This was the decade when adults became paranoid that bad guys were sticking razors in candy apples and drugs in cupcakes to hand out. People were encouraged to no longer give trick or treaters homemade items and even wrapped candy became suspicious, so there were a few years you walked away with a light bag filled with coupons to redeem later. Kids everywhere rebelled and the companies usually wound up not even having to redeem the coupons because they got lost or parents didn't feel like taking the kids to get their freebie. Total rip off.

Halloween costumes of the '80s were hot plastic and rubbery. They smelled weird but kids wore them because you only got one tootsie roll or something really cruddy if you didn't have an impressive costume. Candy was like a trophy or medal. The better the costume, the more you got.

This was compulsory, we all thought they were hinky but they hung in classrooms across America and on front doors. Kids spent time trying to position them in strange and naughty positions. Adults spent time trying to straighten them out.

Bottle caps tasted nothing like your favorite soda, they were given out in these little packets with three and sometimes you lucked out and got a "cola" but usually you wound up with three cherry or grape flavored tablets.

Every Halloween, almost every popular kids' cartoon came out with a special you had to stay home to watch because there was no recording or watching it later. You either saw it (with commercials) or you didn't.

McDonalds always gave out trick or treat bags or buckets. It held a lot of goods so you would talk your mom into it and get a kids meal while you were there. McDonald's won.

These rings were on the cupcakes at every school Halloween party because Halloween wasn't offensive and schools let kids wear Halloween costumes to school (even if they broke the dress code because there really wasn't a dress code back then) and students were given bags of candy, trinkets, and cake, among other treats, in their classrooms. They lived through this ordeal.

Happy meals were special at this time of year, and usually featured real McDonald's Characters that no longer exist.

You would think kids would be disappointed about getting suckers in their trick or treats but these suckers were huge and lasted days. They had good flavors and were worth a decent amount on the classroom trade market that erupted the day after the day after Halloween (because kids got the day after Halloween off of school).

Miniatures were popular, butterfinges and all of the candies our parents got as children were still around and very much worth the footwork and costuming.

These were not worth as much on the candy market. They sat in the bottom of the bucket until the brutal end.

Nerds were tradable and coveted because they were fad candy. They were hard, they tasted terrible, but they were so hot nonetheless.

These all came in ittle boxes and were very desirable loot.

These little babies ONLY came out around halloween, they were pretty rare and worth at least 10 boxes of nerds.

Newsflash: It was regular gum in a packet with a pumpkin. There were a lot of candies back then that were just regular and kids everywhere got excited, thinking they were getting ready to tear into a pack of gum that looked like a pumpkin or had pumpkin features. Nope nope. Gum. Pink.

Some houses gave out bags filled with candy- bags just like these. Papery bags of happiness that you unwrapped like little gifts. These bags often contained pencils, erasers, stickers, coupons, and a few pieces of candy. Totally rad, a major score.

McDonalds came out with these buckets that kids felt they had to have. There was always one that was the pumpkin everyone wanted so parents had to buy many happy meals trying to "win" the right bucket. These buckets were way too small for serious trick or treaters to actually use.

Chicken nuggets Halloween toys were actually hot collectibles

These came out during the season and were the same as candy cigarettes. But better because they were haunted.

In the mid 80s, kids started being creative and saying, "NO MORE" to those stinky masks and rubbery latex plastic god knows what costumes.

Witches without masks, black cats with headband ears, punk rockers and gypsies joined the plastic-costume-clad sheerahs and Masters of the Universe.

There were those stingy houses that thought one or two of these were fair. Their houses were TP'd later that night.

These scare '80s kids even now.

Rings. Spider rings. Everywhere. Usually black ones. They never fit little fingers.

More rings. What was it with the '80s and these rings?

These were Halloween slapping you in the face. You would trade this for an apple with a razor blade.

Some kids never tried these but they were peanut butter taffy- creamy with little bits of crunch in some. You could easily get these for free off of all of the other kids at the end of the night. Smart kids told the other kids how awful they were, the myth circulated and smart kids continued to win Halloween.

More rad Halloween programming because it wasn't just one night, it was two weekends worth of great night time tv.

These signs. EVERYWHERE.

These came out in the late 80s. They were rubbery and fun to throw and squeeze

Wakey wafers were weird and chalky, everyone only liked one flavor so you spent half of your Halloween party trading the other nasty ones

Pails of bones. You really just wanted the pail because it was cool to put in your backpack.

These were delicious and the purple ones were out at Halloween

Pretty much every school gave their students a bag to go trick or treating with. Parents did that with their kids and those who didn't threw the bag away without a big protest. It was a pretty great time to be alive.

People left bowls of candy out and kids honestly only took one.

The costumes were still pretty scary and awesome.

And everyone had these pumpkin flashlights but no one actually used them and most kids left them at home because who wanted to carry that when you had huge sacks of candy to haul? (And yeah, after about age 8, you trick or treated with your friends)

These were in cupcakes when people got tired of the ring craze.

THese were sad suckers. They were smaller than dumdums. They were given to parents to pay them for their services (which is why kids started trick or treating on their own around 8 years old, when they got smart and didn't want to pay for an escort anymore).

Costumes