Moms Talk: Tricks and Treats

How does your family celebrate the spookiest holiday? Do you pick out their costumes or let them decide for themselves? And at what age can children trick-or-treat by themselves?

Samantha Goswami

We normally curve pumpkins with our neighbors about a week before Halloween- we have a little pumpkin carving party! Goddard has a Halloween bash that we try and go to. On Halloween day we sometimes do a trunk and treat at church followed by trick or treating in the neighborhood followed by dinner with the neighbors. In the past few years, I noticed my  kids' treat bags have had breakfast bars, tattoos, chips and cheeze-its. This is  much better than the hard candy.

I am not sure of the age the kids can go out by themselves. In this day and age I might not let them go alone until they are 16. My kids are young so I have some time.

Since I have two boys that are not too interested in dressing up for Halloween, costumes have been easy, baseball player (seems like we do that every year), a doctor, soccer player.

Jennifer AuBuchon

Well I've been a slacker mom this year for sure! I just wasn't motivated to do all the things we usually do... maybe because my kids are getting older and busier. This is the first time in 13 years that I didn't host a Halloween party for our friends.  It had grown so big and we had so many kids running around that I just took a year off!  

We also usually have a little "phantom" thing that we start in our neighborhood. I slacked on that too...ugh...the guilt!

My kids, for several years now, have trick-or-treated with friends, but they still have an adult or two with them.  This year, my daughter may get to do some trick or treating with a large group of friends on her own, but in a busy, well-supervised area (the girls are 13 and 14).  They've usually always picked their own costumes with parent approval of course.  

They love to divide their candy into chocolate, non-chocolate, and "other" piles. They pick some that they really want to keep, and we send a bunch in to my husband's work.  I'll take some in to my Sunday School class too most likely. I've attached a picture of the sorting that goes on... a little of it anyway!

Jenny Wescoat

Every year our church hosts a huge Harvest Party the weekend before Halloween, so our whole family tries to get involved with it. This year, we'll be up there helping to set up on the morning before the event.

On the day of Halloween, we are still trying to find our groove. The past couple of years, by the time we take the kids to see both sets of grandparents in their costumes, we've had no time left for trick-or-treating. So this year, we are trying to think of a way to see grandparents but not spend the bulk of the evening in the car! It seems like by the time kids are old enough to go out on their own, they are feeling too old to trick-or-treat!

Even when I was a kid, my dad took all of us until we "aged out." My kids choose their own costumes, with parental guidance. This year I have it really easy because they all want to be things that we have or we can assemble from stuff around the house. Other years, I've clung to the fun of making their costumes, but with how cheap they are to buy, I'm not sure how long that will last!

I love to use Family Fun magazine's web site for ideas. We've done a jellyfish costume from there that was really cool. 

The candy! Well, my kids get to dump theirs in a big family pot and it slowly dwindles down until I pitch it to make room for Christmas goodies. Which I later pitch to make room for Valentine's candy... and on to Easter. I also appreciate things like pretzels and other non-candy items, as well as things that are consumed in other ways, like pencils.

Lisa May

Believe it or not, but we don't have many homes in our neighborhood give out candy. So, we usually hit a local trunk or treat for our candy. Then on Halloween, the children will go to a couple of homes on our street that do give it out. Our evening will consist of 'scary food' and some Halloween crafts at home. 

As for an age to go alone, that is hard. Since our subdivision is so dark on Halloween (and we don't have sidewalks), I would not send my 11-year-old with friends. But if we lived somewhere else, I might. It depends on the neighborhood and who they are with.

I do let them pick out their costumes (to a degree). I don't want anything evil or scary. We struggled with our oldest this year, but settled on an 80s girl. 

As for all the candy, we do not get too much. We also do not have candy in the house most of the year, so Halloween is a treat.

Our family tries to make Halloween a fun time as a family. From the dressing up, attending trunk or treats, carving jack-o-lanterns, eating fun food, doing crafts and listening to Halloween music, it makes for a memorable evening.