Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X & Boomers Have Different Ideas Of What Age Is Too Old For Trick-Or-Treating
FamVeld | Shutterstock Whether you're dressing up and going door-to-door or handing out candy yourself, trick-or-treating is what Halloween is all about. It's inevitable that every year, though, different age groups and generations start battling it out about what age is the cutoff for kids to be a part of the fun.
Each generation celebrated Halloween differently, and that impacts what age they think is too old for trick-or-treating.
Halloween looked a whole lot different for boomers than the trunk-or-treats that seem to dominate today. The problem isn't so much that the way the holiday is celebrated has changed, but that older generations are still picturing the mischief and mayhem that was just part of the celebration back in the day. Teens specifically were to blame. Teens today aren't the same as teens from 6 decades prior, however.
Boomers think kids should stop trick-or-treating between 11 and 12.
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A Fairleigh Dickinson survey found that boomers were more likely to say that children should stop trick-or-treating at ages 11 or 12. Most people today would say that's pretty young.
Kids that age haven't entered their real teenage years yet, and they're really still kids at heart, no matter how badly they want to grow up. Beyond that, however, is the fact that kids are maturing a little slower these days. That means the 11-year-olds of 60 years ago were more grown up than 11-year-olds today.
Gen X thinks kids should keep trick-or-treating through high school.
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Gen Xer Catherine Newman, an etiquette expert and writer, told Country Living that trick-or-treating is the most innocent and delightful part of Halloween, and there's no reason older teens can't be part of the fun.
Though Newman said she thought kids should keep trick-or-treating through high school, she did have a caveat. She thought that kids should keep trick-or-treating through high school as long as they put effort into their costumes. Newman said, "You have to wear a costume — and wear it like you mean it."
This belief that effort should go into a costume aligns well with what Gen X is like overall. Gen X has many beliefs about work ethic and putting their best foot forward in everyday life. It makes sense that they would want to see teenagers putting effort into their costumes in order to participate.
Millennials just want whoever wants to trick-or-treat to have the best time.
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Millennials are now the parents of most of the young kids out trick-or-treating, and being parents to these kids means watching trick-or-treating become trunk-or-treating or the switch witch. These new trick-or-treat trends aren't necessarily bad, but they aren't what millennials imagined when they thought about taking their kids out on Halloween.
Millennials are a generation that is obsessed with Halloween because of their nostalgia for how much fun the holiday used to be for them, and they want that for their kids and anyone else who wants that, for that matter. That means if someone is willing to dress up and come to their door, age is not a factor.
Gen Z loves spooky season and thinks everyone should trick-or-treat.
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In the Fairleigh Dickinson University survey, Gen Zers said that kids should be able to trick-or-treat at any age. It's far from surprising given Gen Z's love of Halloween and self-expression.
Gen Z is a generation that understands the need to heal their inner child, and a lot of them do so by going back to their childhood interests.
The data on how much Gen Z loves Halloween pretty much never stops, too. According to the National Retail Federation, consumer spending this year is expected to reach $13.5 billion. That's up by $8 billion from 2012, which makes a lot of sense since in 2012, the earliest of Gen Z were 15 years old, and the youngest were literally being born that year.
Lyss Micalizzi is a writer covering human interest and pop culture, with a master’s in Literature and Culture, a bachelor’s in English Literary and Textual Studies, and over six years of writing and social media experience. Their work is driven by the belief that stories are what make us human.
