decorated pretzels rods as “witch fingers”. And played donut on a string! I made my eldest daughter’s costume “Rumi” from scratch and did her hair and makeup. I love being creative and showcasing my skills. My mom still dresses up and goes trick or treating with my kids too. It’s the best seeing her “RBF” light up once a year. 😆
Our good friends throw a party every year for adults only and by the end of the night we all head to the bar for costume party! It’s a season of fun, you can be whoever you want to be. 👻
Then_Dependent1139@reddit
I think that depends on the generation you grew up. Born in 1982 I'd say it was great. 2011 and after....it's grim. I feel sorry for the Zs and Alphas. We live in a servalance state now. They will NEVER know true freedom. I think that's true in every country now. 😔
CaptainAwesome06@reddit
I'm in my 40s and it's still my favorite holiday. Imagine being a kid and being able to dress up as something cool, then going door to door to get free candy with no strings attached. No family photos. No pretending to be happy for your little brother. No road trips to your dusty old relative's house. Just pure fun for kids with cool costumes.
When I grew up, your mom just bought you some cheap plastic mask and you went trick or treating. The candy was still cool, though. Like if you went as a Ninja Turtle, it was cheap mask with a plastic smock that had the logo on the front. They were terrible. Costumes are still mostly store-bought but I think parents are more creative nowadays. We make our kids' costumes and we go all out. We usually have some kind of theme every year. Though, this year, most of the kids may be too old so we'll have one trick or treater.
It's definitely different, depending on your family and where you live. We go all out because I love it. I love seeing all the cool costumes. I buy full sized candy bars, toys, etc. There is something for everyone. Also usually some mulled wine or hot spiked apple cider for the parents. Usually by September, people start telling me they are excited to see what we have going on this year.
Kids often stop trick or treating around middle school or high school. There will be the occasional high school going door to door. Sometimes they'll even dress up. I tell my kids they have to dress up if they want free candy.
Informal_Olive7770@reddit
As a child I remember wearing those plastic costumes over winter clothes. The weather hasn't been as hard for my children and even less for theirs. But now the high school does a haunted school for money for senior trip. Plus local farms do haunted hay rides. Certain places do a corn field maze, that is haunted for Halloween. Some neighborhoods like a certain cul-de-sac I know of, gives great candy and small trinkets to the kids and a different adult treat at each house. People decorate fully and set up outside with heaters and many adults dress up as well. But I had also many years ago live in an area that looked down on Halloween as a satanic thing. So that town did nothing. So it really depends on where you live in the US. Two towns right next to each other can be entirely different. Yet a town 1000 miles away can be just like yours. I love to see the kids dressed in characters and I often would have costume birthday parties (Jan & Nov) for my children when they were young so the kids could dress up more than just in Oct. It is definitely an experience.
niiaz@reddit
Halloween is the best. As an adult I always go to pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and apple picking around that time. I love going to farms and getting their freshly made apple cider and apple fritters. Carving pumpkins and displaying them on your front porch. I love seeing the designs people make. The scent of pumpkin cinnamon nutmeg everywhere. It’s the best time of the year imo
DeepBlue210@reddit
When my kids were younger, we would have a party with their friends and the parents. We’re in a somewhat rural area and our house is situation near about 20 other homes that is easily walkable. They would come to our house, the kids would get dressed up, the dads would take the kids house to house for trick or treating and the moms would stay back at my house to hand out candy. I always decorated, and for a few years, we created a “haunted house” in one of our rooms for our kids and their friends. One of our favorite holidays because it involved all of our friends!
Now that my kids are older, we don’t have a party anymore but still hand out candy.
My kids went door to door until they were prob 13 or so
MaddCricket@reddit
It was magical. The excitement of rushing home after school to eat dinner and then put your costume on is unmatched. I’m from Colorado so we had to dress warmly, we usually got our first snow on Halloween if it hadn’t snowed already so it would be cold and you had to plan your costume around your winter clothes lol. No other holiday has the smell that Halloween does either!
Current_Poster@reddit
The neighborhood I live in now isn't well set up for it, but I used to love Halloween back home in New England.
Icy_Huckleberry_8049@reddit
depends on your age
For kids - it's fun
for teenagers - it can be fun, too
As an adult it can be fun or give you an anxiety attack - fun if you're going to a party, anxiety attack if you're staying home to pass out candy (do I have enough, will they like what I'm passing out, etc.)
WiseQuarter3250@reddit
I live in a section of the south called the Bible Belt, where traditionally church was a huge fixture, and blue laws (when alcohol can be served or purchased, when businesses can be open for business) was heavily influenced by the Christian ideology of keeping the Sabbath (Sunday for Christians) holy.
Around here while there are some door to door trick or treaters, we maybe get 20-30 kids. Most of them do trunk or treats ( parking lot, pop open the decorated car trunk, hand out candy). As it's perceived as safer, and more efficient (less time as the stops are densely packed in a small area, more candy, no crossing streets at night, lots of people around). Plus these are sometimes scheduled not on Halloween night, but afternoon on a Saturday to avoid interruptions to school schedules and routines, or to be warmer for the kids so its not as cold.
growing up i lived elsewhere, and we ran wild. We had a time we had to be home by, but otherwise we could go as far as we could, and it was all about the candy haul, some neighbors turned their garage into mini haunted houses, or would spook you on the front porch when you went to ring the doorbell.
Some places of school and work encourage costumes the day of, some don't.
many American TV shows are over the top. most of us know a household like that, but it's not the normal experience. I'd say most homes that participate spend 1-2 hours decorating and their done. But there are also those who don't participate.
so the experience varies tremendously.
Sp1d3rb0t@reddit
Varies a lot by location. I set up a treat station in my neighborhood, got zero trick or treaters. I set up in my parents' well-to-do neighborhood, and ran out of my 75 treat bags in about 7 minutes. All the kids from the regular neighborhoods go to the rich neighborhood. I'm glad everyone gets treats but I really miss what my neighborhood used to be like, when even poorish people could swing some treats to hand out.
sneezyailurophile@reddit
I gre up in a suburb of Los Angeles. My best friend’s parent went all out with the decorations and festivities. She lived in a wealthy neighborhood so we would always trick or treat there. It was really fun. One year her mom drove us to a fun fair at the local park. The store bought costumes were awful though. The plastic mask was sweaty.
airplaneplant@reddit
It helps if you live in a more populated area, especially if walking between neighbors’ houses is easy (on sidewalks) and quick (one house right after another.) I grew up in a town of less than 1,000 people so we had to travel to our neighbors for trick or treating. Sometimes someone’s dad was able to carry us around on ‘hay rides’ through town on trailers pulled behind their tractors or pickup trucks. Those were the best Halloweens, otherwise we’d only get to 3 or 4 houses before we tired ourselves out. Usually, one of the mothers in town held a party during the afternoon before we went trick or treating. We did all the old fashioned games, even bobbing for apples. We’d ask our parents if this was what they did in the ‘olden days’ and they’d laugh and laugh. I’m old enough now to understand that laugh!
Bulky-Equivalent-438@reddit
It was something I participated in because my mom was excited to put me and my sister in costumes. Sure the candy was great after but the actual activity was not that important to me. I actually kind of hated it some years.
logaboga@reddit
As a kid the night is a bit spooky due to decorations and everyone wearing scary costumes. But it’s also fun and exciting, since you’re dressed up as your favorite character or as something scary and wanting to scare other people. Get to go trick or treating with other kids or at least your family and get an insane amount of candy.
As an adult it’s just unadulterated fun. Dress up in funny or “sexy” costumes and go to a friend’s party or a bar where everyone is dressed up and looking to have a crazy night.
Good fun all around. Probably my favorite hooray. The vibes and atmosphere are fun.
nadah69321@reddit
It builds up to a lot of the relevancy of how costume and then how nice it is
Then you go out looking for candy
Sfswine@reddit
It’s a whole season, like the month of October, and it’s glorious. .
Conversation-Fear@reddit
Trick or treating in the mid-late 80s was fantastic. Everyone during the school day was excited with anticipation, and sometimes there was a pizza party. We would head out just after dusk and the air smelled crisp and fall-like. We would come back with a huge pillow-case full of candy (which had an amazing smell if you took a whiff of pillowcase when it was full). We would dump it all out and group all of the different candies to see which ones we got the most of. There were always a Disney Halloween cartoons in the background.
bobbdac7894@reddit
1) Kid, dress up. Halloween party at school, all the kids dressed up. No homework. Trick r treating after school
2) College: Went to halloween parties. Women would wear sexy Halloween outfits. Drinking, sex
3) Adult, stay home and watch horror movies
4) Adult with kids: Either supervise kids going trick r treating if the kid is you. Or if kid is old enough to go out with friends, stay home, watch horror movies. Dress up and answer door when kids knock and give them candy.
That)# my personal experience. But depends on the neighborhood.
maloudin@reddit
man Halloween is awesome. i literally crave the nostalgia of the holiday all year until it comes back. the spooky music and movies, the crisp weather, the traditions like apple picking and pumpkin carving and haunted houses, i absolutely love it. over the years ive slowly accumulated more and more decorations and now have thousands of dollars of halloween decor at this point. the inside of my home looks like halloweentown, and i put them up in september and take them down at thanksgiving 😆this year i actually put them up the last week of august because i got so excited.
some people are normal about it, i have a bit of an obsession lol. i can tell you where my obsession comes from though. halloween simply makes me feel like a kid again. everything about it just makes me giddy and nostalgic and kinda takes me back in time for a couple months so i really cling to that feeling.
FixUnfair9004@reddit
Growing up, in a small town, it was always a lot of fun trick or treating. My dad was always adamant that we give out full size candy bars, yes plural, to everyone.
DarkestStar167@reddit
The atmosphere does change. You can feel the charge in the air. Halloween night was fun and mysterious trick-or-treating. One year when I was 12 I even got chased by a hearse.
OhSassafrass@reddit
I grew up in the country so it wasn’t really that great. Celebrations at school were all I really looked forward to.
But where I raised my kids, it looked just like in the movies. A main street would be closed for the evening, all the houses were well decorated and handing out candy. Kids running everywhere. One house was the glow stick safety house, another had fog machines and laser lights for a driveway dance party. It was cute and neighborly.
EmericanCunt@reddit
Back in the day I loved sitting in a pub in Chicago and watching all the kids come in dressed up and getting candy. Chatting with the parents having a quick drink before moving on to the next. There was something magical about it.
Axilllla@reddit
I was born in 1990 and Halloween was a big deal. We were able to dress up at school and it felt like a whole month of Halloween things. Then I moved to the Midwest, and fall is such a great season there, a lot of cornfields. And as a teenager Halloween was really fun. From 10 to 14 we still went trick-or-treating.
Now Halloween is sad. People barely participate. Homes are only decorated 50% of the time. Kids are not excited about it the way they used to be. It makes me sad because it’s my favorite holiday.
71-lb@reddit
I ignore it . It is not as much because im atheist, rather I just don't fit in anywhere & kiddo is 23 im 55 and no kids on my block.
I do buy candy,
Turn off lights and just read on my ph.
If the lights are off it means not to knock .
Melody71400@reddit
It depends on your family and area. Some kids, they really feel it all month. Others, they don't even know until closer till because the school will do a Halloween party.
Christmas is waaay bigger, and gets celebrated earlier and longer every year
GrannyTurtle@reddit
It’s fun! You get to wander around the neighborhood collecting candy!!! And Mom buys you a costume for the occasion. Candy coma!
Beginning_Local3111@reddit
It’s very much neighborhood by neighborhood. I’ve lived in apartment buildings where there just weren’t any children, neighborhoods that were not walkable (that happens a lot here too: living somewhere where you pretty much have to drive and park and trick or treat someone else’s neighbors) or gated communities with few kids in residence.
Fortunately, I’ve lived in real “Halloween Town” neighborhoods where there’s houses decorated to the rooftops, spooky sound machines, homemade “haunted houses” usually inside someone’s large garage, people in costumes walking with little kids, all very much just as it’s shown in the movies. But, those neighborhoods are few and far between, and if you get to live in one your home value is probably pretty high, that’s how it usually works out.
We used to live in this great little neighborhood where they even had a street fair that went on to celebrate the holiday (with proceeds to benefit a homeless shelter, I think) and they had two haunted houses and a bunch of game booths and a Photo Booth with costumes where you could have your picture taken and made into a fridge magnet! Very fun. (We were renters though, so no home value sadly)
fook75@reddit
I am rural so I don't get trick or treaters. However, Spooky Season is my favorite month! I decorate and have fun. I watch more horror movies than usual too.
LetterheadClassic306@reddit
halloween feels like the whole neighborhood holds its breath for one night. as a kid, the freedom to run around after dark with friends was everything. parents usually walk little ones around until maybe age 10, then you go solo until middle school. some houses go insane with decorations - like yard becomes a graveyard levels. high school kids mostly do parties or scare events instead of trick or treating.
DrRichardHeadMD@reddit
Let me tell you about Halloween in Minnesota in 1991...
BoysenberryLive7386@reddit
I love Halloween! As a kid, it meant candy and costumes at school, and then getting to dress up with my siblings and roam the neighborhood as a family trick or treating. I stopped around age 13 as I was getting a bit old. But in college I LOVED dressing up (sexier costumes lol) and going to college Halloween parties. As an adult I still enjoy dressing up, parties, watching Halloween themed movies during Halloween and I can’t wait to trick or treat one day w my future kids. Also Americans like to dress up their dog or pair costumes with their partner haha.
only_because_I_can@reddit
Halloween is my favorite holiday! I love to decorate my house for Halloween as much as for Christmas. Unfortunately, I live far back in a big neighborhood, so I don't get many kids trick-or-treating. My kids have developed wonderful Halloween traditions with their kids, which makes me very happy!
aquay@reddit
Halloween was so much fun! Even though there was the scary aspect, both real and fake (we used to take our candy to the hospital to get it x-rayed because of psychos), mostly it was just a ton of fun picking our costumes, putting on masks and makeup, going out and getting free candy, making jack-o-landerns, etc.
After i became a Christian, i encountered people who decided it was satanic and switched it out for "Harvest Festival" which was pretty much the same thing:, costumes and candy, but without the horror factor. If you read about the history of Halloween, you'd see it has nothing to do with Satanism. The point was to scare demons away, not bring them closer.
At any rate, this is a free country. Do Halloween or don't do it, but I think it's harmless and lots of fun. There are always going to be people who abuse and twist things, and I suppose that's easy to do with Halloween, but I loved it when I was a kid, and even as an adult, giving out candy, it's really cool. I'm glad I got to participate.
Oh, this random story just popped into my head: when i was an adult, i worked for a major corporation in the HR department. Our company was awesome until we got bought by an even huger corporation, but this was before that. We had a Halloween BBQ in our parking lot. The company encouraged us to dress up, because the prize for the best costume was a trip for 4 to Hawaii. Pretty much everybody dressed up, and honestly I cannot remember who won (my favorite was some chick who dressed up as the Tippi Hendren chraacter from The Birds with fake bloody birds wired to her - she didn't win), but a woman from accounting dressed up as a belly dancer. She really did look amazing, like a real belly dancer, and what a body!!! She could even do all the moves, but the problem was she was almost x-rated. I mean, 95% skin. We, HR, had to send her home OMG talk about tone-deaf. You cannot come to work like that. She couldn't understand why she was banned LOL. But having worked in HR for so long, it actually was not that shocking really. We used to have to regularly counsel people on personal hygiene, no lie. Anyway, the belly dancer felt like she was sent home because everyone was jealous and didn't want to give her the trip to hawaii. Well, I suppose a lot of us were jealous of her but come on, lady. You were practically naked. At work. In front of your boss. I think even the press was there.
Was it a clown that won? I only remember being pissed Tippi lost.
(sorry about all the errors. my keyboard is trippin' and i'm too lazy to correct everything)
Footnotegirl1@reddit
When I was a kid, it was a sort of feeling of unusual freedom. Like, sure we were out and about in the neighborhood with our friends a lot, but not at night.. and not knocking at doors and demanding things. Where I lived, it is generally cooler to cold when halloween comes, so there's a chill in the air, and the warmth under your costume, and the spooky sounds and the bright lights from people's houses. And the competition against time to get as much candy as you could. It was very much a 'high' of a sort.
I would use the term 'nervouscited" which is both nervous and excited at the same time.
Which is what Halloween is sort of about. It's about breaking the norms of society (but in a safe way) and facing the dangers and fears of life (in a safe way). Everything is turned on its head. The kids are the scary monsters and the adults are the ones being kind, etc.
As an adult? One of the things I love most about our neighborhood is that we have a really really good Halloween spirit. I get between 350 and 450 kids at our door every Halloween, depending mostly on weather (even during Covid, lots of houses in our neighborhood including us built candy chutes from our doors and windows out to the street so that kids could still get candy!). I still get an echo of that nervouscited feeling, and enjoy the heck out of providing it for the kids. We have decorations and loud scary music and sound effects and a smoke machine in our front yard, and we sit outside all evening until we run out of candy because the kids come so constantly there's no point in being inside the house.
Aggravating_Peach_94@reddit
The atmosphere does change.
Otherwise-Ratio1332@reddit
Halloween and trick or treating is great for both kids and adults. A favorite memory is when our city’s baseball team was in the World Series; I carved the team’s logo into a jack o lantern and had the game turned up just inside the front door. The parents received game updates while their kids received treats, it was a lot of fun.
dagmara56@reddit
I only get about 20 kids trick or treating but we don't care if it's 1.
We decorate the yard as a graveyard with spooky items that have lights that flash. We both get dressed up in creepy outfits, sit at a table outside and give candy to kids and adults.
AtrumAequitas@reddit
Very much like the tv shows, just not as good.
goPACK17@reddit
It's basically dead now; kids don't trick or treat anymore, so less and less people bother decorating or putting effort into celebrating. It was great while it lasted.
Nick-C-DuFae@reddit
It was magical as a kid. I've always loved spooky things and I'm a fat kid so dressing up as a fun character and getting a free pillow case of candy was amazing... Sadly, it's not quite the same anymore. Trick-or-treating is dying and it's depressing
Return_Of_The_Whack@reddit
It's almost indescribable how fun Halloween was in the early 2000s, picking out your costume, piles and piles of candy, the month long anticipation, black cats, pumpkins, and witch decorations all over school, watching Halloween movies all month, stepping out into the fall air when the sun goes down and hearing laughing and screaming of kids running the streets taking over the night. Walking door to door and seeing everyone else's costumes trying to guess which of your neighbors is under the mask, scary stories, Halloween parties with fake bright orange icing cookies, carving jack o lanterns. It was an almost religious experience.
acu101@reddit
As an adult it’s a contest to see who can be the most wholesome nurse, cop or real estate agent
Excellent_Speech_901@reddit
As a child in the '70s we wandered all up and down all the streets of the neighborhood and it was great. In the decade following 9/11 it died out completely except for city sponsored events. However, last year some people went all in on the decorations and there was significant foot traffic as well. I'm going have candy this year and trust I won't need to eat it myself.
ms_panelopi@reddit
It’s still my favorite holiday and I’m always up for a costume party or a night out of crazy, spooky, fun!🦇🧙♀️💀🎃
Apprehensive-Sky6467@reddit
Halloween has a festive holiday feel for my family. It's exciting and we are always frantic to get ready in time. We don't like horror but we love the spooky stuff so we enjoy scaring each other and of course the candy! The neighborhood is jovial and warm giving candy.
Street-Length9871@reddit
I love Halloween. It is full of decorations, jack-o'-lantern 🎃, skeleton 🩻, monsters and mummies. Kids trick or treat when they can walk. Lots of costume parties. It's the best.
SpookyBeck@reddit
Plenty of parents dress babies up for tbeir 1st halloween. They hold them and walk up just like normal. The people openi g the door to a newborn with a parent holding the bag of candy are the ones eating the candy. No problem!
