ICYMI: Some Cities Have Trick-or-Treating Age Limits
What better way to celebrate Halloween than trick-or-treating? You get to dress up in costumes inspired by your favorite television shows, gather with your closest friends, and hit your neighborhood to collect tons of free candy. You get to come up with the best Halloween captions for cute Instagram holiday dumps and viral TikTok challenges alongside the haunted decorations you pass on the way. It seems like the perfect way for teens to celebrate the spookiest day of the year, but like clockwork, many teens wonder how old is too old to go trick-or-treating each Halloween.
TBH, there's no right or wrong answer — and if it were up to us, we'd trick or treat forever. Determining how old is too old to go trick-or-treating depends on where you live and exactly where you plan to go trick-or-treating. States, townships, and municipalities have different rules, stipulations, and consequences.
For example, Upper Deerfield Township, New Jersey, and Belleville, Illinois limit trick-or-treating to 12 years and younger. Upper Deerfield Township's legislation goes back 30 years, but it isn't strictly enacted. Belleville's Halloween Solicitation sanction prohibits children over 12 from wearing a mask. Children 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."
Anyone over 16 in Charleston, South Carolina, cannot participate in trick-or-treating or wear masks in public places. Teens over 12 years old in Newport News, Virginia, can take their younger siblings trick-or-treating, but they cannot wear masks themselves. According to CBS News, teens older than 12 can face up to six months in jail and fines ranging from $25 to $100 for trick-or-treating after 8 pm in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Trick-or-treating age restrictions don't have to stop you from enjoying Halloween. If you're too old to trick-or-treat in your neighborhood, you can always check in with other local organizations to see if there are fun activities that older teens can participate in to enjoy on Halloween.
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