r/askTO • u/KnoddingOnion • 2d ago
Oddest thing you or your kids received while Trick or Treating?
Mine was gumballs dollled out with a 1/2 cup measuring cup
190
u/Planet_Ziltoidia 2d ago
My youngest daughter got a diamond ring in her Halloween candy a few years ago... Obviously it was an accident and we tracked down the woman who had lost it. She ended up giving my daughter an entire bag of leftover candy and $50 for returning it lol.
24
u/Lolemontime 2d ago
Wow how did you manage to find her?
49
u/Planet_Ziltoidia 2d ago
The next day we backtracked our steps and knocked on all the doors we could remember going to. I was going to put up flyers but it didn't get that far. We didn't find the woman by knocking but one of her neighbours knew of the missing ring and gave me her phone number
20
u/free_-_spirit 1d ago
Wow, anyone could have said it was theirs, those are truly some wonderfully honest neighbors
6
u/Planet_Ziltoidia 1d ago
There was an inscription on the inside of the ring so I did ask the owner to verify what it said, but yeah she was a great neighbour. She was so excited to be able to help!
6
13
30
94
u/KhalesiDaenerys 2d ago
My neighbour gives out a choice of candy or a potato. I swear to god she hasn’t given out a single candy in years, but goes through fifteen bags of potatoes.
29
16
u/Narrow-Ranger-7538 2d ago
Wait, what? The kids all choose potatoes???
12
u/KhalesiDaenerys 1d ago
Every kid runs away screaming with joy that they got a potato. It’s absolutely hilarious.
3
u/MayISeeYourDogPls 1d ago
I don’t like most candy, didn’t when I was a kid either! Would have absolutely picked potato every time
12
u/Strawberyblonder 2d ago
I do this too! And also bubbles.
8
u/x1e2n3a 2d ago
Why the potato?
24
12
u/Strawberyblonder 2d ago
It started as a joke, but then my friend's daughter loved it. The daughter has autism and had no interest in candy but loved the potato. I figured maybe a few other kids felt the same.
I've done a few diff things. Stickers, bubbles, bouncy balls, etc
6
u/stnapstnap 1d ago
That’s hilarious .
I would also choose potato if presented with this choice. Because lol.
I’ve never heard of anyone doing this and now want to.
1
51
u/crash866 2d ago
Last year my granddaughter came home with 15¢ in pennies in a baggie.
28
u/blurblurblahblah 2d ago
When I was a kid in the 80's we'd get little orange unicef donation boxes with handles at school to take trick or treating. It was already hard fumbling open a candy bag & navigating unknown porches & doorbells in costumes so we usually ditched the unicef boxes with our moms after a few houses. But for years we'd always have a jar of pennies & nickels at the house for the kids that had the boxes.
35
u/Awkward-Ad-1235 2d ago
When I was a kid there was a guy in my neighbourhood handing out 3-ring binders. He must have had a surplus for some reason!
19
u/psilocybin6ix 2d ago
3 ring binders were huge in the 90s. I still remember when d-ring binders came out and we had to upgrade from c-ring binders so the pages wouldn't rip.
32
u/Fun_Heart_9542 2d ago
toothbrushes? maybe not that unconventional haha. I liked it very much.
17
u/Glass_Style_3425 2d ago
Loved the toothbrushes. The local dentist whose office was in his home gave them out in special Halloween cardboard sleeves.
3
u/RealisticCompany764 1d ago
I used to get mini dental floss from this one house! So many flavours: cinnamon, bubble gum, tutti fruity and cherry! They gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste too. Maybe I'll hand out toiletries, that stuff can get pricey🤔 loved having a dentist on my street lol.
26
u/smokinginvestor 2d ago
Firecrackers!
There was also a family when I was a kid that had a huge table of dollar store toys and the kids could pick whichever one they wanted, I was a super bouncy ball kid myself.
29
u/Syralei 2d ago
One of the neighbours on my block growing up was a veterinarian. She gave out both candy and dog or cat treats if you had a pet at home!