Street-Length9871@reddit
Of for sure. I dressed up my babies. So fun
cloudkite17@reddit
Oh man it was the absolute best in the early 2000s. It seems like a more sheltered experience nowadays with more rigid rules, but when I was growing up we’d go with our friends (not our parents) and we’d be out for hours trick or treating until around 9 pm or so. You’d go all out on your costumes and you’d try to strategize which areas of the neighborhood had the best candy offerings. When we got home, we’d trade candy with our siblings and eat ourselves sick. If it was a weekend and not a school day, I remember having sleepovers with my friends and baking pumpkin muffins and watching Halloweentown and Twitches and whatever Disney channel had playing during those times. Damn I miss the 2000s
PsychoFaerie@reddit
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Grew up with a dad who decorated the whole yard (he started on it in September) He had spooky music to play and wore a mask and had candy in a cauldron. Like kids wouldn't walk in our yard.. (one of us would meet them at the gate and give them candy) and we gave out sandwich size ziploc bags stuffed with candy. Would give out glowsticks and such too. Several years the adults got mini bottles of booze. (that was a hit) Have had friends give out boozy cider or wassail too.
I'd go trick or treat with friends and when I was older I'd dress up and hand out candy. I honestly have no problem with anyone of any age trick or treating as long as they dress up if you show up at my door in a costume you get candy.
Pumpkins.. pumpkin pie (my favorite) Cider.. wassail.. apple pie.. Fall is my favorite season and I was born in October. and I love pumpkin pie.
gearing up for the day is soo fun during the season.. and there's spooky stuff to do all month. I do ALL the Halloweeny things when I can. Apple bobbing hay rides.. haunted houses etc.
SmartFX2001@reddit
Loved Halloween as a child. My sister and I would go with our older cousin and would trick or treat in other neighborhoods as well as our own. Got tons of candy.
A bonus was that we didn’t have school the next day as it was All Saints Day.
Available-Egg-2380@reddit
It's so delightful. Fun, free, whimsical, scary, transformative. There is nothing else quite like it that I've experience. The best holiday by far in my book.
jigokubi@reddit
Your impression is bang on.
stuck_in_casket@reddit
Those days coming home from school when my mom started putting up halloween decorations was an awesome unique feeling.
Guest8782@reddit
It has a whole smell to it too… fall harvest time. So cozy.
a17451@reddit
Regarding the atmosphere, autumn in the US has its own vibe going on. It feels like such a tradition-rich time of year with distinct foods and events (pumpkin patches and harvest festivals, camp fires, candied apples, cinnamon/nutmeg/pumpkin spice, appreciating trees changing color) and then Halloween is another facet on top of all that
jigokubi@reddit
The dead leaves make such a difference in the feel. Halloween wouldn't be the same, say, in the middle of summer.
bellegi@reddit
yep. it truly is this way OP, and yes it is magical.
poisonedkiwi@reddit
It was incredibly fun as a kid IME! Loved going out and trick or treating & seeing all the Halloween decorations. It was also great eating all the candy afterwards lmao
I haven't celebrated Halloween in years, nor do I hand out candy. My fiancé doesn't do Halloween for religious reasons, so I don't either. It just feels like another day to me because of it. Not really too sad about it since I was never one of those people who live & breathe Halloween haha, but I appreciate the fun it gave me as a kid.
crossstitchbeotch@reddit
It really is a fun time of year. We go to a farm where you can pick out your pumpkin and they have other activities like sliding down a hill, some places have corn mazes. My son’s school does a trunk-or-treat for the whole school and they can wear their costumes to school that day. This past year my 14-year-old son went trick-or-treating with a large group of friends and then roasted s’mores in the backyard afterward. Two years ago my younger son made the most epic costume—he was a large stack of Amazon boxes. People saw him on their porch thinking he was a stack of boxes and then he would say “trick or treat” and then sometimes they would scream. Two different people at his school tried to pick him up off the ground. He was SO proud.
I made fun food for my son’s friends, like guacamole coming out of a jack o’lantern’s mouth, so it looked like it was throwing up. The kids loved it. I know someone who makes fun food like that for her family the whole month before Halloween.
Divinityemotions@reddit
Depends where you live. I lived in apartments and even though there were kids living in the apartment complex, they didn’t trick or treat there.
Then we bought a house in a neighborhood where we get about 300 kids on Halloween night. We get kids from 16 months old to 18 years olds. We get dogs wearing costumes and we have Halloween treats for them. We just sit on the porch from 5 PM to 9 PM with a big ‘ol bowl of candy. Then at 9 we go inside and turn the porch light off and that’s the end of it.
CeramicKnight@reddit
It’s different in different places.
I grew up in the suburbs in a place that’s getting cold in October. I lOVED Halloween.
My parents would help me make a costume each year, until I was old enough to make my own. We’d go out trick or treating in the late afternoon like around 5-6pm when it was starting to get dark. Usually a few of my friends together, and a parent would go with us.
But we got to go to each door ourselves. When people open the door you say trick or treat and hold out your bag or bucket. The people usually are happy and enjoy making comments about your costumes and usually give each kid a piece of candy. Sometimes they have you pick it yourself so you can get the kind you like.
So there’s just gangs of kids in costumes wandering around all happy to break the ‘rules’ being out after nightfall and getting to greet strangers in the neighborhood.
One of the neighbors had a paper mache wolf they had made. You could feed it M&Ms and it would talk to you! This was .. many years ago so that kind of setup was rare; as I grew older I figured out they had a speaker rigged in the mouth of the wolf, and the homeowner was watching through a basement window where they could hear us talk to the wolf and reply.
Giving out candy is fun too; you get to see the little kids looking adorable in their costumes, usually pretty shy, and older kids costumes can be really fun to see with how creative they get. My family would always get a mix of small candies, so we could tell the little kids they could take a handful; their eyes would get SO big. Bigger kids we’d give them the handful; have to make the candy last the night.
After we were done trick or treating we’d all sit down and pour out our candy hoard on the floor and trade with eachother for whatever candies we liked specifically. And then you’d have candy to enjoy for like a month after.
As an adult it’s tamer; sadly very few kids trick or treat in my neighborhood so we get to give out only a few candies every year. There’s often Halloween parties where people dress up, but it’s mainly just a party. But! Now I get to take my niece and nephew out trick or treating; it’s awesome watching them get to experience halloweeen.
I hope the tradition never ends. It’s simple and happy, and involves candy. What more can one ask for?
sailbeachrun11@reddit
I grew up in New England. Just a few towns over from Salem actually. But in my town, there was a great joy over Halloween, with some streets better than others. Problem was if Halloween was cold that year or not. You always picked your costume weeks in advance from Party City. The agony over what to be on this most important day of the year was almost crippling. When it was a cold year, your mom would have yo wear the coat/hat/gloves to walk between houses then take off the jacket for you to sprint to the door and do your trick or treating. In Kinder, I was the yellow M&M. I felt so cool. I still love that I picked that one. Some stupid 6th graders dressed as candy corns laughed at me and it hurt my little feelings. Still kinda salty about that. I was also Cinderella (i think 1st grade?). Then when I was 8, I like this belly dancers costume and this cat mask.. and also this cape. So I was whatever that would be. My house had a rule that you didn't trick or treat past 6th grade.
Now, I live in FL so my daughter's never have to worry about the jacket problem. The neighborhood my dad lives in goes all out for Halloween. We give out about $300 in candy each year. My daughter's were 8 and almost 1. The 8 year was Rumi and the baby was a bat (pretty scary one too). We had friends with us and wandered around. At the houses, there's often water or beer for the parents and not just candy. Some houses in the neighborhood have weird old ladies giving out wierd candy, some have mega scary decor, some give out the king size candy, some are just nice families, and this year one house had a DJ on a stage. Its just a fun time for everyone in the family. There are older teens running around to get candy and are real bummers typically (barely a "trick or treat" from them).
I really like this holiday too and hope to keep the tradition. Here in FL its hard to trick or treat in some neighborhoods because of the HOA. There's a large presence of "Trunk or Treats", which are not allowed religious based, and I try to not poo-poo them too much... but theres just soemthing to be said for having to walk door to door over several streets getting in those steps to earn that candy.
Miserable_Cloud_6876@reddit
Fun as a kid and an excuse to dress up as an adult, I’d say to maybe 50% of people it just feels like another normal day.
purrgirl@reddit
This is a huge holiday in the US (although not a day off work). Folks start decorating houses a month in advance, and spend quite a bit of money on candy to give out that night.
Kids start trick or treating (with parents) as soon as they can walk or even earlier. Parents often dress up along with their littler kids. Tiny kids (4-7) will learn how to walk up to neighbors' doors and push a doorbell, then follow a standard ritual of saying "trick or treat!", getting candy, answering a couple questions about their costumes, and then saying "thank you!" while running down the stairs. It's a unique ritual in US culture and a learning experience for children.
By about age 10-11 kids often go out on their own with a gaggle of friends. With or without a parent accompanying, depending on how protective the parents are. A great opportunity for independence for kids.
By about 14-15 most kids feel to old to trick or treat, but a few will continue through high school (up to about age 17). There may be a small amount of mischief (ie, throwing eggs or toilet paper) although I've only seen that once in my life, and it was minor.
Parents, other adults, and older kids often stay home and have a festive evening answering the door. In some neighborhoods with single-family-homes the doorbell will ring every 2-3 minutes from dusk to 8-9 pm. Houses that are "open for business" will keep lights on, and will often keep a lit pumpkin or other decorations on the porch to indicate they're home and giving out candy. Conversely, houses that don't want to get visits should turn off their lights and hide because otherwise they're going to get a lot of doorbell ringing that night.
Traditional trick-or-treating works best in neighborhoods with single family homes or small apartments that have doorbells accessible from the street. Some neighborhoods with mostly apartments make adaptations for halloween. Sometimes kids will trick or treat just within their own apartment (if large), or even on a business block (at stores). Some business districts or towns will plan a certain time/date for trick or treating in a business district. Sometimes families will travel to other neighborhoods in town that are magnets for trick or treaters. Or, there are even people who plan 'trunk or treat' events where people drive somewhere and give out candy from their cars.
Fun memories:
* A person letting kids choose between a "trick or treat" where the treat was candy and the "trick" was a cooked crawfish (actually edible food)
* Houses that go way over the top with massive art installations including full scale cemetary zombies
* A home that created a homemade haunted house complete with a maze you could walk through, all made out of cardboard boxes.
* getting home and dumping all the candy out on the floor, then doing a careful inventory and categorization, followed by a complex trading session with siblings (two almond joys for a snickers!?!)
Upbeat-Antelope8354@reddit
Halloween is amazing. The whole vibe in October is just fun and revelry. Spooky things and fall. Kids stop trick or treating 12-16 switching on the kid. My birthday is around Halloween so some of my favorite memories are going to haunted houses and then having my friends over for scary movies pizza and spooky stores and a sleepover.
cappotto-marrone@reddit
It used to be very fun. I dressed up, decorated a paper bag, or used a pillow case and went around the neighborhood getting candy.
I think trunk or treat has killed it in a lot of communities. I had 5 trick or treaters last year. The hyper controlling, vigilant parents have turned it into a shadow of its former joy. There’s no real adventure in it anymore.
Technical_Ad3526@reddit
Kind of not fun. I lived in a place where it was always cold so you had to wear your coat over your costume. No indoor or trunk or treat when I was a kid.
the-quibbler@reddit
Fun as a child. A prime opportunity to let your skank flag fly in your teens and twenties. Cringe afterwards.
StockHour389@reddit
As a kid, it was wonderful. We always lived on or near military bases, and the folks living near us always went all out with haunted houses and other fun things.
It's not even close to what it used to be. I feel sorry for the kids growing up today.
ILoveRegency@reddit
Sugar madness. My dad was really into it. We took pillow cases to fill with candy and kept going until we could go no more. Also, we were able to keep our candy in our room. Loved it.
lendmeflight@reddit
It’s cool that people from other cultures are interested in this. I never considered it before.
In a lot of places it’s exactly like in the movies. The month of October is kind of like that. The weather starts to get cold in some places of the country and you can go out to festival and get apple cider and pumpkin flavored everything.
Kids trick or treat and i sit around and watch horror films in front of the fireplace.
TrumanD1974@reddit
I was born and raised in Salem, MA, so my experience of Halloween is VERY skewed.
MicheleAmanda@reddit
Loved it as a kid. Adult was fun as well, at an apartment complex. After the kids were done, we did our 'trick or treating' with a shot glass. Good thing no driving was involved.
Icey-Emotion@reddit
Depends on your area.
Growing up I was more rural and nobody did anything because too much distance between places.
They still don't do too much there, but people will have a few decorations now a days
I'd say Halloween has gotten more popular over the past 20/30 years. Before it was mainly just kids going out. Maybe a costume party. Now people have pretty elaborate decorations. There are restaurants that will be Halloween themed during the season.
Decoration wise, it can rival Christmas.
Avocadoexpresss@reddit
I grew up poor so this may be a weird take but I felt obligated. I think pressure came from classmates who’d expect to have evidence, if I didn’t come in with proof I assumed they’d know…that I was poor (they already knew). I hated dressing up, choosing a costume, asking my mom to help. Felt like that for Christmas, Easter. I just didn’t get anything, and that’s okay, but it lends to my anxiety as an adult around holidays. As an adult, Halloween season is cozy. I live in Massachusetts (Salem witch trials, foliage), it’s fun to walk the streets and see all the lights and decorations.
IndyWineLady@reddit
I've seen neighborhoods which do very little. Then there are the ones which go over the top cool stuff. I'd say most neighborhoods are in between with some houses decorating, while others don't. When I was little the Elena's schools had Halloween parades with the kids in their costumes, fall festivals with games, food and music. Also, they're were costume contests, in class parties, and two evenings of trick or treating. Things have definitely decreased in today's world. However, my childhood memories and my shared love of holidays with Halloween being my favorite keeps me busy every year. I plan house and yard decorations and/or parties, special treats for the kids and my costume. I love to hand out giant candy bars to the kids wearing a fun costume.
Firm_Description_614@reddit
I used to work at a restaurant in a neighborhood in Seattle. Almost all the shops in our area would have a few people dress up and give candy at the doors of their retail shops. It was VERY fun and festive. Most of us love Halloween in the states.
Fifi-Gobstopper@reddit
It’s magical. So much fun. Everyone dresses up. My neighbors all get into it. We have bonfires. We hand out candy for kids and have alcoholic beverages for adults. We decorate our yards with lights, animatronic ghouls and other fun objects. After gathering candy we come home and carve pumpkins and then watch scary movies. It’s still my favorite holiday of the year.
crasho7@reddit
I'm from S.E. Michigan and we take Holloween seriously! Not just for kids, there are so many events and parties for adults too. Though the best Halloween party seems to gone for now (Theater Bizzare https://theatrebizarre.com/)
exquisite_conundrum@reddit
I love halloween. I bring out my inside decorations on July 4th lol. Trick.or treating was my jam! I loved hunting for the perfect costume. I still remember my favorite one, I was the phantom of the Opera, and my mom made me a killer hooded cloak for it. I was so sad when my mom told me I was too old for it around 13 years old I think. My kid is 12, im going to let him celebrate it until he doesnt want to any more. No one is too old to get dressed up and get free candy imo.
Halloween is very different for my son than it was for me. I grew up in NY and some times it would be cold enough to flurry or snow a bit on Oct 31st. Some times we had to wear coats over our costumes, which sucked so bad lol.
My son lives in south florida. We are out in shorts and t shirts. Just happy to feel the slightly cooler air as the summer weather starts to die down around that time.
I cant wait to bring out my decorations. I put them away the the day before Thanksgiving.
smappyfunball@reddit
I was a kid in the 70s and grew up in a great neighborhood of single family homes, and it was a pretty new neighborhood so tons of young families and kids so Halloween was a big deal.
At school we got to wear costumes and have a contest then later when it got dark we would spend hours roaming the neighborhood trick or treating, getting as much candy as we could.
There wasn’t much adult supervision so we went out in packs to do it. Later you’d trade candy and try to get the stuff you liked and get rid of the things you hated with your siblings.
Later at school there would be more trading. Then you’d spend days eating it.
It’s always been my favorite holiday. Lots of great memories. Even when you got older you’d still go out and hang out with friends and do stuff, you just didn’t trick or treat anymore. As an adult there would be costume parties or decorating the house and passing out candy.
M0rbidly-Obtus3@reddit
Growing up rural and in poverty always meant our halloweens were very understated and I never quite got the experience the other kids did. Our big bills were due in November so there qa never much to spare for halloween. My mom did her best to make us costumes and we visited grandparents to "trick or treat" and there was one street my great grandmother lived in that we were able to trick or treat at a couple houses, so we did.
The one costume I remember growing up was telling my mom I wanted to be a purple horse 😂 she got me a purple sweat set and made me a main and tail. I had never been happier and I'll remember that forever.
We always had plenty of candy from the grandparents. Got that little glimpse of trick or treating getting to walk down the single block to a few homes. I didn't have a strong love of halloween growing up because it wasn't much to us.
Now as an adult I try to enjoy it like I didn't get to before. I go around decorating the departments at work and I always wear an easy removable costume. So I can still have fun but be presentable when needed. My job has no issue with this and plenty of people participate too. I even have some cute porch decor so I can easily decorate my home.
theevilhillbilly@reddit
to me it was always a little disappointing. It's so over hyped. when i was a kid my mom worked so she was always too tired to take me trick or treating, my friends in high school and I weren't the partying type so we never partied or anything.
My mom would make all my costumes and they were always pretty cool! That was the best part,
In college my roommates and i threw a few halloween parties and they were fun. I also went clubbing a couple of times and it was cool to see everyone's costumes.
Dressing up well, is so expensive. I dont really partake now lol.
SensibleBrownPants@reddit
Halloween is the greatest. Trick or Treating with my friends ranks high among my fondest childhood memories.
I’m 48 years old now and I still carve a pumpkin every year for Halloween.
runlalarun@reddit
I live in Arizona, so carved pumpkins just collapse in the heat. My family paints them, then I cook them up after water and make our Thanksgiving pies with them
ellius@reddit
Growing up in the outskirts Tucson ours always wound up being javelina food lmao.
You got to put your pumpkin out at sunset on Halloween, and then by the next morning it had disappeared.
BenAfleckIsAnOkActor@reddit
Piggy back off this, The Halloween specials on TV shows, spooky movies on all the channels, Halloween themed commercials the whole mood shifts into spooky mode along with crispy leaves on the ground and bite in the air
FlyLemonFly@reddit
My family hosts an annual pumpkin carving contest for kids and adults. It gets really competitive. We had about 33 pumpkins last time.
droid_mike@reddit
That's the best part about Halloween is that even as an adult you can celebrate, as you are the one who gives out the candy and can decorate to your heart's content. I always worked hard to scare the kiddos. I found that playing heavy metal music from the band iron maiden worked much better to scare the little ones than "spooky" Halloween type sounds or music.
GeneralBlumpkin@reddit
It's my favorite holiday and my son was born around Halloween so naturally he's a Halloween baby lol
Ladybeetus@reddit
I am ready to transplant the pumpkin seedlings I started so I have my own to carve. That's how much I love Halloween.
SensibleBrownPants@reddit
I’ve planted pumpkin seeds in my yard! So much fun watching them grow. Prepare to be delighted!
Ladybeetus@reddit
We have done it other years and it is so fun to watch them grow!
NoFanksYou@reddit
I’m much older than that and I hold a pumpkin carving gathering every year. It’s so much fun!
fried_clams@reddit
It was so great! Fun costumes, going house to house with family and/or friends, TONS of candy..
Then, when you are becoming a tween, there was much more mischief, like throwing eggs, etc.
Then, in college, there were great drunken parties, with girls wearing sexy costumes.
Then, as young adults, there are drunken parties, with girls wearing sexy costumes..
Zivata@reddit
Halloween was fun and kind of exciting. What will I dress as this year? Will I team up with a friend? How much candy will I get? Can I go trick or treating with friends? How scary will the haunted house be? Which scary movies will I watch?
There was so much anticipation built up in such a fun way. Still is. I love driving around with my kids and seeing people's decorations.
It's very cold where we live, so some houses give out warm stuff like hotdogs, baked potatoes wrapped in tin foil, or even hot cocoa (with a little something extra for any adults who want a nip).
It's a lot of fun.
IainwithanI@reddit
It’s what the town or neighborhood makes it. A few places are like the movies, some places don’t do anything. Most places are fun, but not like the movies.
dashingirish@reddit
We serve hot dogs and cider (plus harder stuff for the adults). We have a fire pit where kids can toast marshmallows, project movies onto a big screen or set up karaoke. We’ve been doing it for 20+ years. What happens is everyone ends up at our house at the end of the night. The adults chat, the kids swap candy and run around the “disco graveyard.” I set up the whole thing the day of. It’s social and friendly and one of my favorite things.
