Believe me, these kids keep me young, and I'm thankful for that.I think that you get more energized when you have more activities piled up.
Murf - If anybody was stupid enough to mess with Halloween when I was a kid, then we would have vandalized the whole town for it. Obviously, as a adult now, I wouldn't do that, but my younger self would have reacted that way, and if they ever tried to restrict Halloween for my kids now I would tell them to go f*ck themselves and just go out anyway.
When I was a kid, trick-or-treating always started as soon as it got dark, and went until 9-10pm depending on the area. We still carry on that tradition to this day, though it usually wraps up around 8pm now because there are less people giving out candy, and there are other activities that kids want to do.
When I was living alone in my 20s, I was very strict about not giving out candy before it was dark because I was so devoted to the tradition, and I turned away kids that would show up in the daylight. Today, I would never do that because I know the world is a very different place than when I was growing up, and some parents are only comfortable bringing their kids out in the daylight for safety reasons, so if kids show up early for trick-or-treating now we always give them candy.
Around here we celebrate Halloween for the whole month with various activities and attractions for people of every age group, though lately it seems like people are getting into the Halloween season earlier and earlier every year because retailers are filling stores with Halloween products as early as July now. It's very similar to how we would always celebrate the Christmas season as soon as Nov. began, but now they start putting out Christmas products as early as Aug. I think it's fine to celebrate these holiday seasons leading up to the big day, as it's something that most people do, myself included, but I think that the traditions of trick-or-treating on Halloween, and opening presents on Christmas, are special events that should only be done on those specific days. Both holidays, as well as any other holidays for that matter, should always be celebrated on their designated day, regardless of what day of the week they fall on.