We had a plan in case kids across the road turned up cos they're quite nice and living in studentville there aren't many other kids houses to trick or treat at. We didn't decorate or do pumpkins tho, and no one turned up.
I do like the convention of only trick or treating at houses with some kind of lit decoration at the door, seems a good way of opting in only and not scaring/bothering others.
In my home village the teens had a habit of terrorizing the old folks who lived on 3 rows of houses in the village (many had been born in those houses when it was mill houses)... The local police and some volunteers would have to patrol to get rid of any shitheads who ignored requests not to harass the old folk. We didn't go trick or treating cos of this and my parents thinking it was a horrid North American tradition. Instead we'd go to one person's house and play Halloween games there instead. I guess it limited the ridiculous sugar intake.
