Hello my fellow children

I use my mom's old rules:
Give candy to anyone wearing a costume.
If they don't appear to be wearing a costume, ask what they're dressed as.
If they have no answer, no candy.
If they give a bullshit answer (eg, a teen wearing normal everyday clothes, answers "A teenager"), they do indeed get candy.

The government can come kick my ass if they want. Won't stop me from celebrating Halloween.

@aescula #9824131 You're completely in the clear. If someone over the age of 14 knocks on your door asking for candy, from what I understand they are breaking the law but you're not, even if you do give them candy. Also I don't think this law exists outside the USA anyway.

@aescula "I'm a werewolf!" But... where's your fur? "The moon isn't full."

@Snommelp Fantastic, that is a top-tier bullshit costume and you would get candy.

I have been a fan of Halloween for most of my life, so I've almost always done the pumpkin carving bit - it's a cozy custom that lights up the dark evenings :p Last year, for the first time, we had trick-or-treaters, but I had no candy to give them, and the kids looked so very disappointed ;-; Broke my heart a little, and I didn't understand why - they should've known that Halloween isn't as big a thing in Denmark, and most people won't have candy ready for them.

So this year I went all-out with decor, costume, and candy, and I learned why they'd been so disappointed last year. Apparently, in my city, a local law had been passed dictating that the children were only to ring the doorbell on houses that had a lighted jack'o'lantern outside. I had basically set up a sign saying 'come have candy!' and didn't realize XD

@Violetta I'll make it a point to come trick-or-treat at your house if I'm in the neighborhood. Or even help you give out treats.

(I carve jack o'lanterns out of turnips and then dry them, which makes them even creepier. And they keep for the next Halloween. Some day I'll have enough to hang in a Halloween Tree, but it's a long process.)

@Violetta Finally a law, which makes sence and life easier I think it's not only better for the children, but also the adults who maybe don't have candies because they don't want to participate in this american thing (like 99% of all my neighbours).

These are pretty much all Southern States. The point is to have another reason to get young Black people into the criminal Justice system.

@Anuran There are a shocking number of laws in the US (and not just south of the Mason-Dixon Line) that came into being because they can't make looking black in public a valid reason to arrest someone.

@Anuran I think if you don't understand why things happen a certain way in the states, the answer is usually "Because of Racism".

@odaiwai Or "Sexism" or "late-stage Capitalism" ....

I'm more than happy to reward adults and teens taking the time to go out with the little ones, and you can never tell (and should never assume) whether someone's emotional maturity matches their apparent physical maturity.

As far as I can find, it's purely a town in Virginia, so they have something against kids causing a ruckus, and it is just about never enforced until they see someone actually being a prick or harassing others without otherwise breaking the law

@Tay-Tech that sounds about right. there was no such laws in the part of the US I grew up in, nor did we have any real problem with the teenagers or older causing problems. so there was no laws about it. though it still is unusual to find people older then that doing it, though from my experience when I was that age it was more because they all had found other things they wanted to do instead.

Halloween is a major event in my small town. There's a park across the street that sets up a DJ booth; we usually end up with 200-600 trick-or-treaters (depending on the day of the week Halloween falls on). We had about 300-400 this year because the weather delayed trick-or-treating to Friday. I don't care if the kid has a costume, I don't care if they're a teen, I don't care if it's someone in their 40's. If you walk up to my porch, you're getting candy. My wife and I accumulate as much candy as we can in the weeks leading up, so that we're always the last house in town that still has something left to give out.

This year, my last trick-or-treater was a little girl whose father got out of work late, and they had just started when the appointed time period for going to people's doors was ending. She had maybe 5 pieces in her little bucket. I filled that damn thing. Nobody goes without candy on Halloween, if we can help it.

@Nokyyn NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES!!! (Though it was Halloween, so maybe you were wearing a cape? Were you wearing a cape? Doesn’t matter....)

@Nokyyn It's people like you that restore my faith in humanity

@Nokyyn #9824280

Good man.

I wouldn't begrudge them candy. Here's how I do trick or treating.

If you have a costume on and walk up to the door, you get a piece of candy.
If you have a particularly good costume, or run/bike/skateboard up, you get two.
If you are a parent or teen chaperoning, you can have one too.

If your parents drive you up in their car, you get an old apple and a stern warning. The obesity crisis is bad enough here and dammit, you should have to walk to earn your candy at least. Go with your friends if it isn't safe to go alone!

Granted, it turned out to be a moot point here because of the shooting here a few days ago... no one came out in my town.

@txag70 I keep hitting the green button, but it won’t let me give you all the upvotes you deserve!

@txag70 I'm guessing you live in a neighborhood that's decent for walking, then. All of the families around here drive their kids around for trick-or-treat, and I can't say that I don't understand why. The roads are poorly lit, no sidewalks, and for some reason the county decided that the posted speed limit through the neighborhood should be 35 mph... so people feel like it gives them license to do 40 or more. I'd like to think they'd rein it in on Halloween night, but I can't say I blame parents for not wanting their kids walking in a neighborhood like this.

@Snommelp Nope. I live in a poor southern town that has lots of highways and a MASSIVE obesity problem. You have to fight the problem somehow.

Oh, U.S.A., ... What went wrong with this country?

@Baronese Well, the pilgrims were people who wanted to persecute others and weren't allowed to in England.

Granted, that doesn't explain Australia.

@Baronese

...How long do you have? O_o

@DanishPride unrelated to the comic but I heard the best dad joke the other day that is perfect for SATW:

Why do the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish navies have barcodes on the sides of their ships?

so that when they get back to port they can...
...
...Scandinavian

@SchrodySweden I realised the exact same joke explains supermarket barcodes on poultry..

@Epi how exactly?

@SchrodySweden i dont really have a joke to respond to that, but oh my god thats perfect....
i mean it was a pretty SWEDE pun if you ask me. :3

@DanishPride

@DanishPride stDANEdard issue comedy, here

@SchrodySweden Haha, yeah. There’s NORWAY you could say otherwise, in my opinion ^w^

@DanishPride Really has that FINNISHed look, yanno?

@SchrodySweden Yeah, I couldn’t agree more DEN that!

@DanishPride certainly ain't a swing and a SWISS

@SchrodySweden I’m certain there are DUTCH more amazing puns we have as well!

@DanishPride ICELANDER if I say you can't make any

@SchrodySweden Agreed! Even though this reply section had run out of space, we will have GerMANY more attempts to show off our great puns!

@SchrodySweden that is an awesome joke I'd love to see that made into a commic

naw its a rule at my house. You are wearing a costume you get candy. no matter how old you are