I was talking to my 12 year old niece about Halloween and she said she will no longer go trick or treat because it's for "children".
When did you stop trick or treating?
29 comments
I stopped around 12. If you have younger siblings you can do it for much longer since you’re going around with them, but teenagers going around on Halloween are seen more in the vein of hoodlums I feel.
When I was a teenager. Secretly went trick-or-treating at the ages of 30 and 31 though. I just wore an inflatable dino costume and got tons of candy.
I was 14 the last time I went?
But I think that was more bad timing. When i was 15 I was on a school trip on Halloween, then I turned 16 in 2020 so no one was trick or treating because of COVID and then my senior year of HS was 2021 so people still really weren’t trick or treating? Or if they were it wasn’t very many people cause I live in a area where COVID cases were still really fucking high
I think I was 9, but Im not sure since it was so long ago. We had an ice storm that Halloween, so we couldn’t trick-or-treat. My mom made us hot chocolate and cookies, and we watched movies all evening in a blanket fort. My niece and I loved it, so that became our tradition instead of trick-or-treating. We’re in our 30s now, and we still carry on the tradition, just with our dogs.
12 or 13 somebody didn’t answer the bell and had a case of beer sitting there.
17
I went until I was like 15, but skipped a couple years when I was ~12/13.
i’ve answered the door for various trick or treaters, and for some reason they all seem to be around age 7 or younger (they are always with a parent). it’s fine for kids to trick or treat at ages older than that, but i never see that.
I went until like 17. But after I turned 14, it was to take younger kids around in a group to stay safe. Our neighborhood had an issue with a pedo one time, so lot of the older kids were asked to stay in groups with younger kids. I always volunteered as my gf at the time had younger siblings so we took them and their friends with us.
Definitely high school lol so I stopped around 12. It’s weird I can’t even remember what I last dressed up as at those ages but can remember what I was as a much younger kid. It’s whenever I realized candy isn’t some forbidden thing and would just buy the Halloween packs myself with allowance money at the pharmacy lol
I was 17. My baby sister was early 20s; her and a bunch of friends went all out with their costumes and earned their treats. Actually, so did another group of 18-22yo friends. Those ones put on a full performance with their theme, and delighted the people in the houses.
12.
At 13, I went to a party. I think it was parties every year after that.
As a adult now, at least in my town trunk o treats killed trick or treating. I lived in the middle of town, a alright neighborhood and not once did i ever get a knock on Halloween, had the porche light on, some carved pumpkins but not a soul was walking around door to door. But when I was kid and lived on the edge of town I remember my house would get 4-5 groups of kids come and knock and when we would go to trick or treat the streets we’re filled kids and parents. I get that trunk or treat is a safer Option in a way but as kid if your parents just went trunk to trunk around a parking lot and called it a night you are missing out on what trick or treating is. Also trick or treated as a kid in a big major city, we would be out till 1am with pillow cases full of candy and even at that time of night as long as the porche light was on people were ready to give out candy.
I think it was about ten or eleven. I enjoyed the part about giving out candy, though, so I still had something “Halloweenish” to do.
Personally I consider that parents out with their kids were, technically, trick or treating too, and made sure to offer them some candy too. I mean, they were *out*, right?
Sometime in high school. I don’t remember exactly.
My kids both stopped at 17 or so, although in those last couple years they were likely to spend most of the evening at a party or hanging out with a couple friends at one of their homes, and ToT at only a few houses, perhaps their own family’s or friends’ – it was a small part of the festivities rather than the main event as it has been when they were younger. One year when he was about 16, my son and 4 or 5 of his friends, all boys, went out dressed as different Disney princesses. They had a blast.
I live in a walkable neighborhood in a pretty safe town, the kind of place where most kids walk to school and ride their bikes to get ice cream, so there’s lots of trick or treating. Even in 2020, lots of people (including us) set up candy chutes from the porch or other ways of doing “socially distanced” ToT. We routinely have teenagers at the door and some of them get very creative with their costumes! I enjoy seeing them even when, as is often the case, I am totally unfamiliar with the movie or gaming characters they’re dressed as.
13, after that I started going to Halloween parties.
Right now? Kids are doing it into high school.
14 or 15. I went longer than my friends did since I have a younger sibling. Probably could have gotten away with going for a few more years tbh 🙂
I (64f) was 11. I grew up in suburban Chicago and moved to Southern California that year. That was my last time.
We only lived in SoCal for one year, then moved to Phoenix when I was 12.
I really loved trick-or-treating! But, by the time we got to Phoenix (haha, old song reference), I was just not into that anymore. I guess that was the year I started to feel more grown up.
But, while I was growing up, my mom made our costumes, and they were always imaginative and well done. She could take an idea and really execute it!!!
