It depends on the child’s development level. In general you just scare your own family. Others they don’t know is stranger danger. Seeing people in a scary costume is something they have control off for approaching or running away to safety, but hidden in a corner popping out at the last moment in a scary costume is too much for kids that age typically. If the child is next to someone they trust, they need the option to quickly go to that person for safety. In general boys sometimes are willing to take more risk.
Anything short of causing physical injury or death is perfectly acceptable. Children should be frightened to the point where they experience terrifying nightmares and/or incur mental trauma that lasts deep into adulthood. This will weed out the snowflakes in society. :) It should also help create awesome horror movie directors in the decades to follow.
I feel ashamed but I used to welcome them with a scary mask on and without lights on haha. It was a good laugh until I realised they could need therapy…
Where I live I don't get any trick or treaters, too rural.
At an old job though, they had a work Halloween party where we would decorate the team area's and hand out candy to kids. Starts around 4:30 pm (we closed at 4:30 pm on this day.)
A guy on the team used some scrap wood to make a coffin, I got some fog machines and black lights, cause when this starts the lights go out. Minor strobe lights... the coffin was big enough to fit an adult in.
Lets just say we had the choice to fill it with candy or have someone hide in the candy and sit up to hand the kids walking up candy each time.
It scared the kids too much, even after we just filled up the coffin with candy... very few kids wanted to come down this aisle to get as much candy as they wanted.
That is until the lights got turned on towards the end.
