My First Halloween: What I Am Supposed to Do?

1) Like a PP, we have specific times set by the town we live in: 3pm-7pm. Parents with young kids usually go at the earliest times -- before it gets dark and colder. I plan on taking my kids out around 3:30pm.

2) Length of T or T depends upon how much candy you want in your house!! Do whatever feels right to you. Give your kids a nice experience but head for home at the first signs of fatigue. You don't need a major melt-down on the T or T route. Also, if you are in a busy neighborhood with lots of kids, this may not be the best time to introduce yourself to neighbors -- save that for another time.

3) If you teach your children to actually say "Trick or Treat" and "thank you" after receivng the candy, you will be very well respected! Tons of kids (especially the older ones without parents) simply walk up to the door and just open their bags, without saying a word. (I tend to give extra candy to the polite children!)

4) Lights on? Go ahead and approach the house!

5) We give out brand-name chocolates (not full size) and usually give two pieces per child. Toward the end of the night, I usually give more so I can get rid of it! However, I always give our immediate neighborhood kids at least 3-4 pieces.

The only other thing I can think of is that you may see Mommies collecting candy in a separate bag for her infant/baby in the stroller. I guess some Moms think taking candy for a child that cannot eat it is okay to do. Your children are old enough to eat candy, so this doesn't pertain to you. Just don't be shocked when one shows up at your door!

Have a terrific time with your kids!! :)

GOOD FOR YOU!! for asking for advice on what you don't know.
I hope your experience here, on Hallowe'en and everything else,
is joyful and healthy
You've got it all pretty well covered.
Since DS is only 3, I'd start around 5:30 and end around 6:30.
If there is not a light on on the front porch (or equivalent),
don't go to that house.
Only go to the houses that have a light on
and/or otherwise look decorated for Hallowe'en.
Give the visiting kids just ONE of whatever you're handing out.
OH. Make a rule for your DS that he will not be allowed
to eat anything until after you have returned home
and you or DH has examined/checked all items for safety/appropriateness.
You're allowed to confiscate anything you don't want DS to have.
HAVE FUN!!

les

Your first Halloween. How fun!
I LOVE Halloween...always have. In fact, I was pregnant with my daughter and she was due on November 1. I told my doctor I was NOT having her on Halloween. It sounds horrible, but I didn't want to miss Halloween. I had her the day before. Today is her birthday. She had her first Halloween at one day old. I was already home with my bunny ears on and handing out candy with my brand new baby.
Anyway, for her, when she was little, (not her VERY first Halloween) I dressed her up and took her only to our neighbors and drove to visit family members and close friends.
Typically it's best to take really little ones before dark. I'm always ready for them...where I live, most people are. In fact, in my town, they close down the main street so the kids can trick-or-treat the local businesses.
When we were little, our parents took us around and told us only to visit the houses with the porch light on. Knock, ring, say trick or treat and always "thank you!" Sometimes little kids are too shy so the parents can say it for them.
You likely won't want to stay out too long with such little kids, but your son can still have fun helping hand out candy to the kids who come to your house.
It depends on how many kids you might get when giving out treats. It's kind of hard to gauge if you've never done it in your neighborhood. I usually give each kid two things, except for the little kids I know. I prepare things specially for them ahead of time with things other than candy.
Anyway, when you run out or it's time to settle your kids down, turn the porchlight off and be done.
Always go through your candy to make sure everything is still in the sealed wrapper, etc. Homemade treats, unless you personally know the people should be tossed just to be on the safe side.

Oh...take lots of pictures!!!!
I always have a camera ready and take pictures of little kids I don't even know because they are so darn cute.
Have a wonderful, WONDERFUL time!

Best wishes!

We take them around 530 or 6, right after dinner. At age 3, my son only lasted 7 houses. Then my husband took him home and I continued another 10 houses with my older daughter. The rule we follow is if the door light is on, then the house accepts trick or treaters, if it is off, then they don't want to be bothered. We knock, wait for them to say open the door, and then say trick or treat. At age 3, both my kids wanted to go inside the houses, so we had to explain at every house that they couldn't go in. My son would unwrap and put the candy in his mouth and then at the next house give them the trash and spit out candy. We had to fix that quick too. After they get the candy, we make them say thank you and then on to the next. As far as giving goes, put you light on when you want to give candy. We usually let them pick 2 pieces out, unless we got an unexpected surge of kids, then we cut down to one. Towards the end of the night, we give a lot more out to give it away. Around 8 I am done giving and turn the light out signaling no more. Good luck, and have fun!

you dress up and go around the neighborhood as far as you feel like going if the house has a porch light on you knock on the door and say trick or treat. get candy or scared which one the poeple feel like doing and say thank you for the candy. in small towns they stop about 9 big towns be done by 8.

give one or 2 according to how much you have if your out turn your porch light out. if you arent getting very many kids pile them up. in the small town we lived in people always thought the rich neighborhoods would give more candy but actually the elderly give more they get less trick or treaters and enjoy the kids a whole lot more. they live for halloween because they are lonely. if they are single.

