Halloween | Imamother

SweetBlossom

Sat, Oct 29 2016, 11:04 pm

Does anyone live in an area with non-Jewish neighbors that come trick or treating. What do you do.

We just moved and live in a neighborhood with really nice non-Jews on Thursday our neighbor across the street brought over some treats for the kids because she was not going to be home Friday night.

Would love to here your feed back what you would have done. Then I will share how we handled it.

imasinger

Sat, Oct 29 2016, 11:25 pm

We live on a street that is really popular for trick or treating.

If it's convenient for us, and we feel like being a nice neighbor, we'll give out candy. It usually ends up being 250-300 pieces.

If it's not, we turn out the lights and lock the door.

SRB

Sat, Oct 29 2016, 11:29 pm

We get some trick-or-treaters, not many so I like to have a little candy in hand in case some kids come and I'm around and available.

SweetBlossom

Sat, Oct 29 2016, 11:39 pm

Sounds like a plan.

What we did was give away the Halloween themed candy and toys to our non-Jewish neighbors together with the non-kosher candy and made shore to have candy for neighbors that came.

The kids had such a great time. I kind of feel funny but I guess its part of living in this world.

seeker

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 12:43 am

We live in an apartment complex where you need to sign up if you want to participate in trick-or-treating and then they post a list of who's in. If you're not on the list then nobody comes to you. Plenty of people abstain so I have no qualms about being one of them.

The bigger issue is that there's this huge festival party thing on our block. This year it's tomorrow. It's supposed to be really awesome. I feel bad that my kids get to see the whole thing (you can look down on it from our window!) and not join. It looks really exciting. I should have planned ahead to take my kids out somewhere that day but at this point I don't think I can arrange for that. Maybe if I get a chance and it doesn't rain I'll push for a park, but I bet there will be a lot of Halloween action in parks and streets tomorrow.

essie14

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 4:45 am

I grew up in a very mixed neighborhood and my mom always made sure to have mini candy bars for the trick-or-treaters. It's called being a good neighbor.
And we got the leftovers Smile

tryinghard

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 10:55 am

I post a little sign on my door:

Witches and wizards, ogres and smurfs
You are trespassing on forbidden turf
Ringing the bell is quite dangerous tonight
Knocking is allowed, and perhaps just right
To receive your goodies, don't chime the bell
Knock with your fist, and all will be well

OutATowner

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 1:13 pm

We give out to be good neighbors. And make a kiddush Hashem. If they can come turn on my oven light so I can open the oven, the least I can do is hand out some candy. I don't have to agree with it to be a part of it in this case.

OutATowner

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 1:15 pm

Thanks for the reminder about the bell! I put my kids to bed relatively early.
Also, my oldest will probably be u when we give out, and I think it's a good lesson in respecting people who are not like you.

SweetBlossom

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 1:19 pm

I think for this year its over already. I might be wrong but my neighbors educated us and told us that even though Holloween is Monday they go Trick or treating Friday night. its also not that late they were out from 6 to around 8. they go with friends in a big group.

Clarissa

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 1:29 pm

We live in an apartment where you sign up on a sheet downstairs if you welcome trick or treaters, so if you don't want to participate, you just don't sign up. Plus you get to specify what hours you're okay with having people knock on your door.

We always have candy and sign up for trick or treaters. My son loves giving out the candy.

animeme

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 1:55 pm

Growing up, my parents bought candy in case anyone came, because they remembered being egged if they didn't have when younger. When I got married, we bought just in case. But I've seen that more and more, kids only go to houses of people they know, for safety reasons. And all of the people we know who go trick or treating know we don't participate/celebrate.

mille

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 2:37 pm

We give out to people. Why not? A bag of candy is cheap, and it's a kiddush hashem. We obviously just make sure to get something we also like in case we end up with leftovers!

rachel6543

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 2:52 pm

I sometimes get trick or treaters,seems to depend on the year. The problem is my kid goes to bed early (6:30 to 7pm) & the trick-or-treaters sometimes come after 9pm! So I just put a sign over the doorbell saying "baby sleeping, do not ring doorbell, please be considerate and take 1-2 treats from the bowl below" and I leave out a bowl of treats out. I usually leave small bags of pretzels or some healthier snack. I hate having extra candy in the house, if it's there we'll eat it and really don't need that much junk around. Every hour or so I'll refill the bowl of snacks as needed.

Rutabaga

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 2:58 pm

animeme wrote:

This.

For our first Halloween in our new house I made sure to buy candy and no one came. I asked around afterwards and was told that in this day and age children only go trick or treating to people they know. I kept some nosh on hand the next couple of years but after that I stopped buying it because we ended up eating it all and we certainly don't need it.

Petra

Sun, Oct 30 2016, 4:27 pm

We do buy and give out candy. We live in a very mixed community. The kids do enjoy giving out candy and seeing the costumes. Also, the trick or treaters are specified by the municipality to trick or treat only one day for a few hours, in the daylight. It's usually the
Sunday before Halloween.

amother

Brunette

Mon, Oct 31 2016, 7:07 am

Not to hijack this thread or anything and I guess it's a little late in asking this but for those whose children who attend public/or non Jewish schools (for whatever reason, mine being that my son is a SN child), are they going today?
School says my child can do his own thing when party is going on , and my son is fine with this set up, but I'm still
On the fence of what to do?