He heard "Do buy chocolate."

Yes, chess. I think I explained before that different towns or villages have different dates for trick or treat night. Ours was Oct. 27th. this year. Halloween is still October 31st. everywhere here as far as I know. ; 0 )

I'm ready to take down my Halloween decorations but guess I can hang in there for two more days. I have a big lighted ceramic pumpkin that sits in the library window from Oct. 1st until the morning of Nov. 1st. and has for these many years. But I'm going OT.

Chess, Kraft marshmallows might be the one and only for s'mores (didn't even like them in girl scouts, however). For Halloween, you can make all kinds of wonderful ghoulies out marshmallow--if you can be bothered to make marshmallow! Random door knockers have to be given commercially wrapped junk, but there are plenty of kids whose parents know you who would love something that isn't made out of skunk!

Oh I love to bake and cook all sorts of things, and I make killer pralines. But you will never catch me making marshmallows LOL. Also in our city, you are not allowed to give out homemade items. All candy has to be bagged / prewrapped. That law has been in place for many years now. years ago.

What's that homemade candy called that has almost a brittle inside and chocolate coating on the outside? I'll have some of that.

Heath bars!

justerrilynn, do you mean toffee or English toffee? I love the stuff and as Chess said, it's Heath Bars.

I do make homemade marshmallows, for hot chocolate in the wintertime for the grandkids. However, I remember throwing away anything homemade if I did not know where it came from and I wouldn't want my hard work to meet that same fate. I do not fault the parents at all for being careful, so I only give/gave commercially available and individually wrapped candies.

Here some of the communities had "trick or treat" over the weekend, or more likely "trunk or treat", where everyone gets together in a parking lot and gives out candy, the churches and schools do that a lot. The little kids only have to go to one place, they aren't wandering about in the dark and it's convenient.

I also don't mind the teenagers coming to the door, especially if they have smaller siblings with them. I'd also rather see them out in costume than just hanging around, or doing things a lot more troublesome than asking for candy!

I've never seen any circus peanuts other than orange, but I haven't bought a bag of them since before Dad died, and that was 10 years ago. He loved them but was diabetic, so I'd buy a bag and he'd eat one or two and I'd take the bag home with me.

Annie

Had a request on NextDoor just now. They are asking folks who are giving out treats to have some non-allergenic toys, etc. for those children with food allergies. One is suppose to put out a teal pumpkin to tell TOTers that this is a house that has non-allergy stuff. Anyone ever heard of this?

I have heard about the teal pumpkin, but not that it meant toys, just that the treats were allergy free. I always buy nut and dairy free treats, anyway, My grandson is allergic to nuts, dairy, and fish. They can all eat the leftovers all year. LOL!

He always went Trick or Treating, but couldn't eat anything until they all got home and his parents went through and pulled the stuff he couldn't have.

I'm talking about teens who are about 16-17 years old, no little siblings, who are dressed up in their high school sports jersey --- if they go through that trouble.

Wow, I hadn't thought of how to handle kids with allergies. I usually have treats like gummy bears or twizzlers, but I also think that kids need to learn as early as possible what they can have and what not.

I went to Costco yesterday and got bags of chips and Pirate Booty. (Well, I also got one bag of Hershey Kisses, but that one's for me lol) The little kids around here love Pirate Booty, then they get bigger and STILL like Pirate Booty. And, I figure any chips left over I can send back to college with DS after Thanksgiving.

Kate, our local Nextdoor has been using the teal pumpkin for a number of years. There are a few houses in my neighborhood participating this year according to the map.

https://www.foodallergy.org/education-awareness/teal-pumpkin-project

I do know about the teal pumpkin, I became aware of that when Amanda was diagnosed as celiac. Fortunately, none of the kids are, that we are aware of. If you live in an area with a lot of trick or treaters, having a gluten/dairy/nut free option is a good idea, I think. Organic fruit snacks were my "go to" for that option, and I always gave kids the choice. Kids with serious allergies typically had parents accompanying them anyway, so they could keep watch.

I don't even mind the 16-17 year olds with jerseys, remember, I let the entire high school foot ball team trick or treat me. I even gave them a handful, and it saved me from the calories. And what does a single piece of candy cost, anyway? A nickel? A quarter? Eh, in the grand scheme of things I have bigger things to bother me than a teenager wanting a piece of candy.

Annie

We used to have hordes of trick-or-treaters in our old neighborhood, but nary a one where we now live. There's a preschool nearby that has a little party every year, and we'll see the little ones in costume going in and out of that place, but otherwise our doorstep will remain undarkened by candy seekers.

