Opinion | It’s a shame adults can’t go trick-or-treating

As a child, Halloween was probably my favorite day of the year. I would plan my costume for months, always wanting to top that of the previous year. My friends and I would map out the neighborhood, marking the houses that gave out the best candy and those that were unnecessarily stingy. I thrived when running in between houses and observing the chaos of every kid in my vicinity out and about.

The best part of Halloween night by far was trading candy with my friends. I loved Nerds and Reese’s, and all of us hated Almond Joys. After an extensive counting and sorting process, we would debate, bribe and offer until we were all happy with our stashes. I always slipped my dad some Skittles and Kit Kats at the end of the night. 

Halloween in college is a completely different experience. With the collective last-minute scramble for costumes and the multi-day phenomenon known as “Halloweekend,” the festivities differ significantly from the childhood Halloween we know and love. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love a good party, but Halloweekend in college is essentially like any other weekend, but with crazy outfits. I miss the decorations, the handmade costumes, the knocking on doors and the candy haggling that previously indicated a successful Halloween.

While adults certainly have a responsibility to create a fun holiday experience for children, we should not be deprived of the magic of trick-or-treating. Particularly, South Oakland seems like a prime trick-or-treating neighborhood, and we are not recognizing this opportunity and using it to its full potential.

Many questions arise when considering the dilemma of adult trick-or-treating. Who would give out the candy if all the adults were out of the house? We could adopt the classic strategy of leaving a bowl out with a sign that says “take one,” but we all know that one kid who would dump the entire thing into their bag and leave the bowl empty for all future trick-or-treaters. Maybe children could be tasked to hand out candy. After all, it’s pretty spooky to think about leaving a bunch of kids unattended all night. 

Unfortunately, these solutions seem fairly ineffective and potentially very dangerous. Perhaps we could all assign shifts and rotate the role of trick-or-treaters and candy giver-outers. The logistics of this option are a bit too complicated to pull off though. I assume that with our current technology, we could develop a Halloween candy dispensing device to sit in front of everyone’s door, but would every household then have to pay for their dispenser? Capitalism has already tainted holidays enough. 

I cannot seem to solve the lack of adult trick-or-treating, but what I do know is that we have not made Halloween enough of a priority for adults. The anticipation of Halloween night was essential in curating the atmosphere of the entire season and should be replicated for anybody that wants to participate. Holidays are not designed for adults to have as much fun as children, but the excitement and fun should not end just because we arbitrarily age people out of trick or treating in high school. 

When people can’t participate in Halloween traditions for a majority of their lives, we underestimate how much fun they are being deprived of. We still like sweets and dressing up as adults. Of course, we can buy our own candy now, but what’s the fun if we aren’t earning it by going door to door?

The inability to pull off adult trick-or-treating is a tragedy and something the greatest minds of our generation will continue to ponder for years to come.

Delaney Rauscher Adams doesn’t like Kit Kats. Reach out to her at dgr17@pitt.edu.