Who bothers with Halloween?

[tigercub50]

I have friends who make a really big deal of Halloween ( big party, loads of decorations etc) but we have never done much apart from trick or treating. I make pumpkin lanterns. I prefer Bonfire Night. Anyone do much?

I shall be dusting of the old broom and taking to the skies,its the witches sabath

Halloween is not an American imports it’s been celebrated in Scotland and Ireland for a very, very long time.

My Grandmother (born before the First World War) went guising as child.

The Scots and Irish took it to America- where do you think they got it.

I get that it’s not traditional in all parts of England but it’s pretty insulting to the rest of the U.K. to call it an American import.

Absolutely love Halloween. Prefer it to xmas.

Yes! I absolutely adore both Halloween and Bonfire night it’s my favourite time of year, my mum always made a big thing of it when I was younger too. My daughter is only 3 so we don’t do much in terms of parties but decorating the house, carving pumpkins, getting dressed up, bobbing for apples and trick or treating will definitely be on the cards this year!

I never bother with it. It's just an American import and an excuse for retailers to get us to part with more cash. Ridiculous.

Ffs there is always one (or a few) every fecking year. You would think by now people would Know halloween isnt something the bloody americans invented!

I grew up in Liverpool (70s/80s) and we always celebrated Halloween - I guess the Irish influence in a lot of families (including my own) was a factor. We used to carve out turnips (that then stank the house out), dress up, play duck apple etc. Shops used to sell little masks and witches' hats. I don't remember trick or treating though - we just used to have or go to a party, usually at the neighbours'.

I agree with PPs who said they like the nostalgia of it, and prefer the spiders/witches/cats etc to the "horror" stuff. I agree with all that. Planning to have a little party this year for DS and some friends - looking forward to it.

I'm listening to the Audible version of Gobbolino, The Witch's Cat at the moment, which is also making me feel quite Halloween-ish!

I'm in the Midlands, and we never did much as a kid. Trick or treating was frowned on as "begging", but we did do things like apple bobbing, etc.

Now, there are more and more trick or treaters, but there's a hard core of teens who keep buying flour and eggs for "tricking". Otherwise, it's nice to see youngsters out in organised groups with adults.

We'll be moving house over those few days, but I might try to remember to have a tub of sweets on hand. Maybe next year, when I've gauged how the neighbours view it, I'll be a bit more obvious.

Love it. I’m Scottish sonits always been big deal and nothing to do with America. Going out guising, playing games, going out as a young woman to the pub dressed up, decorating the house....last year I carved my first pumpkin as my Mum wouldn’t get them and I bloody loved it.

I like carving a pumpkin and watching a scary movie but that’s about it! Used to sit with the lights off to avoid trick or treaters but live in the middle of nowhere now so no trick or treaters!

I never take part. We have Bonfire Night instead.

I have always had an uneasy relationship with Halloween. Grew up in a religious household where it was frowned upon so I've never been trick or treating and now I really hate having random people coming to my door. Our area gets loads of Trick or Treaters and I really resent the thought of having to buy a fuckload of sweets for kids who will knock regardless of whether we have pumpkins or decorations out or not (we don't and they still come). Having said that we've been away over the last 2 Halloweens and it's been great. Not away this year and already feeling slightly anxious of the onslaught of kids which I realize is ridiculous. I also hate anything horror/scary related (although I always end up reading the MN woo threads)!

I understand why people like it and don't begrudge those who do but I wish they would just leave alone those who don't really want to be involved. I'm always relieved when it's over and I can look forward to Christmas.

Me, I love Halloween, lots of decorations, little party for DD and a few pals and then trick or treating.

Also, I grew up in a Catholic house and we always did Halloween, as did my mum. Who are these Christians who are against it?

I don't now but I did when the kids were small. Pumpkins and tomb stones and trick or treat and a gory dinner with silly names where ketchup depicted blood.

Kids all grown now, so now I switch the lights off and pretend I'm out 😂😂😂

It's a big thing here, our village is jumping- we get 30-40 kids at the door.