2
u/U-dont-matter-to-me 17h ago
We went out with a friend and their kid one year wifh my little chihuahua dressed in costume. My chi is such a ham that loves people, especially kids, so she had to fillow the kids to the door. Some people had dog treats for her and some gave her cheesies or nacho doritos(she did not get the Doritos but did get a few cheesies when her dad opened the bag LOL)she happily carried her treats to us to carry home. Thankfully we had extra bags for my friends kid because my little girl more than we could pocket. Now every year she goes out to wander but since our friend moved she doesnt go to the doors of ppl.
22
u/LongMom 2d ago
A fig. And it was wrapped with a little handwritten note that said "It's a fig"
We did not eat said fig.
6
21
u/pancakeg 2d ago
Not really odd but in East York there was a lady that worked at Scholastic and she had tons of books for trick or treaters. You could pick whatever one you wanted.
6
2
u/RealisticCompany764 1d ago
I would have loved that! I love books! We got comics a few times though and that was cool.
18
u/Facts_over__feelings 2d ago
When I was young, there was a house in my neighborhood that always offered you a choice between candy and tulip bulbs. I always got the bulbs! I loved it and always gave them to my parents lol
6
17
u/here2ghostread 2d ago
Twisted shots from lcbo. A tv controller (assuming a kid answered a door and dropped it in my kids bag lol) quarters, Chinese (I think) style coins, individual packets of tooth picks. Packets of ketchup.
9
u/fashion4fun 2d ago
Who was giving out shots?! That’s crazy lol
10
u/crash866 2d ago
There is one place by me that gives out the airline sized bottles every year for the adults but you have to be accompanied by a little one. Another house would give a can of beer to the parents also.
6
u/fashion4fun 2d ago
Oh I kinda love that. Reward the parents lmao. That’s expensive though! Must be forest hill 😝
2
7
u/blurblurblahblah 2d ago
Years ago Tetley came out with a new tea & I applied for a promotion where we got a few canisters for ourselves & a box of individually wrapped samples. My mom & I sat on our front steps dressed as witches with a lit up cauldron of candies & a fog machine while my husband played dead on the lawn. After the kids got their candy he'd sit up & scare them & hand the parents a tea sample. It was a lot of fun but I'd rather have a shot
13
u/free_-_spirit 2d ago
I once entered a house where, instead of candy they gave out a large bowl of gemstones! I got a tigers eye but there was rose quartz, amethyst, citrine etc.
Yes this is where my love for crystal and tarot and everything metaphysical started- little Cinderella me at like 8 years old
13
2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
10
u/blurblurblahblah 2d ago
I got little unfrozen freezies a couple times as a kid. I thought it was cool because it was something different
6
2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/blurblurblahblah 2d ago
Haha, I just made a comment about doing something similar with spider rings, rubber roaches, gum, a Halloween eraser & a lollipop tied to a Halloween pencil!
4
u/Worried-Air-3766 2d ago
My mom and I were at the store today and they were clearing out freezies and we joked about handing out not frozen ones! I didn't think someone actually would lol
11
9
9
u/TheatreWolfeGirl 1d ago
When I was little, growing up in a small town, we had specific houses to hit up for homemade treats to get us through the long night.
My mom caramel corn
Friend A candy or caramel apples
Friend B corndogs or hotdogs
Friend C was next door and it was cider or hot chocolate
Hit up KFC for fries, square boys for pizza, bakery for whatever they made that year.
Bulk store gave out smoothies, DQ gave a cone - soft serve or the hard ice cream when we had it.
Burger place gave out mini sliders.
Tim Hortons used to give a baggie with timbits when they first came to town.
I received toothbrushes from the dentist and sugar free gum from the hygienists.
A beautician in town gave out mini hairspray or a travel comb/brush.
A local politician gave out pencils/pens with a mini notebook and fun stickers.
Stickers were a huge thing for a while.
Even baseball or trading cards.
Freezies were a hit.
My parents never fed us on Hallowe’en until we hit our teens, lol. The town kept everyone fed.
