what age do they "trick-or-treat"?

[mykidsmom]

My dd will almost be 2 this Halloween. Of course I can't resist buying her a cute costume to take photos in, but what do you do with an almost 2 year old for Halloween other then take photos. I don't let her have candy yet and I would feel silly taking her around the neightborhood since she is obviously too young to have the candy and they would know it was going to be eaten by the parents....

what do YOU do for Halloween with this age group?

[holliam]

My daughter turns 2 next week and we have at least 1, possibly 2 playgroup parties! We are having one of them here, and I can't wait!

Holli

[mykidsmom]

what are you planning to do at the playgroup parties?

[txmomtobe]

Every year I always have very little ones coming to my door. I think it is the most adorable thing. I don't even care that they can't eat the candy. My son will be 20 mos at Halloween and we plan on taking him to get some candy. We even took him to a few houses last year when he was only 8 mos. We think its fun for them and us. Plus I have a lot of good pictures for his scrapbook.

[teddy]

We trick-or-treated at 3 neighbors' houses - she wasn't too into the idea of going to other people's houses. And she walked in a parade in my parents' neighborhood. DH and I ate her candy, naturally.

Another idea is to have DD help you hand out candy to the other kids. She can wear her costume doing that.

Some shopping malls let you trick or treat in the stores. Our cute downtown area with lots of merchants and boutiques does it. Maybe your mall will do something similar and she can wear the costume for that?

Is your library or park district having something Halloween related, like storytime, that she can wear her costume?

Otherwise, you can host a Halloween playgroup party, too!

[dules]

We did last year. Just up the street and back, so about one block. There are tons of kids of all ages there and she was excited to go out at night and see them. She liked being out at dusk/dark. She liked getting candy and I'll admit I let her have 2 small plain Hersheys when we got home. I put the rest away that night and threw it out this Spring when I found it again. ;)

There was also a playgroup party. I was working so the sitter took her. They played little games and had cupcakes with orange frosting at the end. So sort of like a birthday party I guess.

I say dress her up and have some fun! :)

Best,
Mary

[jillc]

Last year, when DD was 19mos at Halloween, we went to a playgroup party.

We also dressed her up to go trick-or-treat at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

On Halloween night, we dressed her up & took her to about 6-8 neighbors' houses trick-or-treating. She really had a great time & is usually not really outgoing, but she was so excited that people at each house gave her something, she couldn't wait to get to the next door & call "trick-or-treat"! It was a ton of fun for both of us!

I let her taste some M&Ms & have a couple bites of licorice. Her first candy experience. The rest of the candy went to DH & I.

Have fun!
Jill

[kedss]

In my town, they do trick or treating for the kids on the outdoor mall, and also at the University. When DS was almsot 2 last Halloween, we took him to the outdoor Mall and we filled a little gift bag with candy, and we let him try some of the candy. It was great becuase he got to see a bunch of kids dressed up, and it was during daylight hours so he didn't get scared. DH tried taking him out on Halloween before it got too dark and DS didn't want to do it.

We will do the mall again this year.

[BeachBum]

My neighbors who are in that age group have trick or treated. I just love seeing them the little kids. They are so cute and excited!

My son will be 13 months and we plan on taking him to our neighbors as well.

I think it has nothing to do with candy, but is just all in good fun. I think nothing of giving out candy to those that can't eat it. It's just part of what you do :)

That said, we will only go to people's homes that we know. I wouldn't take a little one to a strangers house.

[vdrake71]

When my son was 1 1/2 we took him to the downtown stores of our town. The stores give our candy and their is music outside. We also took him to the YMCA. Lots of games to play. He really liked picking a duck out of the pool and the fishing game. We also took him to a few houses in the neighborhood.

My other son will be a little over 1 and I plan to do the exact same with him.

[rlu]

When DS was 7 mos we took him to the people he knew (about 3 houses) - two of the people were expecting him and had non-candy treats for him. We didn't take candy from the third.

Last year DS was 19mos and enjoyed trick-or-treating. We were staying at the Disneyland hotel and they had a few stations (bell-hop, front-desk, etc.) spots where they were handing out candy. DS learned to hold out his tigger pumpkin (loot bag) and smile big (he didn't talk much then). He wasn't interested in the candy, he just enjoyed tromping around after dark and looking at everyone's costumes (of course, being at Disney, he had just gotten used to seeing folks in costume).

We haven't discussed this year, probably just go to a few houses where we know the people (again probably expecting him) and avoid the candy when polite to do so. If the local mall does trick-or-treating, we might do that too. At work they will probably do a costume contest, so we might bring him there (I don't usually work on Tuesdays) to see the costumes.

[crl]

We took DS last year. He was older though (2 yrs and 4 months). We had friends in the neighborhood with little ones so we all went to each others houses and had things like fruit leather, juice boxes, etc for the litte kids (gave candy to the big kids of course) He had a lot of fun getting to be outside at dusk and dressing up, etc. One of our friends also had a little party--made doughnuts for everyone and we all hung out there for awhile.

[sdbc]

Our daycare has a party. If we didn't have daycare, we'd have a little party.

Sue, mommy to Aurora (Rory) born 5/13/04

[zoestargrove]

I dressed my older son up when he was 16 months and he helped me hand out the candy to the trick or treaters...he had no idea what candy was that year.

The following year...we invited friends over...the kids dressed up and handed out the candy and then we did a mini sweep of our neighborhood...visiting about 6 houses and went home. We also dressed them up for various halloween activities that happened locally during the week before.

[s7714]

My DD was about 1 1/2 when I took her TOT for the first time. We only went to about 4 or 5 houses and those were specifically neighbors we knew would get a thrill out of seeing her dressed up. (Last year at 2 1/2 she loved doing it and didn't want to stop!)

I think playgroup or organized events are good things for little ones that age. Far less stressful (for the DC) than marching them up to strange doors.

Jennifer
Mommy to
Miss Pure Energy 3/03
Miss Antsy-Pants 6/05

Calling fellow BBB SoCal moms...we'd love to meet you!
(100 posts & BBB member for 3 months req'd)
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[anamika]

LAst year when DD was one, we went to our local library. They had a sing along and stories - all Halloween themed, and everyone was all dressed up. Fun!
We will probably do it again this year.

[KrisM]

DS went to about 6 houses last year. Just people we know on our street. Then, he stayed outside with DH for a while and was facinated with all the activity going on!

[HallsofVA]

DS was about 22 months last Halloween. For his real Halloween celebration, we went to a halloween party the weekend before Halloween at the Gymboree that we go to near our house. All the kids came dressed in costume, and they did singing, dancing, and other fun things for an hour or so. He really enjoyed that, and it seemed most of the kids did too.

On Halloween, we both dressed up, and he and I walked around to our 5-6 closest neighbors to say "Hi" while DH handed out candy at our house. We did this mostly so the neighbors who had to stay home to hand out their candy could see him in his costume(since many had asked us to stop by). He had a little plastic pumpkin (that he'd latched onto at Target one day and wouldn't let go so I paid the 25 cents for it) and enjoyed putting what the neighbors gave him into the pumpkin. He never had any candy, and didn't know what he was getting, so he didn't miss it when DH and I didn't give any of it to him afterwards. As short as his legs are, it took it a long time to cover just those few houses, so I was glad we weren't trying to do any more.

Here's a picture that a neighbor snapped of him that night.
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/35417.jpg