It was a big thing when I was a kid (1960s) and my grandmother ( born in 1890) would go guising as a child back then.

It's always been huge in some parts of the UK.

Once you have experienced the smell of burning turnip it cannot be forgotten.

I know some of you on this thread will know what I am talking about.

I wasn't allowed to go trick or treating when I was a child, not was I allowed a pumpkin. I love Halloween and feel it's because of my missed Halloween youth.

Some christians think are indoctrinated to believe its to do with devil worship conjuring up demons etc. So they have 'light parties' to countetact the fact that we will all be possessed by evil spirits on Halloween due to kids dresding up unless tjey save us all😀
If they cared to actually research the origins they would realise tney had completely the opposite end of the stick. But that would spoil their "i dont know anything about it but it must be evil." Mantra.

Not all christians are closed minded though. Our village school is basicslly C of S and they have brill halloween parties every year. And the village has lots of guisers going from house to house on halloween.

I remember my dad swearing over carving a turnip for me to take guising😀 they were damm hard to carve but much more durable than pumpkins😀

We were in Salem the week before Halloween crochetmonkey74. It is such an interesting place to visit, with loads of history. Have a fab time.

Are you in Yorkshire Boblingoblino31? Mischief Night was always a thing when I first moved to Leeds in 1980, but it is a non event these days.

Why do some people still insist it is an American tradition? Surely everyone knows it isn’t. The commercialisation of Halloween might be American, but the idea behind it isn’t.

I celebrate both (I love any reason for a celebration). I usually go to a Halloween party and dress up. As a kid I used to make toffee apples an cinder toffee and we’d have party games such as ducking apples. I loved it. Now that I have a baby I may be hanging up my party days but when the baby starts to grow up I’ll definitely want to celebrate it.

For bonfire night I usually attend a local fireworks display, eat hot dogs and drink mulled wine/beer. I love the community spirit!

When I was young it was big business . Turnips is what we used to carve and we always had treacle soaked pancakes hanging from string which we used to play a game. Dunking for apples. I Scotland it wasnt trick or treat. You had to perform to get a treat... with my DC now we are in London. People around us make a big effort to decorate the outside of their houses. Pretty amazing sites. I always have cobwebs on my hedge outside, pumpkin lights along the path, two carved pumpkins outside too. The streets are full of DC trick or treating. We love it...and I love Bonfire night too..

Hanyu - witchcraft exhibition at the ashmoleum in Oxford? Thanks for the tip!

How can Halloween be an 'American import' when it's a pagan festival, Samhain?

What’s the reason bonfire is no no Grumpy, just out of interest?

I choose not to put my cats through it,they hate it. As do I.I think fireworks should only be done by organised groups with experience/training,they can be lethal if not properly controlled. But that's just MY opinion,I'm not forcing others to agree with me.

I agree with you Grumpy. I love an organised firework display but really hate them being used by the general public.

We dress the house up for Halloween - I used to carve the pumpkins but I now have plastic ones that light up in different colours (the tackier the better in our house!)

We all dress up too - it's great seeing the little ones faces when a witch opens the door.

We also use one of DS's old baby monitors to hide in the front garden and play Thriller/Monster Mash or the Addams family theme tune when we see Trick or Treaters coming - last year we had a group of teenagers doing the Michael Jackson dance up the drive (they didn't know we were watching). Hilarious! When the older ones come we also tend to do a 'mwahaha' over the monitor - we don't do that for the little ones (I had one burst into tears one year so we stopped that straight away - a little too scary)

We used to get 30 or 40 visitors on Halloween but we seem to be on the Trick or Treat radar now as we got through three tubs of Haribo packs last year and there are 50 in each tub so we know we had at least 150 visitors (excluding the parents - we have to ration 1 pack per kid now or we'd be stuck at the end of the evening). Anything left over we leave on the doorstep in a bowl with a little poem telling people to help themselves but we're not opening the door now so don't bother knocking. Never been disturbed.

We don't do bonfire night so much though. DS never liked fireworks as a toddler so we've never got to the 'must go and see a display' so we just do sparklers in the garden and leave it at that!