Ok_Drama_6985@reddit
The best day of the year as a child. We got to wear costumes at school and go trick-or-treating. I loved putting costumes together from what I could find. Now as an adult it is still a favorite holiday. I still love being creative with costumes and plan them for months. We decorate the house so kids will want to stop by. We invite parents to come and have fun while the kids trick-or-treat.
worstnameIeverheard@reddit
It’s the best. I grew up in the north east, and we have beautiful autumns where the leaves on the trees change color from green to red, orange, and yellow. The temperature cools down, and everything feels crisp. Local farms do lots of things to celebrate autumn harvests, so you will see apple festivals, hay rides, pumpkin festivals, and other things that really define the season.
Halloween is sort of the culmination of all of that. I loved trick or treating as a kid, and I loved taking my kid trick or tricking when she was little. Honestly, when looking at houses to buy I always consider if the neighborhood is walkable for trick or treaters. I love sitting on my porch and handing out candy!
Zealousideal_Draw_94@reddit
I get cake, and lots of ghoulish well wishes…it’s my Birthday.
Murky-General5131@reddit
It is a chance to not be yourself. To be what ever you want to be.
I have had a lot of fun coming up with my own costumes as a child. And sewing my kids costumes
No_Entertainment_748@reddit
Its funny, with how many countries have the next day(all saints day) as a national holiday youd expect the inverse to be true where its a big holiday globally yet not big in America
Most_Ad1891@reddit
It’s different for every family depending on location and religious beliefs. For my family of 5, it’s a lot of fun! We live in a big neighborhood where neighbors decorate and almost everyone hands out candy. Some neighbors even serve hot dogs and drinks in their driveways. Older children/young teenagers trick or treat with their friends while younger children walk around with their parents. Some adults wear kid friendly costumes.
My teenagers have friends over and while they are too old to trick or treat, I buy lots of treats and pizza for the friend group.
My youngest still trick or teats and enjoys having friends join us. It’s fun to see teachers from our school out with their families.
Hours are set by the town you live in. If you don’t want to participate, you just leave your porch light off.
pikkdogs@reddit
Not as magical as most people say.
Just a time where you got candy.
tarak8isgr8@reddit
As a kid, Christmas and thanksgiving were always very anxiety inducing because it was very performative and uncomfortable with family members I didn't see otherwise, but Halloween? Halloween was the most magical time of the year! All kinds of festivities and costumes and candy! All the kids tv channels would air Halloween specials and classics! The air would start to turn crisp and there was just a feeling that halloween was upon us. Our family would carve out jack-o-lanterns and bake the pumpkin seeds to snack on. It was just incredible. Still my favorite holiday by far
Eastern_Sky@reddit
Grew up in Massachusetts and you would pick out your Cinderella dress or cheerleader costume and then have to wear your winter coat over it trick or treating! Haha. A fun holiday but if you live in the northern part of the USA definitely a cold one to be walking around at night trick-or-treating!
Kels121212@reddit
As a young kid tricker treating with scary costumes getting candy was awesome.
dobbydisneyfan@reddit
Depends on your family. In mine, we did trick or treat but the whole thing wasn’t a big deal in our house until us kids all got older and thus didn’t need to be shielded from scary stuff as much. Plus by then my parents had money and could actually decorate lol
Marsupial-Old@reddit
My mom was born on Halloween so we always had a big celebration. We always had awesome home made costumes (this was the 90s), and decorated like crazy. Mom chained she was a witch because of her birthday so we made our house a witch house that was so spooky. We had some haunted houses too when we got older. I went truck or treating with my family until high school, and then in high school I went with my friends. It was a small town so it wasn't uncommon for teens to still trick or treat and dress up at school. My parents had really crazy parties for the grown ups. It is still one of my absolute favorite holidays, right up there with Christmas
Fancy_Sleep6093@reddit
F*ckn Awesome! Loved the vibe, getting ready to partake in one of the coolest free things you could've done as a child was exciting and watching all the adults enjoying your visit for their tricks or treats was so cool! No one needed to know who was dressed up and they were still nice as hell to you!
portobello-belle-87@reddit
Fun, being creative with costumes and playing make believe, fall/autumn is cool and crisp, candy and carving pumpkins. Scary and spooky but in a fun way!
Gabriel_Collins@reddit
It was a good time. There’s nothing like Autumn in New England.
wairua_907@reddit
Halloween in the 90s was magical.
hew14375@reddit
When I was stationed in Germany, we were assigned quarters in a housing area open to the German population. The German kids and young adults would come by to get candy. I don’t recall that any dressed up but they did like to see the costumes. We had a small dog that wore a Superman t-shirt. He was a big hit. It was very fun.
ObjectiveElefant@reddit
You pretty much hit the nail on the head with your interpretation of what you feel like when you see it. Sort of a day where the rules don’t exist, in a way. It’s really fun for children and adults alike.
Full-Kitchen3486@reddit
Only good if you are a rich white kid. They don’t show you Hispanic neighborhoods in the movies lol
Irasshaimase21@reddit
The best! Costumes, parties, cabdy, friends - still love it as an adult!
gofindyour@reddit
Growing up in the midwest in the 90s, it felt like a whole session because it actually got cool and windy during the month of October and all the fall colors on the trees. Now I live in Texas and it's just hot and humid all through the fall season, doesn't quite hit the same. I miss it, its extremely nostalgic for me
GobelineQueen@reddit
Halloween is the best. If you really enjoy it, it can basically be the theme of the whole month of October -- everyone putting up decorations early, going to scary movies or pumpkin patches or corn mazes, etc. Working on putting a costume together (many adults included.) It's really fun if you live in a neighborhood where a lot of people do creative decorations (especially if there's a lot of homemade creativity involved and not just spending a lot of money.) When I lived in apartments in really dense city neighborhoods I was always sad that I didn't get any trick-or-treaters, and I LOVE that I now live in a neighborhood with a bunch of kids so I can hand out candy and compliment kids' costumes. As an adult I also usually have invitations to multiple Halloween parties and have to prioritize. I love that it's not a religious holiday, it's not a gift-giving holiday or one where you have to spend much money or travel, and that it's bigger than just single families -- it involves the whole neighborhood and being friendly with strangers.
HardcoreHope@reddit
How the world should actually work. It’s actually crazy we have such a socialist holiday that everyone love but when you talk politics ew.
Axxtr@reddit (OP)
I wouldn't consider it that socialist 🤔
HardcoreHope@reddit
People giving to others for free
Haunting_Turnover_82@reddit
Celebrated even in school! It’s a whole day community full of fun activities! It’s fun for kids and adults! Candy, parties, movies, parades at school. You can’t bet it for all the activities!❤️
Straight_Mongoose_51@reddit
I was lucky enough to have access to one of those neighborhoods that totally transformed on Halloween night. It felt like kids took over the streets, running around in such a volume that cars couldn't get through and almost every single house was passing out candy.
idiot-prodigy@reddit
It does, it's spooky, and creepy as a child. But it's not really scary unless you're going into "Haunted Houses" which are temporary commercial businesses designed to frighten guests.
Halloween has its own feel just like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July (Independence Day), etc.
When children knock on doors for trick or treating, it is always for a piece of candy. Most adults do not scare children at the door. It is usually older ladies giving out candy, lots of "ooohs" and "aaahs", and "Who are you dressed as sweetheart?"
Maybe one house out of ten will have a device like a motion activated spooky laugh. Most houses that have decorations will be modest decorations, but maybe one out of ten will have giant skeletons in their front yard, things making noise, smoke, etc.
When I was a kid in the late 80's there was one man in the neighborhood who fashioned a zip line from his tree to his front porch. It was set up so that when you approached his front porch a Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Krueger dummy would zip down the line and "attack" you. It just would fly towards the porch from your side and bump into you giving you a scare. As a kid I thought it was awesome.
Most kids walk around dressed like a Disney princess, a Marvel hero, something simple like a Vampire, Zombie, Ghost, etc. Nothing too weird. Every once in a while you see someone take it to the next level, more like cosplay than costume. I do remember as a kid a really big man walked around in the middle of the street dressed like Jason from Friday the 13th.
It is very similar to what you see on TV shows, but most TV productions ramp it up to the next level.
For young adults in college, it is more of an excuse for girls to dress up as a sexy version of a nurse, cop, faerie, etc. and guys to get drunk at a Halloween party.
It absolutely has its own feel as it is fall, when the North American trees lose their leaves, the air is cooler and brisk, etc.
It is mostly a kid's holiday, kind of like St. Patrick's Day is mostly an adult drinking holiday.
Spare_Flamingo8605@reddit
Why is Halloween so many American's favorite? 1. Low pressure-do want you want with it, no one cares (unlike other holidays) 2. It's not childish for adults to enjoy it just as much as the kids do. It's normal! 3. Even unfriendly neighbors love the social aspect. 4. You don't need a clean house, the party is outside! 5. Many families go big (decorating inside and out, handing out generously, expensive costumes) but some can't afford that and the DIY's are awesome. I know a lady that uses Hawaiian skirts to make a cousin It from the Addams Family! Some religious folks don't participate (Jewish, Seventh Day Adventists).
Halloween feels magical- from childhood years to present and I'm in my 50s. Some people who are party poopers think that trick-or-treating is only for small children. But a lot of us feel like if you're at my door costume or not older or young, I'm giving you candy. In fact, I like to offer candy to the adults who are trick-or-treating with their young kids because man they are sure earning it! It's a lot of work getting them ready and fed by 6pm!
Church266@reddit
I was a kid in the 70's, so its very sifferent than now. I have very fond memories of Halloween. You get to make a costume and be that person for the day. You took a long walk at night when normally you had to be inside. You went to houses and said trick or treat and candy was put in your bag. They were delighted to see you. We didn't get to eat much candy at the time, so it felt like we won the lottery.
The day of Halloween was similar to movies. In my area there were decorated houses, but not nearly as many as in the movies. Most of the decorations were very basic such as signs in the windows. The costumes were not nearly as nice as in movies. Generally they were home made and not meant to last for a long time.
The one thing my parents liked, there were no arguments or delays when eating dinner/veggies. We couldn't go trick or treating until we had eaten everything. The time for trick or treating was from sundown until probably about 8/8:30. So any delays eating cut into the truck and treating time.
Spirited-Way2406@reddit
I was a kid in the '70s too. I don't like the Instagram feel of heavily decorated houses with aesthetically painted pumpkins and elaborate handmade costumes that don't even look cool. I don't like the supermarket version either--the push to buy a bagful of decorative plastic tat every year that will just be thrown away. But I don't miss those stupid plastic-bag-and-plastic-mask costume combos, remember those?
I think Halloween is still awesome today, if adults turn off the helicopter and let kids have fun. Where I live there's a daylight downtown trick-or-treat with decorated offices and costumed traffic control volunteers, because at night it is almost always icy and nobody likes that. But the local paper also provides special signs to put in the window for trick-or-treat houses so that kids who want to go out at night can do so. I think that's the best of both worlds.
Adh1434@reddit
In my neighborhood we had over 800+ trick or treaters ( we count the candy bars we hand out) just outside Detroit Michigan
redladybug1@reddit
It’s still my favorite holiday, but it used to be more fun when I was a kid in the 80s.
Away-Squirrel2881@reddit
Halloween is Satan's Un-Holiday
HAIL SATAN!
Push_the_button_Max@reddit
Yes, your impression is correct, especially here In Southern California- because of the mild weather, many neighborhoods go all-out.
The local news will mention specific neighborhoods with great decorations, so everyone can visit.
(Many people who work professionally in special effects for stage or film, like to decorate their own homes for Halloween. )
We have majorly decorated our front yard for the last 8 years, and have given out over 600 candies for 2 years, and over 1,000 treats for 3 years.
Many families from less safe neighborhoods pile into cars and go searching for highly decorated neighborhoods, so it’s fun to see everyone react to our decorations.
We have a graveyard with a girl jump-scaring people, a fog machine, spooky music, and a pop-up tent with spooky wallpaper “walls” with a crystal ball with a talking head inside it.
One fog machine, a stereo, and some foam gravestones can really make a big impact.
abstractraj@reddit
It’s super fun even as adults. Like NYC has a Halloween parade every year and all the bars are filled with people dressed up and having fun
ncconch@reddit
I love decorating our porch.
HotTopicMallRat@reddit
I love it more than Christmas honestly. It’s warm and spooky and the whole world feels mysterious and magical for just a bit. Jack-o-lanterns have this warm flicker to them that just sets the mood. Candy was exciting but it’s so much more than that. Idk it’s something special
bmsa131@reddit
Halloween is the best.
Tricky421@reddit
Halloween is big here. Even for adults.
Samibechill@reddit
I grew up in a religious household so we weren't supposed to participate. When I was very small, maybe 6 or younger, ny mom would take us to shopping centers to "trick or treat". When I was older, I always snuck out to go to a friend's house to celebrate.
Its a time to dress up and play pretend that adults get to participate in too. A little child like whimsy.
CemeteryDweller7719@reddit
I’ve always liked Halloween. As a kid, it was scary movies, school party (before schools started calling them "fall party”), and trick or treat. Then around 10 years old we started going to haunted houses (which my state is one of the states with the most), and it was another fun thing to do. Plus, where I live had the change of seasons so we get the crisp air with leaves that crunch as you walk through them. It’s a great time of year.
I still love Halloween. We decorate. We dress as zombies and participate in a community Thriller performance. It’s still a fun holiday.
L8dTigress@reddit
It's just a ton of fun every Halloween. It's one of the few holidays you can go out in a costume and get spooky or just have fun with it. Most kids usually go trick or treating until their first year of middle school. And as a kid I always remember dressing up, meeting at the meet spot and having to beg my mom to carry my bag because of all the candy I would get.
When you're an adult, you get to show off. your costume, and go to parties while dancing to Thriller by Michael Jackson. It's a staple at parties.
Axxtr@reddit (OP)
Is it an option to say trick instead of giving candy and let the children scare you ? Or this something nobody does? ☺️
phoenixliv@reddit
Theyd throw eggs at your house and put toilet paper in your trees for that. Maybe fertilize a slur into your lawn
GreenBeanTM@reddit
It’s not the 80’s anymore
comrade_zerox@reddit
Not officially, but theres a history of people throwing toilet paper and eggs at houses on Halloween, and that may be part of the "Trick"
Background-Cod-7035@reddit
The phrase is an old custom—it meant “Give us a treat or we’ll play a trick on you.” My grandmother admitted that in her youth in the 1910’s they used to egg houses that didn’t hand out treats. I was thoroughly shocked! These days if there’s no lights on in the house you just pass it by.
My husband, son and I lived in the city where they closed down whole neighborhoods to traffic and throngs of children went up and down the street from 4pm to 9pm. Now we moved out of the city to a quiet street and are depressed at the lack of children coming by. So this year we are going to dress up and carry bowls of candy around downtown. That’s how magical Halloween is! I’m in my 50’s and hope to be in costume on the last day of October every year until my dying day.
PistachioPerfection@reddit
The term "trick or treat" is an implied (albeit fake) threat of playing a trick on residents if they don't give you a treat.
That said, it's definitely a time where we have our highest incidents of toilet papered houses. Have you heard of that? Maybe someone has mentioned it already.
Axxtr@reddit (OP)
Oov who wouldn't want mud covered toilet papers all over the garden 😃 👻
PistachioPerfection@reddit
No mud, just a house (and trees, if they have any) literally wrapped in toilet paper. Teenagers are usually the culprits, and they throw rolls of toilet paper as high as they can so it eventually covers everything. It's infuriating and funny all at once.
Intermountain-Gal@reddit
When my parents were young tricks were often part of it all. It really isn’t done any longer. Though every now and then someone’s house gets toilet papered.
My dad had fun memories of tipping over outhouses, kind of like a wooden Port-a-Potty, only it stayed put. Where he grew up there weren’t indoor toilets. This was in the late 30s/early 40s.
RemotePossibility399@reddit
No one really does this, but it would be cute.
There is a change in the atmosphere as the days grow shorter, although it was much more pronounced in the Midwestern states where I grew up than it is in Arizona where I live now. There, the shorter autumn days were accompanied by rapidly cooling temperatures and leaves changing color and an overall stronger sense of the coming winter. Autumn and winter are often a metaphor for death and decay, which Halloween spooky stuff feeds on. Those additional factors are greatly lessened in the low desert of the southwestern US.
My Halloween experiences have gone through phases. Through childhood until 6th or 7th grade (about 11 or 12), I would dress up and go out with friends through the neighborhood and get candy.
In later middle school & high school, it was more focused on parties at a friend's house. We didn't dress up in costume for those.
Then in college, dressing up and going out to the bars was the thing to do. The "Elvira-Mistress of the Dark" character promoting "Bud Light Fright Night" (Bud Light styles itself a beer) was a big part of it. I happened met my wife at a college bar on Halloween night. She was dressed as a punk rock girl and I was supposed to be an army doctor. We've been together over 40 years now.
Until I became a dad, adult Halloween was just us at home handing out candy, and we loved it. After our kids came along, we started dressing them up and talking them around the neighborhood. That was always fun, too. And we watched the cycle continue.
One thing I've noticed is that younger singles and couples today (under 30) take the opportunity to dress up more than my contemporaries did at that age. The costumes range from the hilariously creative to the quite provocative. I think it's all great, and I think the growth of cosplay has fueled it.
jessipowers@reddit
It’s usually very young children who are very proud of their scary costume and they’re really wanting to fully BE the costume, and they’ll do a little scary face or make a little yell or roar or whatever, and the adult will go, “oh my goodness, you scared me!” And then give them a handful of candy. It happens maybe a couple of times a year. My daughter is one of those kids. She’s 13 now and still loves an immersive costume experience. She was the girl from the ring movies last year (except she’s very into Japanese media so she told everyone she was Sadako and then I had to explain “the girl from the ring but the original Japanese version”). It was an easy costume, but rather than buying a costume we thrifted the perfect white dress which my husband then rolled around in the dirt and rubbed all over a car engine to get the best dirty pattern. Then we just went it a long black wig on top that she kept over her face. She just stood around creepily and scared the shit out of so many people. Several fully grown adults jumped and yelled, it was great.
WarrenMulaney@reddit
No
fkr77@reddit
Nobody does this
PacSan300@reddit
With the Michael movie released recently, I feel this may become more popular this year.
Radiant-Pomelo-3229@reddit
It’s pretty amazing and rather like the movies depending on where you live.
Trick-or-treating seems to have died down in a lot of places and been replaced with the incredibly Lamb trunk or treat. Meanwhile my city has definitely reversed that trend and it’s an insane street party with DJs, extreme decorations etc.
IWantALargeFarva@reddit
I absolutely love Halloween. When I was a kid, it was just meh. Our town did trick or treating during the afternoon on the Saturday before Halloween. We never had any money so I never had a costume I actually wanted. It was always just a discarded costume from someone else that I didn’t get to pick.
Now that I’m an adult, I try to make every holiday special for my kids. They get to pick their costume. We’ve had parties before. My neighborhood is awesome. So many of us decorate our yards. We sit in our driveways and chat while we hand out candy. Some people do fire pits. We became the “full size candy bar” house. My youngest has a whole gang of kids that she trick or treats with, and then we go to her friend’s house and hang out while the kids play. Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year.
Away-Squirrel2881@reddit
"To me, every day is Halloween, I've given up hiding and started a fight"
meenadu@reddit
I loved trick or treating as a child but I love to be on the other end as a grown up handing out candy and making children happy.
Space-cadet-66@reddit
It was the best growing up but now people don’t do as much and it’s a bummer.
Express_Possible7666@reddit
In USA Halloween is just a reason to get free candy by knocking on doors.
TieDye_Raptor@reddit
It is like the atmosphere changes for a while. It's a lot of fun. I'm in my 40's and still dress up. I generally dress up and hand out candy. As to ages... well, it's mostly elementary-aged kids, but I get the occasional teenager, too. But I honestly don't care how old someone is. Then there are also costume contests and stuff. There's a local brewery I usually go to where I participate in a costume contest with my husband. But then, I'm a kid at heart and have always loved costumes. I love seeing what other people dress up as, too. Plus, I love spooky stuff in general. Basically, it's my favorite holiday.
brineakay@reddit
Halloween is absolutely the best time as a kid! I’ll list some of the things I remember fondly:
-My family would drive an hour to the city. We would go to the Spirit Halloween pop up tent in the mall parking lot and spend a good hour to hour and a half shopping for our costumes. I’d always go in with a vision of what I wanted and hoped for the best.
