A super tall teenager with a full beard and mustache walks up to your door in a costume. Are you giving them candy? Or are you denying them candy because they’re too old? What about if a grown adult with their kids next to them asks for candy? We did a survey and asked a bunch of high schoolers what age is too old for trick or treating and got a total of 28 responses. The survey numbers are shocking.
To start off, this is an opinion-based article, and there is no actual age cutoff for trick-or-treating. But continuing on, I put seven options on the survey. The options were <10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18, 19-20, and lastly 21+. But another option was no one is too old to trick or treat; one student voted for that option. Their argument was, “Because I feel like if trick-or-treating is something that brings you happiness, then I say trick or treat until you die.” On the other hand, what if it’s a bunch of young adults that just want to hang out and get candy together? Are you still giving them candy? Or what about if they are with their little siblings and they are babysitting them, but they want some candy as well? Is trick-or-treating at an old age better than sitting on your device all night playing video games?
Next, out of the 28 responses, 10 students said 17-18 years old; 7 students argued 19-20 years old was the cut-off; 6 students said 21+; and lastly, 5 students had voted for ages as low as 11. Out of the 28 responses, we got 24 to state their reasoning. One stat I found shocking was that a student voted for 13-14 years old as the cutoff. Their reasoning was, “I feel like this is just the age that most people feel it’s weird to do. I feel like most adults feel odd about handing candy out to kids who generally are close to adult height at that point.
Moving forward, the survey got about 28 responses, and the option that had the most votes was 17-18 years old. 10 people (35.7%) of people thought that was the correct age cutoff, and here are a couple of their arguments. “A lot of my friends who are older than me stopped trick-or-treating around this age.” Another argument was “You are basically an adult. It’s time to go buy the candy and let the little kids come trick-or-treating at your house.” Lastly, another student said, “I think up until your final year of high school it is fine because you are basically still considered a teenager.” These are some controversial opinions that could go either way.
Ending off, trick-or-treating has become a worldwide event and is very known, especially in the United States. What do you think is the correct age to stop trick-or-treating? Is there a limit, or do you think anyone should be able to trick-or-treat? Do you think Halloween should be for kids or for anyone?
