Does anyone know the date/hours for village-wide trick or treating this year? All I can find is the Chamber's hours for business district activities. Thanks.

Sorry Isaac, my kids hardly ever trick-or-treat in GE as most people in my neighborhood don't celebrate it....makes for a boring trip, so we go to family members' houses for it. Good luck, though!

I'm going to be the grumpy old lady here, but why on earth do there have to be an official village hours for what is just a fun, very unofficial, holiday? They don't tell me when I can celebrate Christmas, you know!

Kids should go trick or treating as soon as it gets dark on Halloween. Doesn't matter what day it's on. Doesn't matter how late they're out. And I will only give out one measly piece of candy to those who dare to ring my doorbell before it's good and dark. Because I'm a grumpy old woman who, as a child in the '60s and '70s, wore cheap, flammable costumes with masks, tripping all over the place and running screaming through the neighborhood - unaccompanied by adults - because some kid always claimed there was a stranger in a black car following us with evil intentions, and I loved every minute of it.

From the village newsletter:

On Halloween on Sunday, October 31, suggested Trick-or-Treating hours are 3 - 7 p.m.

Prior to 2007 Daylight Savings Time ended in October, not November, producing an earlier sunset for Halloween fun. This year the sun will set at 5:46 pm on Halloween. (source: timeanddate.com)

I always told my kids to only go to the houses in the neighborhood where the porch light was on or where people could be seen handing out candy. There's no reason to waste your valuable trick or treating time waiting at a door where there is no one home!

I love Halloween - I just can't get the candy too soon or I'll end up having to get even more candy. Mmmmm . . . Reese's!!

Definitely true - it was dark around 4:30/5:00 when I was young.

I have to say, the kids here have it way rougher than when I was a kid. Houses are much further set back than my hometown and it seems every other house here has half a flight of stairs to go up before you hit the front door.

I'll bet my kids only get 2/3's the amount of candy here than they would if they trick or treated in grandma and grandpa's neighborhood for the same amount of time.

The dirty little secret that I discovered about trick or treating with my kids when they were young . . . . going to Lenox is the hugest waste of time. The return is nowhere worth the effort. Deep yards, wide lots, 90% of the time it's the same crud you get on Forest or Park.

People on Lenox should be forced by the village to dole out full-size or king-sized candy. Just a recommendation to the village board. They probably won't do it though.

Bravo, Scribbler, Bravo!

Everytime I suggest that having designated times for trick or treating is cheesy, I get chewed out, so I let it go now.

GEMom2 and Mama, I think it's just a sign of the times. When I was a kid we sometimes had people dumping the remainder of their candy dishes into our bags by 8 or 9....now adays most people only give one or two pieces per kid.

Pssst....if you want to drive your kids to a different neighborhood, I always set out a bowl of candy in front of our building as we're not usually home on Halloween....as I said before, no one in our neighborhood celebrates it, so there's almost always an entire full bowl left when I get home....feel free to take it all!

Where do you live?!

quote:

Originally posted by scribbler:
I'm going to be the grumpy old lady here, but why on earth do there have to be an official village hours for what is just a fun, very unofficial, holiday? They don't tell me when I can celebrate Christmas, you know!

They probably would tell you if you were caroling! However, people just don't do that anymore.

Guess they need to tell kids what hours they can go knocking on neighbors doors. Ya, know there's always that group of idiots who think 11:00 or later is a good time to trick or treat.

and those, GEM, are the ones who you don't answer the door for.

As for where I live....if I tell you I'd have to put the candy in front of a different building, lol. Though I'm sure most of you who pay attention to my posts have (or at least could have) figured it out by now.

We always put a bunch of candy in a bowl, and you could have all you could grab in one hand. Of course, I only had two trick or treaters come every year. Nobody did dead end streets!

Mrs. A...I hate to break it to you, but it wasn't the dead end street....

Live on a dea . . . cul de sac. We get kids galore.

My friend told me there is a law or regulation about the age of the child now in Illinois, is this true? Something like 12 years old?

Just in Belleville. Anyone over 12 is forbidden to ToT. What a bunch of dopes down there. Jimmy Conners must be rolling in his Lazy Boy.

Congrats to the plethora of high school kids who went out sans costume or completely embraced their inner skank! I hope the candy was dee-lish

We typically give the kid who we feel will be the final visitor the contents of the candy bowl. Bad guessers this year as we had a lot of leftovers.

I've decided that next year I may as well give out full size candy bars - because by giving out two or three fun sizes to each kids, isn't it really the same thing?

SO glad we don't live in Belleville! My oldest would FREAK!

I don't think you're ever too old to trick or treat. It's fun and if you like candy and dress up, why not?!

Glellyn, that was hilarious. I always find it amusing when people decide that Halloween is just an excuse to dress like a hooker without also obtaining the reputation of one. That's not Halloween. Also, they may not all have been without costume....my daughter looked like she was because she insisted on dressing up as Bella from Eclipse....one pair of skinny jeans (ugh!) and a too-small hoodie later....she didn't look dressed up.

Mama, you're probably right about that.