-In elementary school, we would do a big parade where we would walk through the whole school to show off our costumes.
-The school dances were always fun. The younger grades would have theirs almost right after school and then middle school (grades 6-8) would have theirs.
-Finally reaching the age when your parents let you go unchaperoned with your friends. Usually around 12 years old. I grew up in a very small, rural town. We would have a list of neighborhoods we wanted to walk through because we knew which ones gave the best/most candy.
-My parents would always sift through our candy at the end of the night to make sure it was all safe. Then all of us kids’ candy got combined and put in a shared shoebox.
-Once we reached high school and don’t trick or treat, we’d go to haunted houses or haunted hayrides. We’d spend a ridiculous amount of time waiting in line for a subpar attraction, but it’s always fun when you have a friend that gets overly scared.
wagowop@reddit
Halloween was my favorite holiday when I was growing up. I loved trying to figure out what I wanted to dress up as. Trick or treating was a lot of fun too. My kids didn't get into it as much as I did.
southernjezebel@reddit
When I was a little kid (late 80s, early 90s) my parents told me we carved pumpkins and wore costumes because on All Hallows Eve spookies were allowed to come from beyond the grave and roam our world until midnight. The light from a jack-o’-lantern scared them off, and dressing in costume would make them think you were one of them. Best of all, people would give spookies a candy to make them go away, so you could get candy too as long as you were in costume!
So there was always this delicious thrill while getting ready— to quickly get into costume before dark, when the spookies came out. Then wondering at all the laughing cavorting shapes running past you in the dark to get to the next house; was it your friend from next door, or was it a spooky?? And the candy, of course! My family wasn’t well off so we always made our costumes and I loved getting complimented on them. And just being out late, especially on years when the weather was crisp with the approach of autumn, and dying leaves skittered like insects over the pavement with the breeze and maybe the moon was out, bright and swollen and outshining the street lamps. And you just felt Halloweeny.
Jaded-Jackfruit-2352@reddit
Aside from the mini haunted houses and soliciting donations, i can't really remember halloween cause it jeptnraining on that day
Green-Machine200@reddit
Halloween as a kid was the best. It all just felt magical. Halloween parties, dressing up in fun costumes, eating creative “spooky” foods, bobbing for apples. Trick or treating, we would fill a pillowcase all the way up.
PamCake137@reddit
Halloween was always the very BEST of all the holidays for me, both as a kid AND as a parent. I loved making my kids' costumes even though sometimes they groused and complained that they wanted the stupid costumes from the stores. Once they got out there though, and everybody commented on their cool costumes, they were appreciative.
samst0ne@reddit
It was my favorite time of year, every year and often still is now. As a kid it was so fun to be creative and do something out of the norm for the day. In school the whole class and teachers would dress up, we got to walk around all the classes to trick or treat at recess and then the main neighborhood trick or treating after dark. I also loved scary movies, so knowing there would be a lot of Halloween specials on tv was also fun.
k8username@reddit
Differs by decade. Mid 20th century and probably before it was entirely kid-driven. Our parents didn’t make our costumes or go with us. A big part of the fun was being out at night unsupervised
Mamapalooza@reddit
Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love costumes, themed group costumes, candy, tricks, treats, the beautiful fall weather, the sense of anticipation, the excitement of children running up and down the street, the occasional jump scare from an adult who takes it way too seriously, the themed festivals, and every amusement park does a Halloween theme and kills it. Yes, please. Gimmie it all.
Inside-Run785@reddit
It really depends on where and when you grew up. I grew up in the 90’s in the city. For me, trick or treating was on a crisp Sunday afternoon.
Porcupine-in-a-tree@reddit
I grew up on a farm really far from anything so Halloween didn’t really register in my childhood. As an adult though raising little kids in the suburbs, it’s a completely different thing. Our neighborhood decorates a ton and my kids get so excited in the weeks leading up. The night of Halloween becomes a huge fun block party for the whole neighborhood. It’s actually pretty amazing for grown ups in addition to kids. So now it’s one of my favorite holidays.
CercleRouge@reddit
It's actually like you describe it. Probably the only time I'd rather be in the suburbs versus a major city.
PipPopAnonymous@reddit
Love Halloween. It’s the only holiday I care for really. I go all out on decorating the kids always had fun costumes. It’s the only time of the year my bf lets me marathon scary movies. It’s just the best.
But then Nov 1 happens and it’s Xmas filth until February 😆
kipkiphoray@reddit
It's so much fun. (CONTEXT: I grew up religious, but not in an unhealthy church; Halloween was not vilified or deemed "evil / demonic" in my town. That is not the case everywhere. My Halloweens were incredibly positive experiences.)
There is lots of self expression. You start thinking about your costume MONTHS in advance. You can buy a costume from the store, or make one. (I was almost always a witch, my brother was more creative. He went as Oscar the Grouch one year - he made his costume.)
Most people decorate their homes for the holiday. They might just put out some yard decor, lights, and fake spiderwebs... Or they might go all out. Some people turn their yards into haunted houses. (one family had a mansion, they did Addams family every year THROUGH the first floor of their house. They also handed out full size candy bars. It was one of the BEST houses.)
The whole town usually celebrates. You can usually trick or treat at businesses earlier in the day (mostly for the youngest kids). Adults will typically dress up in costume for their job. (I wore a dinosaur onesie while doing bread wall at my grocery store job a couple of times.) Businesses will also decorate a little.
Actual tick or treating is the highlight. You go out with friends or family (largely depends on how old you are) at night and you walk house to house asking for candy! Your group of people walks up to a door (you may be with others - it's a busy night) and you either knock / ring the bell OR the homeowners decided to hang out on the porch. When the homeowner answers the door everyone yells "TRICK OR TREAT" and then you get candy!! Then you go to the next house. If the lights are off at a house, don't knock, they might not celebrate or they might have run out of candy.
Some people make TERRIFYING costumes and wander around the town scaring trick or treaters. I got chased by a very large man who was covered in "blood" with "a big knife". It's a fond memory, very fun.
At the end of the night you do a candy swap at home. (It was always my brother and I, but it could be friends not just siblings who do this.) You dump out your bucket and bigger bag (my dad was efficient - we had our pumpkin baskets for our hands and a receiving pillowcase in the car for when our pumpkins got too heavy / full) on the ground / table and you trade candy with the other people. "I'll give you a nerds box for a big Tootsie roll!"
OneSignature7178@reddit
It's literally the best holiday ever. People are different. Adults can act like children. Children can get obliterated on candy. FREE candy. Last year I went to a haunted corn maze and nearly peed myself screaming and laughing.
RubiksCub3d@reddit
Halloween is my favorite time of year.
The leaves have changed, the air is cool, there is a certain smell to the season here as well.
I grew up in the mid-west US and this area goes all out for it. It isn't unheard of for there to be snow on Halloween so costumes often had to be built around the potential of also wearing a winter coat.
For me the 1st quarter of the school year was wrapping up, my birthday was just over a week before, and there is a feeling of excitement over getting out and having fun for a night.
One memory that sticks out was when I was 12 I made my own costume: I was an alien abductee. My legs were the alien's legs and I had false legs hanging over me making it look like I was being carried by an alien. I got extra candy at a lot of the homes.
The last year I trick-or-treated was when I was 13. Generally after 14 or 15 you may get side eyed or judged for trick or treating, I stopped once I hit high school.
KittyCubed@reddit
I loved it. That said, when I was in elementary school, we weren’t allowed to wear our costumes to school anymore because it might offend students who didn’t celebrate it. I’m a teacher now, and the rule has been in effect in every district I’ve worked in (4 in 20 years).
NekoTheSpookieCat@reddit
There’s been some pushback from assorted religious groups to make Halloween more autumnal/harvest themed. Many churches do a thing called “trunk or treat” where they will decorate cars in their parking lots and kids in non-scary costumes can collect candy.
That said, growing up in the ‘70’s & ‘80’s, Halloween was an AMAZING holiday. Free candy, making or buying costumes, the thrill of being allowed to go out in dark streets, carving jack-o-lanterns… it was nearly as awesome as Christmas, and more fun in a lot of ways!
rojoshow13@reddit
I was born in 1980 and Halloween was pretty much just like the movies Halloween (minus the murders), ET, Karate Kid, and Stranger Things. Check out the Halloween episodes of the TV sitcom Roseanne and that really captures the feeling too.
Serious_Holiday_5816@reddit
im interested in hearing Halloween prank stories..if anyone has any, drop them!
psu256@reddit
There's obviously the secular celebration, but for Catholics it is also the eve of the November 1st holy day (All Saint's Day). We were encouraged to go to church instead of indulging in the trick or treating.
ReturnMetoEarth@reddit
Depending on where you grew up Halloween was either HUGE or the "devil's holiday". My family absolutely loved Halloween. It was magical and fun, and I would get excited for months (and still do) waiting on it. We spent more time together putting up Halloween decorations and trick or treating, picking out and carving pumpkins, doing haunted house walk throughs and hayrides then we did at Christmas.
I was raised in the deep south and down here though there are a lot of churches who don't encourage the celebration of Halloween and consider it to be "the devil's holiday" when I was really little I went to a little daycare in a Baptist church and they refused to let me dress up for Halloween. My dad (Not at all a baptist, its a long story) stormed down there, argued with them they were dumb bigots and its just a fun holiday and then took me out of daycare.
I lived in Massachusetts for 3 years and absolutely loved Haloween culture up there. I never got to go to Salem or anything but just everything around Halloween was a big deal and it was a lot of fun. I didnt have to hunt down things to do for Halloween like we did in the south, they were everywhere.
Was also in California for Halloween one year and it was a blast. It really made me sad that the south isnt quite as supportive of Halloween because theres so much more they could do. (Large plots of land, loads of abandoned buildings, pumpkins grow great down here, loads of awesome ghost stories and superstitions) Some of the most haunted cities and places are in the south.
Overall I think to it depends on what time you grew up in. Halloween in the 90's and early 2000's was peak in the U.S. I haven't seen it as good since. Makes me super sad for the kids now.
OperationDapper3565@reddit
Halloween is a great holiday. Adults can remember their costumes and candy routes from when they were young. Kids get to pick their favorite costumes. It's generally a happy day more than a scary one.
ParadoxicalFrog@reddit
It's magical when you're a kid. For a few hours, you get to be anyone or anything you want. You get to see your neighborhood in a whole different way: on foot, after dark, all decorated and lit up. Some houses go all-out with the spookiness, and some make it a little bit goofy with cartoon ghosts and witches. Sometimes people answer the door in costume. And every house is a surprise! You never know what you're going to get. It could be candy you love, candy you hate, a little toy, a full-sized candy bar; I got an entire caramel apple one time. Trading with other kids is common. Then you go home and enjoy your candy while watching Hocus Pocus (or whichever Halloween movie you like) until you crash from all the sugar.
It's still a lot of fun as an adult, too. I love horror and goth stuff, so Halloween is special to me. The stores are full of cool decorations, the theaters are playing new horror movies, and I get to dust off my favorite costume (werewolf). And on November 1, I can buy up the leftover candy that's just been put on clearance. Also, there's a big Hispanic population in my area, so Day of the Dead celebrations overlap with the usual Halloween stuff. Double the fun!
PhotojournalistNew6@reddit
I grew up around Salem Massachusetts, during October there is such an influx of tourists you basically can't drive. I wouldn't say it feels like a holiday more like a festival. One of the best days of my life was having a shaving cream fight and smashing pumpkins with all my friends, when a cop pulled up asking what we were doing we told him the slightly illegal stuff we were doing and he just said okay and drove off.
seahorseescape@reddit
Halloween is the best. For everyone. Old, young, rich, poor doesn’t matter. Halloween is for everyone and everyone can participate. There is an energy in the month of October. Everyone’s excited, there’s lots of events, decorations parties etc. just a fantastic time of the year
Feisty_Water_3164@reddit
My neighborhood had a corner grocery store owned by Gus. Each year Gus would give out full size candy bars. That was a huge deal, the line stretched around his house, any group you passed you would ask ‘What’s Gus giving out’.
Neat-Neighborhood595@reddit
It’s so weird. You teach your kids to never take candy from strangers. Then one night, that all changes and you encourage them to knock on strangers doors and ask for candy. It’s wild!
GooGuyy@reddit
Wish I knew (parents are very Christian…*tear drop)
Apprehensive-Pop-201@reddit
As a kid, it is amazing.
Equivalent-Pin-4759@reddit
Imagine being a child and being able to dress up as just about anything. It could be frightening. It could be something whimsical and sweet. The best part is you’re rewarded for your efforts with candy gifts from your neighbors.
unrepentantlibboomer@reddit
Halloween was my favorite holiday.
As an adult I convinced my employer to have a costume contest voted on by the customers. I organized decorations, cookies & punch for the customers and the costume contest.
My kids always had handmade cool costumes that they planned weeks in advance.
As a kid, we trick-or-treated for hours Halloween night and covered our entire small town. I never took part in pranks though.
The trick-or-treat aspect has changed in our community. Now, it is a more organized trunk & treat event where community members and businesses set up their cars in a city park and the kids get treats at each car. There are also fun games and music. It is an all-day event.
Many people in our community set up elaborate yard decorations similar to Christmas time.
CheesE4Every1@reddit
Halloween was great growing up, it's still one of my favorite holidays every year because I dress up as something from a movie and scare the bejesus out of someone and it's all good fun. This year I'm trying to lose enough weight so that I can go as pyramid Head again. If not I've got another idea from all the horror media I consume.
Mobile_Can_9494@reddit
The excitement of choosing your costume was always my favorite as a kid and I still love it as an adult. In some places I know that the neighborhood block party aspect has changed, but in my area we still party and it's awesome!
gravitycheckfailed@reddit
Halloween used to be super fun while my generation and the one younger were growing up, but I have found that it's changed a lot. We used to be happy to dress up even in our 20's just to help walk the younger siblings or our kids around the neighborhood and see all the cool costumes and house decorations. Some neighbors would go all out with the decor too and there were quite a few "haunted house" type setups.
It's changed so much though. No one one goes door to door anymore, everything has been consolidated into "trunk-or-treat" where you go around to everyone's car trunk and maybe some businesses in a shopping center parking lot to get candy. It's no longer done on Halloween if it falls on a week day. My nieces and nephews (who never experienced the old style of trick or treating) no longer think Halloween is fun now that they are getting older than age 6.
It feels very streamlined and boring, like "we managed to consolidate this into the quickest time frame possible, and no longer at night or on a weekday, and in the shopping center parking lot with a Starbucks so you can run other errands." Because of this, no one really decorates outside of their house anymore (other than maybe a few small decorations) because it was mainly show for trick or treaters.
jessek@reddit
Depends on where you live and the values of your family (there are some Christians who are opposed to it).
Personally, it's my favorite holiday. I love horror fiction.
PuppySnuggleTime@reddit
Halloween is a holiday, we just don’t normally get it off from work. But we put up decorations a few weeks in advance, we become very festive, and we really enjoy it for the most part. Of course, there are plenty of people who don’t enjoy any holiday, so they don’t dress up for become festive. But, when you’re a kid, Halloween is a blast. Sometimes kids plan their costume months in advance. And what kid doesn’t like to get a bag full of candy? And, I got news for you: a lot of adults absolutely love Halloween. They plan their costume months in advance as well!
RedditWidow@reddit
Halloween is very different for everyone, depending on their family, neighborhood, when they grew up and region of the country. Some families don't participate, usually for religious reasons, because they don't like the focus on witches, skeletons, graveyards, horror and magic. Some families are really into it, decorating their yards, creating "haunted houses" in their garages, giving away large candy bars, creating elaborate costumes or throwing parties. And then everyone else falls somewhere in between.
Some people who don't like the creepy stuff will do a harvest festival instead. There's also "trunk or treat" events that started happening in the 1990s, where a whole bunch of families park their cars in a parking lot and hand out candy from the trunk of the car, so their kids don't have to go house to house, risking interactions with strangers or being hit by a car while walking around the neighborhood.
When I was a kid growing up in Los Angeles in the 1970s, almost every house participated in some way. We would go door to door and get candy, popcorn balls, pennies, walnuts and boxes of raisins. If a house didn't want to participate, they would turn off their porch light and that meant "leave me alone." But that didn't happen very often.
My grandmother told me that when she used to go out on Halloween, "Trick or Treat" meant that you had to do a trick in order to get a treat. They would sing a little song or do a little dance or something like that. It also sometimes meant that if you didn't give out any treats, a trick would be played on you, in the form of vandalism. In the 1980s, when I was a teen, this was still sort of true. A lot of the older kids would go around and throw toilet paper or eggs at cars and houses, or steal candy from younger children. In some areas, the day before Halloween is called "Mischief Night."
In my experience, kids usually stop trick or treating at age 13. Teens are assumed to be up to no good if they're out alone, or they're supposed to be supervising their younger siblings and cousins, not taking the candy for themselves.
Cleanslate2@reddit
I’m a senior citizen now, and Halloween was different back then. It was my favorite night of the year when I was a preteen through age 13. We were allowed out with friends (NO parents went). We roamed the neighborhood all night and everyone participated. The parents dressed up and there were smoke shows and spooky stuff at lots of houses.
After we had our candy bags full, we got feisty. We would toilet paper trees and soap car windows. It was the most fun and innocent and adventurous night ever when I was 10-14!
aintnogreatloss@reddit
I grew up on a really small road, so our families went out of their way to let us trick or treat around like 10 houses. They’d go all out decorating, everyone would buy enough candy that we could fill our bags with only 10 trips, our neighbor would put hay bales in the bed of his truck and drive us around from house to house to trick or treat. It was so fun!! We looked forward to it for months!!! I always dressed as a cat, and my mom handmade my ears, and I had a feather boa for a tail, and she would draw my whiskers on with her eyeliner.
My favorite memory: at the end of the night, the neighbor from down the road would wear a mask and bring out a chainsaw (with the chain removed!!!!!!) and chase the truck down the road until he caught up (coincidentally always in front of his house) and grab someone (coincidentally always his daughter) out of the truck and carry her away into his garage. And it took an embarrassingly long time (until I was like 7 years old) before I realized duh, it’s her dad, I’m not at risk of getting carried off. But we would all be climbing over each other to get away!!!
When I was a teenager, I started going with my older brother or with friends to bigger neighborhoods, and we’d trick or treat around to a lot more houses, and I’d say I stopped around 17. But then I went once more in college with a bunch of friends, and nobody denied us candy or anything.
Nowadays, I live in a much bigger neighborhood, and we have a Halloween decorating contest. My sister and her husband come over, and we all sit on the porch with a cauldron full of dry ice, and we hand out the BEST candy so all the kids make a beeline for our house. Each neighborhood will be a little different in how seriously they take it and how much it changes the vibe. Generally, the more kids are around, the more intense it generally gets.
celestial_crafter@reddit
Most of my Halloween experience as a kid was in the 90s. It was a lot of fun. Some people did deocrate then, but they do it much more elaborately now on the whole. Getting candy was always amazing. Choosing a Halloween costume and dressing up was a lot of fun too. In elementary (primary) school, we would do Halloween themed activities the day of. Sometimes there would be an event where the teachers and students could dress up, like you would pick a book to carry in a parade and dress up as a character from the book. The anticipation after school of waiting for it to become dusk to go out and trick-or-treat was palpable. I remember being scared of the teenagers sometimes since they were often wearing the horror film costumes, like Michael Myers or the Scream mask and they'd like to jump at or freak out the little kids. I still had a good time though.
These days, it's fun to participate as an adult and make it a good time for young people. I dress up and hand out candy to those who stop by. They also have these things called Trunk-or-Treats now that are especially catered to younger kids where you meet at a local spot like a church or community center and the adults put candy and/or goodies in their trunk, leaving it open for the kids to come around and collect. They can be a full on event as well.
One thing I'll add is growing up in the Bible Belt, there would be people who would consider it 'demonic' or something dumb along those lines. They reserved their right to not participate believing that it was the devil's work to be involved in All Hallow's Eve.