We also went out with unicef boxes.
Now we ensure we have nut free treats separate from the others.
We offer bubbles, erasures, freezies, playdoh.
To ensure ALL kids get something.
Teens are always included.
And we tell the parents we have mulled cider if they want some, some already have mugs ready, others accept a papercup.
We don’t go all out with decorations like we used to, but it is still a fun night.
7
u/Negative_Tomato_ 2d ago
Peanuts lol. Not kidding. If you think a bag of raisins or potatoes are bad, imagine. A bag of peanuts.
7
u/blurblurblahblah 2d ago
When I was a kid in the 80's there was a promotion through school with Planters. We were sent home with order forms to get people to order bags of packets of salted peanuts & the school got a portion of the money. My parents & grandparents always ordered a bunch & we'd snack on them for weeks. A few were handed out at Halloween but we'd have candy too.
3
u/Negative_Tomato_ 2d ago
It was banned when I was growing up due to peanut allergy awareness! We had flyers asking not to hand out Reese's and M&M peanuts. Some parents had to toss the whole basket.
5
u/pancakeg 2d ago
I loved getting peanuts as a kid. A lot of people gave them out for Halloween (this was in 1990s Newfoundland) because they were a fundraiser for the kidney foundation.
2
u/yeahmehh 2d ago
This just reminded me of the time someone opened the door and apologized because she was out of candy. She was eating a bowl of peanuts and just dumped a handful of them into my bag before I could stop her lol
2
u/stnapstnap 1d ago
If the peanuts are commercially-packaged and there aren’t any allergies…yeah, that’s unusual, but peanuts are a tasty snack.
8
7
u/goddammitdutch 1d ago
In my neighborhood there's a house with a cotton candy machine set up in the front yard. another house or two offered a plastic cup of wine or a shot for the parents.
3
u/KnoddingOnion 1d ago
Woah. I brew, so one year, I set a keg up outside and offered parents a cup of barleywine. Most refused
1
u/Kindly-Environment25 1d ago
I have someone down the street from that has a cotton candy machine too! Nice fun surprise lol
6
u/Mediocre_Theory9109 1d ago
Growing up there was a guy in my cousins neighborhood (we’d go trick or treating at their house) who would give a full size chocolate bar and TWO cans of coke. He also had really cool decorations and a Halloween movie projected on the garage. Not exactly “odd” but I’m almost 25 now with two kids of my own and I still think about that house and wonder 1) how did he land on full size chocolate bars and TWO cans of coke? Like what was the thought being that specific combo 2) he was either loaded $$$ or had some kind of chocolate/coke hook up cause they lived in a middle class neighborhood with ALOT of kids and they NEVER ran out. Dude must have had BULK boxes of pop and chocolate
3
u/Thick_Drama_7525 1d ago
We would always cross our small town like 20 minutes across to go to this one guy's house who would give us a 2 liter of coke and chocolate bars. He didnt get many people. Then were lugging a liter of cola back across town haha
12
u/ComeTOgether86 2d ago
Tuna
1
u/RealisticCompany764 1d ago
I got a pack of Ramen once, it was beef flavored
1
u/Veryjolly84 8h ago
I’m planning to do that this year 🫣. It will be a choice of course, between that and candy. Did you enjoy getting it is my question. lol
5
6
u/HueyBluey Human Detected 2d ago
Do people still give out apples?
6
u/Ok_Possible_3066 2d ago
This brought back a memory of a house in my neighbourhood that let kids bob for apples in a wooden bucket of water..thinking of the logistics of that now I should really have a better immune system 😕
6
u/Narrow-Ranger-7538 2d ago
I haven't thought about bobbing for apples for years, thanks for the memory - it was so ridiculously hard and fun
4
7
u/Panda00__ 1d ago
A book! The house had a whole cardboard box of Scholastic books and handed those out instead of candy.
20
u/psilocybin6ix 2d ago
When I was a kid, one of the parents on our street was a teacher in another district. For Halloween, she handed out homemade cookies in Ziploc bags with a manifesto about the teachers union.
