Lemax Haunted House costume kids and little witch looking in the mirror. A combined set.
By the mid-20th century, Halloween traditions closely resembled the ones you follow - parties, haunted houses, dressing up in popular costumes, and scaring people around your neighborhood. Central to the late-October celebration was - and is - trick-or-treating. Kids from as young as a few months old to as old as 12-14 dress up in costume and travel around the neighboring houses to ring doorbells/knock on doors asking for sweets. Once their neighbors answer the door (or greet them outside), they shout, "Trick or treat!" and get rewarded with a few pieces of candy. The idea is that you're bartering with the kids for candy so that they don't pull any pranks on you (like toilet papering your house, sticking forks in your lawn, and so on), and what once started as a religious practice quickly became a way to quell children's mischievousness for one night.