halloween treats

Spendless

annandale wrote: »

I have never heard of putting a pumpkin outside your door to let people know you want to give sweets out.

It's not the done thing in the area where I live, never has been.

I live in a block of flats anyway. If someone needed access to my block they'd need to buzz my intercom anyway.

When my kids started wanting to go out treak or treating (I'm never been as I'man older Mum and had never heard of it till I was in my late teens), I was aware that some people didn't like it, didn't want to participate, wouldn't have anything in. The easiest way to tell my kids that the houses we would visit who would a) welcome us and b) have some goodies waiting were the ones that had dressed their houses for Halloween. Not neccessarily a pumpkin but something Halloween themed that was visible from the outside.

Likewise at the same time we would make sure there was a Halloween dec up at our house, so children knew they were welcome and we'd have some treats in.

It's meant my kids have never bothered anyone knocking on doors saying 'trick or treat' because we only ever went to people who were particpating.

Kynthia

I think the unofficial rule that a pumpkin lit on the porch/doorstep means trick or treaters are welcome has come about more recently with the increase in popularity of trick or treating. Obviously in the past there would have been a correlation between people who had sweets at the and a pumpkin outside, but it's become more official and a way of knowing which households not to disturb.