We have a variation in east London... the smallest kid or best actor gets dressed in old clothes and a mask, slumps down in a corner or against a wall and his mates berate passers by for a 'penny' although they expect rather more and if you try to give them a penny, they'll like as not spit at you or call you names. It's frowned upon here now as 'demanding money with menaces'... the same fate a London Borough tried to put on 'trick or treating'...

LTS