Has anyone mentioned parents who bring infants out candy-begging? Used to see some of that where we lived, and while the baby was always quite cute, dressed as a little ladybug or spawn of Satan (or whatever), I still thought it was rather cheesy that an un-costumed adult shoved this little person forward, held out a bag on his or her behalf, and expected me to hand over the loot. Dude. You're obviously 36, and your offspring still nurses. Buy your own damn candy.

Eh, in the grand scheme of things I have bigger things to bother me than a teenager wanting a piece of candy.

Or a baby's parents.

I don't think I'll do the Teal Pumpkin this year, maybe next. I do have raisins and dried cranberry boxes as well as the Gold Fish, so that will have to do this year.

I'm like Annie, I give to those who come to my door. I think it's more likely that the parents of the babies are just showing-them-off. It's the adults with the costumed dogs that get me... a cat would never allow this indignity. ( I know, the pups are someone's fur-baby. )

I wouldn't refuse candy to anyone who came to my door trick-or-treating, no matter how ridiculous they seemed. I might, however, point the middle-aged man with a babe-in-arms to Cindy's house, as she is obviously more altruistic in such matters than I.

I"m glad people are OK with teens trick or treating. My DS and his friends are sophomores in high school and planning on going again this year. They love it! It's so fun to see them back at our house when they're done, trading for their favorites just like they did when they were little.

Some attempt at a costume, decent manners, and not running over the little kids are all I ask of the older crowd in order to get some candy.

I don't mind the babies, either. I know their parents are excited for their child's "first Halloween", and I like to see the little ones, usually they are really cute. Of course, babies have to be cute or we wouldn't put up with them. (grin) So, bring it on, I'll give candy to them all, and I have in the past. It's one day/night per year, so if I thought it was a hardship, I'd just buy cheaper candy.

Maybe it's just my attitude. My oldest daughter drowned in our pool when she was 15 and was, thankfully, resuscitated with the only last effect being seizures which are well controlled. My youngest daughter had a stroke at 27, and is still dealing with the after effects. So, in the grand scheme of things, I don't sweat over things like whether I give a small piece of candy to someone, regardless of their age. I probably wouldn't have anything for the dogs, except that I have a dog and she'd be happy to share her treats, I think.

Annie

I think my biggest peeve is kids that run across my yard instead of using the driveway/sidewalk. Every single year, Halloween is on the same day. It's in October. People just had their yards seeded. NEW GRASS. Parents - PLEASE instruct your children to stay OFF the grass. I really do get tired of this.

I wouldn't refuse candy to anyone who came to my door trick-or-treating, no matter how ridiculous they seemed. I might, however, point the middle-aged man with a babe-in-arms to Cindy's house, as she is obviously more altruistic in such matters than I.

And I would happily share my Halloween treats with him. I love seeing the little ones dressed up. Doesn't matter if they're old enough to eat the candy.

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Parents - PLEASE instruct your children to stay OFF the grass.

Why not rope off the grass area?

We have 2 front doors and I put up saw horses with signs instructing the kids which door to use. Simple enough.

a cat would never allow this indignity.

One of mine did. ;)

Beautiful Cat, Cindy. However, this is only a jacket (?) not some awful costume of some Avenger., hotdog, or ballerina. My 3 cat-friends, who come to visit my quiet yard, have each their own lovely fur costumes.

It's a kimono my mom made. My siblings and I wore them when we were babies. I still have a bag of them. Never had kids of my own. One day cleaning my closet I came across the bag and Artie indulged me for a photo shoot.

I don't refuse to give candy to the marauding older teens. I just don't like it and we prefer to hide in the dark after the little ones are gone so the young adults won't bother climbing up to the door. If they ring the bell and say "trick or treat" I'll give them the candy.

We also do give wrapped commercial candy, not homemade treats, to those who aren't part of our social circle (also to those in our social circle if they want them, but they generally get more of that stuff than they want anyway).

Re those without costumes, there was one year when a family with a toddler showed up. I think there was an auntie as well. None were wearing costumes, including the tot. They also didn't say "trick or treat". It was also obvious that they were immigrants and totally clueless. Like someone had told them to take the child around but hadn't fully explained Halloween. I gave some candies to the kid, but also to the adults. On such an occasion one wishes to be welcoming and inclusive, not cranky and demanding. :)

It’s not simple. don’t have time to “rope off the grass”. I barely get home from work in time for trick or treat. I don’t have that much rope either - even if I did, it makes no difference. I live on a corner and actually did this one year, but the kids stomped off the driveway straight into the grass. And then hopped over the rope ignoring my plea to get off the grass. So I would have to rope my entire yard all along the curb and then up my driveway too. That’s ridiculous. Patents should teach their kids to stay off of the grass. It’s not difficult.

You're absolutely right. We were taught that. OTOH, if you know it's going to happen, can you wait until Nov. 1 to seed the lawn?