Also, being from Texas, Día de Los Muertos is a pretty big deal for those from Mexican heritage. It's celebrating the following day, but it's got its own cultural importance and the two can be lumped together because of the date and idea of the spirit world being more accessible at that time of the year.
lets-snuggle@reddit
When I was growing up in the early 2000s-2010s, it was magical! You wore costumes to school, did a parade, there were lots of parties, everyoneeeee was out trick or treating, you got so much candy, so many pictures were taken, you were with friends & did group costumes if you wanted, there were contests where only the winner got a prize, our moms would have food out to stop by and eat, all the houses were decorated so cool, some had haunted houses in their house or on their lawn, we hung out after and traded candy. It really was so so so cool.
I’d say we trick or treated with parents until age 10, but still in groups of friends with all our moms, then in middle school we trick or treated alone. Freshman and sophomore year of hs I actually still trick or treated & then after that, it was just parties.
I will say there’s been a huge change. Nowadays, trick or treating is less time/ earlier curfew, not as many houses are decorated, not as many kids trick or treat, costumes are more lackluster, no one goes in others houses for a cookie or chili, some kids don’t even say “trick or treat” they just stare at you, parents are with middle schoolers if they’re out. It’s been largely replaced with trunk or treats & the adults adapted by buying less candy & not decorating as much. It’s a very sad time now compared to when I grew up
Timely-Youth-9074@reddit
It’s super fun and yes, the energy changes.
Ivy7424@reddit
Halloween was the best growing up. When you’re a kid you have the class parties and costumes and treats. I always had a school costume and trick or treating costume because I live in a colder climate so I had the fun princess costume for school and a layered costume for trick or treating at night - the one I most vividly remember was Little Mermaid for school and Sylvester the cat for the night.
At night you’ve got fallen leaves and all the front porch lights on, everyone has spooky fall decor out to varying degrees. Some people put a few decorations out, some people put a lot out, some people (like my parents) do a whole lighting with a fog machine and spooky music. My parents also did little to go cups of hot cider with passing out candy (in the 90s when that wasn’t such weird thing to take from strangers).
Halloween is such a vibe when you’re a kid.
Zinnia1127@reddit
Halloween was super fun in the 1960s, semi-rural southeast Ohio. A day or two before Halloween night was when kids went out to do tricks. Then you dressed up in a costume and went back for treats on Halloween night. A trick that little kids did was to fill a paper sack with shelled corn and throw it at windows. It made a great rat-a-tat sound. Kids got the corn from any family member who grew it for livestock. Brave little kids ran up an knocked on doors but I just threw corn. We just went to the surrounding houses. Older kids, meaning teens, would throw toilet paper rolls into trees, throw eggs and tomatoes at houses, and do other stuff that could be more destructive. It mostly fell into the category of making a mess. My dad said that back in the 1940s, teens would knock over outhouses, which seems pretty mean. So when my kids were young in the 1990s, we lived in the suburbs of a bigger town and there were no tricks. Just wearing a costume on Halloween night and getting treats. It's the same today but a lot of kids go to organized events. But one thing I really like today is some people put up orange and purple lights, skeleton and witch figurines, and other decorations.
tenehemia@reddit
Halloween was terrific for all the reasons other people mentioned, dressing up as whatever you want, candy, parties, the novelty of going door to door, etc. I'll say that another big thing kids may not even realize until they're older though is that it's a great feeling that it's a day when adults and kids are excited for the same things. Knowing that the adults are also dressing up, that adults also like parties and candy is cool. Some holidays are more striated where the kids enjoy the kid part and the adults enjoy the adult part but as a kid you're very aware that you're at the "kids table" (both literally and figuratively). As you get older you become aware that adult Halloween parties are a bit different (ie: drinking), but it's unlike holidays such as Christmas or Easter where there's a solemn religious part that the kids aren't interested in.
Dew-fan-forever-@reddit
Like a kid in a candy store(no pun intended)
Ok_Cabinet_3256@reddit
It’s the fucking best!
ElementalPink12@reddit
Halloween was always my favorite holiday. I loved the costumes and going door to door with my friends to trick or treat.
I loved getting a big bag of Candy, then me and my friends would watch the Friday The 13th marathon and pig out.
Some people would set up intricate displays of decorations or build miniature haunted attractions in their neighborhood.
The sensory elements of it were very rich and exciting. The whole month leading up to Halloween is exciting. Usually there's local events. Parades. Haunted houses. Hay rides. Halloween markets.
It's a magical time of year.
jinger13raven@reddit
Here in the northern US, our kids need costumes big enough to fit over winter coats, since it usually rains (or snows) on Halloween. That doesn't deter them! They bundle up, pull on costumes and do it up with make-up, wigs, etc. They grab old pillowcases for their haul and head out regardless of weather.
The age limit varies. I usually see a few high school aged kids and last year I had a trick-or-treater who had to be 80 years old. She was gorgeously done up in a purple witch costume with sparkly gray hair. I gave her candy, too.
Every family has their own traditions. I make a pot of pumpkin soup and sourdough rolls to provide a base for excessive candy consumption. We decorate pumpkins, light up candles and put them outside. While my kids go out I pass out candy and make comments about the kids' costumes. Their parents on the sidewalk prompt a "thank-you" if they kids don't do it on their own. When trick-or-treat is over we eat candy and watch old seasonal movies like Clue (1985) or Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein (1948).
Halloween is just pure fun and doesn't have to cost a lot of money.
tesseractjane@reddit
When I was growing up I lived a town on the Western side of the Rockies where it is very cold, one of the coldest places in the contiguous US. All our costumed had to be built around snow suits and warm parkas.
The neighborhood I live in now is big on Halloween, my neighbors across the street start building their yard of fright up at the end of September. Kids are all so excited to come. They go through to get candy at the end, last year we went over and pitched in to their festival- handing out candy and beers and seltzer to the adults.
They project Halloween movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas onto their garage, and sometimes party trucks will roll up filled with adults and some kids. Its a big deal.
I've lived in neighborhoods, apartments, with less actual Halloween fun, but even growing up where Halloween was -23 C and snowing it was observed by the community.
risumi@reddit
Ohh you just asked about my favorite holiday. I grew up to rural Pennsylvania. Rural as in the nearest store is 30 minutes away driving, nearest neighbors are acrossed several fields. Alot of farm land where I'm from, there are more cows then people.
I still live in Pennsylvania but more urban now.
Autumn is always something. Here in the appalachian mountains all the trees turn orange, red, yellow. Weather get chilly, like jeans and hoodie weather. Rain is more common.
Growing up halloween started around October 1st. It started with tv hosting a "31 days of fright" which was a spooky or scary movie every night for 31 days. Everytjing from thrillers, slashers, and more kud friendly options like charlie brown and the great pumpkin. Pumpkins, squash, gourds, corn stocks, hay bales abd mums start to be seen everywhere. Stores and gas stations started to decorate. My parents have a very long front porch. Corn stocks would be decorating the many front columns with mums. My mother would normally pull pumpkins from our pumpkin patch and decorate with them too.
I normally would figure out what I wanted to be for Halloween costume wise and mom would dress up and take me halloween night or close to it. We would go see family most of the time. We would stop and see cousins, grandparents, neighbors, etc. Spooky music in the car was part of the experience.
Some years as I hot older I also went with friends. A friend had an older brother who would happily take us as long as we shared our candy. One night we stayed out till 9:30 trick or treating. We hit almost every house up in the area. My friend went has a football player and I went as a Rockstar/ 80s rock band member.
I would also go to corn mazes, drink apple cider, haunted houses, parades. Pumpkin carving is a competitive event at some places.
To the current time, halloween is my favorite holiday. I go all out. Normally start my decorations around the end of August. My house slowly transforms into what looks like a haunted house, both inside and out. I have a 6 year old who I try to make halloween as magicalic as possible for her. We start in October doing events. Our local town has a parade, pumpkin festive (includes pumpkin carving, pumpkin food, hay rides, music and making of your own scarecrow), we hit up corn mazes, do apple picking, a local train ride (includes apple cider, cookies, picking your own pumpkin at a pumpkin patch and riding in old train cars pulled by a steam engine), we do movies or episodes of spooky things every night, carve pumpkins, make halloween crafts.
It's honestly my favorite time of the year. I know it's May. But I've started planning what I want to set up for decore this year. Last year my front porch was a witches lair, my sidewalk turned into a walkway with spooky fence and an arch.
This year I'm going to make my back yard be lit up with Jack o lantern lights, with hay bales, a fire pit and Jack o lanterns all around. I also want a few skeletons to hang around my trees. Plus the walkway and witches lair from last year.
miseod@reddit
The night before Halloween known as mischief night or in my New Jersey town it was known as Goosey night. More funnier than Halloween
BigDamBeavers@reddit
It's been a long time since I was a kid on Halloween but even today it brings the kid out in me. It's a holiday where you get to be someone else, something scary or cool. You're surrounded by people doing the same. Also you are nearly passing out from diabetic shock with all the candy you eat.
ZeldaHylia@reddit
I’m obsessed with Halloween. I love horror movies. Haunted houses: candy: it’s the best time. Stores have Halloween themed decor, clothes, food.. it’s a fun time.
voteblue18@reddit
Literally the best day of the year. Even better than Christmas, at least to me. Because CANDY. And I had parents that didn’t take it and ration it out over time (hey it was the 80s). I gorged myself and it was glorious.
Ah, to have that metabolism again!
Silver_Breakfast7096@reddit
Magical.
jafnharri@reddit
As a kid growing up in an ultra conservative religious house, it sucked. You got to watch everyone else enjoy this holiday but you weren't allowed to because it's the devil's holiday. Instead we went to church and watched terrible propaganda movies about how witches would steal pet cats and sacrifice them to Satan. When all your classmates get to come to school in their costumes you have to sit there like a loser in your normal clothes. It was very othering and isolating. And no candy.
lifeisfascinatingly_@reddit
Halloween is fun as a child and adult here. I love decorating in early September (outdoor and indoor lights, tons of jack o lanterns, lots of cute stuff I’ve collected through the years), going to parties, wearing a costume; and passing out candy to trick-o-treaters. Then you wrap it all up celebrating Día de Los Muertos.
Rescuepets777@reddit
I love Halloween. When I was a kid in the 70s, my siblings and I would make costumes from stuff around the house, get our pillowcases of our beds and go out for hours. My son hated trick or treating, but loved making the front patio spooky and handing out candy. I live in a neighborhood that still gets tons of trick or treaters up through high schoolers. I love seeing the kid's' costumes and seeing them out having fun. It's my favorite holiday.
comrade_zerox@reddit
Music specific
Its not uncommon that bands (particularly punk rock bands) will book a gig on Halloween to do a special set of Halloween music ("i put a spell on you", "monster mash", "number of the beast", "thriller", etc)
Many would dress up as a famous band and do a Cover set as the band. Misfits were a popular choice as they're a band whose whole aesthetic was inspired by old horror movies and comic books.
___wintermute@reddit
I grew up in New England and it was literally exactly like the depictions on movies you would imagine are exaggerations.
lfxlPassionz@reddit
This really depends on the place and time.
I was born on November second, 1994 and all the way up to around 2009 ish, maybe 2010 Halloween up here in Michigan was super magical.
Multiple pillowcases full of candy at any neighborhood but nowadays this doesn't happen. People made full haunted houses in their yards, garages and sometimes houses.
Halloween parties were never during trick or treating so that everyone can be home to pass out candy or take kids out trick or treating.
We celebrated from mid September until a few days after Halloween. My birthday was often a continuation of Halloween celebrations by my request.
Every single house would have decorations. It used to be that not having decorations and not participating in the holiday would be considered rude because then kids don't get that magical experience. Overtime people stopped caring though but it's starting to come back. Last Year I had the most tricky or treaters with the exception of the first year in my house. We moved here in September 2020.
My mom used to throw a Halloween party for an elementary school every year until she had to stop around 2010 when my sister was born. I volunteered to help her run it. It was awesome! So much so that pretty much every kid in the area attended, the guest count was way above the number of people who attended the school and their families.
We have the most beautiful fall colors in Michigan but in my city there's a "Halloween curse" where it either rains or snows every Halloween. We didn't care as kids, we celebrated anyway but nowadays if its snowing you never see trick or treaters.
psiprez@reddit
Exactly like the movies.
Except without the actual murders.
comrade_zerox@reddit
A fun Halloween tradition where I grew up was the addition of Jokes when Trick or Treating.
Whwn I was a kid, you HAD to have a joke ready when you knocked on someone's door. Some folks were strict: No Joke? No Candy!
"Why couldn't the Witch get pregnant? Because her husband had a hallow weenie!"
"Why couldn't the Skeleton cross the road? He didn't have the guts to do it!"
"What do vegetarian Zombies eat? GGGRRRAINNSSS"
silly stuff like that.
As time has gone on and we learn more about autism and mental health and stuff like that, being harsh to a kid who doesnt have a joke has died off, and now its more like " the kid with the best joke gets an extra piece of candy"
Mediocre-Oil-5322@reddit
It is the season when things get turned upside down for a little while. Spooky and dark become fun, dressing up like a weirdo is expected, and everyone stops avoiding strangers for a day and begs them for candy instead. That last part is where I think Halloween's actual value lies. It is a night when we mill around our neighborhoods, look inside each other's houses, talk to neighbors we don't have a reason to talk to normally, and generally let down our guard for a night. Communities come together and put on events. Where I am, people sit out on their front lawns by mobile fire pits and have drinks, chat with passing parents, and have a good time late into the evening. It is one of my favorite evenings of the year.
wee_idjit@reddit
I grew up in the 50s and 60s, before the scares about razor blades and poison, and helicopter parenting. We had minimal costumes, and never anything bought except cheap masks. We had to do a lot of 'pretend', but the holiday was run by kids, running loose in the streets. I still remember and long for the homemade buttery popcorn balls a neighbor made, wrapped in wax paper. Another neighbor made caramel apples, strictly one per.
We came home with grocery paperbags full of candy. We'd then switch elements of our costumes with our siblings and go out again. There was serious candy loot to be had! The older kids, like 14-17 might be out egging or tp-ing houses and cars.
Around 9 pm we'd all head home (except the older kids who'd be out wrecking) and trade candy with one another for our favorites.
Literally the only adult intervention I remember was that somehow the women who handed out the good stuff knew if you had already had your popcorn ball. No Seconds!
Once some kid in your family got old enough to drive, they'd take the others to different neighborhoods to trick or treat, for a cut of the candy. Some neighborhoods had much pricier candy, but literally zero homemade goodies. My intro to class!
smartaleky@reddit
Autumn. Crisp, cool air. Evening, its getting dark. You are dressing up, having decided-agonizingly over the past 2nor 3 weeks- what to be. You are in your costume, you know candy is "out there". There is a tickle-ache at the base of your stomach, almost like stage fright but not scared, excited more like the excitement of about to play tag, or running to hide at a game of hide and seek, or more like that good feeling at the base of your stomach as you step in the ride at a carnival before the ride starts. And the door opens out to the dark, cool, air and that feeling does not go away, it seeps into your legs- you could sprint for miles! - but you dont, you walk. With friends or a group with an adult, door to door no matter how long it takes and everyone is dressed as "something" and you openly guess and it doesn't matter if you get it wrong, but awesome if someone gets yours right. Then comes the great reckoning, you get together with same friends or different friends after you take off your costumes that night and go through the candy, trading out what you can for what you like against what you dont like with others. Then your parents ration you -boo!. But you feel rich for a moment. Oh, yoy DONT FUCKING TRICK OR TREAT STORES, no one ever did or ever does if they did they did something wrong. Full size candy bars are a sign of poverty mentality, because you trick or treat more that one fuxking house and theyALL have candy, so you get a fucking buckets full of funsize bars, for fucks sake 4 funsize snickers is like 1 full candy bar, I've had like 20 on a slow year and that doesn't include the OTHER stuff that came with it like whoppers, funzize butterfingers, crackle, omg. At least I could have a bite of one flavor and another and not suffer through eating 5 whole fucking candy bars, when did that EVER make sense to anyone except that waffles.
Crafty-Shape2743@reddit
I grew up in Alaska. On Halloween, the average temperature was in the low 20’s (-5 c as a reference point) but some years I remember the temperature would drop to well below zero.
At that time, parents weren’t smart enough to organize indoor trick or treating. They just had us wear thermal underwear, hats, gloves and our big outdoor coats. Which kind of defeats the purpose of a costume.
By the time I was a teenager, there was a large indoor mall to trick or treat in and that changed everything for the little kids. So a lot of teens just drove around egging the houses of teachers they hated.
Nothing much you could do until spring if your house got egged.
SecretBabyBump@reddit
I was born in the 80's and Halloween was a BLAST all through childhood. My friends and I even did elaborate group costumes in high school (theater kids. So. It tracks). This was before Halloween was a whole season (mid-September-October).
Now I have kids and we go all out. Our house is decorated, we spend $200 at the pumpkin patch every year, we set up spooky scenes on the front porch and do themed family costumes with our family of six. Our town has a really fun Halloween festival in like the town square in the afternoon then my kids trick or treat in our neighborhood in the evening with an enormous group of neighborhood kids and the moms following behind with spiked coffee making sure no one gets lost.
We are moving to the rural part of town this summer (same town, just further out) so we'll lose our sweet neighborhood celebration and our house is not visible from the road so we might not do as much decorating. But I might make a "haunted forest" for my kids and their friends anyway because I just cant not do the most for Halloween.
skadi_shev@reddit
It’s one of the most fun nights of the year. Some of my best childhood memories were Halloween. A few days before Halloween, my mom and siblings and I would carve pumpkins. Around that time I’d usually get home from school to the smell of spiced apple cider on the stove. Then on Halloween, we’d all bring our costumes to school and do a parade with the other kids to show them off. After school we’d get bundled up underneath our costumes and dad would take us trick or treating while mom stayed home to hand out candy. The houses that were decorated the scariest were the most fun. I still love the smell of dried up leaves when you walk through them.
EquivalentQuestion60@reddit
Surprisingly it actually felt like the movies
comrade_zerox@reddit
Halloween is the best holiday for kids, and its one that can easily survive the transition to adulthood.
Theres no religious obligation (compared to the other candy heavy holiday, Easter) to attend to, and there's no expectation to travel far away to visit relatives (something common with Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Its a holiday where all the most childish impulses are rewarded: wear ridiculous clothes that your mother would never let you leave the house in, wander the streets at night in a gang of your friends, literally take candy from strangers (a subversion of a popular child safety idiom), stay up late eating candy and watching scary movies.
I went to Catholic School as a kid, and for Catholics the day after Halloween is a religious holiday (Halloween= Hallowed evening), so i always got the day off school when Halloween came around. Halloween on a thursday was the best, because you got a 3 day weekend after going trick or treating.
As you grow up trick or treat tends to fall away and Halloween can become about mischief or halloween parties. I'm a musician, and Halloween is a great theme for special concerts and costume contests and things like that.Horror aesthetics and Rock n zroll have a long history.
This really goes into overdrive by college age. Halloween in College can get pretty wild, and theres often a sexual undercurrent to peoples' costumes, allowing people to be a bit more publiclt freaky than they would be the rest of the year.
Its probably the most joyous holiday we have in the USA, as it doesnt really belong to any particular ethnic or cultural practice (despite its very Irish pagan/ Catholic origins), so its seen as odd if you DONT participate. There are some religious folks who think its a holiday about the Devil, but theyre the same type of peoplw who think anything thats fun is "of the Devil", so no one takes them seriously.
Sadly, Halloween seems to be a bit sanitized these days, with many towns designating official Trick or Treat hours, all of which end before it gets dark. Lots of kids engage in "Trunk or Treat" which is just getting candy from people handing it oht of there cars in a parking lot on a random Saturday afternoon. No sense of exploration or mischief, damn shame.
But a town near me has been putting together a Halloween Street Festival (kinda of a spooky version of Mardi Gras) for adults, which seems like a cool idea and I'd love to see more of that.
I get depressed in the winter and am not religious enough to find much joy in Christmas, and while I love a BBQ 4th of July doesnt really feel right given the ugly political situation in the USA, but Halloween has managed to hold onto its appeal to me well into my adulthood (I'm 36).
Ultimately it's a holiday about subverting norms, if only for a day, and disregarding societal expectations. A chance to let loose and not worry about what other people think. And I think that is incredibly valuable.
mayonnaisejane@reddit
From a kid perspective very much about showing off costumes and gathering candy. You plan and think about and get excited for your costume. In elementary school you are often permitted or even encouraged to wear your costume to school and there may be a costume parade.
