There seem to be two sides to Halloween. One being little kids, dressing up and having fun, the other being blatant commercialism and anti-social behaviour.
So taking the dark side first, here’s the not uncommon view of one besieged mum:
I loathe Halloween. Every year that night comes round and I know what will happen. Early on you get a few cute younger children all excited and dressed up with parent in tow eager to collect a sweet or two. Then, after a gap of an hour or so you start to get big groups of teenagers in no costume other than horrific mask shouting and banging on the door demanding “cash or food”. Ignore them and you get your home attacked, open the door and you get nothing but arrogance or cheek.
Last year one group of boys were not impressed that I refused to give out money and only had a few fun bars left in the bag so floured and egged our car anyway. No point phoning police as they are being inundated with people phoning with much worse. Stupid thing is that we live in a lovely quiet village!
Why do we all allow kids to do this? I won’t allow my girls to go trick or treating as I believe it amounts to nothing more than blackmail and extortion and causes real misery. Am I alone in this or am I a “party pooper” and should “lighten up” about the whole thing as my sister suggests?”
And it’s not just in her village that this extortion is on the rise.
in 2005 the number of anti-social behaviour orders issued at Halloween doubled to 786, but this year police forces are setting up special squads to target likely offenders
So Point 1 in this unrigorous case against Halloween: the tricks in trick or treating seem to be becoming blackmail, and it seems wrong that we should be encouraging this sort of behaviour.
Perhaps hand in hand with that come concerns about the commercialisation of Halloween. Various facts caught my eye:
- Britons’ spending on Halloween paraphernalia has risen from £12 million five years ago to an expected £120m this year.
- Britain is catching up with the US, where an average family spends £65 on Halloween decorations, sweets and costumes in a nationwide industry worth £4.7 billion
- Halloween is the third most profitable event for retailers after Christmas and Easter; way ahead of Guy Fawkes Day and Valentine’s Day
Halloween is big bucks and it shouldn’t be. Jean Paldan, who moved to Oxford from Michigan 5 years ago and now works for Corporate Watch says
“I remember my first Halloween in Britain. It was so fun precisely because it wasn’t so commercialised. People celebrated in creative ways. But in the past five years the night has become far more Americanised and, as a result, far more about consumption.”
Point 2, then, in this case against Halloween is that the treats in trick or treating seem to be costing more and starting earlier, from the buying of costumes on. Encouraging Halloween seems to be encouraging blatant consumerism in your children.
So what should one do? Stop it like the mumsnet mum or lighten up?
Halloween has lost its way in the UK, I think, and lots about it is wrong. But the fault for me lies not with the children but with the parents and the neighbours.
Halloween is first and foremost a children’s festival. For me, it allows young children to get out of the house and meet an otherwise faceless community, and older children to vent some spleen. And it does over a five hour slot in an 8000 hour year.
In terms of its commercialism, who is it who buys the sweets or buys the costumes? If you’re worried about it, there are plenty of creative ways to make your own Halloween costumes with your children.
And in terms of treats, you could always insist the visitors dunk their faces in a barrel of cold water to get a worm eaten apple.
In terms of Halloween’s behavioural problems, for sure there are some things which aren’t acceptable. The famous (and probably mythical) razors in the apple, or real physical harm or costly damage to property. But soaping windows, egging houses or stringing toilet paper through trees? Annoying, yes, but worthy of an ASBO?
Aren’t as many of the behavioural problems adult ones? If someone comes up to your door trick or treating, do you leave them on the doorstep or welcome them in to a warm room? Do you talk to them? Do you ask them for a trick? Do you join in their fun or just get irritated that they’ve interrupted whatever it was you were doing? Do you smile?
I’m certainly guilty of treating children like door-to-door salesmen on Halloween, mainly because I feel guilty at not having anything to give them, even if they do have a trick. This year, I’ll definitely be making more of an effort.
Cue egged window 
