Lubbock, Is It Rude to Turn Off Your Porch Light on Halloween?

Apparently, Halloween has rules.

Nobody wrote them down or made anything official.

But somehow, we all know them.

Or...we think we do.

One of the biggest questions every October is:

Is it rude to turn off your porch light when you run out of candy, or if you don't have any candy to begin with?

I'd say, no.

Eventually, we all gotta close up the candy shop.

You can't just hand it out all night long...not in this economy.

In 2026, the kids are just lucky we aren't handing out cotton balls and Q-Tips.

(My dad gave out granola bars one year and someone egged his car.)

Some years, I run out of candy in a hurry.

I never seem to be able to estimate how much I really need to buy.

Other years, I hardly get any trick-or-treaters and end up turning a big-ass bowl of candy into several expensive cavities.

But tell me, do you switch the lights off when you're out of the goods?

It never seems to stop kids from knocking and ringing the doorbell.

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Do they know about the porch light rule? Or is it just something my grandma made up?

I was always taught to never knock on a door when the porch light was off.

There's nothing sadder than telling a bunch of Spidermans and princesses that you're out of candy. They always look so disappointed.

Really makes you feel like you had one job and totally blew it...

So, tell me, dear Lubbock:

Are we all on the same page with porch lights?

Have you told your kids to avoid homes that don't have one on?

Or are we all just doomed to sit in the dark and listen to the knocking and ringing until 11 pm, no matter what we do?

Share your Halloween etiquette tips with me at Chrissy.Covington@townsquaremedia.com, and I'll pass them along to the rest of the town!