When our daughter was just over two years old my wife took her trick or treating for the first time. She was extremely cute in her pink leopard costume, and charmed all of the neighbors by her best attempt at Trick or Treat:
Turkey Turkey!
They didn’t hit very many houses but she ended up with a very full pail of candy anyway. The thing is, we don’t normally keep candy in the house and she had never had any before. She had had other sweets like cake and cookies and ice cream, but not yet candy.
So she was needless to say very excited about getting candy for the first time. She would take her pail out and sort it by type, color, and just generally have fun with it. She had a blast for several weeks.
We didn’t have the heart to tell her she could open it up and eat it, so we decided to keep that part to ourselves.
I know what you must be thinking; how could you do that? How could you waste candy that other people spent good money buying?
Not to worry. My wife and I didn’t let any of it go to waste.
I’ve been taking my kids trick or treating for 13 years straight now. My youngest is 9, so only a couple more years to enjoy. I always make sure to buy extra chocolate, so after the trick or treaters are done ringing our doorbell, there is plenty left for me to put on my hibernation padding.
Thanks for the great topics and analysis you have been posting. I read here every day.
Thanks Tom! Glad you like the blog.
We try to give as much of the candy we buy for trick or treaters away so we aren’t tempted by it, but this year we ended up with more than intended. If it is in the house we pretty much are going to eat it. This is a dangerous time of the year for us because our inlaws always send us a wonderful giant package of lebkuchen around now (we just got ours yesterday). Plus all of the other sweets that go with Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Our daughter is older now so we set her candy aside and she gets a few pieces in her lunch and after dinner each day. That candy isn’t tempting because it is hers, so it doesn’t present a problem. When she was 2 it really didn’t make sense to spoil her fun and end up with a sugared up 2 year old. Instead of giving her something (candy), at that age we would have been taking something away from her (she could only eat so many pieces at a time).
In Germany Halloween is criticism that the old customs, to sing the songs and doors as a reward pastries, fruits or sweets to get, be supplanted by shouting “trick or treating. Man complains an increased commercialization and excesses such as houses or graffiti egg throws, to lead the operations by the police on Halloween.
Even with Catholic Christians there are conflicts because of the nature of the following All Saints Day as a quiet holiday. On a Pacific holiday dances are banned and the ban will apply from midnight. The profiteering of Halloween bother me too, but it’s just nice every year to celebrate Halloween. Too bad that this year is already around. I am looking forward to next year.
Not just German, there’s quite an anti-feeling about trick or treating at Halloween in England too.
I wasn’t going to say anything, but when I saw the post I smiled to myself as I suspect someone who had similar views to dalrock in other areas who was English would be likely to be against it.
Though I must say the attitude towards it as changed *a lot* in the last 5 or 10 years. It’s a lot more common now. Due to peer pressure I suppose, parents don’t want to be the killjoys in their kids school.
One of the best pieces of advices that I ever got about raising my son was from a friend that already had a child before me. He told me, “No matter what. Don’t give him candy. It’s not good for him and he doesn’t need it. The only thing candy will do is turn him into a kid that refuses to eat what is given to him and throws tantrums when he doesn’t receive the sugary sweets that he wants.”
I thought about this a lot after he told me this and it really made perfect sense. I never let my son have sweets until he was three, besides some cake on his birthday. Weirdly though, others constantly tried to give him candy and would deride me for not letting him have it. They acted like I was depriving him of happiness. As it turned out, he was an extremely happy child. He never threw a tantrum and generally always behaved. And he ate all the food that I gave him. Even spinach. Other parents would ask how I got him to have such a mature palate and I’d tell them that I didn’t give him candy and they’d always balk as if that was cruel and malicious.
Maybe it’s just my neighborhood, but I’ve noticed that moms who accompany their trick or treaters come up to the door with the kids while the dads who do so hang back at the street and let the kids approach the houses. Also, the moms admonish the kids to “just take one piece” whereas the kids who are out with Dad go for a handful, but look up at me as if to ask “is this okay?”. Personally, I’d rather they take the handful – less left over at the end of the night.
@Lily
Not just German, there’s quite an anti-feeling about trick or treating at Halloween in England too.
I work on a global team and the topic came up in a staff meeting the week before Halloween. My manager was talking with two of my peers about which countries celebrate All Saints day. My manager is in France, and the two peers are in Belgium and the Netherlands. He asked me if we celebrate it in the US, and I said no we celebrate the day before. It took him a second to realize what I meant, and then he said it has become popular in France recently as well. My two other colleagues said the same for their countries. I was surprised because I thought it wasn’t common in Europe.
Here in the US at least where I live the nasty side of Halloween isn’t common. It is almost all dressing up and getting candy, and most of the parents make a point to have their kids say thank you.
We did Halloween things when I was a young girl, but it was more dressing up at girl guides, school or the occasional party. We didn’t visit houses and to many in the older generation the ‘asking for sweets’ thing sits uncomfortably, let alone the tricking. I think it’s here to stay though.. I also saw that in the really olden days that children used to go around houses and sing songs in return for cakes or sweets. None of the older members of my family have any recollection of it. May have been more of a Scottish or Northern Irish thing (and the two are closely related), not sure.
[D: We don’t do the tricks part here, at least not that I have seen. Those who don’t want to give candy simply turn off their outside lights (and too often send their own kids out trick or treating…)]
I’m only posting this as I revisited as I was interested to see what your views are on this:
http://nerdyapplebottom.com/2010/11/02/my-son-is-gay/
[D: Troubling.]