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Everyone is giving you great tips. Check online, the newspaper, or with a mom neighbor to see the times for trick or treat in your area.

Also, someone touched on this a little, but when you get home go through all of the candy and toss out any homemade things (unless it is from someone you know well) and toss out things in wrappers that are easily unwrapped and rewrapped or anything that looks torn or open. It is very sad but there are some sick people out there that get a thrill from putting a razor blade or something else dangerous in children's candy. It's very rare, but better to be safe! Your kids probably won't last long enough for this to be too big of a chore.

Have fun starting a new family tradition! You will really enjoy Halloween!

1) Many malls, have trick or treating among the stores, for the little kids.
2) Go early... early evening.
3) Make sure you have flashlights and those glowing things on them... so others can see them and you, and the cars too. "Reflectors" to me, are NOT visible enough.

4) You only go out for a short time... your kids are young. At that age... even 1/2 hour may tired them out. So gauge your kids....
5) You only go to as many houses as the kids can physically walk to... then go home.
6) Yes, you ONLY go to homes, that are lit and the front door lit. Then you knock and say "trick or treat!" and thank you afterwards.
7) You only politely take 1 treat... unless the homeowner lets you take more. Often times, with my kids, the people would tell my kids to take more. Or, the person would be the one to give the 1 candy to the child.
8) Once you get home... you do not just let your child eat candy ALL night. BEFOREHAND... you explain... that he can have so many pieces. Then that's it. I ALWAYS look over EACH piece of candy... throwing away anything weird, I also throw away the hard-candy since kids can choke on that (I even choked on one once and almost suffocated).... and then we tell our kids.... we are going to THROW away (or give away to Grandma's or Daddy's office) the rest of the candy. We explain that it is simply too much for 1 kid to eat! They understand....
9) then you explain, that he has to brush teeth real well... after that.

all the best,
Susan

You have the basics! I would go around 5:30 or 6; just as its getting dark. Go only to the houses that have their outside lights on. Help your kids say trick or treat and remind them to say thank you.

In my neighborhood, we go to all the houses with the outside lights on; even if we don't know them.

Different people give different amounts of candy; if you notice that it's getting late; you can give more candy out so that you don't end up with tons extra. Turn off your external lights when you feel done passing candy out. Sometimes kids will ring the doorbell even then but if you ignore them; they will get the hint.

When we get home from trick or treating, my kids dump their candies on the kitchen table and my husband and I go through it with them. We discreetly look for things that might be opened or that we don't want them eating.

To cut down on the amounts of sweets they have, I have them choose ten pieces of candy and put them aside. The rest I encourage them to give to the 'candy witch'. Earlier in the week, I buy a toy for each child that in the morning they get. The bulk of the candy mysteriously dissappears. (I usually dump it in the garbage). You won't find many people who do this part; I just don't want them eating all this sweet stuff so I made up a way to make not eating their candy fun; yet still let them gather it. I think they like the candy witch the best.

remember to take a sippy cup and a bottle of water. if you're out for more than 15m your kids will get thirsty.

G., yours is the most adorable posting I have ever seen on Mamapedia. I see you already received the answers you needed. I hope you and your family have a wonderful first Halloween. I hope you will get a chance to meet some nice neighbors!

In our town, the little ones start around 3 o'clock. Our neighborhood is very "kid-friendly", with most people sitting out on their steps or porches to hand out candy, thus eliminating the need to go knock on doors or ring doorbells. When my kids were little, we only went to decorated houses where it was clear someone was home. Even though they got tired after a few blocks, they always wanted to keep going, but we usually headed home before it was completely dark. Now that my kids are older, they enjoy being home to hand out candy to the little ones and see all the cute costumes. People are so trusting in our town that if they do not plan on being home during peak trick or treating hours they will leave a bowl of candy on their stoop with a note to "please take one." I hope you have a FABULOUS first Halloween and that it is the start of a wonderful tradition for you and your child to enjoy together!

