I had a tub of Haribo packets ready last Thursday, The Lass was home first and made the effort of lighting candles in two lanterns to put on the front windowsill.
I had to pop out on a shopping jaunt, one group of children (accompanied by responsible adults, it's that sort of suburb) were hovering about in front of our house in a rather indecisive fashion when I set of, so I popped back inside to get the tub. I saw plenty more such groups on the way there and the way back, and had to repeat the exercise again when I saw another such hovering group on my return.
The Lass told me that only one further group had plucked up the courage to knock on the door while I was out. At the post mortem, Her Indoors and The Lass confirmed solemnly that there is a rule that if you have sweets ready for trick-or-treaters, you have a lit up pumpkin visible from the street; and if not, children assume you are some sort of Hallowe'en Grinch and won't bother knocking.
I told them that this was new to me, we've didn't display a pumpkin in previous years, but kids still knocked. I went trick-or-treating with my own kids when they were younger, they just knocked at every door and hoped for the best, there was no concept of just knocking where a pumpkin was on display, some dished out sweets and some didn't.
They both remained adamant that this is - and by somehow always has been - an unwritten rule. I did a quick and unrepresentative survey at work, nobody had ever heard of it.
So that's my question - is there such a rule? Or were Her Indoors and The Lass imagining it into existence? Did I miss something?