"Yowie" wrote in message
...
Australia doesn't do Halloween.

Well, didn't.

The local kids have cottoned onto the fact that if they put on stupid
clothes and knock on people's doors, that some suckers will give them
candy.
But, by and large, we still don't celebrate Halloween.

Thus we were quite unprepared for the knock on the door with 5 young kids
(all under 10) with no adult supervisor at 8:45pm last night, doing the
"trick or treat" thing. All I could say is "We don't do Halloween, sorry"
and shut the door.

That is a bit late in my book. We usually "close up" around eight.

Since there's alot of folk here who *do* celebrate Halloween, and figuring
that its going to become part of the cultural landscape once major retail
outlets figure out its another excuse to make more cash, I'd like some
Halloween Etiquette advice:

If you aren't celebrating Halloween for whatever reason (religious
objection? mourning the death of aloved one? ), how do you let the kids
know
*not* to knock on the door, or do you just have to pretend not to be home?

As a rule if the house doesn't have any outside lights on, you leave it
alone.

Up to what time can you expect people to knock on your door? Does it go
all
night? or is there some sort of accepted time after which you shouldn't be
disturbed?

The little ones are usually around at twilight. Between 5 and 6 pm.
Then the kids get older as it gets later. I don't have much patience for
kids over 12 or later than 8.

If you do answer the door and/or don't give them treats, do you really get
tricked? What sort of trick is likely to happen?

No tricks around here. And most of the tricks (vandalism for the most part)
is unrelated to treats. It kids out to cause trouble. From rubbing soap in
windows to smashing jack o lanterns to tossing toilet paper into trees.

In the "good old days" they might drop cherry bombs down outhouses or light
a paper bag of dog poop on the porch of someone they disliked. Or move the
outhouse onto the front porch.

Would an apple been a good substitute for candy (we later realised we had
a
bag of apples in the fridge)?

Yes. The kids usually bring home one or two. But if you kids get an apple
you need to take a good look at it to be sure it hasn't been tampered with.

What do you do if you've run out of goodies?

Turn off the outside lights and stop answering the door.


Do you reward *effort* in costuming with a decent wad of candy and not
reward stupid costumes (putting a plastic cowboy hat on is *not* good
costuming, IMHO) by reducing hte amount of candy? What is the proper amount
of candy per brat, err, kid anyway?

Right now I'm passing out foil wrapped chocolate that looks like gold silver
dollars. Cost something like $3 a pound. Each kids gets two or three.

CUte little kids get admired and talked to.



We didn't know any of the brats, err, kids that knocked on our door. They
weren't the kids from our street. How far do kids travel to get their
candy,
how many houses do they visit, and should they be knocking on complete
stranger's doors?

Kids will often go to a neighborhood that they perceve will have a better
class of treats rather than to where they live. Parents will drive them
sometimes. The smaller children usually only do their own neighborhood and
the parents will be with them or wait at the curb.