Trick or treat is actually a social contract you give treats so kids don’t eggs your house
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
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My family never really did Halloween.
I mean I kinda went trick-or-treating for the first 2 Halloweens in NYC, but then I just felt like it was too childish. But I was 10, idk who I'm calling childish, I was literally still a child, maybe its the social anxiety.
We never gave out candy (I mean... we were literally broke ourselves), and idk what this "you'll get egged" come from, that never happened.
Halloween is huge in the suburbs, not so much in the city. I lived in the city for almost 20 years and my doorbell never rang once on Halloween. People don't even really decorate.
The threat of a trick is just for fun, though. If someone answered the door, they are giving you candy. If they don't, oh well! To the next house! Pranks like throwing toilet paper or egging (way less common) was for friends, enemies, and random houses. And that was teenagers doing it, not trick or treaters.
I'm back in the suburbs this year and am really looking forward to it starting in 2 hours. I have a ton of candy and homemade dog treats! I'm gonna ask them what their trick would be...maybe I'll come back and share some of the funny ones.
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This is anecdotal but I’m born and raised in nyc and if I got raisins the house got eggs and apt doors got eggs too
I egged 1 house out of retaliation back in the day. My friends and I were like 14- 15at the time, and were taking out our siblings, then going tp 2 parties, an earlier chaperoned house party, then a bonfire in the woods, after we dropped them back off.
One house were complete dicks to the younger kids, made my friend's little sister cry making fun of her costume. So we all went home as planned, but grabbed our eggs, and stashed them nearby the first party, along with out supplies for the second party. When we left the chaperoned party at like 11, we swung back by the offending house on our bikes, pelted their house with ~3 dozen eggs, aiming for the wood shingles and up high, knowing it would be a bitch to clean, then rode off to our bonfire party splitting up for the first half of the ride in case they called the cops.
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But is it ever happening this way?
Do people really answer "trick" when asked?
Or rather anything from "no treat, sorry" to "fuck off you lousy brats"?
How does the ritual continue then? What do the kids answer?
And then, do they vandalize that person's property, usually, or are there other types of tricks?
Do they do it immediately, or do they circle back later, secretly?
PS: Egging or TPing would require the kids to come prepared for that outcome. That's another thing I'm wondering about. Do kids really do that these days, if so where.
It used to! Kids would steal wood, break down fences, take outdoor furniture, and use it to build a big bonfire in the center of their towns. They would egg houses and run wild.
Modern trick-or-treating and Halloween parties were invented to counter this destructive behavior, actually. Tasting History did a pretty cool episode on it.
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Immediate civilizational collapse.
Time to rip the Band-Aid off.
I've tried it with younger kids 8-10 and older kids (11-13). When I said "Ok I'll take the trick then." they just stand there with a confused look on their face. Even if I explain that I don't want to give you candy, so go ahead and trick me, I've only had one kid who said "What's that? and pointed over my shoulder." The others continued to stand there confused or started to walk away.
Nice. Too many kids have to be prompted to even use the incantation “trick or treat” much less pay attention to the words
Someone has to teach those little gangstas how extortion is done.
Well at least you tried...
One year I learned it was a valid option, I prepared card tricks and wore a t-shirt that said "It's OK to choose trick" or something like that, and not one person chose trick. I remember being vaguely disappointed.
It's not the kids who choose. They say "trick or treat" because if you don't give them a treat, they will trick you. By vandalizing your house. That's the tradition.
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The "trick" is usually some kind of innocent vandalism like throwing toilet paper around. That being said, as a kid I was never prepared for that and never had it happen
Thanks for an honest answer. I suspect most commenters here are larping.
the only time it ever happened i saw as a kid was parents signing up to be "tricked" and groups of kids tp'ing the signed up houses so the kids could have fun.
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You did not keep a dozen or so eggs in your treat bag for that contingency?
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That's how you get egged and/or TPd.
So how does that work, what does the ritual demand then? Do kids do it immediately or do they circle back later? Do they come prepared for that outcome? And why would any adult ever answer like that if they know that's what's going to happen? Or is it enough to not open the door? Or to say I have no treats? Do you have personal experience of such outcomes?
Typically circle back late. Normally the adolescent ones without guardians. You wake up and house is in a state in need of cleaning.
Typically, home outer light needs to be on to signal you are open for giving treats. So no rational adult would not have a treat as that is a dick move. Some leave out containers of candies as offerings to avoid outcome if it they aren't home.
If no candy, money is always acceptable! I heard a story of old lady giving rolls of coins once. Doubt kid will say no to money.
We'd wait until nobody was around and then sneak out with eggs a d toilet paper and then cover your house in it.
