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?

Yep, I do, usually dress up and take the kids trick or treating, dressed up and face painted, whilst one of us stays home to dish out sweets.

Usually make a fair bit of effort with the garden, fake cobwebs everywhere, spooky signs, fake graves/tombstones, hanging disturbed motion sensor mummy, skeleton in a cage that rattles and screams when someone’s near and a sweet bowl that tries to eat your hand...all a bit over the top but I love it, although last year we had to have an alternative bowl as lots of the little kids were too afraid to put their hands in
We normally have a good turnout of children, I’d estimate around 100

We carve pumpkins, one per child although that’s probably my least favourite bit! I’ve taught my kids from small not to knock unless there’s Halloween decs/ pumpkin outside and one yr we were ill and didn’t decorate and not one person knocked!

I don't partake in Halloween, I am an oldie and live alone.. But I think it's nice for children if it's kept simple, and not buying all the mass market tatt that's now available everywhere.

I live in a village, and its customary now, for safety reasons I expect, for there to be two adults and a group of 6 kids coming round at intervals, for trick or treating. Gladly, or sadly, whichever way you look at it, I never answer my door now. I am not ever a grumpy oldie, but its very annoying to have a continuous stream of people coming round every few minutes..

Last year, I had put a large pail of apples by my back door for trick or treat, and two kids said, we don't want apples, we want chocolate or money !! oh well, off you go then ha ha.

We have as many Halloween decorations as Christmas decorations now, but that is only since the children became aware of it. As a kid myself it was a quick dress-up in a firelighting cape or something and banging on a few doors. My kids like the whole lot - party, decorating the house and garden, farm pumpkin picking/carving and game and party bags, outfits, etc etc - but they have so much fun it's kind of infectious so I'm cool with it!

We don't. Kids don't go out guising, we don't give out sweets to children who knock and we certainly don't spend money on tat to decorate the house - how tacky.

Quite like a firework display, but the organised ones only.

how tacky

Having a lot of fun.is 'tacky'? 🤔

maybe at your house not at mine and we and the loads of the guisers who come to.my door love it

I would love to but we live on a private estate with a lot of elderly people who dont do anything and moan about trick or treaters and put signs up to make them go away. We have to take the kids to a nearby new estate and they get lots of sweets but I'd love to be able to decorate the house and have lots of sweets for the kids out.

We have pumpkins for the kids and always taken them out trick or treating when they were younger. DS is too old now, DD is old enough this year to go out with her mates so we don't have to!

When I was a child we had swedes instead of pumpkins, don't remember anybody having a real pumpkin. The swedes took days to carve out with a teaspoon but looked awesome.

We didn't do trick or treating though, we just did mischievous night (Leeds). I live in Wiltshire now, nobody here has ever heard of mischievous night.

I like bonfires but fireworks displays bore me and scare the dogs so not as keen on that as I used to be. The big bonfire here is on a saturday night near 5th November, I'm sure it used to only be on the actual day which is better IMO, keeps the disruptions levels to one night only.

Oh yes, the smell of burning turnip! I’ve only switched to pumpkin in recent years, but can’t deny they are much easier.
We do get lots of kids round where we are (Midlands) and they’re welcome, but I (and DH) still wish they’d do something to earn their sweeties, like we had to in Scotland.

Burnt turnip is the smell of ‘proper ‘ Halloween

I might try doing a turnip again this year for old time's sake! I'd just like to smell a burning turnip once more and see if it takes me back. I'd probably end up giving up half way through though.

I remember my mum used to have some kind of system of cutting it into cubes inside and then scooping the cubes out - it was still really hard to do though and we always had loads of bent spoons afterwards!

We weren't allowed anything to do with witches, ghosts etc as kids. Religious reasons. So Halloween has no nostalgia value for me and I just don't bother with it as it's so close to bonfire night.

Potential In our house it was the smell of hot wax and singed fodder beet I think my dad just enjoyed drilling and Jackie g away at something when I was growing up, because we always had beet lanterns but they didn’t give a monkeys for Halloween!

I don’t really believe in any of it but I’m happy to have a reason to dress up/drink something mulled/have a party/watch hocus pocus at the start of the dreary autumn.

I loved Bonfire Night as a teen, but DS1 is like I was as a child and hates the noise/anticipation of noise that comes with fireworks. Because of that we’ve swerved it for the last few years.

Im Scottish and I love Halloween. DD is to young to go guising but we have a turnip (swede) lantern in the window, and cat's ears headbands. And a stock of sweets for kids who knock on the door. They call it trick or treating.- we're in London. They don't have a "piece" ready but we give them the sweets anyway. I make treacle scones but don't dangle them, just eat them with plenty the of butter.

