[custom_adv] Trump and first lady Melania Trump greeted some of the 6,000 children and adults who were invited for trick-or-treating at the White House on Halloween eve. Children from more than 20 schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia attended the festivities on the South Lawn, along with military families and members of unspecified community organisations. [custom_adv] Spooky music played over loudspeakers. Machines cranked out fog. Pumpkins carved with the likenesses of past presidents decorated the south entrance of the White House. Black spiders hung from webs spun between the portico's columns. [custom_adv] Trump and the first lady, who wore a calf-length coat in the crisp air, welcomed dinosaurs, athletes, police officers, skeletons and more. Trick-or-treaters took home individual gift bags containing presidential M&Ms, a home-baked cookie and other candies. [custom_adv] Trump and his wife chatted with their guests, with the president at times going in for a high-five or posing for photos, including with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family, as well as a skeleton accompanied by a kid sporting one of Trump's "Make America Great Again" caps. Mrs. Trump wished the trick-or-treaters "Happy Halloween." [custom_adv] Several members of the Cabinet came out for the fun, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, dressed as Ms. Frizzle from "The Magic School Bus," and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, sporting a make-believe knife through the head. [custom_adv] The president held a brief, pre-Halloween celebration in the Oval Office last Friday with the children of White House reporters. [custom_adv] He congratulated the journalists for doing a good job raising children, if not for their coverage of his presidency, and handed out small boxes of White House Hershey's Kisses. [custom_adv] "I cannot believe the media produced such beautiful kids. How the media did this, I don't know," Trump exclaimed as the youngsters crowded around his historic desk. [custom_adv] Halloween has been celebrated at the White House since the mid-20th century, with each administration putting its spin on the holiday, according to the White House Historical Association. [custom_adv] First lady Mamie Eisenhower decorated the White House for Halloween for the first time. She invited staff members' wives to an Oct. 30, 1958, lunch in the State Dining Room, which had been decorated with hanging skeletons and jack-o'-lanterns. [custom_adv] Tables were adorned with miniature witches on broomsticks.Large events have been held on the White House grounds or in staterooms since the administration of Richard M. Nixon.