Cindy, I LOVE the cat in the kimono. Our old cat used to indulge the girls by allowing them to dress him in baby clothes, complete with bonnet, and haul him up and down the block in a toy baby carriage. Tolerant guy, that cat. My current tail-less cat also allows the grandkids to do anything they like, and never complains. That includes pulling him in a cardboard box and holding him upside down. Of course, he was born under Madison's bed and so I guess he's used to all the "attention".

And I like the sign. I like Halloween, it's one of my favorite holidays, just an excuse for kids to get free candy. And for me to give it to them, LOL. Plus I always liked to see the costumes, the babies, my neighbors, the guys "trick or treating for beer" and the entire football team. (grin) Now, I've got to go make some green eggs with spiders and figure out how to make sloppy joes look Halloween-like for Makayla and Bud tomorrow night.

I agree, the kids should stay off the lawn. That said, we used to turn the lawn into a graveyard and the garage into a "chamber of doom", complete with a vampire in a coffin. The kids had to traverse the chamber of doom, navigate the graveyard, avoid the various pitfalls like plastic spiders hanging from fish line and various floating ghosts on lines to finally reach their reward. We made them WORK for their candy, LOL, and we had a shortened version for the little ones. We wanted them to shriek, but not really be scared. I did have one little guy that was afraid of my jack o lantern, though, so we just gave him candy and he didn't have to work for it. We cleaned up that mess for a week, but it was worth it.

Annie

"plllog OTOH, if you know it's going to happen, can you wait until Nov. 1 to seed the lawn?"

No, that is way too late around here. Although I gotta say, if it keeps staying warmer each fall, maybe in a few years November will be the seeding month here LOL.

annie1992" That said, we used to turn the lawn into a graveyard and the garage into a "chamber of doom", complete with a vampire in a coffin. "

Back in the day, I used to take 10/31 off from work, and spent the entire day turning my garage into a haunted chamber. My son and his "neighborhood posse" would help set everything, u[ and they actually skipped trick or treating to play scary characters - they planned out their parts and delighted in scaring the kids (not really scaring, but they loved hearing the squeals :-) ). The little tiny ones would be too scared to come up the driveway - and I would walk down to them and give them their treats, if they didn't run off first LOL.

I miss those days...son and all the other boys are grown and off on their own now. My neighborhood still misses my haunted garage - but I just can't do it all by myself now.

You could put a sign on your lawn to keep them off. Something like "just sprayed with poisonous bug killer" or something like below.

These come in a pack of 50. Why you could decorate the whole yard.

Add some red...make it colorful and festive. And, spooky!

LOL, justerrilyn, that might work. Well, except the kids who are too small to read, but there is that skull and crossbones.......

Chess, I miss that fun too. Now I get no trick or treaters, and my kids are grown, and the grandkids don't really trick or treat, they just visit the homes of the family members who give them candy. No one has a Halloween Party and now we're not in town, no one would be here to visit my "Chamber of Doom" anyway.

The first year we were in this house I did put up a 6 foot tall Grim Reaper, but it scared the dog, who spent 2 days barking at it until I took it down. I only wish I had a football team and a bunch of young adults with their babies to come and trick or treat. I even still have a couple of costumes. I'd wear the witch outfit but I think the belly dancer get-up should probably stay packed away. (grin)

Annie

I didn't get many this year : )

Broccoli, lol. Would work with giant zucchini from garden harvest...."take them all!"

Had some goodies and some junk but no treaters. Was not home any who. At least DH had a few things if we got a few. Our home is spooky tucked into the forest so I did not expect anyone. I'll eat the 'booty!'

Well, sleevendog, I'd help you on those dark chocolate Milano cookies, if you need any assistance getting rid of those!

I did lure in a unicorn, a werewolf and a lion...

Yes, that's Bud under all the hair, and, of course, The Princess, along with their Golden Tornado.....um.....Retriever.

I gave them LOTS of goodies, but The Princess liked the cookies best:

Happy Halloween, even if it involved broccoli. (grin)

Annie

Well the kiddos were good this year. Only one single boy (no parents along) walked off the road straight into my yard rather than walking down to the driveway. I did call out to him to please go around...but nope. He gets up to me and I said "I'm in a hurry - trying to get to as many houses as I can to get candy". Oy vey.

Not a huge amount of kids, I could have gotten away with just the one large bag of candy I think, but it would have been close. Some of the little girls were just too adorable. That's one of the best parts - the little cuties.

Last year we had over 125 kids and ran out of candy. This year I purchased 200 pieces, we had 25 kids. Around 7:30 we started giving handfuls but we still have so much left over candy.

