The first quarter of the school year is over, and the first day to start the long weekend just so happens to be Halloween. One of the most popular holidays in the country, Halloween is famously associated with trick-or-treating: dressing up as a variety of monsters and characters and knocking on neighbors doors to get free candy. 

It’s an incredibly popular seasonal activity that a vast majority of people grew up participating in every year, but as students grow older, most of them cease partaking in it. So, just how old is too old to be trick or treating? 

Trick-or-treating is a childhood activity that millions of people under 18 choose to do every year, but lots of students, especially in older grades like seniors, tend not to do it. Senior Callum Murphy, for example, believes that an appropriate age to stop is “around fourteen, fifteen.”

“I think you need to stop trick or treating at the age of sixteen, because once you’re sixteen, you’re almost seventeen,” senior David Basil-Barker said. “Once you’re seventeen, you’re almost eighteen. When you’re eighteen you’re a full blown adult.” 

Other times, answers for when to stop trick or treating are less set in stone and are in more general timeframes. 

“I think it’s time to stop trick-or-treating by the end of high school, because trick-or-treating is for kids,” AP Human Geography geo and World Geography teacher Declan Holmes said.

“I personally stopped after eighth grade,” junior Johnathan Summers said “The age where you stop trick-or-treating, in my opinion, represents a coming of age, showing your maturity over more childish things like the wearing costumes part of trick-or-treating, though it is fun.”