The Halloween Thread

[MedusasBadHairDay]

I know it's not October yet, but the Christmas forum has been active for months. So I reckon we're allowed

I always find that focusing on Halloween is a good way to deal with the "it's not summer anymore" blues.

I'm not sure what I'm doing this year, we've moved over the summer. Where we used to live quite a few houses on the road get decorated and encourage trick or treaters. So it will be interesting to see if my new neighbours join in or if we'll be the only house with pumpkins outside.

So I need to try and find some events for the kids to go to, just in case. I also won't have my sewing machine set up in time to make costumes this year.

So what is everyone else planning? Are you decorating your house regardless? Are you going anywhere special? Do you have costume plans yet?

[ipswichwitch]

No costume plans as yet, but DS2 has declared he wants our house to be the most halloweeny house in the street. He has epic plans for giant spider webs on the front, a mini graveyard set up on the front garden, and I’m sure a smoke machine was mentioned…

[user1471519931]

Thanks OP! Jumping on to see whether has any good and cheap decoration ideas?

[FloconDeNeige]

Great thread idea, OP!

We started to celebrate different events throughout the year to make each season something to look forward to. We live in Switzerland (but are French & British), so we try to celebrate our national events for the kid’s identity too. We do Bastille day, Guy Fawkes, St George’s day etc. Even Chinese new year!

But Halloween is s favourite now. We add to the decorations collection each year and now have a kind of indoor ‘display’ with a Halloween tree (twig-type), skeletons, spiders, bats etc. I also got an old doll off Facebook marketplace and painted her face to look like a zombie last year 🧟‍♀️

Outside we have various hanging skeletons, pumpkins etc. We have a treasure hunt in the garden/forest where the kids and neighbours’ kids hunt for the treats that the ‘monsters’ have hidden. We have Halloween themed party food (look on BBC Good Food for loads of cool ideas).

I’m not good enough with the sewing machine to make costumes so we buy them. DH and I usually get something for ourselves too (not full on fancy dress but a top or hat or something).

Then we read some spooky stories for the kids and DH and I watch horror/scary movie when they’re in bed. It’s on a Sunday this year so we’ll try to make a weekend of it - maybe have a party in the garden around the fire pit.

Oooh I’m all excited about it now!

[UrgentHelpforFriend]

We do it, decorate the house and outside but it's gentle stuff, I had a neighbour once who went for slasher type stuff, blood dripping.. Knives.. I found it too much for 5 and 9 year kids?

We do bat's, cats, cute witches... Pumpkin

[FloconDeNeige]

@user1471519931

Here’s the doll I bought for about £1.50. I just used makeup and food colouring to zombie-fy her!

[UrgentHelpforFriend]

Flocon 😂😂 that's far too scary for us...

That would give us all nightmares.

We go for more gently spooky stuff..

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Thanks OP! Jumping on to see whether has any good and cheap decoration ideas?

I love Hallowe'en and this year it's on a weekend night

I reckon there will be lots of people going round on the Saturday too , so my decorations will go up on the Saturday afternoon (and hope it doesn't rain)

Cheap decorations - I aim to make all mine from tat I have already or very few £ .

Tombstones - use cereal boxes , make them the size you want with a flat box as the base . Cover in newspaper/paste strips to hide the joins . Paint (leftover emulsion) speckle with dark paint , cover in ivy from the garden


Hallowe'en Tree - branches , paint black , bind the stems and I put them in a bucket with a tub of putty then fill in with stones for weight . Hang bats , birds , lights

I buy the white paper lampshades (really cheap) cover one with orange or red tissue and thin wallpaper paste .
Keep one white and attach paper cut out bats flying

The spiderweb fibres stretched out . Add a giant spider and a 'victim' . Doll from charity shop, wrapped in asking tape then wind in the spider web

We have a smoking cauldron ( water vapour)

Pumpkins - big ones with rows of toothpicks for teeth
Little ones with the plastic vampire teeth in cut out mouths ( I don't put a candle in them) Big ones have an LED candle for safety

A row of jars covered in tissue paper with LED candles



And if you have them , 2 black cats sitting on the windowsill looking spooky and judgey . (We have them but they're always 'busy' )


My DC are adults now so they'll only involve themselves with sampling the sweets .

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Flocon I wanted to get some dolls and give them vampire teeth but my DD reckoned they'd be "too much"

Still might though if I can find a suitable one ....!

[ipswichwitch]

Pinterest is a good place to look for making decorations cheaply. We’re using balloons to make papier-mâché pumpkins that we can paint and varnish so they’ll hopefully last a few years.

[FloconDeNeige]

@UrgentHelpforFriend

Last year I suspended her by a noose inside a cage!

[ActonSquirrel]

[quote FloconDeNeige]@user1471519931

Here’s the doll I bought for about £1.50. I just used makeup and food colouring to zombie-fy her![/quote]
That would have given me nightmares as a kid. Poor doll!

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I made some floating ghosts with white light up balloons , a square of old bedsheet threaded over the hanging string and a ghosty face drawn on with thick Sharpie pen. Hang from a tree

[languagelover96]

Not sure yet
Following for ideas

[FloconDeNeige]

@ActonSquirrel

[UrgentHelpforFriend]

Oh no.. I don't go down that route at all... Definitely more gentle privative style halloween.. Rather than the slasher stuff my dc are too young...

Broom sticks, witches hats.. Ruby slippers, pumpkins, bat's.. Gentle ghosts... Eerie green lights... Orange pumpkin lights.....

The hardest we go is a few scary spiders.

It's mostly under ten or just over who go trick or treating around here.. So we don't stop at the slasher type horror houses.

[UrgentHelpforFriend]

Tk max and homesense always have brilliant stuff

[ActonSquirrel]

Broom sticks, witches hats.. Ruby slippers, pumpkins, bat's.. Gentle ghosts... Eerie green lights... Orange pumpkin lights.....

Well exactly. When did Halloween become turning childrens dolls into murder victims? It's actually quite disturbing

[FloconDeNeige]

We don’t do slasher-style gore stuff either, but zombies, vampires etc. are definitely in scope. My DC are 5 and 3.

My zombie doll was inspired by one I saw at Asda but they wouldn’t deliver it to Switzerland so I made one myself.

Pinterest is a great source of ideas too.

[KurtWilde]

Ooh a Halloween thread! I'm in. I've been collecting Halloween bits from tkmaxx for the last couple of weeks, but tbh a lot of them stay out all year round because they suit my style.

By far our best Halloween party was when I transformed our house into a haunted house ghost train a few years back, complete with dangling spiders in webs, skeletons,screams and eerie lighting as you did the walk through. The kids loved it. I'd like to do something along the same likens this year. Happy to soak up the inspiration on this thread and add my own ideas if anyone needs some! 🎃

[Soubriquet]

I dress up every year for work. My plan this year is “a fine line between love and hate”

I’m gonna be half black and red/pink (vertically)

Then I’m going to have life style make up one side and dark style make up on the hate side

[FloconDeNeige]

It's actually quite disturbing

It’s Halloween 🎃

[ActonSquirrel]

@FloconDeNeige

It's actually quite disturbing

It’s Halloween 🎃

There's Halloween and there is dressing up a toy that resembles a human child as a zombie.

Utterly bizarre

[ActonSquirrel]

There's a reason they don't show zombie kids and babies very often in films...

[Soubriquet]

and yet this toddler rocks the zombie look

[FloconDeNeige]

@ActonSquirrel

Not bizarre in the slightest. Why don’t you get back to OLD and stop trying to sour the tone of a nice, festive thread, eh? Off you pop…