Trick

Last night we had the annual parade of trick-or-treaters knocking at our door.  Some of them were way too young to be dressed up in costumes as scary as their parents had allowed them out in, never mind too young to be allowed out to go knocking on the doors of strangers in the first place!  The US influence of this tradition is fixing a tighter and tighter grip on our nation as the amount of children whose hopeful faces look at me as I answer their incessant knocking and ringing increases.  Unfortunately the “cute” factor of the US tradition has been lost somewhere across the Atlantic.

Every single child was dressed as some kind of evil, scary person from the underworld.  There were a few quite normal looking witches complete with fake hair and warts, but for the most part it was shop bought attire that promoted some horror movie or another.  In the US many mothers make their child’s costume, or at least provide their face make-up so that there’s some effort involved.  Last night I didn’t see one child who hadn’t done more than stick on clothes and plastic. Somehow it seems a lot more like begging – anyone can buy and wear a costume, why should I give sweets out to someone who just pulled some things over his head?

Another difference between the two countries is that whilst America is huge on trick-or-treating, the parents are also involved in ensuring that their children are escorted around the neighbourhood.  Last night there wasn’t one parent visible with any of the groups I opened the door to – not even one standing at the end of the garden path, and some of these kids were only about 5 or 6 years old.  When last I checked the newspapers I’m sure that there are many children going missing in our country, and many more being assaulted and abused by people – so why do parents think that their child is going to be safe going door-to-door without a chaperone.

At the other end of the scale, I was surprised at how old some of my “guests” were!  I’d of thought it was very uncool to be trick-or-treating in the mid teens, but apparently not so!  I thought it was quite cute that these older visitors were out taking their turn at the neighbourhood front doors alongside the younger kids – far better than having them hang out on the street corner!

Hopefully one year we’ll start and see that trick-or-treat isn’t just about horror and scare factor, but also manage to import some of the “family” traditions that come with this holiday in the US.