Do You Opt Out of Trick or Treating?

No. We will even leave the lights on and a bowl of candy out front if we have to leave for part of the "official" trick or treating time.

As for those who "opt out" for religious reasons, that is what my husband USED to think, too. Eventually he came around. Actual information instead of hype and mis-information helped.
http://www.worldvieweverlasting.com/2011/10/29/holiness-eve/

We don't do that, but have several neighbors that do. I think they are just bah hum bugs. Even if $ is tight, we've gotten at least O. bag to hand out. Sometimes we'll leave the bowl with the neighbors and both head out. Or if we trick or treat in my parents neighborhood, we'll give candy out there as well.

Lights on with a bowl full of candy near the door since I am not going to stay at home when I'd rather be trick or treating or at a party. However, I generally take on candy duty in costume once I get home.

When I was a kid, Mom stayed home while Dad took me trick or treating. When I was older I usually spent the night at someone's house and trick or treated with them, went trick or treating with my sister along with her husband and kids before spending the night, or went to a Halloween party at a friend's house. So, as a teen candy duty belonged to my parents, although if I came home I took over and did it in costume.

I got disappointed every time there was a house that wasn't participating when I was a kid, especially if they didn't even have decorations.

The years, like this O., when I don't have the kids I don't. Only because we are on a strange corner so we get maybe five kids the whole night where most get 60 or 70 kids. Hard to explain, we are where the two portions of our subdivision connect. So most kids stay in their section and don't cross in front of our house.

To make a long story short we end up stuck with a bunch of candy that I end up eating and I swear they wait until I go to the bathroom to ring the door. Just easier to skip every other year.

That's a great question and I would really be interested in the replies because soooo many of my neighbors to not participate. I live in a great little subdivision full of families, yet on Halloween O. out of every ten houses is giving out candy! I can't for the life of me figure out why in a family-oriented neighborhood, most people are not participating.

We did when our first daughter was a baby. We didn't want people knocking or ringing the bell and causing the dog to bark when she was sleeping. My BIL also chooses not to participate because he is a sourpuss. He doesn't want to have to get up and answer the door.

ooh heck no!! Trick or treating is fun!!! :)

My best friend does NOT do Halloween - comes from being totally scared as a child...i know, I know - but she still won't do it...her kids only participate in Halloween if their dad does something!!

The two people on our street who don't "celebrate" it - O. is for religious reasons and the other is just too frail to keep coming to the door or sitting outside in the cold (it will be in the 30's here tonight with the possibility of rain) to hand out candy...

We don't participate in the door to door trick or treating thing. Not many kids do it here in my neighborhood so it's not worth it. We however, take our kids to our church to participate in their fall festival they do on halloween. The kids really enjoy that and to me it's a lot safer. :)

We always participate, and hand out candy until it's all gone (which in our neighborhood happens before 8pm). My younger daughter is a little freaked out by scary costumes, so she enjoys coming home early with Daddy to hand out candy while I take our older O. out trick or treating with her friends. It works for us! We turn off the light when we don't have any more candy left.

We have some evangelical neighbors who don't participate because they think Halloween is evil. I feel sorry for the kids, missing out on the fun of dressing up and getting candy. :(

I am an evangelical Christian and I'm not crazy about Halloween. BUT I think it can be innocent and I also think some can make it evil. IMHO the obsession with death is morbid and macabre - so we don't decorate with tombstones, skulls, skeletons, etc. We do pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns and the kids have always dressed up - just not witches, wizards, grim reaper, etc. My kids have been sports & political figures - clowns, princesses & super heros when they were younger.

But we always give out candy. Turning our lights off and not participating doesn't really allow us to "let our light shine"... I actually really enjoy getting to see all the kids in the neighborhood as they grow up and change. I also look forward to the days when the teenagers stop coming to our house too. I really don't like teens barely in costume coming expecting candy. The only good thing is that the older kids usually come after the little ones are home. We live at the end of a dead end street so we never run out of candy and really only get the neighborhood kids. By 8:00 no O. comes unless it's a Saturday night.

When I lived in PA most of the neighbors participated. I think some were out with their own kids so those houses were dark. I can understand if someone does not want to participate they shouldn't have to. Now I live in a community of mostly short term rentals so I am not expecting too many trick or treaters.
When I was a kid we knew which houses to stay away from it didn’t matter if the lights were on or off. They were usually crabby old people that couldn’t stand children and would chase you away if you came near the house or worse call your parents.

No way. I love handing out candy to trick or treaters. I dress up and sit out on my front porch.

I never liked this holiday, not even when I was a child. So yes, lights out, no O. is home. :)

I would never opt out! Of course for us this is O. of our most important holidays. Samhain is about celebrating the harvest, our families, the new year coming, and paying respect to all our ancestors that have passed before us. every year we have a feast, than we do ritual, and than the kids get to take part in the fun secular part of the celebration by trick or treating and handing out candy.

