Opinion: Stop putting an age limit on trick-or-treating

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Every year the age-old debate returns: how old is too old for trick-or-treating?

Some believe kids should stop ringing doorbells when they’re a preteen, while others are fine with younger teens trick-or-treating. As for me, I say we get rid of the often unspoken rule that you have to be under a certain age to go trick-or-treating.

Although there is no national age restriction on trick-or-treating, some cities across the country have taken it upon themselves to limit the Halloween activity.

Chesapeake, Virginia has a law in place stating that any person older than 14 can be charged with a Class 4 misdemeanor. A town in New Jersey has had a similar law in place for over 30 years limiting trick-or-treating to children under 12 years old, though no action has ever taken place. In Belleville, Illinois, teens in 9th grade and above can’t “appear on the streets, highways, public homes, private homes, or public places in the city to make trick-or-treat visitations.”

I’m sorry, but what is this nonsense? Why are we criminalizing trick-or-treating?

I have yet to see a legitimate reason for gatekeeping trick-or-treating. Maybe if there were some significant statistics about adults causing destruction of property or teens wreaking havoc through neighborhoods well into the night, than I would consider slapping an age limit on trick-or-treating. But until then, I say let anyone who wants to put on a costume receive some candy.

If you don’t want to hand out candy to older children or the random adult who may or may not show up, than keep your lights off and don’t answer your door on Halloween. No one is forcing you to participate in the nearly century-old tradition of passing out candy.

I’m all for handing out full size candy bars to anyone who shows up at my front door in costume whether it be a little kid in a superhero costume, a family dressed as fast food mascots, or a couple dressed as Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked.

So, this year when someone rings your doorbell and you hear “Trick-or-treat!”, maybe refrain from replying, “Aren’t you a little old?”. If you can’t, that’s fine, just please leave your lights off so everyone in the neighborhood knows which house to TP. I mean skip!