How Old is Too Old to Trick or Treat?

(Last Updated On: February 1, 2015)

In my very kid filled neighborhood the trick or treating starts at 6m. The littlest kids trickle in as the sun sets, each toddling toddler costume cuter than the next.

There are the classics, like little witches and vampires and pirates, and there are always clever surprises.

Some of the parents dress up to walk with the kids – whole families on parade in disguise. It peters out around 7:30, as the young ones tire. But like a sputtering flame on a trick candle, the doorbell keeps sparking and ringing, just when we decide to call it a day.

Its the teenagers again.

They’ve already ransacked the loot left out in front of the houses of the families who prefer to be left alone. They’ve smashed some pumpkins and some of them may be drunk. Or stoned. Or maybe I’m typecasting unfairly.

That little witch you remember from five or six seasons ago is now trick or treating as Miley Cyrus at the VMAS. The pirate? He’s her pimp.

My youngest kids are anxious to get on with the “big candy sort” in which they tally  their haul and make trades and bargain with me over what they get to keep.

I look at the teenagers as a great way to get rid of the candy nobody wants, and some of the candy that everyone wants but nobody needs. I hand it back out to them and at the end of the night, I set out buckets on the front porch and leave nature to its course.

But still, a part of me wonders: When are you too old to trick or treat?

By middle school my friends and I had hung our superhero capes and pumpkin buckets. We were far too busy with other stuff. Probably making out in someone’s basement and drinking beer. In which light, the trick or treating looks a whole lot better.

Around here Trick or Treating shows no sign of slowing till well after driver’s licenses have been issued. In fact, there are teens that drive from tract to tract to Trick or Treat. Is that Tract or Treat?

So I ask you: How old is too old to Trick or Treat?