Kids start trick or treating very young. Usually the smallest are out at dusk with their parents, and as the night progresses the kid to adult ratio drops as the ages go up. Schlol kids may go in a group with just a few adults. Tweens with one adult who hangs back a distance or none at all if they go in a large group. By high school if you're still trick or treating you're likely without an adult at all, but you might also say you're too old and go to a party instead. Trick or treating is an adventure for the K-6 age group, who often perceive themselves as being outside adult supervision, unaware that their parents can, in fact, see them in the semi-dark.
From about kindergarten up, kids also get very invested in what they'll be dressing as. (You get kids have opinions too but often change their mind far too often so a parent has to lock them in at some point and then on the day the 3 year old changes their mind again and is mad a new costume can't just magic into existance.)
Depending on your local culture, your socioeconomic situatio , and the skill level of the maker, a home made costume could be a point of ridicule or a point of pride. Ridicule if badly made and because you're poor, pride if well made and/or unique, in which case you can claim it was because you had a creative vision the store baught stuff didn't live up to.
Communal-Lipstick@reddit
The best thing ever. More fun than words can describe. We would spend several months thinking of our costume and then when the night finally came, we would run from house to house, couldnt even stand still it was so exciting.
asexualrhino@reddit
Honestly, that's what it feels like. Halloween is probably the one thing that movies get right and don't have to overexagerate. Halloween is a state of mind, not a single day.
There's always one evening, probably mid to late September, where you step outside, take a deep breath, and just say "it smells like Halloween."
And then it's on.
I don't usually decorate my own house, but there's always that thrill when you see other houses start to get their decorations up. Some people do casual decorations, some go hardcore. Smoke machines, corographed lights, dry ice, sound effects, lights in every window of the house.
Covid and trunk-or-treating really killed the Halloween vibe for a few years, but I feel like it's starting to pick up again.
queenchubkins@reddit
It really depends on where you live. I’ve been in cities/neighborhoods where almost nobody participates and it’s disappointing. I’ve also lived places where the yards are FULL of kids and families running house to house and it’s magical! It’s a friendly feeling and everyone is having fun, even the people giving out candy. There is a huge feeling of community.
Tabitheriel@reddit
It was just a fun tradition. My parents were old-fashioned, and they didn’t make a fuss over it. Me and my siblings bought cheap, crappy costumes and went trick or treating together, or with friends. Then we ate too many sweets.
thekendalluxx@reddit
My favorite holiday!! My house growing up had a stuffed guy who sat in a lawn chair on the porch so you had to walk by him to get candy. Every kid was terrified to walk by him because they thought he would jump out and grab them. He was just made of newspaper lol now I’m grown with kids and we love to find the best neighborhoods with the most decorations. Where we go now even has a guy who spins fresh cotton candy for everyone.
LopsidedGrapefruit11@reddit
It’s was magical. Kind of a world is upside down free for all with candy lol. It’s such a bizarre concept to let kids dress up and run free in the dark and ask strangers for treats. It was so so fun. My kids (early 20s) got to trick or treat but never unaccompanied like I did. I tried to make it as magical as possible with safety thrown in and they have very happy memories of it. Their dad is not US born so it was really fun for him, too
gumdrop83@reddit
I live in an old neighborhood of old houses that are very close to the street, so we have quite a few kids trick or treating. I really enjoy it. It feels like a rare time that the community knits together. There are groups of teenage boys who are really just in it for the candy, but they still play by the rules of wearing something out of the ordinary and knocking and saying trick or treat. There are babies being carried around for just a few houses to be shown off in their super cute animal zip-up onesies, and there are groups of mixed age kids between 3 and 8 where the little ones are really confused and a little scared sometimes and the 8 year olds get to be the cool kid experts teaching them how to Halloween
I specialize in having an unusual candy option. I have 2 bowls, and one will be something imported, and it’s really interesting to see the little kids engage their brain and decide if they want to gamble on the unfamiliar, or pick the thing they already have multiples of
PrimusDCE@reddit
It's a really cool atmosphere as a kid.
As an adult it is still fun, usually a good excuse to drink with friends and laugh at the costumes.
Fluffy-kitten28@reddit
Halloween sucked as a kid because Halloween was evil and of the devil so I could participate limitedly. I couldn’t be anything traditionally Halloween, witches, skeletons, etc. couldn’t watch my favorite shows because they were running Halloween specials.
Now though, it’s so fun. The weather is cooling down, everything is getting spooky. My partner and I deck out the house and we have so much fun giving the neighborhood kids a good house to visit. Halloween is special and fun
Fun_Machine7346@reddit
It used to be great. A long long long time ago.
Grouchy_Vet@reddit
I love Halloween. I grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania. We didn’t decorate but we went trick or treating and had Halloween parties. We always had cider and doughnuts after dinner before going out.
I moved to the mid Atlantic area. I do serious decorating for Halloween. The house is filled with spooky artwork, spooky flower arrangements, spooky figurines and candles.
I would plan my kids costumes way in advance.
The kids are grown now but I still do a Halloween wreath on the front door, Halloween doormat, etc. I hang bats in all the windows.
I freaking love Halloween
Unusual_Form3267@reddit
Halloween is awesome.
It's not just a day, it's Spooky season. October 1st comes and the weather starts shifting. Even if the temperature stays warms in the south, the air changes. The days get shorter, and it becomes night time sooner.
It's officially pumpkin spice season. You start seeing decorations everywhere.
Halloween is when we all collectively agree to be hooligans. We embrace eating candy, telling ghost stories, dressing up, and get to some mischief. As a kid, Halloween is probably one of the first experiences you'll have of being out later at night. As an adult, it's a chance to embrace your inner child.
I also love that it's such a collaborative thing. Thanksgiving and Christmas are very much family centered. You do it at home with your people. Halloween is for everyone. People go buy treats to participate with total strangers. Even some local businesses will have candy to pass out to kids. It's like everyone collectively wants to contribute to the experience.
As far as age goes, I've seen teenagers trick or treating but they usually want to stop around 16ish. It's not for adults. But, adults can participate in other ways.
ReeMayRe@reddit
It was a frenzy of fun, everything about it. I went trick or treating until age 13, then after that it was parties, watching movies, events or just going out and about. I loved it then and still love it now. As an adult, I decorate the front of my house/windows and give out candy. I like that I am creating good memories for the younger generations the way people creating good memories for me in the past.
BitchWidget@reddit
In the 80's we ran around after dark (normally had to go home when the street lights came on) going door to door in our neighborhoods. We would even get candied apples and popcorn balls from the old lady at the end of our street because we all knew her. We would toilet paper the tree of the cranky guy who kept his porch light off and didn't like kids. ( That's how you knew which houses were participating, the porch light was on). People decorated their yards a little for this, not as extravagantly as they do now. Then our parents would check our candy for anything "suspicious" and we would chill with our friends a bit before going home.
DameofDames@reddit
My family didn't do anything because it's a pagan holiday and...we're not. But nothing wrong with the kids going trick or treating or grown-ups throwing parties and wearing costumes. I think society will always have a day of merriment involving disguises.
msspider66@reddit
I was a kid in the 70s, so my info may be a bit old…
Halloween was the best. We would dress in our costumes (store bought and homemade) and hit the streets with our siblings and friends. We would use pillow cases to hold our candy.
We would make a pit stop at one point to grab dinner and dump our pillow cases out. Refreshed, we would get back to work.
When we were back home for good, my mom would check our candy. We would fill a plastic pumpkin with some of our haul to give to our grandmother. She was a chocolate fiend and we loved her dearly.
I was one of five kids. We lived in the suburbs on Long Island, NY. Our candy haul was massive!
BoopleSnoot921@reddit
Halloween is one of the best times of the year. Lots of people go all out with decorations and parties. Lots of things happening in both September and October. City wide events and costume stuff. Kids trick or treat on the 31st and houses get decked out. It’s a great time.
poeticjustice4all@reddit
It was the best time for me (since I was born a week before Halloween) since I would celebrate Halloween twice. I started trick or treating at 5 and stopped when I was 16 unless I took my younger cousins and had a chance to dress up again. I had a lot of good memories especially when I later found out if you go to the rich houses, they usually gave you the big candy bars or “expensive” candy at the time. It was fun and I miss it a lot since I don’t have children to take them trick or treating so not sure how much it has changed in the past 2 decades.
PleasedPeas@reddit
Dressing up, being away from the fam AND getting candy! Super fun times🙂
NoContextCarl@reddit
I think Halloween has somewhat evolved in the US over the past several decades, but for the most part the energy remains the same in many places.
Growing up, Halloween was more focused on the traditional aspect of trick or treating; costumes, candy, staying out late, maybe some mild mischief.
That eventually expanded into more activities to celebrate: haunted attractions, Halloween themed festivals and events, trunk-or-treat, which is generally organized in church or large parking lots where you simply have a contained area of cars who hand out candy from their car's trunk; this is typically geared to younger kids.
Of course this is all greatly depends on your location; some places have more activities than others and many neighborhoods embrace trick or treating fully, while others do not. I've taken my kids to local neighborhoods some years and its completely dead, few houses handing out candy. Other years we've gone to their grandparents neighborhood and its vibrant and bustling with the streets packed with kids and every house is decorated. So location is important.
WeirdRip2834@reddit
There is an old classic film called “Meet Me in St Louis” with Judy Garland. It’s a musical. There is a scene of the children celebrating Halloween, and I just love it. You might see if you can find it. The Halloween tradition has evolved over time, but it’s always a very fun time.
Jumpy-Claim4881@reddit
It feels like constantly fluctuating hypo/hyperglycemia.
Fossilhund@reddit
It was fun wearing a costume and going around getting a boatload of candy.
The best part for me was the whole Eldritch atmosphere of Halloween; Ghosts, spirits, spookiness and the Unknown in general.
We may know a lot nowadays, but there's still a lot we don't know, and a lot we don't know we don't know.
ComprehensiveFun6875@reddit
Magical
Quick_Sherbet5874@reddit
best fun ever. i did trick or treating thru high school. favorite holiday.
SusanLFlores@reddit
Halloween is crazy fun for kids and adults! Kids get to use their imaginations about who they want to be that day, maybe a monster, a princess, a superhero or a villain. The adults have fun seeing their own kids or other children dressed up and having fun. They get to go knocking door to door and people give the kids candy, which most kids love! And the best part of it is when the kids are young enough to believe they can actually fool other people into believing they are actually the monster, the princess, the superhero or the villain. And some costumes and makeup is so clever or lifelike that they’re practically works of art!
reblynn2012@reddit
I’m 68 and grew up trick or treating in awesome costumes some made by my Mother. In college went to Halloween parties in costume. Took my child trick or treating and had Halloween parties for his friends at my house. As an adult I give out candy sometimes in costume and I always have bats and witches in the house and jack o lanterns I carved lit on the front! It’s fun!
bizoticallyyours83@reddit
It is a holiday. Basically we'd decorate the house, pick out a costume, watch scary movies, we'd have a costume party on school days, we'd get dressed and watch a creepy movie, then we'd go out trick or treating and swap treats. I did the same for my daughter.
Some people do other autumn stuff too, like go to local haunted houses, roast pumpkin seeds, take autumn walks, play spooky themed games, host parties. Its a lot of fun.
KarenFromBehind@reddit
It didn’t mean much to me as a kid. I was somehow always sick and missed out. I have kids of my own now and an amazing neighborhood and it’s an absolute blast. It’s downright magical. I do my house up in a Wizard of Oz theme complete with a yellow brick road and sound effects and smoke machines. It is becoming more common to decorate your home for it where I live. We leave candy and toys on the porch and then hit the neighborhood. Some families dress up together in a theme. Some go scary but a lot don’t. My daughter chose a costume last year from a graphic novel she loves called the Moth Keepers and my son was a moth. One year we all four were characters from the game Mario Kart complete with balloons tied onto go karts. It’s fun to see what kids are in to and how proud they are of what costume they chose. We encourage them to be original and then we make it together. It totally depends on where you live and what your neighborhood/city is like. It’s become one of my favorite holidays for family togetherness and enjoying the community. After trick or treating the kids trade with each other and we count it all and compile the data into a chart to track candy statistics from year to year.
LesNessmanNightcap@reddit
I love the sound of the Wizard of Oz themed house!
V48runner@reddit
It was the '80s, so I just left the house whenever and my parents didn't ask about where I was going, or when I was coming home. Sometimes I would just walk around the neighborhood, and others I would find a ride with neighbors who were leaving our shitty and poor part of town, to go to a wealthy neighborhood, where there were rumors that you would get entire candy bars.
The rumors didn't prove to be true, but there were some nice houses. I'd usually come home around 10 pm and go over my haul and stockpile some of it, in case there was a nuclear war.
Not even joking about any of this.
LesNessmanNightcap@reddit
I lived in the poor side of town, but at the end of my block, the next town started and that town and its residents were loaded with money and everyone had giant houses.
The first time I got to trick or treat alone I told my mom I was going right down the street to the next town (a place my parents never took me when I was still young and going with them) because I said I was going to get all the good candy and whole chocolate bars. My parents said “oh you are? Okay, you’ll see.”
At the end of the night, the people in those mini-mansions gave out the cheapest, smallest, crappiest candy. My mom said “See, the rich didn’t get rich and stay rich because they give away good candy.” Perfect life lesson.
goblin_hipster@reddit
Halloween is and always has been my favorite holiday. It was pure fun and freedom. You were showered with candy. The weather was neither too hot nor too cold. Apples and pumpkins in season, very delicious. Folk stories. Costumes. Trading candy with your little sister. It was finally socially acceptable to love the monsters.
Ok-Temporary@reddit
We now live in a destination neighborhood for Halloween (the houses are all very close together). Everyone decorates, and gets in the Halloween spirit. When we first moved in we were gobsmacked because it really did look like a movie with dozens and dozens of people walking up and down the street. We regularly go through 1300+ pieces of candy by about 8:30 PM. It's the best day of the year.
Calm-Maintenance-878@reddit
Movies and shows sum it up well enough from my experience. Both the family friendly trick-or-treating or sometimes wild college Halloween parties check out close enough.
Euphoric_Ease4554@reddit
Halloween as a kid was a great way to get candy. I liked to dress up as happy characters…Barbie, Princess, etc. The bullies dressed up as scary bloody characters and jumped at, frightened and bullied the other kids, which ruined everything. Also the adults who dressed up as sexy anything were disgusting. There were some good friendly Halloween costume parties occasionally.
K_N0RRIS@reddit
Parties pretty much.
North_Artichoke_6721@reddit
It is my favorite! The whole neighborhood comes out and the adults all visit in the street and the kids go house to house for candy. It’s so fun.
GreatRecipeCollctr29@reddit
Halloween is about having fun and some play in character of what they wore. Some just make savory foods, artisanal candies, cookies, desserts, or sometimes buy treats, trading cards, or toys for children and teens going to neighborhoods saying trick or treat. Some homeowners decorate their houses with Horror or alien themed motifs with matching LED lights. But most teens go elsewhere to find things to do or hang out with friends. Jack o lanterns are also popular decorating motifs to do. We see a lot of creative people posting their designs out on IG, then put them on their front yard, front windows, or you see them at restaurants too. Pumpkin patches are popular too. On October to December,there are a lot of variety of pumpkins sold in supermarkets, farms, and groceries.
hobbes747@reddit
Trick or treat, smell my feet …
Expensive_Tangelo_75@reddit
Give me something good to eat
hobbes747@reddit
If you don’t, I don’t care,
lantana98@reddit
Even adults like Halloween parties. Some people’s jobs allow costumes at work. I work at a thrift store and when we put out Halloween decor it sells very quickly. It seems to be a lot of people’s second favorite holiday to decorate for.
NearlySilentObserver@reddit
It’s literally the best time of year, especially in parts of the country that experience autumn. The leaves falling, cooler temps, and oftentimes rainy weather really add to the atmosphere when combined with the decorations, and seasonal activities like pumpkin carving, going to the pumpkin patch and having some hot coffee or apple cider, or haunted houses leading up to the actual night itself.
LesNessmanNightcap@reddit
It’s my favorite holiday for the reasons you listed. Everything is magical. My family planned and made our costumes a week before by careful planning and trips to the thrift stores. We used to sew them ourselves. We decorated. We felt like kings dumping our bag of candy on the floor at the end of the night to count, sort and trade it.
But one specific thing made the night really great. I am 55, and I don’t know if this happens anymore because of safety reasons, but part of the fun was that you trick or treated with a parent until you were maybe 5-6, but after that, you were on your own and could run all over town, anywhere. Sometimes kids who’d never met each other formed packs and went together, you notified other kids which houses were giving out the good treats like whole candy bars, and who was giving out only one mint per kid. One year someone was giving out cans of coke. One year I got a kitten. Basically you just ran wild in the middle of the night and it felt like kids owned the world.
For safety reasons, I don’t think kids can really do that anymore. Maybe some places. Many kids have parties and go to businesses to trick or treat now and fewer homes.
Additional-Ending@reddit
It's lame now, in the '80s and '90s it was awesome.
heartzogood@reddit
It’s as good as you imagine.
NPHighview@reddit
When our kids were little, we lived in a wonderful neighborhood with about 50 families. Everyone knew each other, and there were about 35 kids our kids' ages. The trees in our neighborhood were all deciduous, so there would be huge piles of oak, maple, and other leaves on peoples' lawns in the fall, until they'd had a chance to rake them up and dispose of them.
One Halloween, I walked with our two young children while my wife stayed home to dispense treats. When we got to one neighbor's house, they had a big pile of leaves next to their driveway. Of course, the kids wanted me to hold their treat bags while they ran over and jumped into the pile of leaves, which they did, right into the arms of the mom of the family, who was hidden in the pile ready to grab the kids as they did that or as they walked by. The squeals of delight were wonderful.
Halloween is a non-religious, non-political holiday that is non-controversial. It's very nice.
msabeln@reddit
—Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)
Halloween is a big deal, but in a manner that’s different from the other winter holidays.
donuttrackme@reddit
It was probably my favorite holiday as a kid. You dress up and get free candy while walking around with friends. Pretty fucking sweet. I don't have kids right now, but apparently Halloween isn't as good as it used to be anymore. A lot of people do parking lot trunk or treat now which is not at all the same thing.
MsSamm@reddit
Best Halloween haul was a full grocery bag of candy. It lasted almost until Thanksgiving. My dad got the Good and Plenty (we all hated licorice), Almond Joy and Mounds (at least he got mine), and we all had to hide the gum because my dad was very anti-gum, thought it rotted teeth.
The siblings would trade for favorites. As the days followed we had to hide candy because the siblings would eat your candy.
We wandered in the dark, house to house. Best was when there was a full moon with clouds occasionally passing over it. Dares to walk through the cemetery.
We had parents from poorer neighborhood who would drive their kids to our neighborhood to trick or treat. Some people were unhappy with that but most didn't mind. Their little kids deserved the Halloween experience, too. And they were done up nicely, with cute costumes.
Some kids filled socks full of flour and would hit each other with them. Boys would egg cars. Sometimes houses where you knew someone was home and they wouldn't answer the door. Even as a child it felt wrong to waste food like that. For a couple days before, stores would refuse to sell eggs to anyone but adults.
When you got too old to trick or treat, your last hurrah was going around with the Trick or Treat for UNICEF container.
OP, check out the NYC annual Village Halloween parade on YouTube. Lots of fun and creativity. I went 3 times. Very festive for adults, though I'm sure there were kids, too.
wieldymouse@reddit
It's my favorite holiday. If I really let go, I can feel the amazing energy the day has to offer. I like the idea of dressing up and having spooky themed decorations. I don't care about the social aspect of it. I think I trick or treated until I was about 12, maybe 13.
scr33ner@reddit
As a kid, tons of treats.
20-30’s halloween parties are fun.
After that it’s just a regular holiday.
BAMspek@reddit
I used to look at the costume catalogue all September trying to decide what I wanted to be tha year (usually Power Rangers). Then the day finally comes and kids are all dressed up at school and there’s tons of excitement. Teachers usually have some kind of Halloween activity or handout to do, candy is everywhere. Then as soon as the sun starts to set you go out and start knocking on doors. The parents are usually into it as much as the kids. Sometimes there would be a dark figure on the porch holding a bowl of candy and you always had to wonder if it’s just a prop, or a grown up in a costume waiting to jump-scare you. You’d have to rock-paper-scissors to see who would go first and get the big scare. It was a great time. These days I just sit at home with my partner and watch scary movies and eat too much candy. Which is also fun. We don’t get trick-or-treaters here so all the candy is for us.