The weather was fine. We live on a cul de sac and last year a neighbor played scary music and had crazy lights. This year most of the cul de sac was quiet so I guess the kids decided to skip our street and go the easier route.

No trick or treaters this year for us :( and so now we're left with all the candy leftover. At least it is all fairly low calorie, and I like it (but not too much), but I'll try to find other ways to give some of it away. I'll keep the Japanese gummy candy. I do not eat more than one piece of candy a day and not every day. The gummy candy has 15 calories, but some of the others have 20 calories, and so I try to avoid those.

I think we were supposed to have our porch light continuously on to attract TOTs, but I left it on automatic, and so it does not come on until some reaches our threshold. I did put a Halloween greeting on the doorbell part of it. Fortunately, I do not have all that much candy, but it may last us six months if we eat it ourselves.

It was real slow here this year. I had a couple of tots real early. The sun was still out and I was making potato salad. Thought I had lots of time. The majority were teens. They were great kids and very polite. My neighbor and I set a table up between our two homes. We had wine (for us) music, hurricane lanterns and lots of candy. It was a slow turnout so around 8:30 the last two teens got two bowls worth of all leftover candy.

I only had 50 kids! Usually we get 100. Not sure why, although the forecast did call for showers, it was actually a decent night.

I took the baby out with my toddler nephew and although baby and I did not approach doors or solicit any treats, a bunch of people tried to give me treats anyway! Trust me, I don’t look underfed! Haha.

No knocks after 830 either.

Last year I asked my husband if he wanted to do a teal pumpkin and give out toys and he asked me how much I wanted our house to get egged.

Robo, you can do both. The houses in my neighborhood with teal pumpkins also gave out candy.

Not a single TOT. I think our street is too quiet to pull them in and all the kids grew up. Zero is unusual, however. I'm rehoming the sweets.

Upthread I was wrong about the Krackle. I tried one. I used to like them. It just tasted like musty sugar.

Justterrilynn, re the candy you were trying to think of, there's a kind of chocolate candy that has a center that is some kind of crisp spun honey or something. Not common, but not unheard of. Very tasty. Delicately crunchy. Is that it? I don't know the name, either if it is, but I wish I had some of those instead of the too sweet Hershey's that needs donating somewhere.

plllog, would that be seafoam? Also called honeycomb candy? Love the stuff....

Annie

We need to hear ded's total count! My DS went to her neighborhood every year before coming home to do ours. Hers was the best for lots of candy!

By 4:45 we'd had only one doorbell ring, I was getting worried! It was a beautiful evening for trick-or-treating! But it picked up. I learned: kids like Doritos :) and Pirate Booty. The leftover chips and Booty are going to the Veterans Closet, where it is free to veterans and their families. First time I was there, a family was in the Pantry side that I hadn't known about, and the kids were so excited to get some treats they wouldn't have been able to pay for at a store.

Annie, it might be the same thing, though I've never heard "seafoam". It's not the honeycomb candy they make from actual honeycomb, but I think I may have heard it called that.

"annie1992

plllog, would that be seafoam? Also called honeycomb candy? Love the stuff...."

Oh yes...how could I have forgotten honeycomb candy, also called seafoam, as well as sponge candy). I freaking love it. Discovered it via Violet Crumble bars in Guam, many years ago. And then rediscovered it via Crunchie bars in England. :-) They are my son's absolute favorite candy. I bought some last weekend for him, for a Christmas gift.

https://www.worldmarket.com/product/menz+honeycomb+chocolate+candy.do?sortby=ourPicks

I had about 110 kids, The night was beautiful and not too cool so all the neighborhood came out in droves. With help/advice of DD I even bought special non-allergenic organic candy and raisins and put a sign out saying for people to ask for them. Not one person did. I ended up just adding it all to the basket at the end.

Around 8 p.m. the outsiders started coming in and were not happy that I didn't have real candy. After the third snarky kid walked away I turned off the lights.

It was still fun to see all the kids dressed in costumes - especially the little ones. And, everyone from the neighborhood is always so polite. The teenage boy who wished me a Merry Christmas was delighted when I wished him a Happy New Year.

Last year we had about 50-60 kids, this year only about 20, so loads of candy left. No teens, everybody very sweet and polite, except one kid who was in a big hurry, pushed his friends/siblings aside and grabbed several hands full, so that lots of other candies fell out of the bowl, which he also grabbed.

Sorry to say that he fell on the last step of the porch and broke his inflatable Star Wars costume.

"With help/advice of DD I even bought special non-allergenic organic candy and raisins and put a sign out saying for people to ask for them. Not one person did."

Yeah I would not have bothered with that. The few kids that are actually concerned about it, wouldn't be out anyway. Sorry you had snarky kids - that always sucks. :-(