Halloween Humbug?

Is there a term for people who turn off their lights on Halloween or go out for the evening or leave town or whatever they do to avoid handing out candy? We've got Grinches and Scrooges at Christmas time but nothing that I know of for Halloween 'don't want to answer the door and don't want to spend money on candy' type of people.

I kind of get where a lot of people may just not want to participate, it is kind of annoying to have your doorbell ringing for a few hours and the price of candy has gotten pretty high, and if your children are grown you are kind of over the whole kid type holiday thing or if you don't have children at all you just don't want to be bothered with the whole thing.

But, don't we all remember how exciting it was to be able to dress up in a costume and go out AFTER DARK! and get FREE CANDY!?!

I do, and aside from Christmas it's pretty much the highlight of a kid's year. CANDY! Thanksgiving is not that exciting for kids because hey, no presents or free candy, just having to dress up and eat dinner in the middle of the day and maybe visit a bunch of relatives. But Halloween? Candy? Out after dark? So exciting!

Except for our street. I don't know why the kids even bothered coming down our street because it is full, and I mean FULL of Halloween grinches. It seemed like almost every house was no porch light on and sorry, kids, no candy here.

I was borderline Grinch this year, I was a little concerned about Millie, this being her first Halloween with us and knowing that any kind of noise outside gets her to barking, I figured that she would bark her head off every time the doorbell rang or kids walked down the street. Keith was trying to sleep, getting ready to go back out on the road later in the evening, so I put a sign over the doorbell and barricaded the door with a tray of treat bags sitting on a chair complete with a sign to take one and please don't ring the doorbell. Millie still barked her head off but at least the doorbell only rang once when a little girl who probably couldn't read yet and whose parent stayed on the sidewalk squeezed her way past the chair and on to ring the bell.

I had made little bags with treats inside and a tag on the outside, thinking that most kids would only take one bag, not like when you leave a bowl of candy outside and the first kid just tips that bowl over his sack and that's the end of the candy. I think most kids only took one since there were actually a few left at the end of the night. I bought candy that I don't like so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat it. There have been Halloweens when I've had to go out and buy more candy at the last minute because I had eaten most of it before the big day. Lesson learned, buy the icky stuff like sour skittles, no temptation there.