Wunktacular@reddit
It's the closest feeling a child gets to partying as an adult. In a community that takes the celebration seriously, you look forward to it all year. It's exhilarating.
You go out on the town and party with your friends. People throw treats and candy to you. You get showered with compliments for your costume. There's the ever-present ritual of sharing good spots, comparing how much candy everyone got, and trading for your favorites with your friends.
Even in households that focus on healthy living, exceptions are made for plenty of candy and sweets. Dinner is typically takeout, pizza is popular for feeding crowds at the house where families meet up.
CheeseMongoNJ@reddit
I love Halloween. My mother goes all out decorating her house, just like almost everyone in her neighborhood. It's just a fun holiday. Personally I love it even more since we moved from Long Island to New Jersey on Halloween 1986.
PaperboysDitty98@reddit
It is an absolute core tenant of my childhood and I have in turn made it just as magical for my children as my parents and family made it for me.
shockedpikachu123@reddit
One of the best holidays ever. Everyone would dress up and walk around the neighborhood to get candy . I live in the east coast so doing it during fall really sets the mood
parrothead_69@reddit
It just had great memories for me (m67). I grew up in a small neighborhood and I always loved going house to house trick or treating. Most houses participated back then. Some houses invited you in for hot dogs or candied apples. When I became a homeowner I always put up decorations and carved several pumpkins. I took my kids around the neighborhood every year. I would wait on the sidewalk while they went up to the doors. Once my son came back and said, “Dad, that house smells like marijuana.” I thought great, he knows what it smells like, no more smoking in the house.
Fast forward 40 years…. I still put out decorations and carved pumpkins every year. My wife and I set up a card table at the end of the driveway and handed out “the good candy”. Every kid got a glow necklace too.
Sadly my wife passed in June last year. I was too depressed to do anything for Halloween. I gave away all our decorations and I didn’t give out candy.
Maybe I’ll get back into the spirit this year.
Vyckerz@reddit
Halloween is a big deal for many people in the US.
It’s a fun time. Adults like to decorate, the kid love choosing a costume and dressing up.
My mom used to make costumes for the kids when they were younger.
Many adults dress up for parties as well. Many people show up to work in costume and there are sometimes work parties.
I always had fun walking the kids around to the houses, sometimes adults at the houses would pass out alcohol nips or Jell-O shots to the parents.
I lived in a rural town and a farmer would transport kids that lived on more remote streets to some of the neighborhoods on a hay wagon pulled by his tractor.
My favorite holiday, personally, is Christmas but I understand why so many people prefer Halloween.
DeadSharkEyes@reddit
I grew up in the 80s and 90s and Halloween was magical during this time, classrooms would be decorated and we’d have Halloween treats. I remember my teacher playing spooky music during class. There was a feeling of excitement in the air, it was just the best.
penguinwasteland1414@reddit
It was magical. I was a kid in the 80s so it was all if us, out with dad, trick or treating until the last porch light went out, which was usually around 11pm. Everyone decorated and we had Halloween parades at school and trick or treat from desk to desk. Scary movie marathon all day and night. Glorious.
Axxtr@reddit (OP)
11pm sounds early for Halloween, isn't it a little associated with darkness?
penguinwasteland1414@reddit
Not at all, its almost midnight. Kids today can only trick or treat between certain hours. We would start as the sun was setting, so we were out 5 hours or so.
Ahlq802@reddit
Oh it feels so cool and mysterious, so fun! And scary, but safe scary. But still scary!
I grew up in take northeast and that cool breeze in the air and smell of rustling fallen leaves means Halloween to me.
Bulocoo@reddit
Halloween is a great low stress, fun holiday.
As a kid it's magic to dress up, often at school and then get free candy.
As a teen you dump the parents and go around with friends.
As a young adult to about age 25 there are adult halloween parties to go to.
Many adults take it serious, dressing up the house and even some creating haunted houses.
After 25 or so the magic wears off a bit but then one's own kids start coming along.
Dombat927@reddit
I love halloween! As a kid you could easily toss together a cool costume, then run around town with your friends getting candy. Everyone was excited from the little kids to the adults. Some houses got toilet papered and some pumpkins were smashed by teens. Adults handed out candy and/or partied. My current neighborhood has many houses that had out adult beverages to the moms and dads out with their kids. One group of adults drives around on their golf cart and hands out candy from the cart. It is still my favorite holiday.
Chee-shep@reddit
Halloween was amazing, I’d go out with my brother and usually my mom. We’d hit go through the neighborhood, and the amount of houses did change as we got older and could walk more. When we’d get home my brother and I would lay out are candy and trade them so we’d have our favorites
hail_to_the_beef@reddit
Halloween is ALL about atmosphere. It’s really cool. I have a friend from northern England who has American Halloween on his bucket list.
Sweethomebflo@reddit
In the 1960s, it was almost a constant topic of conversation with your friends and classmates starting October 1. Then on the day, it was the longest school day ever, waiting for the bell to ring and making plans to meet up.
Elaine330@reddit
In the 70s and 80s it was GREAT. You went with friends or just ONE adult so another could stay back and give out candy. Homemade costumes were the norm and almost everyone and every house participated. Trick or treat time was like 2 hours and the second half would be dark. Now barely any house gives candy (because all the guardians are out with the kids 🙄), its like 45 minutes while its still light out and adults post complaining if any participants are over 10 that theyre "too old." We covered some ground back in the day and no one missed the Smuckers house with full sized magic shell as the treat.
DragonScrivner@reddit
Halloween was the best and remains my favorite holiday. I live in a region where Halloween is thoroughly celebrated -- decorating houses nd neighborhoods, events behind held in cities and towns, people in costume, etc -- and it always feels like a really pure thing with kids and adults just having fun for fun's sake.
RHS1959@reddit
It used to be a children’s holiday mostly, “trick or treating”, (going house to house collecting candy; “tricks” have largely disappeared from Halloween traditions) In the last few decades more adults are decorating their houses and holding costume parties.
notonrexmanningday@reddit
I grew up in Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. There, it's still pretty warm in late October.
Now I live (and am raising my kids) in Chicago, where the weather is much cooler, and the fall vibes and chilly air really add another layer to Halloween.
You're right though. It is as you say. The decorations, the costumes, the adults having fun with all of it. It's great.
And maybe I just live in an awesome neighborhood, but it's the day of the year when my neighborhood feels the friendliest. There's tons of people out and on the sidewalks with their kids. Everyone is in a good mood. You run into your neighbors. Maybe a neighbor you know introduces you to some neighbors you don't know. Every year we take our kids trick or treating, there are a few houses handing out beers to the adults. Some of the houses really make a big deal with all their decorations and spooky stuff.
In short, Halloween is pretty much the best.
Royal-Concentrate599@reddit
I grew up in the American south in the 90s and it was the most magical night of the year. My family is Muslim so we don’t really do the regular holidays, but my mom loved Halloween and it was such a fun experience. Me and my sister would be able to go out at night and get as much candy as we wanted and we would usually do some weird, spooky shit like go into houses that we’re being constructed and tell scary stories. It seems so stupid now, but as a kid, it was the coolest thing in the world.
AnchoviePopcorn@reddit
Kardeşim! Come celebrate Halloween with me.
It really is a magical holiday if you live in the right area. The neighborhood I grew up in was in a suburb. Full of kids. Everyone decorated. People gave out full size candy bars. My mom would always cook a big pre-trick or treating soup in a witches cauldron and would have a bunch of other creepy-themed treats. For weeks before Halloween my mom would go all out decorating our house. Straight out of the Martha Stewart catalogue.
Now that I have a kid of my own, I hope to be able to give him the same experience.
TokyoDrifblim@reddit
Halloween is one of the few things that Hollywood actually shows as is accurate to real life. It is exactly as big of a deal as it is made out to be and it's a super fun time of year. I honestly have always felt a little sad for the countries that don't do it because it is such a blast and for different reasons when you're a kid and an adult
ShancySweener@reddit
One regional difference is that some cities have an assigned weekend evening for trick-or-treating. I'm from southern California and it's always on Halloween night. I was shocked and appalled when my husband (Chicago area) said it was always on the weekend.
My kids' middle school used to use November 1 as a professional development day so that they weren't bombarded with hyped up tweens the day after Halloween. Brilliant!
Many religious organizations, schools, and community centers now also offer "trunk-or-treat" events. So upper lids just go from car to car in a parking lot. Feels too much like a candy grab and sucks all the joy of the event imo.
No-Conversation1940@reddit
Chicago is a great Halloween season setting. It's usually crisp outside, trees are getting bare, it gets dark early, and if you're close to the lake the winter gloom sets in at some point in October. I am also impressed with how many decorations I see, and I mean in parts of the city where there are many apartment buildings. People put things up in their windows if they don't have lawn space.
LadySiren@reddit
I’m old and still love Halloween.
My generation (Gen X represent, yo!) is pretty much the last one where you had costumes bought from Kmart or the local drug store, with thin plastic masks that you could barely see out of, let alone talk with them on, then begin set loose to roam the neighborhood with little or no parental supervision. Trunk or treating wasn’t a thing back then, like it is now. It was a whole dark, mysterious, spooky vibe and it was awesome.
These days, the costumes seem like they’re more elaborate (but usually pretty cool), and you don’t see kids wandering the neighborhood without parents, unless they’re teenagers.
While my kids were growing up, we lived in a rural area where door-to-door trick-or-treating was damn near impossible, so we would hit up a nearby subdivision. The residents were always so gracious about it, knowing that all the kids in our rural area would be heading their way. This particular neighborhood usually went all out with decorations and even hay rides for the kids.
My kids are now grown and flown, and I’m now the one living in the subdivision that gets a lot of kids from the more rural areas. I don’t do a lot with decorating, but some of my neighbors definitely do. Last year, I decided to spring for the full-size candy bars and had a teenager tell me I was the coolest person ever. I’ll take that as a win, LOL.
ian9921@reddit
It's a whole season, starting mostly in September and culminating on the big day itself.
The start of the season is marked by stores beginning to put up their Halloween sections and the specific Halloween stores beginning to open up.
Some families care more than others, but in my household those things were cause for celebration, and heralded an exciting 2 months of preparing costumes, putting up decorations, and going to a million smaller events before the big night itself.
The final night is only a small part of it. Going to the pumpkin patch, carving jack-o-lanterns, and visiting haunted attractions are all just as much a part of the experience as anything else.
There was one year where, starting mid-September, I went to some sort of Halloween event every single weekend until the big night.
With all that in mind, when the day finally comes, it's like the opening night of a play. You've spent all this time preparing, now it's time to put on your mask, hit the lights, and see what all that anticipation was really for.
I trick-or-treated into my early teen years, which was a bit later than most people in my area. This is because, in case you can't tell, it's absolutely my favorite holiday. I spend ages hand-making my costume each year. Once I was too old to trick-or-treat I started volunteering at one of the haunted attractions in my area and spend every single night of the season working there.
boodyclap@reddit
It was better than Christmas (I was Jewish so not meaning much) but God it was awesome, getting tos how off your costume, play pretend, be scary and seeing your streets lined with kids all with the same goal of getting candy
Truly magical
Intermountain-Gal@reddit
The atmosphere does change. Kids get excited and many adults recapture their childhood for a month.
I live in the state of Utah in the north-western part of Utah. Where I live many people get into the mood for the holiday and decorate their yards. On Halloween itself a lot of kids go to school in their costumes, and many adults dress in Halloween-themed clothes (including costumes). It’s really fun!
No-Conversation1940@reddit
I didn't get the common experience. My Mom was very religious and had that Bible Belty stick up the ass about that sort of thing.
My memories are based more around first frost usually happening around that time where I lived. Deer season was a much bigger deal in my family and I remember my Dad preparing for rifle season. Leaves were falling, the neighbors would make their last hay cut of the season, first frost usually happened around this time.
Pretty_Hold5454@reddit
Two best holidays in US. Thanksgiving and Halloween. My kids enjoyed both. Halloween is just a lot of fun with minimal efforts.
sundial11sxm@reddit
It's my favorite holiday. It's just the best!!! So many parties, costumes, etc
TroubledButProductiv@reddit
Halloween is basically a harvest festival where you are feasting on all of the food that we don’t want to have to store / preserve for the winter. It’s the recognition that we as a community are going into the hardest months of the year where our resources will be stretched to the limit, and we may not all make it. But it has the added twist of wearing costumes/disguises so we can feel free to really let lose and be reckless, since we won’t be judged for gorging on the food that will soon be scarce, and partying hard with our friends who we won’t get to see again for a while.
I feel like it’s the ultimate example of “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
lavasca@reddit
It is a lot!
Parties.
Horror.
Comedy.
All Hallows Eve
El Día de los Muertos
My grandma was, full of horror stories that she shared like facts and personal experiences.
My dad would make my costumes as an excuse to go trick-or-treating and score candy.
There are parties.
It is complex.
underscore197@reddit
Halloween is exactly like how you describe. The change of weather is in the air, you know Thanksgiving coming up, theres scary movies in tv, people have parties all month, it’s just really fun. The U.S. is a diverse, multicultural country, so not everyone celebrates it, but more people do than don’t.
Most kids stop trick-or-treating by high school, typically. Whole communities come together for fun. It’s just great.
4MuddyPaws@reddit
Halloween was a blast as a kid. And still is. I'm going to be 70 in a few months and I love watching the kids around the neighborhoods.
These days Halloween practically starts at the end of September when many people start putting up decorations to be set by October 1st. Some houses go for very elaborate spooky yards to more autumnal, cute themes. Anything goes. Every year we have at least one 20-foot tall skeleton with glowing eyes. Not to mention the number of graveyards, house windows glowing purple, ghost sightings in windows.
Adults have just as much fun planning and decorating as kids have in dressing up and trick-or-treating.
I think Halloween is a low pressure holiday where everyone can have fun without worrying about the drama of feasts and presents and shopping. It's just all fun.
strum-and-dang@reddit
I have always loved Halloween! Besides the actual night of trick or treating, there are farms that have pick-your-own pumpkin patches, hayrides, and corn mazes. There are also haunted house attractions, and haunted nighttime hayrides. Younger kids will also often have a parade at school, where they all wear their costumes. We also go camping near our local Renaissance faire in October, they have themed Halloween weekends, and the campground itself has activities and most people decorate their campsites.
cookysprite@reddit
Canadian here. My family goes big. We start seeing decoration in the neighborhood about 3 weeks before. We decorate our whole yard and have smoke machines and LEDs. All the kids trick or treat and the neighborhood pools money for a massive fireworks display on Halloween night.
It’s a time of excitement and fun and everyone gets into it.
OpposumMyPossum@reddit
It really does feel special as a kid. It's such a ramp up to the holiday with all the events and decorations.
entgardener@reddit
I grew up in the 80s. Halloween was magical.
Temporary-Pin-1472@reddit
It was the best and still is now that I have kids! I dress up in my Sasquatch suit and longboard around the neighborhood with my kids! I love seeing the various costumes and different expressions we all have. IMO Halloween is the best pointless holiday we have, it drives community and so much more.
archivesgrrl@reddit
I think it’s different for everyone. I LOVE Halloween. I have a 12 foot tall skeleton along with a grave digger, grim reaper, multiple human size skeletons and an evil Leprechaun. I just added a 4 foot creepy doll on a tricycle. I decorate the middle of September and keep it up till the first week of November. I love all the fall flavors, fall festivals. All of it.
EnderBookwyrm@reddit
Halloween was the best time to stock up on candy. You figure out a costume at some point in October, then gear up and head out trick-or-treating right after dinner. Kids go home when parents get tired, teenagers stay out with their friends as long as their parents allow.
IKnowAllSeven@reddit
Halloween is the best and greatest.
First of all, it’s the WHOLE month of October.
Haunted houses with people that will jump out and scare you are running every weekend. Haunted hay rides. Zombie forest runs. Haunted 5k runs. Halloween parties. Scary movies in the theaters and people doing scary movie marathons at home. Local historical societies do “living history” tours of the cemeteries with people dressed up and presenting the stories of local people.
For kids it’s THEEEE BEEEEST.
Costume. Run around Halloween night. Get candy. Good times.
ShinyArticuno_420@reddit
As a kid, it felt magical. We were poor but would go trick or treating in nicer neighborhoods with awesome decorations and treats
Elevenyearstoomany@reddit
I love Halloween so much! It was never the candy for me, even as a kid, it was all about the costume! Unfortunately my mom was less in to Halloween than I was and far more practical so the rule was always that I had to either be able to wear a winter coat over my costume or wear one under it. So no princesses or ballerinas for me. I still had some great ones though! My favorite was fifth grade when, in light of the then upcoming election, my friends and I went as members of the Clinton/Gore families.
Impossible_Turn_7627@reddit
The coolest. Light-hearted. A chance to interact with neighbors on their doorsteps.
anonymouse278@reddit
Halloween is probably the most accurately-depicted American holiday in movies. It really is a huge deal. Who doesn't love getting dressed up and getting free candy?
It's a fun holiday because it's very community-oriented- you don't have just a family celebration, the core of it is getting dressed up and trick or treating, seeing other people's costumes- it's an occasion where people gather in public and strangers talk to each other. This is different from other holidays where, while there might be general warm feelings, the main observance is something at home with your family like a meal and a private gathering. And nearly everyone celebrates- when I was a kid, some conservative churches were anTI-Halloween, but nowadays even those churches tend to have "fall festivals" or "harvest celebrations" that are just Halloween celebrations rebranded with no witches (they do costumes, hand out candy, etc).
Now it is more common than it used to be to have community events where kids trick or treat from store to store or from decorated cars parked in a big lot (a "Trunk or Treat"), but people also still do traditional neighborhood trick or treat door to door. In much of the US, by late October the weather is getting colder and the days are getting short, so having a festive occasion where people get outside and decorate things is fun before everything gets too cold and snowy to be outside much.
I grew up in a cold part of the US and we always hoped it would be warm enough to go without our coats over our costumes on Halloween, but it usually wasn't. It was fun anyway.
Sugah-mama21@reddit
It is tons of fun, decorating, planning costumes, Halloween parties, then trick or treating for the kids where entire neighborhoods come together some hang out outside to give out candy, some you knock on doors to get your candy. If their outside light is on they're giving out candy. It is definitely a holiday where I live.
Ladybeetus@reddit
Yes some people Really LOVE Halloween but it is still an opt in Holiday. You may get pressure from coworkers to dress up (group costumes are a thing). But there is no real world downside to not being involved at all. Don't go out, don't leave your porch light on.
Traditional_Way1052@reddit
Amazing. In NYC we went to the rich area and trick or treated there. Walked around for a an hour or twi and got a bag just full of candy. And then we would all dump ours out and trade.
When we got older we had shaving cream fights.
DrZeus104@reddit
I live in the northeast of the country so for me it’s more of a month long celebration than just a single holiday. We do haunted hay rides, corn mazes, apple picking, drinking hot apple cider/eating warm apple cider doughnuts outside in the evening by a fire, road trips to see the color of the changing leaves, amusement parks have Halloween themed events, and locally there are haunted houses with varying degrees of scary. Of course it all culminates with the whole neighborhood “Trick or Treating” on the last day of the month. For me it’s a last ditch effort to be outside with friends and family before a long cold winter with short days/long nights set in.
RonPalancik@reddit
People make a big deal about Halloween because it's fun, popular, and fairly secular. Schools largely don't observe religious holidays, but Halloween is fair game.
So you typically plan ahead for a costume, which may be homemade or store-bought. Little kids (age 5-10) will dress up in costumes at school.
Traditional trick or treating is like this: you go around your neighborhood at around sunset on October 31, knocking on doors and collecting candy from each house. Then you eat the candy over the next few days (unless your parents are very strict).
There may also be parties apart from trick-or-treating. Some families do different things (I am sure other posters will describe those activities), but that is the classic way.
Adults now do more Halloween stuff than in decades past - young adults go bar-hopping in costumes.
ProperlyEmphasized@reddit
It was wonderful as a kid. Spooky, a little unsettling, but so fun and something we looked forward to all year.
It's still wonderful as an adult, but with less candy.