She taught me how to sew, so I made my childrens’ costumes as they grew up!
Now, I sew my granddaughters’ costumes… for Halloween, dance performances, as well as clothes for their Barbies, and the eldest granddaughter is starting to take an interest in sewing. ❤️
Lol… sorry… I got off on a tangent there. I’ll delete it if it’s too off-topic.
The non-published rule when I was little was 13. You couldn’t go after you turned 13. I think my last child was about 14 maybe the last time they went with a friend.
14 was the last time I actually set out to trick or treat, but then I went for the actual last time a few years later at 17 (since spent the night with a friend and her much younger cousins).
The last year I was 12. I think I tried at 13 and got a lot of ” aren’t you a little old to be trick or treating?”
Height and sex both seem to play a part. A tall boy can’t go as long as others.
Though I noticed acceptable ages seemed to trend downwards in the 90’s and have risen since then.
14. I felt too old but I missed the two years before due to some surgeries so I went anyway.
I don’t think 14 is too old now that I’m an adult, but I thought I was so grown at 14. 😂
I don’t think any age is too old to be honest, if you show up to my door in a costume at 75yo you’re getting candy.
17 for me, 18 for my oldest and 17 for my youngest. Technically, the town we’re in now has a limit of 15 but it’s known they only enforce it if you’re causing trouble. Lately, they’ve been encouraging older kids to ToT as long as they’re under 18. They’ve even talked of revoking the limit.
I don’t remember the exact age but I remember stopping when I was embarrassed to go house to house and preferred handing out candy and seeing all the cute and scary costumes. I’m guessing I was in my early teens at that point. That said, when teens come to my house to trick or treat I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for them, still trying to enjoy this childhood tradition, and I always give them an extra candy or two
17. But from 13-17, I was with a group collecting non-perishable goods for charity. It usually came with some candy, too.
15 I wasn’t planning to go that year- but we were bored and decided we wanted candy. Also I looked really young, so i easily passed for 12. My costume was a tye-dyed shirt.
I was an adult. I went trick or treating in the area directly around the university so people were more receptive to college kids coming around and I was like 19 or 20. Now I just buy the candy and sit outside. I get a handful or two of kids that come to my door.
About the time I was “too old” to trick or treat (20), I had a child. So I kept trick or treating with them until they were too old. Which is apparently 15 according to my daughters. So I was 35. But I’ll start again as soon as i have grandchildren.
29 comments
I stopped around 12. If you have younger siblings you can do it for much longer since you’re going around with them, but teenagers going around on Halloween are seen more in the vein of hoodlums I feel.
When I was a teenager. Secretly went trick-or-treating at the ages of 30 and 31 though. I just wore an inflatable dino costume and got tons of candy.
I was 14 the last time I went?
But I think that was more bad timing. When i was 15 I was on a school trip on Halloween, then I turned 16 in 2020 so no one was trick or treating because of COVID and then my senior year of HS was 2021 so people still really weren’t trick or treating? Or if they were it wasn’t very many people cause I live in a area where COVID cases were still really fucking high
I think I was 9, but Im not sure since it was so long ago. We had an ice storm that Halloween, so we couldn’t trick-or-treat. My mom made us hot chocolate and cookies, and we watched movies all evening in a blanket fort. My niece and I loved it, so that became our tradition instead of trick-or-treating. We’re in our 30s now, and we still carry on the tradition, just with our dogs.
12 or 13 somebody didn’t answer the bell and had a case of beer sitting there.
17
I went until I was like 15, but skipped a couple years when I was ~12/13.
i’ve answered the door for various trick or treaters, and for some reason they all seem to be around age 7 or younger (they are always with a parent). it’s fine for kids to trick or treat at ages older than that, but i never see that.
I went until like 17. But after I turned 14, it was to take younger kids around in a group to stay safe. Our neighborhood had an issue with a pedo one time, so lot of the older kids were asked to stay in groups with younger kids. I always volunteered as my gf at the time had younger siblings so we took them and their friends with us.
Definitely high school lol so I stopped around 12. It’s weird I can’t even remember what I last dressed up as at those ages but can remember what I was as a much younger kid. It’s whenever I realized candy isn’t some forbidden thing and would just buy the Halloween packs myself with allowance money at the pharmacy lol
I was 17. My baby sister was early 20s; her and a bunch of friends went all out with their costumes and earned their treats. Actually, so did another group of 18-22yo friends. Those ones put on a full performance with their theme, and delighted the people in the houses.
12.
At 13, I went to a party. I think it was parties every year after that.