My neighbor choosey trick each year. He lives at the top of hill with a long driveway and leaves out joke treats. I think it was a bucket of frozen fish this year
Here, it used to be your house got egged or trees/shrubs tp'd
I grew up in the 80s and we never had any tricks. Older generations did, it wasn't nice. Like they'd break stuff. Decorations, pumpkins, nothing major. But we never did
Older generations did
So what's the ritual? You come to the house, say trick or treat, I'm guessing the adult never answers "trick" but rather fuck off or no treat. What then? Do the kids immediately start wrecking?
No. My experience growing up in Appalachia in the 80's was the kids (who were older 15-20) were not trick or treating. They were just going out to cause mayhem. Houses where I lived were far enough apart (miles) that you trick or treated by auto. I remember several Halloweens that were disrupted because someone had cut a tree down across the road blocking it. One memorable Halloween someone piled old tires under an overpass and set them on fire preventing anyone from proceeding further.
No one says eff off to the kids. If you're not participating you turn your porch/outside lights off and kids know not to visit your house. They just move on. 99% of the stories are mischief makers or someone who has a problem with you prior to Halloween. (Like you are a teacher or something.)
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Mark Twain talks about tipping over outhouse and other pranks as the main activity on Halloween. So I guess if we assume he’s an honest narrator of his time (definitely in doubt..) then trick or treating is a mass extortion
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An adult did this to me when I was a kid and got mad when I started spraying them with silly string.
When I was a kid, there was no Halloween in our culture, but on a slightly similar occasion our verse ended with "...or we break a hole into your house"
Where I'm from we just did the "trick" part. Ran around in dark clothing on 30th April* in the late evening, fairly distributing toilet paper if we were unimaginative, and painting cows violet if we were more creative. General mischief, is what I'm saying, none of that bargaining for sweets, your house is going to be TP'ed and you'll like it because the alternative might be actual property damage.
* I... think that was the date. It's been a while and I don't live there anymore.
Sounds like something you'd do at Walpurgisnacht. I remember women actually carrying scissors to cut off men's ... neckties or other parts of clothing. Or nighttime carnival where we'd just make infernal noise throughout the city center.
I miss the mischief.
The way you describe it, Southern Germany or Austria or Switzerland?
Southwestern Germany, yep :) We called it Hexennacht, Witches' Night, which is of course the same as Walpurgisnacht. The necktie cutting as I know it is a Karneval thing, specifically the Thursday before Karneval, called Weiberfasnacht ("Wives'/women's carnival"). Though I wouldn't be surprised if there were heathens somewhere cutting neckties on some other day ;D
The necktie cutting as I know it is a Karneval thing, specifically the Thursday before Karneval, called Weiberfasnacht (“Wives’/women’s carnival”).
Shit, you're right (same in Cologne). But I seem to remember something similar from Walpurgisnacht; women being in control, somewhat.
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Had some kids at the door a few minutes ago. Your "trick or treat" is a bit longer and elaborate in our language here, and involves the word for "wallpaper paste" as it rhymes with our word for "ghosts".
So I replied with "Wallpaper paste? I think I have a bucket in the basement, just a moment!" And turned around towards the stairs.
You should have seen their faces...
is a bit longer and elaborate in our language here
Pleeeease tell us the original :-)
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I did an Uno Reverse one year where I had one of these ready to catch them off guard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSrPp40lHVY&pp=ygUYZnV6enkgd29ybSBvbiBzdHJpbmcgdG95
I had a few extras to give away if they chose trick. Was fun times especially the poor few kiddos that reacted more strongly to seeing it sudden slither out of my hand hahaha.
Instead of kisses, you get kicked.
One of the wittier guys in the trailer park I grew up in did that trick where it looks like you can pull one of your fingers off from one hand. As an 8 year old, that was fucking cool. Perhaps you could even augment it with some fake blood.
Another time he did the quarter behind your ear trick and then gave us the quarter.
To this day, I still remember him more than any shucker of a Milky Way or Babe Ruth candy bar. So yeah, go for it, make an impression.
Oh, I thought it was the kids that are supposed to trick the adults?
The original idea was that the "trick" was the default (some type of mischief or vandalism) but the costumed (annonymous) tricksters would give the person a chance to be spared by offering a "treat" instead.
We've gone so soft.....
I thought that. Kids would have to a) come prepared for tricks (eggs, TP...) and b) not be recognizable. And I guess it also required that sweets/treats were more precious and less ubiquitous than they are today.
I think most traditional feasts used to have some sort of good/bad dualism built in, but over time the bad part got removed.
Straight to jail
Where I'm from it's not really trick or treat. It's just treat. If they see a house that has any form of Halloween decoration, they'll visit it expecting a treat. They skip houses that have no decorations with the assumption they are not participating.
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