AWWWW it will be fun. When giving out treats, you will have to have someone there to give them out. It is usally just one of whatever you are giving out unless you have bagged it together. One snack size M7M's are plenty. As far as your kids go... Just take them up to the door and ring the door bell or a gentle knock on the door. Most times the door will be open and you still have to knock/ring. When they come to the door, the kids say "trick or treat" and open the bags. Say thank you and listen to what ever they comment about costumes. LOL.... It tends not to start until Dust (except when we were in CA for some reason, they started earlier. You are suppose to go to the houses where the porch light is on. There will be so many other kids out, it will be very obvious of who is and who is not giving out candy. You will even hear kids comment on who has the "best candy". LOL.... How long do you stay out???? As long as your kids can handle it. You can tell when they are "done". Just remember that the distance you travel there you must travel back. When my kiddos were that small, we took a wagon. When they were done, we loaded them in the wagon and pulled them back home. Have Fun! This year will be more about memories for you than them.

What fun for you and your kids! Since they're so little, you should probably take them to maybe a half dozen neighbor's houses. When they get older, they can go farther and stay up later. Going while it's still light out is perfectly fine. Avoid the houses where there is no porch light on.

It's hard to know how many trick-or-treaters will come to your house -- bad weather and Halloween being on a school night can limit your visitors. The earliest trick-or-treaters are usually the youngest ones. I give them a candy bar each. They don't need that much sugar, and then I'll be sure to have enough to last the night. If I still have lots of candy later on and fewer kids are showing up, then I'll give out multiple candy bars.

If you find yourself on November 1st with a load of leftover candy and you really don't want it around you ( I hate it when those mini Kit Kats start calling out to me!), you or your husband can take them to work and leave them in a common area. My experience has shown that an office full of people who are perpetually dieting can finish off several pounds of leftover Halloween candy in a matter of minutes. It's like a shark feeding frenzy. And that's nothing compare to what they (okay, WE) can do to a plate of home-baked Christmas cookies!

Have fun tonight and be safe!

In the cities I have lived at people start trick or treating right before dark, and usually these are the younger kids. If you go to early people may nit be home or ready yet.
How long the tour lasts, depends on you. Your kids are still young so they might get tired easily. I would say map out where exactly you want to walk, like an example would be down the street one way and coming back go on the other side of teh same street. Or whatever you feel comfortable with.
Yeah you knock or ring the bell, say trick or treat and a thank you is always nice.....although some kids forget. Sometimes the people handing out candy will ask you what your child is, or tell you how cute they look.
You go to houses that have the porch light on, or the ones with lots of decorations. If you're still unsure look and see which houses other kids are going up to.
When kids come to our door I usually give 2 a piece. If they are really cute I give a little more. =)
Everything you said you got for your kids sounds right on track. One thing I put on my baby is a glow necklace or have them carry a glow stick (you can find these as walmart, walgreens, target, etc.) You bend it and it lights up, and helps keep them just a tad more visable in the dark.
Have fun on your first trick or treat! =)

The time trick-or-treating starts depends on the town, or sometimes the individual neighborhood - you can ask one of your neighbors or the info might be on-line

There is usually a set time limit (2 hours, etc.) - again, usually the information you find will say from what time to what time. When we were kids we just did as many houses as we could until either time ran out or we were just exhausted.

Go to houses that have lights on, pumpkins lit, etc. - they usually have someone home and will be expecting trick-or-treaters. I don't know every person in our neighborhood and I did not know everyone where I grew up but if the lights were on and I saw them handing out candy to other kids, it was fine, I've never worried about it.

Go the house, ring or knock (sometimes you don't have to, they are already there), kids say "Trick or treat!" and after they get their stuff, say "Thank you!" and move on.

You can give out as much as you want - depends on how many kids you might get and how much candy you have.

Good luck and have fun!

Check the paper for the hours for your city. We just went down a few streets in a loop back to our house. Only hit the houses with lights on. Kids usually get 2 pieces of candy.

Go out around 5:30 or 6:00 and go to the houses that have jack -o-lantern pumpkins or other Halloween decorations up. If you see others going to houses that only have a porch light on, that's okay, but just because there's an outside light doesn't necessarily mean they're doing trick or treat. I always give a big, mixed handful of candy to trick or treaters. I LOVE it, and I love neighborhood kids viewing our house as a "good" house for trick or treat! It's fine to give one snack sized candy bar or a whole handful - it's up to you and how many trick or treaters you usually have. I like giving handfuls! Have a GREAT time and enjoy! It's truly one of the most fun things with kids!

It is best to go early when the children are so young. Sticking to one neighborhood is easiest and generally, the homes with decorations are the ones that welcome trick-or-treaters. But you have to ask yourself why you are doing this-delicious candy-hello!I used to take all 5 of my kids out on halloween-it was one of my favorite times of the year-and they would come home with tons of chocolate-Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We go when it gets dark but you can go as soon as you want to, or whenever you see other kids going out.