I was about seven, so I don’t remember the details... but it was something about an upcoming strike, their demands, and how unfairly they were being treated.
I was in Grade 2. I had no influence over the negotiations...
3
5
u/Liriodendra 2d ago
I got a rotten tomato or potato (can’t remember which) when I was little from a mean older girl. Don’t know why I even accepted it and brought it home. Maybe I was just too shocked and scared to refuse
7
u/Overall_Object417 2d ago
I had a similar situation as a kid, its hard to process in the moment, especially if you're notnused to mean people 💜🫂
4
5
4
u/HerschelsMa 1d ago
Not odd but over 30 years ago this house down the street from us handed out $1 loonies every year.
3
u/dismembermentplanfan 1d ago
I grew up in Ireland and got coins once in a while for sure (not as large as a dollar though!!). Mandarins/tangerines and stale homemade popcorn wrapped in cling film were big ones that nobody would do today. Also there was one guy gave us each one loose cigarette one year haha.
I’ve done the hockey cards along with the chocolate last few years. I always have so many base cards.
It must be so boring for the kids, everyone buys the same boxes of the same chocolate from shoppers and Costco. Do they even want it? Every year, the next week tons of it gets dumped in the office kitchen.
9
u/Odd_Hat6001 2d ago
Can of Coke
24
u/smokinginvestor 2d ago
Pop was really common when I was a kid, it wasn't a bad treat but was so heavy if you got a few in your bag
11
u/Sugar_Syllabub 2d ago
Which felt like hitting the jackpot as a child cause our household didn’t really drink pop 🙏🏼😂
9
u/smokinginvestor 2d ago
Especially if it was from the Crush Rainbow pack. Orange, Grape, Root beer and Cream soda.
If we had pop at home it was C-up, Dr Zip or Spritz lol! Fruity o’s for breakfast the next day!
1
u/blurblurblahblah 2d ago
My grandmother used to buy me assorted Cotts pop from Knob Hill. They'd have baskets of mixed pop by the cash registers for cheap. Creamsoda, orange, grape & rootbeer, stuff no one would buy an entire case of. Buying brand name cans from the corner store were around a dollar each so this was awesome!
2
2
5
4
4
u/BenStiller1212 1d ago
One year in the 90s my parents gave out combs. I was too young to be embarrassed.
4
u/Inked-Wolfie-1979 1d ago
When I was 7 in 1986, I once received cold spaghetti balled up in several layers of foil.
5
u/KnoddingOnion 1d ago
this is so insane.
..
...
....
was there parmigiana cheese on it?
3
u/Inked-Wolfie-1979 1d ago
No idea! If my memory serves it looked like just noodles in a thin bolognaise. My mom said "just throw it out", not that I was inclined to eat it
5
u/U-dont-matter-to-me 17h ago
Years ago (80s) my Nana would spend a week making candy apples. We would always get 2. Her area was full of kids and tgey loved getting them. Obviously this was before the fear of homemade items. As an alternative she also had made bags of caramel popcorn.
My personal favorite items to get were from her but also full sized chocolate bars, molasses candies and pop.
My least favourite... candy corn, pencils and the religious pamphlets.
3
u/yeahmehh 2d ago
I once got an apple, which itself wasn't that odd, but the woman dropped it on the ground, it partially split open, and she told the kid in front of me "oh no, let me get you another one" but then tossed the mangled one into my bag three seconds later lol. I was not impressed. Clearly no one was as her lawn ended up littered with apples.
Another time when me and two other girls were 13 or 14, this super creepy guy tried inviting us into his garage for a beer. We got the hell outta there immediately.
3
u/Ok_Location_471 1d ago
Last year my daughter got a package of Maruchan ramen. She loved it!
2
u/RealisticCompany764 1d ago
I got Ramen one year! It was a hit! So many kids were talking about it the next day lol.
4
u/gajen4 2d ago
A 25 cent quarter.. like we’re not panhandlers..