Zama202@reddit
American Halloween is great, because it’s 100% optional. Many people have nothing to do with it. Most young children like to walk through their neighborhoods and get candy, but for adults and you choose to decorate or skip it. You can wear a costume or skip it. If you want to get drunk or take a bunch of MDMA, it’s probably still a bad idea, but people will judge you less harshly than they ordinarily would.
BurritoBowlw_guac@reddit
My favorite Halloween costume was I painted a large box to look like a pack of chewing gum with arm and head holes that slipped over my body. I wore sweat pants with them. Down my street trick or treating and my sweat pants fell down but because of the box I couldn’t reach down to pull the up. I had to hobble home to have my mom do it. I was probably 12. Loved Halloween!
Either-Youth9618@reddit
Halloween was so much fun! My mom was really crafty so she made us customized costumes. My brothers and I would go with her to the fabric store to buy patterns, fabric, decorations, etc. Then, my mom would sew our costumes. Looking back, she put an incredible amount of time and effort into these costumes and they were amazing!
In addition to the costumes, we also carved pumpkins. My mom bought a pattern for this as well so we had a cool pumpkin for our front porch. We didn't have any other decorations for Halloween because my mom didn't grow up in the US and found most decorations really creepy. My dad's American but he wasn't going to bother decorating.
On Halloween, we raced home after school to quickly eat dinner and put on our costumes. I'm from Miami and it's hot in October so we didn't need coats with our costumes. Once it was dark, we went trick-or-treating with an old pillowcase to collect the candy. My cousins had two immigrant parents who didn't quite understand Halloween so they joined my brothers and me. My parents accompanied us with flashlights.
Once we finished, we went home and everyone dumped out their candy. The adults quickly checked over the candy (no one ever found anything bad but some homemade stuff did get thrown out) and we would trade our candy until everyone was satisfied with their haul. Then, my cousins went home and Halloween was over.
Thanks for asking this question. One of my brothers and one of my cousins have since passed and it was really nice to remember this time with them.
Forward-Cause7305@reddit
For many small children (up to about age 10) it is their favorite Holiday the whole year.
They get to do fun stuff but no boring family stuff. Just all fun.
It's like Christmas but no visiting older relatives or having to go to church.
audvisial@reddit
I loved it then, and still love it now.
There's such a sense of camaraderie and fun.
My neighborhood goes all out. They block off street traffic, there are insane decorative displays, we have bands playing in people's yards, fire pits in driveways, spiked warm cider for adults and so much candy for the kids. What a blast.
PurplishPlatypus@reddit
Something that I haven't seen mentioned is, especially for those of us that grew up in the Midwest where the seasons actually change, it's a really nice pace to life to experience the passage of time through the seasons. For me anyways, it's nice that each season has it's fun traditions. Summer is hot, it's sun and swimming, or at least blasting water from a hose. No school, 4th of July, barbecues and outdoor fun. Autumn/fall is nice to get cooler, be cozy, wear sweaters. Seeing Halloween decorations, pumpkins, looking forward to costumes, school party, and trick or treat candy is so fun. Thanksgiving is more about family visits and lots of food, still cozy vibes, warm drinks. Christmas/New Years are fun parties, treats, presents, no school, a feeling of completion finishing off one year and getting ready for the next. Spring feels so fresh and bright, coming out or a dark cold winter and looking forward to ending the school year and starting the whole new cycle again over as the weather gets nice. I know that's more than what you asked for but I lived in the Midwest for most of my life and we, Moved abroad now and I miss it so much.
Mental_Freedom_1648@reddit
Not every family treats it the same. Some put a lot of effort into Halloween. Some think it's evil and won't allow their kids to participate.
It's a very fun and it has a spooky vibe. After you turn about 12-14 it becomes more controversial to go trick or treating unless you're taking your little siblings out.
DefBlondeandPoisoned@reddit
I wasn't allowed candy as a kid except at Halloween and Easter. It was a big deal to me to be able to eat Halloween candy.
RockShowSparky@reddit
It was a blast as a kid in the 90’s. Like a lot of things I think we’ve made it lamer for the younger generation. In the neighborhood I live now, trick or treating is primarily very young kids with their parents going to the homes of neighbors they know.
ExtremeExtension9@reddit
I grew up in the UK and the moved to the US as an adult. In the U.K. Halloween would be ok. You got dressed up go trick or treating, maybe someone would have a Halloween themed party. It was fun. But in America it is amazing!!! I absolutely love love love Halloween. In my city it’s literally a month long affair with the pumpkin patches, festivals, corn mazes, haunted houses. So many houses go all out for Halloween. Actual Halloween night is just the climax of it all. Halloween is now my favourite just behind Christmas.
tarheel_204@reddit
Halloween/October was always my favorite time of the year as a kid (it honestly still is). The Halloween season was dope. It’s fall so it’s cooling down outside, the leaves are changing, scary movies on television at night and Halloween specials from your favorite cartoons. You’d usually have a Halloween party at school where you’d go to school in-costume.
Trick or treating was a blast. My friends and I would go out on our own through our neighborhood to get candy. It was one of the few times as a kid where we’d get true independence.
wiserTyou@reddit
In short, it's great. It' may be derived from some religious holiday, but that's long gone, it's for everyone.
As a kid it does seem like the world changes. You get to be whatever you want and then set out on an adventure to get free candy.
For young adults it's a reason to party. People dress up in costumes ranging from hilarious to sexy and go out to socialize with other young adults.
Adults also can dress up and socialize. They also the ones who purchase the candy and do most of the decorations. In neighborhoods this can range from very simple lights to elaborate yards. The also answer the door to hand the candy out to the often very excited or shy children.
Personally I loved Halloween most in my 20s. I'd find a costume and hang out at my parents house to help hand out candy, occasionally hide in the bushes to scare the kids (a little bit not too much). Once that was done I'd head out to drink with friends and meet girls.
The experience I'm sure is different depending on location. I have no idea what they do in cities. My area has many small towns each with neighborhoods that were walkable with yards and individual houses. Participation depends on the neighborhood and the house. It helps to have a good mixture of children and adults. My parents neighborhood has gone through phases of being very active to relatively slow.
There are towns nearby that resemble a city without much opportunity to walk around, they would occasionally bring their kids to ours, which they were welcomed to do.
In the end it's a holiday everyone can participate in and enjoy.
Gogo83770@reddit
The Halloween town movies, as well as Hocus Pocus are great at giving you the feeling without living through it.
zero_and_dug@reddit
I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas. My Nextdoor neighbors would have a Halloween party for the other neighborhood kids. We would all dress up in our costumes, and hang out until it was time to go trick or treating. I remember one year they had dirt cake, which is a dessert that has cream cheese, vanilla pudding, Whipped cream and crushed Oreos. And then they put some gummy worms and frosted nutter butter cookies on top to make it look like a graveyard. I also remember that one year, my neighbors a few houses down decorated their house with a wizard of oz theme. They were very elaborate, which a yellow brick road and adults dressed up as characters walking around
vteezy99@reddit
Halloween is great for people at any age. Kids go trick or treating, adults can go to parties. One of my offices used to go all out with Halloween, we decorated our cubicles and were allowed to wear costumes while at work. One time my department built a makeshift haunted house in our building. Nothing fancy, just pvc pipes and I think garbage bags. But when you walked inside it was scary.
And of course after work there were parties in costume at clubs or other spots.
Kids can start trick or treating at pretty much any age, I’ve seen parents walk their babies in little costumes in strollers. Ok they weren’t actually trick or treating, just walking around and seeing decorations. But as soon as a kid can walk and carry a bag they can start trick or treating with parental supervision
I want to say not everyone does it. Where I currently live I get zero trick or treaters. Theres a couple of houses that decorate but that’s it. Other neighborhoods might go all out.
phoenixliv@reddit
I was a kid in the 80s and it was a wild free for all collecting candy from neighbors and my parents would check it all and ration it back to us
AgreeableCommission7@reddit
It was most fun for me in my 20's but what makes it great is anything goes, regardless if you go all in or just wear a festive shirt any participation on any level is accepted and appreciated. There's no specific religion or goal behind it making it all inclusive to everyone.
It can vary greatly from some neighborhoods or cities going all out to some that do very little so its not the same across the country but every city does have some level of participation.
PenaltyNo3221@reddit
“I will never be bored as long as there’s Halloween.” -Shoshanna Shapiro, Girls
Sorry-Government920@reddit
It getting bigger every year more people are decorating their house
Snezzy_9245@reddit
It's very local, with some people ignoring or sidetracking it. It's not a religious holiday, except that some Christian churches try to have anti-halloween events. We sometimes are invited to bring our ponies to those churches. It's for any little kids who want to wear silly costumes, and that can make it difficult to lift a kid who's dressed as a dinosaur or a robot onto a pony. Trick or treat is now regarded as hazardous unless kept to a local neighbourhood where the parents can be sure their children will be safe.
SynnRider@reddit
Halloween is big in my family, my maternal grandfather was born on Halloween, I was born on Halloween, a younger cousin on my dad's side was born on Halloween.
Additionally my paternal grandfather was born October 30. My grandfather’s were born in the same year and they were best friends. So as far as I'm concerned I shared a birthday with both of them.So yeah, in my family specifically its always been a big day.
But even beyond that, Halloween just always hit different growing up. Its VERY different now than itnwas in the 90s and 2000s. And that makea me sad. I see more trunk-or-treat events taking place on weeknds before or after, and less kids and families out on the actual night. Fewer house lights on as well.
Street_Breadfruit382@reddit
Halloween has changed drastically in the last couple decades. It used to be that almost everyone participated. Either getting candy and dressing up or handing out candy.
Most of my neighborhood doesn’t participate anymore. The kids don’t even say Trick or Treat without prompting. TRUNK or treats held in parking lots is the new thing and a lot of parents love it. I think it’s sad. It’s a group of parents that put candy in their trunks and the kids just walk around a parking lot. Our nearest church holds one.
Lost-Time-3909@reddit
Not sure about in bigger cities, but most towns I’ve lived in will have a few neighborhoods that are well-known for going all out. I haven’t been in one before, but currently live in one that decorates their yards and homes for pretty much the entire month. Kids get excited and dress up and the streets are jam-packed.
Generally, there’s a rule of thumb that if the porch lights are on, the house is participating and has candy. Some do mini-haunted houses on their lawns or will try and scare trick-or-treaters.
A lot of churches and schools/sports/public groups will also do a trunk or treat where people will set up in a parking lot and decorate their cars with themes or fair-type games. Schools will usually have some in-class parties or activities.
People will dress up their babies and take toddlers trick-or-treating. It kind of goes until people decide to stop. Some people think it should be just for kids but they’re just grumpy. I think most people are fine with teenagers still going.
So basically yes. I think we love a seasonal theme over here and people tend to have a lot of fun with Halloween.
fauxfurgopher@reddit
It’s exactly as you imagine it. I love Halloween! There are some religious people who think it’s satanic though. Those people don’t let their children participate. Most people have fun with it though. Even the schools hold Halloween parties, costume contests, raffles, etc.
Kids usually stop trick or treating when they’re fourteen or so. Sometimes older teens do it too since their identity is concealed, but after fourteen or so it becomes more about teenage parties, etc.
You don’t have to be scary for Halloween. You can dress as anything or anyone.
I’m old, so I mostly hand out candy, but we decorate our house in skeletons. My husband attaches life sized skeletons to our house that makes it look like they’re trying to break in. We leave them up for a month.
lky830@reddit
We tend to really overdo every single holiday here because…well, it sells stuff in retail stores. Halloween, commercially speaking, is almost as big of a deal as Christmas is.
Like Christmas, Halloween seems to last at least an entire month. It’s actually fun, though, at least in my opinion. Look up Spirit Halloween stores if you get a chance, I think it’s a pretty interesting part of the celebration that seems to fascinate foreigners. Basically, large vacant buildings can get one of these department store sized outlets come through and sell crazy amounts of Halloween stuff-costumes, decorations, whatever. It’s definitely my favorite holiday!
oldladylikesflowers@reddit
Some of my favorite childhood memories were from trick or treating with friends and my brothers. We always went farther than we were supposed to go and got soooo much candy. One neighbor always had hot cider and full sized candy bars.
Loved trick or treating with my own kids, but now my youngest is 16, so that fun is over. Looking forward to (hopefully) having some grandkids to experience it with again.
Our church does a trunk or treat that we usually participate in, and it gives us a chance to get really creative, which is fun.
pegasus2118@reddit
It was amazing. Small town we went unescorted to nearly every house. Popcorn balls, taffy apples, and good candy, no cheap crap. Not so many outside decorations as people put up now and a costume was usually just a mask. The weather was cooler too.
L_Is_Robin@reddit
For us Halloween was a really exciting time. In my neighborhood, a good number would participate, though a good number of houses wouldn’t. Typically, those who aren’t participating would keep their porch lights off.
You could dress scarily, or funny, or just as a character you like, and then get what feels like an insane amount of candy. Some people would go into nicer neighborhoods in hopes of getting better candy but it really just depends on what your family does. I’m a bit younger so the end of my childhood is when Trunk or Treats started getting popular which is when a group of some kind (here in the south, typically churches), will pick a night and people will give out candy from their cars in the parking lot, to kids and their parents who come to it. Usually the cars/the cars trunk are decorated for the event.
There’s no set age you are supposed to stop. In my family it would’ve probably been around 12 or 13? But that’s also the age you are more likely to get invited to a Halloween party or some other type of fun thing. The caveat is that some people who have considerably younger siblings/cousins will go with that kid as a “babysitter”, much longer than other kids. (Hence my sister going until she was like 17 or 18 because we have a huge age gap lol)
nextmore@reddit
Really depends on where you live. Growing up I was in a neighborhood with many other families and while not as crazy as movie portrayals, many parents made a significant effort to decorate and let kids have a good time. When I move out it was initially to another side of the same town where there was not much of a fuss. I've lived several other places since, and some go all out while others don't. Of course there are also events for adults, especially singles.
Wind_Responsible@reddit
Awesome! Fun! You’re with your parents when you’re small but it still feels like a free night because you’re with other kids. Costumes. Candy. TRADING CANDY! Amazing.
Impedimentita@reddit
It can depend on the age of the person answering. For GenX kids it was super exciting - roving the town with your friends after dark scoring candy and getting spooked without any real supervision. I might be wrong but it feels safer now, where adults come along and a lot of it happens in daylight.
MagickNinja@reddit
Some neighborhoods really are like what you see in the movies. Usually these are neighborhoods with families and money. If you don't live in a neighborhood like this, maybe you could go to your friend's neighborhood and go trick-or-treating with them.
Schools usually do something for the kids for halloween, but it is not considered a school holiday.
Trick-or-treating is for kids, but teens and adults still dress up sometimes and go to parties.
TheRealTaraLou@reddit
It depends a lot on your family. Some people don't celebrate it because it's supposedly satanic, and others go all out. I'm from a family that goes all out. When I was a kid my dad even made a haunted house in our carport with a party room at the end. He even had a decapitated body that would poor punch out of his neck for parties.
Every year my siblings and I would go trick or treating at my grandparents and do the same route my dad did as a child and my grandparents would count every kid and compare it to previous years. Then we'd go back to their house at the end of the night and dump our candy out of our pillow cases and proceed to swap so we'd each get what we wanted.
My favorite costumes were once my mom made my brother a knights costume out of old soda cans. Once we found an old white dress at the thrift store covered it in fake blood, painted my face to look like a ghost, and I got to go as a bride who was murdered on her wedding night for her money. 😆
doomgeneration91@reddit
I grew up in the 90’s and early 2000’s and Halloween was the best! We’d have Halloween parties in school and the teachers would always put up fun decorations! Then my neighborhood would have a Halloween parade where everyone would get dressed in their costumes and parade around the block and end up in the culdesac area where there would be a fire truck with decorations on it and a bunch of cupcakes and candy! Trick or treating was a blast too because the whole neighborhood would be out and about in their costumes braving the spooky decorations!
The good old days. I genuinely miss it
damutecebu@reddit
It was fun as a kid. I don't care about it as an adult.
DEADFLY6@reddit
Trick or treat, smell my butt. Take me down to Pizza Hut!!
MountainTomato9292@reddit
When I was a kid: my mom made us costumes and we went trick or treating, great atmosphere and a really fond memory!
When I was in college/young adulthood, we threw raging parties, dressed as slutty as we could, drank way too much. Great atmosphere and a really fond memory there too!
When my kids were younger we all went trick or treating with the neighbors which was the BEST time, now all the kids are old enough to go with their friends, so the neighbors gather on someone’s porch for a glass of wine, and hand out candy to the other kids who come by. Great atmosphere, and I’m sure one day will be a fond memory.
Also I go all out with decorations, inside and out. Most of the neighborhood does and it’s fun to go for walks and see how all the houses are done up.
WinchesterFan1980@reddit
It really varies by family and town. Of course the movies exaggerate it, but in most towns you will find people who go all out in decorating for the holiiday. When I was a kid and when my children were kids, the schools all had Halloween parties with the classrooms decorated and the kids would do a Halloween parade around the school. That has fallen out of fashion in the last few years as it is not inclusive of people who don't celebrate Halloween.
There are always pockets of religious people who don't celebrate Halloween and think it is evil. Those people often have "Bible dress up parties" instead or a Fall Harvest party.
It is practically mandatory to go to an edu-tainment farm during the fall season with a corn maze, pumpkin picking, apple cider donuts, a jumping pillow and other random things that little kds love that are made out of farm equipment. Many have a big pumpkin cannon and they shoot out pumpkins and see how far they can go. They will also shoot out candy to the crowd (run when that happens--getting pegged with a high speed piece of candy hurts!).
The weekend before Halloween has a lot of trunk or treats at shopping centers and churches where people decorate the trunks of their cars and then kids walk through and get candy.
I've heard of communities that have special Halloween hours, but that sounds crazy to me. In my community kids go trick or treating the night of Halloween. I live on out in a rural area so we don't see many trick or treaters, but I always drove my kids into a more compact suburb and there are hordes of kids, parents and dogs all dressed up going around trick or treating. It is a party atmosphere if you pick the right neighborhood. I've also been in neighborhoods where the lights are off and no one's home and it's not as fun.
NflJam71@reddit
Not only is Halloween fun for the costumes / candy / spookiness, it also provides an opportunity for suburban kids to learn about their neighborhood and, once they're a little older, explore their neighborhood without parents for maybe the first time. A lot of people probably look so fondly because of it representing an early experience of freedom. I know it does for me.
allidyaj@reddit
Fun for kids. Fun for adults. I don't have children, but love decorating my front yard with monsters and giving out candy to the neighbor kids.
notthegoatseguy@reddit
As you mention, its really a neighborhood specific holiday and the built environment can greatly impact your experience.
As a kid I lived in a subdivision but we generally stuck to our "side" of the street if we were walking. If we wanted to go the whole neighborhood, a parent might drive us.
As an adult, I had no trick or treaters at any of the apartments I lived in. Most of my rentals exited out into an interior hallway, and honestly most didn't have small children in them.
My first year as a home owner I did the Take What You Want thing as I was working during trick or treating. I did a mix of candy and snack foods like crackers, mac and cheese boxes, and so on as this was also during the EBT/food stamp lapse last year. I ran out of everything, including the mac and cheese and crackers which my wife questioned on if anyone would even take it.
Even though I wasn't actively monitoring the entire time, I did end up meeting several neighbors.
There was a bigger , organized Halloween event a few blocks away too where they shut down the streets to traffic to make it safe for the kids. I live in an urban neighborhood so the neighborhood streets are all thru streets, no cul-de-sacs around here.
RaspberryLanky7905@reddit
it is exaggerated in movies. It still just a holiday. Some houses go all out on decorating, but most just do a modest amount.
my mom was big on being healthy, so for me it was an excuse to eat candy. dressing up was fun, we wore costumes to school on halloween day. Kids go trick or treating usually until they are old enough to want to go to a halloween party instead, which is just an excuse for underage drinking.
tlamy@reddit
Halloween was really exciting as a kid. Mostly just as a way to stay up a bit later, dress up, get a bunch of candy. I grew up in a warmer area though that didn't have a fall, so the atmosphere wasn't that different. Sometimes it was still really hot.
I stopped trick-or-treating around middle school when I thought it didn't seem "cool" anymore, but then did it again with some friends for fun my first two years of high school. After that, especially in college, Halloween was just a fun excuse for costume parties.
I did grow up with some Christian friends though whose parents were against everything related to Halloween so they couldn't dress up or go trick-or-treating or anything. They missed out!