When I first moved to England six years ago and learned what Halloween is about here, I was quite surprised.

How did the enjoyable and inoffensive custom of trick or treat in the US turn into the dreaded, poster banning and law breaking event that it has become here?

I am an American who has lived in this lovely town of Malvern for the past six years with my British husband and our daughter. I grew up in the US and it may astonish some readers, that as both a child and an adult, I very much enjoyed the traditions of Halloween year after year.

In America, trick or treating is not about money, or playing mean and malicious tricks on people, or trying to scare or threaten the elderly. Rather, it is about a sense of fellowship and community with our neighbours; bringing together both the youngest and eldest members of the neighbourhoods for a single evening of fun (it is only celebrated on the 31st of October and not for several days either side).

It is an opportunity for children to use their imaginations and dress-up in costume. Normally accompanied by adults who stay in the background, the children knock on doors in their neighbourhood and are happily given a small amount of sweets. No money ever changes hands, nor is it expected to.

Quite simply, people who want to take part in trick or treating leave their porch light on; those who leave their light off are never bothered. There is no need for posters or laws to make the practice illegal.

I do not disparage your readers' desire to abandon this occasion, however, it saddens me to think I will also be abandoning a tradition for our daughter, which I myself loved as a child, because of misguided children who have brought fear and anxiety to this occasion.

Nonetheless, maybe we should look closer to home before all too easily blaming America for the element of thuggery that has been added to this innocent tradition.

Mrs J Smith, Malvern Wells.