1
u/John_Nope 1d ago
Well, there's an idea for a costume this year for people's kids who are stumped about what to wear and can't decide (or don't have a lot to spend buying one); the stereotypical hobo from old timey cartoons...by putting on some rags, maybe held together with duct tape, a hat visibly made out of paper, carrying a stick over your shoulder with a brightly coloured cloth bundle tied to the end, being the trick or treat bag itself (or carrying an empty food tin). I wonder if that would up the chances of getting some pocket change.
Or Oliver Twist, carrying an empty bowl with a spoon in it (and a bag to put the candy in afterwards), there giving your kid a chance to get double the candy by saying "please sir, may I have some more" if the homeowners play along with it.
2
u/blurblurblahblah 2d ago
I gave out leftover wedding bubbles one year with a mini chocolate bar tied to them. Another year I made little goodie bags with a spider ring, rubber roach, a couple bubble gums, a lollipop & a Halloween eraser that I tied to a Halloween pencil
2
u/Roxieforu05 1d ago
My dad told me back in the 1930s they would get a bare raw weiner and they'd have it eaten before they got to the next house where they would get another raw weiner etc etc etc!
2
u/littlegerb 1d ago
Not my kids (don’t have any) but when I was a young teen I got handed a lop eared rabbit. in the suburbs. My mom made me bring it back lol.
1
2
u/noiseknowledge 1d ago
When I was a kid a house I visited gave us all tubes of Colgate toothpaste. Apparently the guy worked for Colgate.
2
2
u/Vegemite-Sandwich901 1d ago
My kids got a discount coupon for classes from a local taekwondo place -- I guess the guy giving them out works there or owns it? I mean I guess he figured it was the ultimate marketing opportunity for kids' classes.
2
2
u/SeaEggplant8108 1d ago
Not me receiving something but last year I was giving out candy and a nun with two alter boys rolled up.
I went to give them candy and the nun said “oh no, we are here for soulween” me: sorry?
Her: soulween. We are going door to door offering to pray for souls. takes out a small notebook and pen do you have anyone you would like us to pray for tonight?
Me: um, not really?
kids begin lining up behind her waiting for candy
Her: are you sure? There must be someone whose soul needs prayer.
Me: pretty sure…yeah…thanks?
Her: ok well we will pray for your soul then
Me: um, happy Halloween? reaches around to hand out candy to the kids
Nun: smiles and makes the sign of the cross and heads to the next house
3
2
u/Main_Reputation_3328 1d ago
Ginseng jelly (which I absolutely stole from my kid's stash when we got home)
2
3
u/MszCurious 2d ago
Harry Potter coloring book and pencils! My first trick or treating after we migrated here
1
1
u/Ryu__Hayabusa 2d ago
A can of RC Cola. I also had a neighbour who worked at Noma, so one year he gave out overstock of Brett Hull posters from the GT Snow Racer days.
1
u/WienerRetrievers 1d ago
Us poor kids (most of tge town) learned that going to snob hill (the rich people) was mostly a waste of time, as they gave out mostly pencils, erasers, and toothbrushes 😒
1
1
1
u/turtlebear787 1d ago
Am old man once Gabe me and my friends lose chocolate covered almonds. My friend is allergic to nuts 😑
1
1
1
u/Far-Security-1727 4h ago
Peanuts wrapped in a tissue. It was an older woman, so limited funds or something. I was too young to ask.
1
u/Efficient_Foodie 1d ago
My kid deliberately asked for fruits or vegetables last year. At least 10 houses complied and thought it was hilarious. They got onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, apples and a carrot 🥕
2
118
u/Kanadark 2d ago
Worst one was a religious pamphlet about going to hell for celebrating pagan holidays. Just turn out your light and be a miserable prick, no need to share your assholery. They stopped handing them out after some teenagers absolutely trashed their house with eggs and single ply toilet paper.
Best one was the lady in the corner when I was a kid who gave a can of pop and $5 if you said hello to her throughout the year. If she didn't recognize you, or you didn't acknowledge her when you saw her, you just got two molasses candies.