We came up with a pretty good trick this year involving my daughter's pet rats. Last year, we answered the door with the ratties crawling on our shoulders, which a lot of people freaked out over. This year, my daughter decided to decorate a 30 lb. cat litter bucket with a "Trick or Treat" sign, and put the 4 ratties inside. When the kids came to the door, I'd be holding the bucket up pretty high so they couldn't see what was in it, and then I'd tip the bucket towards them as if to offer them some candy from the bucket. So many different reactions - actually, a lot of the kids LIKED the ratties, some just looked really bewildered, and a few screamed. Of course my daughter was right there with a handful of candy for everyone, and we explained that we were just joking around with the rats. The best was my neighbor from down the street who was doing her first trick-or-treat with her little boy - when she peeked into the bucket she screamed and jumped back off of the porch! I guess we had forgotten to mention that we have pet rats.......

Speaking of rude trick-or-treaters, don't you love the ones who come to the door dressed as themselves? You'd think they could put forth SOME effort to get free candy. I had one kid last year who came to my door 2 minutes before the end of trick-or-treating and say "give me all your leftover candy - it's going to be over in a few minutes anyway!" Cheek! I told him I would be happy to take care of the leftover candy myself.....since I always pick out something I wouldn't mind eating.....