DALLAS — Halloween is an occasion many look forward to celebrating, but an appropriate way to mark All Saint’s Eve has been subject to many varied opinions for decades.
Costumes and trick or treating might be considered the traditional ritual, but the idea of sending young children to get candy from strangers has long been suspect in the eyes of many parents.
Several WFAA stories archived in SMU’s Jones Film Library covered the changing habits of Halloween and advised how to keep it scary yet safe.
A 1975 story examined alternatives after some parents asked Dallas City Hall to ban trick or treating, a request that was too difficult to enforce.
Businesses offered coupons allowing kids to get food and candy from them rather than going door-to-door and some organizations borrowed children from daycare centers as test subjects to determine if their haunted houses were a little too frightening.
Other local Halloween stories: