The age at which someone should stop trick-or-treating is a topic that tends to provoke strong opinions from parents and non-parents alike. While there is no widely accepted cutoff age for older children who want to wear costumes and demand candy on Halloween, most teenagers stop dressing up and trick-or-treating somewhere between the ages of 12 and 16. However, this doesnt necessarily mean its bad manners for them to go door-to-door, as long as they are polite while out on the streets.

Some cities and towns have laws in place around trick-or-treating age limits, such as Chesapeake, Virginia, where officials declared age 14 the cutoff, and Upper Deerfield Township in New Jersey, where there is a suggested age limit of 12. However, according to an informal poll by the Today Show, the majority of people (76 percent of the nearly 3,000 readers polled) agree that there shouldnt be an age limit for trick-or-treating. In a 2017 Today Parents survey of nearly 2,000 people, almost 75 percent of the respondents said that kids should stop trick-or-treating by age 17.

Ultimately, the decision of when to stop trick-or-treating is a judgment call based on the child and the community. Its important to be respectful of others and to follow any local laws or guidelines. As etiquette expert Catherine Newman notes, "Really, as long as you say please and thank you, you’re good to go".