The 'unwritten rules' of trick or treating during Halloween season (2024)

Halloween is once again upon us, and on Tuesday night, thousands of kids across Scotland will head out into the evening to scare their neighbours and get a treat.

However, not everybody wants to join in on these celebrations, so there are now a set of unwritten rules to protect those who don't want to be bothered over Halloween.

Hull Live reports that many people believe trick or treating in an American tradition, but it can actually be traced back to the traditions of "mumming" and "guising", which originated centuries ago in the UK and Ireland.

This tradition involved dressing up and going to each person's door to perform a 'party piece', in exchange for a treat - like a sweet or other food.

Trick-or-treating now did not become common in the UK until the 1980s, and originally began developing in Canada and the US in the early 20th century.

Here are the unwritten rules that have developed since then, which you should be following if you don't want to upset the neighbours.

Only knock at houses with decorations

This is arguably the most important rule of all that everyone should follow - when you're out trick-or-treating, only take your kids to the houses who have put up Halloween decorations.

At the very least, you should only go to a house with a pumpkin at the front door or at the window. If the house doesn't have decorations up, chances are they are not interested in trick-or-treaters coming to their door.

A police force from Lincolnshire spoke about this rule, saying: "Only visit homes with Halloween decorations, and never knock on the door with a "No trick or treat" poster. Simple but effective."

Only go out on Halloween - and don't start too late

Another important rule, when out trick-or-treating, is to only go out on Halloween itself, and to call it a night and around the time young children will be going to bed.

After approximately 8:30pm, you'll risk annoying your neighbours who may be winding down after the evening's Halloween fun.

Only take one treat per house

Unless the homeowners tell you to take more, it's become polite to only take one sweet per household, when it is offered.

This ensures that there are enough for all the other children who are out trick-or-treating - and manners do go a long way on this spooky day.

Wear a proper costume

As tradition dictates, if you are going to be going door to door asking for sweets from your neighbours, you owe it to them to actually dress up in a proper costume.

Whether it's shop-bought or homemade, there's nothing worse than feeling the people you're opening the door to are just looking to fill their pockets with sweets.

Don't do 'tricks'

While the popular phrase may be 'trick-or-treat', the unwritten rule is that 'tricks' are off the table, unless you are really friendly with your neighbours.

"Happy Halloween" tends to be the phrase of choice these days, especially for young children.

Look out for different coloured pumpkins

In today's world, having a differently-coloured pumpkin or bucket for collecting treats could signify the child carrying it may have additional needs, suffer from allergies or have other health issues.

As we reported previously, blue pumpkins are often associated with autism, while purple pumpkins are now becoming popular with parents of youngsters with allergies, food intolerances or health issues they would like their neighbours to be aware of.

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