I've been taking my kids trick-or-treating for 16 years in row. It just so happened that my second born retired from the custom the year before my third born started. It was a perfect handoff, and it looks like I could be doing it for another 8 years. That would be a whopping 24 years in a row of trick-or-treating with one of my kids. Heck, in eight years I could start going door-to-door with my grandkid(s), but this isn't about that.
This is about the fact that I've got all these years of going door-to-door with my kids and my wife does not. But now that she's got a keen and eager five year old, she wants to start. When chatting about this, she revealed that she grew up in Edmonton yelling "trick-or-treat" at the door before it was opened. The yelling is what told the resident they were there. This is very different from how I did it as a kid and with my kids. We've always knocked or rang the doorbell, waited for the resident to open the door, and then yelled "trick-or-treat!".
I tweeted about this difference yesterday and learned that different regions across this country do it differently. Some cities did it like my wife, other cities do it as I've always done it.
Now I'm hoping you'll leave a comment with the city / town you grew up with and whether you yelled "trick-or-treat" before the door was opened or after. This is important, so please chime in.
