Is Trick or Treating Dying?

People are now paying strangers — called “Uber Treats” — to go trick-or-treating for their kids while the kids stay on the couch. I joke, but for real: you upload a pic of your kid in costume, pick basic/premium/full-size candy, track the driver as they hit houses (and skip the raisin ones), and if Reese’s are out you get “free‑range” candy corn as a substitute. I love that Halloween started centuries ago in Ireland and Scotland where kids actually had to perform a song or poem to earn candy — like an audition for sugar. America streamlined it into neighborhood pillowcase raids by the 1950s, then we moved on to trunk-or-treats and church/school events for safety and convenience. Call me nostalgic, but I miss the hustle of knowing which house handed out full-size bars — now we’ve outsourced trick-or-treating to an app.

Takeaways:

• I point out trick-or-treating is centuries old, with roots in Ireland and Scotland, not just 1978.
• Back then kids had to perform songs, poems, or little routines to actually earn their Halloween treats.
• By the 1950s it morphed into a massive neighborhood thing—pillowcases full of candy and parents on driveways.
• Nowadays people favor trunk-or-treats and organized events; safer and easier, sure, but some neighborhood charm gets lost.
• Then I impersonate a parody 'Uber Treats' service—upload a costume pic, pick basic/premium/full-size options, track your Treater, and enjoy goofy substitution policies like free-range candy corn.