It's not a very traditional Halloween thing to do but I'm going to a gig in Bath to see the wonderful John Grant again. I'm very excited 😊😊

We love Halloween, our village is crazy for it, loads of decorated houses and people out chatting in the streets. Really seems to bring people together.
The 2 churches are polarised though!! The Catholic one seems to put on events but the Church of England one has a " festival of light" instead. (Presumably to save us all from the sugar overload?). Xx

Used to have a great time at Halloween when the kids were young (90's and 00's,) having parties, and fun 'horror movie' nights.

But now they have left home, they do their own thing with their partner(s) and friends, and the young kids in the neighbourhood do their thing. I can't really be bothered with doing Halloween with others, and won't be partaking in the trick or treat stuff in the village.

I have done it before, (when I lived in a cul de sac on the fringes of a big estate,) and had to get up and answer the door around 35-40 times between 5pm and 9pm on Halloween night. I am not kidding.

I ran out of sweets and had to start giving them kit-kats and curly whirlies and milky ways and penguin bars. It was such a ball-ache after the first 20 or so. Only did it once, and that was enough!

Me and my husband do plan on watching our top 10 fave horrors over the Halloween period though - between 26th and 31st. He is going to pick his fave 5, and I'm going to pick mine. And we may get some orange French fancies, and some wine!

I definitely don't like Halloween more than Christmas though. I start celebrating that on 1st December, when all the decorations go up, and all the fairy lights go on, all over the house, and all over the garden.

Halloween is NOT an American invention! The Celts started Samhain, then it became All Hallows Eve, followed by All Saints Day and All Souls Day (so there are three days of celebrating, which I think is brilliant,) as Christianity took over.

PsychedelicSheep It's this, you need to buy tickets though. I got mine this morning! My mum's coming with me.

www.ashmolean.org/spellbound

I'm going to this as well, except on my own because my mum will still be at work.

ashmolean.web.ox.ac.uk/event/fear-and-loathing-of-witches

Ooh, I'm looking forward to this! I find myself fascinated by the history of witchcraft and the legends and myths surrounding it. It's going to be a long day though, I need to get to Oxford, get to my hotel, get changed, and then get to the musuem. And then I'm going to my mum's house for the evening and I'm going trick or treating with my niece!

The church I go to has a Trunk or Treat every year, I will get to go to it one year!

We love Halloween. Not many people even do a pumpkin anymore but we decorate our house every year and have shitloads of kids coming. I love it. My kids don’t usually go out because it’s more towards the back of the town that are more decorated and my mum usually works so someone needs to be in. They love answering the door anyway. Never complained about trick or treating 😊

I like Halloween and usually get stuff in for the guisers but last year I didn’t have anyone,despite having my pumpkin at the door so I done think I’m going to bother this year

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

I suspect that when people say this, they mean that the Halloween that now takes place in many parts of England is an American import. I grew up in rural England, and Halloween was barely marked, the occasional party maybe but the big night was bonfire night.

I'm well aware that certainly in Ireland and Scotland it has a long history and tradition, but what is now sold in the shops for many people is an imported custom. Nothing wrong in that for those who enjoy it, but it can put pressure on people to conform and can be an unwelcome expense if kids are expecting costumes etc.

Could someone please tell me what a guiser is? Tried looking it up but it keeps defaulting to geyser!

sneakygremlins

Oh no!! We do Halloween but the usual version back in 70s which was small.

No trick or treating

But as an adult I love it now. I do find it to be a magical mysterious..
I have lots of gentle Dec's now, cats, witches hats, sweet looking witches, couldron, broom, cob webs... It's all really gentle and more like Harry Potter set than slasher psycho ville. I actually really hate the slasher gore blood side I can't get into that and even seeing it on shop aisles it's very graphic for small children to see.

It's great in our area loads of houses make an effort too. It's brilliant atmosphere. More than anything I like the Mark in change of seasons.

There’s a couple of meanings but basically a person in disguise milk

I must admit aside from carving a pumpkin I would have been oblivious too to the Halloween world out there. An old neighbour with dc same age was astonished when I said no not going out! She sort of dragged us out and I was astonished at all the dressed up houses and the effort some people go too! I loved loved loved it and the dc had so much fun

Milk is Scotland we don’t do “trick or treating” we do guising.

The key difference is that you don’t get your Halloween treats for nothing (so it’s not begging).

You have to do a party piece before the householder hands over your sweeties.

These days most kids tell a Halloween themed joke but we also get songs and poems. One year I had some talented breakdancing on the doorstep

It’s no hardship to spend a couple of ours handing out treats to cute kids in costumes who are telling jokes.