Hayley Juhl: How old is too old to go trick or treating?

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Ah, tradition and nostalgia. Nostalgia for one last trick-or-treating round before turning the page to childhood. The tradition of “Hey, aren’t you a little old for this?”

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There are more than 4 million children in Canada who are in their trick-or-treating years, which Statistics Canada defines as 5 to 14 years old. Yet we’ve all seen costumed kids too young to chew gum responsibly alongside towering teens interested in freedom. candies. There aren’t many complaints about little astronauts, because how adorable are they? But an older boy in a Sharpied “This is my costume” t-shirt is not so cute.

How old is too old to go trick or treating?

Halloween 2019 was rife with drama when a storm system made its way into Montreal and Mayor Valérie Plante urged families to stay home. In some neighborhoods, the trick or treating carried over to the day before and then when the storm was not as spectacular as expected, it also occurred on October 31. For some, a double but soggy candy jar.

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Then 2020. Determined to make the most of a pandemic situation, hoppers and pulley systems were used to distribute candy while maintaining physical distancing. The long-standing rule that makeup is safer than a mask was thrown out the window.

Kids who came of age in the last two years have had a hard time, so let them just a little bit more. They are trying to grow up, but they are not ready to give up their childhood entirely. Also, what are you going to do? Card on the door? Have you seen how tall some of those 11-year-olds are? What if there are 15? Who cares if they want to don a dollar store mask and join the crowd? What would we prefer they were doing?

Teens tend to run in packs and there is a concern that they will ruin a vacation for young children. An unscientific survey, years of trick or treating, suggests that this is nonsense. The “kids these days” know how to behave in public and are more likely to help a little one climb the stairs to a door than to knock them down or steal their bucket.

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Canadians 55 and older are more likely to have stopped trick-or-treating when they were 12 years old, according to a 2017 Angus Reid survey, and they believe today’s kids should stop trick-or-treating as well. Millennials say they don’t mind seeing kids 15 and older on the streets on Halloween night – 25 percent of them told pollsters they were asking for candy at that age.

One last thing before I finish with a topic of “sharing is caring”: not all differences in development are visible. While there is a movement promoting Halloween blue buckets for people with autism, it is not fair to expect such children to identify themselves by the privilege of a Tootsie Roll. It is not their job to raise awareness, no matter how old they are.

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Almost everyone agrees that trick or treating is forbidden for full-fledged adults, but then there’s the secret tax on parents. The children come home with full buckets and we take a little off of them. Sharing is showing interest.

A note on costume and cultural appropriation

We say it every year: a culture is not a costume. Please put the hat back on the shelf and choose a comic costume instead of indigenous clothing or a geisha costume. While you may not think their actions are racist, they reinforce stereotypes. A suit worn one night takes it out of the context of traditions, sacred symbols, and the history of a people.

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