In England I had a sign on my door that read something along the lines of "If I know you, you're welcome, if not then it's dangerous to knock on the doors of people you don't know"
Here in Sweden the real festival is All Saint's Day on the 1st November. People leave candles on the graves of their relatives (and the church yards look gorgeous, particularly if it has snowed) and have a family meal where those they have lost are remembered.
I am trying to note that tradition alongside the Hallowe'en one. If one believes in the good of the world, and the survival of that good after death, I feel one has to acknowledge the bad, or the confised or the lost ... So I tell the boys that there are many different possible beliefs but that people used to believe that the boundaries between the spirits of the dead and the world of the living are thin at this time of year, and that we can celebrate the good souls whilst 'banishing' anything bad or unpleasant.
So I let the boys dress up, I prefer the non-scary costumes which were - it the Scots tradition - meant to confuse evil spirits so that they wouldn't know who you are and therefore be able to follow you home or whatever ....
This year however, both boys were skeletons as that was what I had, and we went on a Hallowe'en walk up through the woods to a BBQ place. There were candles along the way and various spooky characters stepped out from behind trees. Robin (6.5) took the greatest of pleasure in scaring them back and kept saying 'I scared that one away, didn't I Mummy, it ran back into the woods' He was quite clear in his role to protect the family from anything bad and nasty!
I don't mind a few neighbourhood children, who I know, dressing up and calling. Preferably with a trick to show (Robin was going to do the 'stealing your nose' trick, he's been practising and with a quick flounce around my property to scare off anything evil that may be lurking there ...
However teenagers, adults, or anyone that I don't know if a whole different matter, and threats of unpleasant behaviour as 'tricks' just leaves me cold. Thankfully I've never been subjected to that.
Hallowe'en is a very new concept in Sweden and no-one has called, so unfortunately it looks as though we'll have to eat the bowl of wrapped sweeties ourselves!
Helen