We are Christian, but our faith plays no part in whether we trick or treat because we are not celebrating a religious holiday, but rather a Dress Up Free Candy Day, that has no basis in anything but a child's love for chocolate and princesses.

We got the costumes, got all the candy, and then opted out and turned our light off because it had rained all day, the wind was like getting beaten up by the invisible man, and it has started to sleet. We invited our friends and their kids over for a last minute Dress Up Free Candy Day party, and used the candy for prizes and party favors and goody bags. I wasn't giving out candy to people who brought their babies out in strollers and SLEET.

we are usually home when the little ones start to come around then we take our youngest ( 8) out with some of his friends in the neighborhood we usually leave a bowl of candy on the porch for the kids that come around when we are not there.

It has depended on the neighborhood we lived in. When we lived in apartment, nobody would ever show up, so we stopped buying candy. Then we moved to a home in the suburbs, but there were very few children in the neighborhood and we would get only maybe 3 trick or treaters on Halloween, so the last year we lived there I just turned off the lights so I could watch a movie :) Our kids were very young then and we would take them to a Trick-or-trunk at my parents church instead of regular trick or treating. The homes we have lived in the last 2 years are in neighborhoods chock full of kids, so we have and will pass out candy. It is just not worth it to me to buy the candy and wait near the door all night if hardly anyone shows up, ya know?

We're not doing it this year. I guess you could say religious reasons. I don't like to see people dressed as devils and witches. I think it sends mixed messages. We're going out to eat during trick or treating hours today so that we're not home and don't have to pretend not to be home. :) Last year, I bought some candy but the doorbell only rang 3 times. Probably because we don't decorate-they just pass right by us. There also aren't many kids in our neighborhood. My kids are too little to understand the concept so they have absolutely no idea that they're "missing out" on candy & dressing up.

We aren't handing out candy this year because both my husband and I will be escorting the three little ones trick or treating. Next year O. of may stay home to distribute, but right now, it's just safer to have both of us walking with the kids :) I think lots of people opt for the fall fests too. Have a fun and safe Halloween!

We live in Gilbert which is a high LDS community so there are TONS of kids. We will easily hand out 300+ pieces of candy tonight. I stay home and hand out candy while hubby takes the kids around to TOT. Then when they come home, the kids like to answer the door for the remainder of the night but we will shut the light off when its 8:30 or so. Not so much last year, but the year before we REALLY noticed that the economy had hit, there were hardly anyone handing out candy and not many kids TOTing either. Last year there was a lot again and Im assuming there will be again this year.

I leave a bucket of candy out and go trick or treating with my daughter. Funny thing is, I always come home to find candy still in the bucket. In my neighborhood now, people respect the lights off, and I do turn my lights out at 8:30. But when I was in Virginia, it didn't matter, even if the lights were off, kids (mostly older, borderline teens) would still ring our bell.

I shut the lights out as do most of my neighbors My community has no children and O. year ( as I live alone) a very large teenager (maybe) came to my door , dressed very scary with a mask, did me in. I'm thinking who was this person really and I have since not done Halloween. Teenagers trick or treating alone kind of scares me.

I don't on the years when my husband is working and it's just me at home. I will leave a bowl of candy out, but every year early in the evening a few older boys dump all of the candy into their bags leaving none for the other kids.

We always trick or treat and pass out candy every year. This year we did not pass out candy because we live on a more country road, and because we're new to town we had no idea which neighborhood would be good to trick or treat at so we did a "trunk or treat" at a church Friday night and had our own Halloween party for our 7 year old triplets at home with our 16 year old. They had a good time. Even after the kids are grown we will pass out candy and decorate. Seems like it depends where you live on how many people pass out candy though. Seems like it's getting less and less over the years.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

We don't give out candy but that's only because in the 8 years I've lived in this place(our apartment)I've only had three people trick or treat. This year I have plenty of candy in case anyone happens to come by but I won't be sitting at the door waiting.

It is a huge event in our neighborhood and most everyone participates.

Last year I had over 150 kids and plan for at least that many this year since we will have beautiful fall weather.

The unfortunate part for our neighborhood is that kids are practically bused in to get the goodies. Most of us have a private stash for kids we know (the good stuff) and kids who just come in for goodies.

We live out in the middle of a soy bean field.
It's too much walking for trick or treaters to come to our neighborhood - the houses are too few and too far between.
Where we use to live we didn't do trick or treating because we went to a Halloween parade.
Everyone (most adults, too) were in costume and you could easily fill a bag with goodies thrown from the floats.
The police were in the parade, and so were the firemen.
High school marching bands were there (wearing funny hats/wigs).
It was well lit, everyone was there and we all had a great time seeing how clever some of the costumes were.
I think a parade is much safer than going door to door and I wish every town did O..

I opt out because im OUT with my kids tot-ing. Ive had bad luck leaving candy outside.