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?

Re costumes.

They are heavily discounted after Halloween. I get them from sainsbury afterwards and store for for following year.
3 50 for dress that was 14

PinkCalluna that sounds ace!

When do people start decorating? I usually only put my stuff up on the day itself, but now I'm thinking I should do it earlier!...

Scottish. Definitely guising and always have done Halloween. Am quite old and my mum used to do turnip and bobbing for apples.

The Uk isn’t just England ....

Given that we’re usually fighting the Scottish weather we decorate the inside the day before (things in windows and in the hall) and then pop our pumpkins and outside decorations out just before guising starts on the day.

Me . But it's a much bigger deal in Scotland

Pink in England children don’t beg either. Where I live children only go to decorated houses with a pumpkin outside them, as that is shorthand for ‘please come to my door as I have some treats for you’. No, they kids don’t do a party piece (though I always enjoy checking out their costumes) but they don’t beg. Getting slightly tired of having to say this year after year.

I dont. Kids have been to local parties in their day but i never decorated the house not invited anyone to knock on my door for sweets. If they did I ignored them.

Nah! Never have and never will, must admit I'm one of those people who scathingly refers to it as an American "thing" which has been pushed onto us by retailers. Live in Australia, so there hasn't really been any tradition of it here. Luckily I live rurally with no neighbours so can ignore it all completely.

Pink in England children don’t beg either

Oh sorry River! I didn’t mean to suggest that I thought they did!

My comments were in response to earlier posters saying they don’t like Halloween “begging”. It’s just easier to challenge that assertion with guising because you are effectively performing for your sweeties.

Apologies for the confusion.

My kids are now old enough to go guising, so we go about and they each have a “party piece”, last year the 4 year old did incey wincey spider. We only get a few guisers as we’re very rural but I make them do a piece too, none of this trick or treat nonsense!

I bought a Halloween wreath from John Lewis and we have pumpkins and a neep carved but that it!

No probs

It is not an American invention ffs!!! I know it's been said 100x before.... It's a celtic thing brought to America by the Irish!!

Yes it has been commercialised beyond recognition as have most holidays.

HALLOWEEN IS NOT AMERICAN!!!!! (shouty rant over 😜👻🎃🦇)

Irish and the Scots Been

HALLOWEEN IS NOT AMERICAN!!!!
Halloween, as recently introduced into many parts of England, is American.

I've been on and on and on about Halloween being a big deal in Scotland and not an American import for years and years on mn...No one listens to me waaaaah.

I have noticed more.and more American influences in the last few years but I think k that's from supermarkets selling the same stuff as in England so it all says trick or treat etc. ITS CALLED GUISING.

I believe you Ginger
I know it isn't an American import

What’s so bad about American cultural imports? What a colonial snobbish thing to say.

I agree with you RiverTam
My mother was born and grew up in Germany. Her grandmother was Dutch. When I was a child our Christmas traditions were a mix of German, Dutch and English customs.

So we celebrated St Nicholas on 6th December, had Advent calendars, ate Lebkuchen etc.

I believe that Christmas trees became popular in the UK when Prince Albert had a Christmas tree set up in Windsor castle - oh and he was German.

I love the acceptance and mix of traditions we have here.

RiverTam

Nothing wrong with American imports at all. I have no issue with that.

I do have an issue with factual inaccuracies.

It's my favourite time of year/ I usually have a party, even before having kids. I love everything about it

It is the done thing on MN to be sneery about Halloween (as many people in England assume it's an American import and it's OK to be sneery about anything American, right?) and express preference for good old British, rainsoaked bonfire night.

Halloween is so much fun and a safe way to explore pretend scary things. I am not keen on bonfire night - it's about religious wars, politics, terrorism and gruesome, barbaric torture. Real scary stuff. I know which one I prefer!

Love Halloween! (Cackle, cackle!) My 6 dc are grown up now but doesnt stop me filling the house with all the props n decs, spiders, masks, skeletons, creepy masks, lanterns, ornaments. Miss the parties we used to have when they were younger. The food, the dressing-up and trick or treating. The toffee apples too. Still love to get in the theme of it n excited to do all over again now DGD is 18 months! It's a fun thing to do, much less stressful than xmas where there's so much pressure to get everything right. It just feels right to do this as a, sort of, celebration of autumn. With the leaves turning orange and brown, nights drawing in, all cozied up indoors in the evenings watching scary films in the dark. Followed by November 5th with the bonfires and fireworks. My fave time of year.

Speakout I know, and those have been addressed in the thread. I’m now picking up on the sneeriness about American imports that always pop up on these threads.

No, Halloween isn’t an American invention. But so what if it was?

We love Halloween and usually do something fun.This year we'll be in Tenerife. My dd is moaning that she'll miss all the fun 😂

When the children were small and there were lots of children in our small cul de sac we did. They are all grown up now.