As a adult now, at least in my town trunk o treats killed trick or treating. I lived in the middle of town, a alright neighborhood and not once did i ever get a knock on Halloween, had the porche light on, some carved pumpkins but not a soul was walking around door to door. But when I was kid and lived on the edge of town I remember my house would get 4-5 groups of kids come and knock and when we would go to trick or treat the streets we’re filled kids and parents. I get that trunk or treat is a safer Option in a way but as kid if your parents just went trunk to trunk around a parking lot and called it a night you are missing out on what trick or treating is. Also trick or treated as a kid in a big major city, we would be out till 1am with pillow cases full of candy and even at that time of night as long as the porche light was on people were ready to give out candy.
I think it was about ten or eleven. I enjoyed the part about giving out candy, though, so I still had something “Halloweenish” to do.
Personally I consider that parents out with their kids were, technically, trick or treating too, and made sure to offer them some candy too. I mean, they were *out*, right?
Sometime in high school. I don’t remember exactly.
My kids both stopped at 17 or so, although in those last couple years they were likely to spend most of the evening at a party or hanging out with a couple friends at one of their homes, and ToT at only a few houses, perhaps their own family’s or friends’ – it was a small part of the festivities rather than the main event as it has been when they were younger. One year when he was about 16, my son and 4 or 5 of his friends, all boys, went out dressed as different Disney princesses. They had a blast.
I live in a walkable neighborhood in a pretty safe town, the kind of place where most kids walk to school and ride their bikes to get ice cream, so there’s lots of trick or treating. Even in 2020, lots of people (including us) set up candy chutes from the porch or other ways of doing “socially distanced” ToT. We routinely have teenagers at the door and some of them get very creative with their costumes! I enjoy seeing them even when, as is often the case, I am totally unfamiliar with the movie or gaming characters they’re dressed as.
13, after that I started going to Halloween parties.
Right now? Kids are doing it into high school.
14 or 15. I went longer than my friends did since I have a younger sibling. Probably could have gotten away with going for a few more years tbh 🙂
I (64f) was 11. I grew up in suburban Chicago and moved to Southern California that year. That was my last time.
We only lived in SoCal for one year, then moved to Phoenix when I was 12.
I really loved trick-or-treating! But, by the time we got to Phoenix (haha, old song reference), I was just not into that anymore. I guess that was the year I started to feel more grown up.
But, while I was growing up, my mom made our costumes, and they were always imaginative and well done. She could take an idea and really execute it!!!
She taught me how to sew, so I made my childrens’ costumes as they grew up!
Now, I sew my granddaughters’ costumes… for Halloween, dance performances, as well as clothes for their Barbies, and the eldest granddaughter is starting to take an interest in sewing. ❤️
Lol… sorry… I got off on a tangent there. I’ll delete it if it’s too off-topic.
The non-published rule when I was little was 13. You couldn’t go after you turned 13. I think my last child was about 14 maybe the last time they went with a friend.
14 was the last time I actually set out to trick or treat, but then I went for the actual last time a few years later at 17 (since spent the night with a friend and her much younger cousins).
The last year I was 12. I think I tried at 13 and got a lot of ” aren’t you a little old to be trick or treating?”
Height and sex both seem to play a part. A tall boy can’t go as long as others.
Though I noticed acceptable ages seemed to trend downwards in the 90’s and have risen since then.
14. I felt too old but I missed the two years before due to some surgeries so I went anyway.
I don’t think 14 is too old now that I’m an adult, but I thought I was so grown at 14. 😂
I don’t think any age is too old to be honest, if you show up to my door in a costume at 75yo you’re getting candy.
17 for me, 18 for my oldest and 17 for my youngest. Technically, the town we’re in now has a limit of 15 but it’s known they only enforce it if you’re causing trouble. Lately, they’ve been encouraging older kids to ToT as long as they’re under 18. They’ve even talked of revoking the limit.
I don’t remember the exact age but I remember stopping when I was embarrassed to go house to house and preferred handing out candy and seeing all the cute and scary costumes. I’m guessing I was in my early teens at that point. That said, when teens come to my house to trick or treat I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for them, still trying to enjoy this childhood tradition, and I always give them an extra candy or two
17. But from 13-17, I was with a group collecting non-perishable goods for charity. It usually came with some candy, too.
15 I wasn’t planning to go that year- but we were bored and decided we wanted candy. Also I looked really young, so i easily passed for 12. My costume was a tye-dyed shirt.
I was an adult. I went trick or treating in the area directly around the university so people were more receptive to college kids coming around and I was like 19 or 20. Now I just buy the candy and sit outside. I get a handful or two of kids that come to my door.
About the time I was “too old” to trick or treat (20), I had a child. So I kept trick or treating with them until they were too old. Which is apparently 15 according to my daughters. So I was 35. But I’ll start again as soon as i have grandchildren.