You can go to as many or as few houses as you like...when my kids were that age we only did our block...when they get older they will want to do the whole neighborhood!

I give out 2 pieces of candy...most people only give one.

You can knock on all the doors...but mostly the ones with lights on!

Typically you would go Trick or treating when it gets dark. You could go a little before sun down. If it is dark, bring a flash light. You do as many houses as you want. My kids, at that age, pooped out after about 10 houses. I always just stayed right on our street.
Yes, you just ring the doorbell, say Trick or treat and hold you bag out for candy to go in. You normally only go to the houses that look like somebody is home, with lights on etc.
At your house, depending on the type candy determines how much. If it's little tootsie rolls, I would give 4 or 5 a kid. If it is a little candy bar, 1 or two. We are giving out Ring pops this year and it is a one per kid deal. It kinda depends on how many kids you have come through. Usually the kids who come at the end of the night get a lot more than the beginning because I just want to get rid of it. Also, when you feel you are done passing out candy, turn your lights off or close your cutains, then you shouldnt have many more people come to your door.
Have fun!!!!

G.:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

I hope you have fun!!!!

In our neighborhood, the Trick-or-Treater's usually start coming around 5PM.

If the front porch light is ON - then they USUALLY (not all!!) celebrate! When I was growing up - if the front porch light is out - you don't knock!!

In Herndon (right next door to me!) it's usually the same! Typically we hand out ONE PIECE MAYBE TWO - we've learned in the past not to let some kids just stick their hands in as all the candy is gone in a minute.

When your candy is out - turn your front light off or when you are done and getting your kids in bed.

Since it's a Sunday - MOST kids here in Fairfax County do NOT have school tomorrow. So many parents will let them stay out later. Typically, they stop around 8PM.

There are some churches that usually have an open house in their parking lot where the kids can walk safely around and play games and get candy - Reston Bible Church (they just moved to Sterling) does this - it's a BLAST!!!

HAVE FUN!!!!

Bonjour G.!
\Looks like you have many great responses already! Have fun with your little ones!
J'espère que vous vous amusez
pammy L.

Looks like you have all of the advice you need here! Enjoy your first Halloween!!

:)

Almost every house that has their outdoor or porch lights on will be expecting trick or treaters. I think 7 is an appropriate time since it is after dinner. And most people go around the neighborhood. Have your kids say trick or treat because that is the cutest part and of course thank you. Some kids are shy so if your little one doesn't say it or thank you then just look up and say thank you yourself w a smile. I hate when the parents set there 5 minutes trying to get a shy toddler to say thanks. But the kids are so cute. Make sure to get lots of pictures so you guys can all remember your families first halloween.

Good Luck!!!

we go as soon as it gets dark, and only to the houses who's porch light is on. We pretty much go until we're tired. You're right about going to the door, ringing the bell, trick or treat when they open and thank you when they give you candy. Some will allow you to pick your own. We give a handful, because we dont get many trick or treaters, probably 10. If we got more, we'd do just one or two pieces per child.

Well my city has time restrictions 3pm-7pm, I was tought as a child to go to houses that had a light on, but if you go before dark that might not be the best signal. Typically if there are decorations of any sort then you are good to go, and you could wait until you see a few kids in your area. I like to go in groups with friends/family if you can. I hope you enjoy the night and it sounds like you have it pretty well figured out. oh and most of the time 1-3 peices of candy depending on what you are giving work, we got the full size bars here so only one per kiddo!

we only go to houses with their front porch lights on, we start around dusk... usually around 5:30pm.. but i noticed that the time change is the weekend AFTER halloween this year (Normally it's before) so i think this year we'll be going around 6:30pm - then we go for maybe an hour or so around the neighborhood :)

I would usually go around 5 or 6, but it all depends on when your neighborhood allows it (some boroughs and townships have trick-or-treating curfews). I would go to the entire neighborhood, but it depends on how comfortable you feel going to a lot of houses, if it will be cold that night, how sleepy your son gets, etc. I wouldn't limit myself to only the houses that are decorated, but if no one is home at a particular house (no lights on, cars not in driveway, etc.) I would skip that house. When it comes to handing out your own treats, it all depends on how much you'd like to give. I think kids are happiest when they get a handful :) Hope this helps and Happy Halloween!!

Hi G.,

I did not read the other responses yet, but I am sure you got some good answers for your questions.

I guess I just wanted to tell you to enjoy your first Halloween. Neighborhoods tend to have their own traditions and specific trick or treat times, so for some of your questions, you may have to ask your neighbors. In a couple of years, you will be the expert on the topic, and your family will be celebrating with your newly added traditions. Have fun with it!!

Happy Halloween,
L.