What Happened to Halloween?

[Sonian]

It seems like Halloween is losing its appeal now days. I can remember growing up and getting excited about going trick-or-treating. I'm too old to do that now, of course, but it interesting that I hardly ever see kids trick-or-treating. Not that I want them banging at my door, but it's just an observation. I used to hear about a lot of Halloween parties too, but there don't seem to be to be a lot of those anymore either.

Does anyone here dress up for fun or parties?

 

[Grandpa Frank]

I Think.....

the weird freaks who put pins and razor blades in kids candy back in the 80's ruined it. Kids attitudes have changed to. When I grew up you could trick or treat till you were 12 or 13. Now kids 7 years old feel they are to big for such kid stuff. A small part may be due to candy being bad for teeth & health also. Our local mall has an open house type party, but only very young kids seem to go. When we first moved into our house 20 years ago we got around 100 to 200 kids a night; the last few years we get less then 20 at most.
I've decided to go with avatars for this month that have to do with monsters and witchs, etc. I think I have enough for 2 or 3 different ones each day. Hope some other members will join me in the spirit towards the end of the month.

Frank

 

[Kinsao]

It's strange, it's kinda the other way round here in the UK! When I was a kid, we'd very rarely get (or go) trick-or-treat. If there was, it was generally in villages, where everyone knew everyone else and the parents felt reasonably safe letting their sprogs loose on the local community.

Now, well, I guess maybe there's less 'genuine' trick-or-treat from kids, but there's a rash of the nuisance vandals who just want to use Halloween as an excuse to cause trouble. Me and my friends were never even really interested in Halloween when I was a young kid - it seems to have got adopted from the States, brought over here and marketed... Halloween parties are pretty much the norm now... a good way of getting more money out of us, as everyone rushes out to buy wigs, hats and masks... Still... any excuse for a party!

 

[-Rudel-]

Not to mention all the kidnappings, rapes, etc that happen these days.
A lot has changed since the 80s.

 

[xerxes99]

It might be a regional thing. I live in a kind of rural area in the south and Halloween is really big here. My neighborhood has lots of tricker treaters,and I always get invited to a couple of parties. Actually there are 2 big halloween stores in my neighborhood.

 

[misa.j]

The first year I experienced Halloween was about 7 years ago; I lived in a college city, which made it fun to just walk around the neighborhood.

I haven't gotten more than 8 trick-or-treaters every year, and it seems to be getting less and less, but I always enjoy curving the pumpkins.