Should costumes be required for trick-or-treating? (Poll)

For some reason in NJ, no costume seems to be more common than it used to be. Maybe it's just being noticed more since fewer trick-or-treaters seem to go out nowadays.

Regardless of that, there is one costume that's probably the scariest of them all. And that costume is the one with no effort.

And when I say no effort, I don't mean a last-minute wardrobe thrown together. I mean absolutely no effort at all.

No effort. No makeup. No mask. No whacky clothes. Nothing.

And in my opinion, that is the laziest way to participate during Halloween. Never mind trick-or-treating, it's lazy even for a Halloween party.

And this is even more common among older kids and teenagers, where they go out with their bags for candy on Halloween going door-to-door without any type of costume whatsoever.

At least put some effort into it. Maybe draw whiskers on your cheeks or wear a funny hat. Something!

Every year when trick-or-treaters like that come to my door I want to turn them away. They usually show up as a group where all of them simply don't bother.

They also usually come after it gets dark. Now, there is an advantage here for them that I bet they don't even realize.

When it gets late, some households might still be stuck with lots of candy. And some people might not care at that point if someone is dressed up or not - they just want the candy gone.

So along comes the group of kids who don't bother with effort on Halloween, and they get rewarded with handfuls of candy.

To me, this isn't right. But I also have to admit, I've given kids like this candy for the same reason outlined above.

It's frustrating, but we can't have an overload of candy in the house. So at the end of the day, these kids win simply by being lazy and going out later in the night.

So what are your thoughts on this? Does it bother you when kids go trick-or-treating without a costume on? And if there is no costume, do you give candy anyway?