Usually small children begging for candy on strangers’ doorsteps is frowned upon, but on one day each year,  it’s the coolest thing a kid can do. On Halloween night children are encouraged to dress up in fun costumes and walk around neighborhoods asking people for delicious sweets and treats.

But how old is too old to trick or treat? Can teenagers, whose form of a costume is a T-shirt that reads, “This is my costume,” or girls who put ears on their heads that consider themselves a kitten, actually roam the streets trick or treating with the cute two year old kid dressed as a pumpkin?

I think they shouldn’t. Halloween is for children who walk around with their parents because they aren’t old enough to walk up to houses by themselves. It’s a holiday that lets kids dress up as career aspirations and favorite television or movie characters. It’s a day for kids to be different and play make-believe. Candy is just an added bonus, and after you do get candy, you get to go home, sit down with your siblings and your parents and sort out the candy you like and the candy you hope to trade.

I believe that spending quality time with family is what gives Halloween its popularity. Teenagers take away from this concept. They are only in it for the candy and do not really care about the costumes or the traditions. They would never walk the streets with their parents because it would be “too embarrassing.” They wouldn’t try wearing costumes because they would be considered “lame.”

Instead, they take the easy way out by putting together a costume in five seconds, grabbing a grocery bag, and running out the door. Then when they are tired and done with getting strange looks from adults who question why they are asking them for candy in the first place, they sit down and eat it. They do not sort it with their parents or let their dad take the Snickers or their mom hungrily chomp on the Kit-Kat. Rather,  they go to their friend’s house or sit in the park and stuff their faces with whatever candy they were able to get from their neighbors. The extra candy they didn’t eat is simply thrown neglectfully onto a kitchen counter.

Teenagers take away from the importance of family on Halloween. For young children it’s a time to spend with your loved ones in a unique way. Teenagers only use the holiday to get candy, so they should just stop trick-or-treating and sit at home giving candy out to those cute little kids who actually deserve it.