In Scotland (and Ireland) kids don’t go Trick or Treating they go “guising,” which is the tradition of going door to door in costume telling a joke singing a song in exchange for sweeties.
Obviously trick or treating has its origin in guising. I learned recently that when American kids say say “Trick or Treat” it means they’re threatening a trick if no treat is given. So, do they not tell jokes?
When I was little, the Americanism had started to come over so we’d say “trick or treat” but the person almost always said “trick” and that’s when we’d tell our joke/sing. One time a guy did say “treat” to us but admitted he was joking before we handed over our sweeties to him. Were we misunderstanding the phrase?
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At least where I live, it’s “trick or treat,” and sometimes I have to remind kids to say even that instead of shoving a bucket in my face. There’s no expectation of a performance.
I’d always understand it as an implied threat of mild vandalism, even as a child treat-or-treating myself, although I never did that or allowed my son to do it when he was the right age.
edited to expand on my response.
there are some places where kids tell jokes, but it’s very regional
No. Trick or Treat, you get candy, then move along. Listen sweetheart, I got 18 more houses on this block.
No, I’ve never seen it. They just say trick or treat and rush to the next house to maximize candy gains.
We say trick or treat as a threat. It’s not like kids are all out egging houses all night but some do.
ETA to clarify it is mostly a meaningless phrase, though. A 4-year-old won’t realize they are threatening someone with that.
There aren’t really jokes or songs. There also aren’t really tricks. Just a bunch of cute kids getting candy.
Generally no, they don’t tell jokes or do little tricks. I’d never heard of that tradition until a few weeks ago on reddit where some guy was doing a “kids these days” rant about the US “losing the tradition of doing tricks at Halloween.” I don’t think it’s that widespread, because most of the people in the thread had no idea what he was talking about.
i’ve heard “trick to treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat, if you don’t, i don’t care, i’ll pull down your underwear”
I do remember our neighbors, particularly the older ones, requesting a “trick” for a treat. I think we’d usually sing a little song or something. But that was 30+years ago and my own kids were never asked to perform like that. We used to go inside their houses and everything. I don’t think that would go over well these days
Not usually. There’s a rhyme that goes “Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!” That might be shouted (in a sing-song manner) by a group of energetic kids. But usually kids just ring the door bell/knock and say “Trick or Treat” and you give them candy
No, we said “trick or treat”, got our candy, and went. Running around the neighborhood in hot costumes was already exhausting enough without singing
Americans don’t sing while trick or treating. Also the “trick” part of trick or treat doesn’t really happen anymore.
In St Louis Missouri it is tradition for the kids to tell a joke! I found out the hard way that this is not universal in the United States when I moved to New York.
Here the phrase isn’t literal. They say “trick or treat” but you give them a treat. That’s the default option, and you don’t even have to say “treat.” It would throw kids off if you said “trick.”
Jokes or singing are uncommon. Pretty much the kids will say “trick or treat” and then you say “happy Halloween” and hand them some candy or hold out the bowl of candy and tell them to take some
From the 80s I remember “trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat” but it wasn’t sung as a carol or anything. It probably came from a Halloween special or it was something my mom remembered when she was young.
Trick or treat
Smell my feet
Give me something good to eat
If you don’t
I don’t care
I’ll pull down your underwear
That’s the only “song” I’ve ever heard sung. Mostly, you just say trick or treat and get your candy or raisins..
Kids would occasionally tp a house or maybe egg a front door, but I’ve never seen it in response to the homeowner choosing trick.
Kids here tell jokes, but from what I understand, that’s more of a regional thing.
There are certain areas where telling a joke is customary. But not in most places. I grew up and still live in a place where telling a joke was tradition. When I was a kid, every kid told a joke at every door. Now it’s not very common. But if you ask a kid for a joke he/she would have one ready. I personally love the joke tradition and I think it’s good for kids’ confidence and assertiveness.
Anybody older than 6th grade had to tell a joke. The winners were: what does a cow use to do math? A cow-culator. And an older boy said this one. What does a perverted frog say? Rub it rub it rub it. Special mention to this riddle: what breaks as soon as you say it? Silence.
No jokes or songs, just the threat, but that has a history here itself. Ages ago we had large pockets of Irish immigrants in the US northeast and they brought Samhain traditions with them, so they would build big bonfires and get into all sorts of mischief. Well the non-Irish had a problem with that but the more they tried to crack down on the bonfires the bigger the fires got. Irish kids were stealing anything wood that wasn’t nailed down and I mean *anything,* fences, winter woodpiles, furniture. Well that set up huge clashes and the Irish kids started to actually *barricade* people in their own homes. Realizing how dangerous this was getting a politician (I don’t remember who) got on the radio and instead of condemning the behavior encouraged parents to throw Halloween parties in their homes. Bring the kids inside and if they want to follow the tradition of going door to door then go with them. So ‘trick or treat’ was always a threat.
> In Scotland (and Ireland) kids don’t go Trick or Treating they go “guising,” which is the tradition of going door to door in costume telling a joke singing a song in exchange for sweeties.
My parents live in Scotland (I used to but don’t anymore), and according to them they don’t do those things anymore. She said she asked them to do their thing and they just stare blankly.
In St. Louis most people tell/expect jokes.
St Louis is the only city that I know of that has the tradition of kids telling a joke or doing a trick for their candy when trick or treating. We started looking for a good one at the beginning of October, it was part of the fun for the kids and the adults giving out the candy
There was a group of teen boys in our neighborhood that would sing. I was walking the dogs and they sang Christmas carols at a couple of houses. Then I heard them sing a Backstreet Boys song at a neighbor’s house.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Your interpretation of “trick or treat” is correct, although it’s not so much a real threat as a tradition (although TPing houses is common in some areas, and there’s the whole Devil’s Night thing in Detroit… But those are other stories).
That said, kids will sometimes tell jokes or display something funny/cool about their costume upon arriving at your door. There’s a common tune kids will sing of “trick or treat! Smell my feet! Give me something good to eat!” which I heard many times yesterday. Normally though, the emphasis here is more on adults to entertain the kids. It’s a sort of reversal of roles, where the kids are the center of everything and we all revolve around them -decorating, providing candy, trying to entertain just so they are the ones who are at the center of everything for a night.
Where I grew up (in Pennsylvania) kids were expected to sing for candy when trick-or-treating. When I moved to another state, kids would just hold out a bag and say “trick or treat”. So that may be regional.