Halloween alternatives?

[mag2305]

Does anyone do anything different for Halloween or approach it in a slightly different way with their children?
My son is still quite young but at an age of understanding a bit more now. However I'm just not sure how I feel about Halloween.

approach it in a slightly different way
Depends what you mean by this. A slightly different way to what?

I make a Halloween themed meal, something daft like stuffed peppers or pumpkin pie (but no one liked this, so won't do it again), DH and the DC carve a pumpkin. I don't like trick or treating and I've only ever done it once when it was a birthday party for a friends child. Last year, DC2's class was in quarantine so we were saved a lot of hassle, dressed up and watched a spooky film. I don't think we got into the whys and wherefores of it, DH is a lapsed catholic, I'll leave it to him!

I decorate the house in an autumnal way and do pumpkins. No scary things, no skeletons etc, I don't like them.

You could do a version of the Welsh Galan Gaeaf, the first day of winter on November 1st and change the decor in the house to winter things, start a winter scrapbook, cook something together that celebrates winter.

Maybe go for a walk and talk about the changing of the seasons and see what you can find. It's good to teach kids about nature.

I don't like Halloween so we don't really do anything really.

This year we might do a Halloween trail along our high street, but no dressing up or decorations.

Which bits don’t you like?

My parents always took us to church Autumn/Harvest parties on Halloween. Potentially an option if you’re religious (and happy for your children to be told their friends are going to hell for trick or treating)

Otherwise just choose any elements you do like and stick with them. Pumpkin carving, watching a spooky film, autumn crafts, etc. Trick or treating isn’t compulsory.

We don't do trick or treating, we have sweets for for kids that come round and my boys (2 and 5) will give them out. In lieu of trick or treating we do a Halloween Piñata for them to get their goodies.

This is what we did last year and are planning to do it again:

We'll decorate the house, and have a few Halloween theme treats like cupcakes or something laying around for them. We also all dress up for the day. They will they have our (now) traditional Halloween lunch of proper sausages in buns and baked potatoes for lunch.

Kids do their piñata for their treats and eat them during our spooky kids movie afternoon (Casper, Hocus Pocus etc and some Simpsons treehouse of horror episodes.). Will order a takeaway either chips or pizza dinner before doing sparklers and watching the fireworks from the surroundings houses.

A hot chocolate and special "Halloween" bath bomb (just a orange one usually) and a bedtime story with a monster or ghost in it then off to sleep. :)

We don't "do" Halloween ourselves but never restricted DD from going to a party or joining friends for trick-and-treat if she is invited.

I have autumn decorations in the house but no pumpkins. We love collecting conkers, beech fruits, cones. DD learned a lot on walks why the leaves are chaging colours, about migrating birds and why it gets dark earlier in the day. A lot more important in my opinion.

Could you maybe make it somewhat international and talk to your kid about origins of the most popular traditions and what similar days are there in other countries? You can create a Halloween slideshow but speak about Día De Los Muertos or Samhain and other equivalents as well. Here are some other alternative ways to celebrate the day is you want it to be a bit educational- www.liveandinvestoverseas.com/travel/8-ways-celebrate-halloween-across-globe/

*if you want

What is it you don't like about it?

A lot of 'Hallowe'en' stuff leaves me cold although I do love to dress up as a vampire asuch as the next person

With my children, I went down the route of explaining the original festival of Samhain - and what that actually celebrates rather than what Christianity tells you it celebrates

We do a fairly normal halloween, but my dc are big fans of conkering and that happens at a similar enough time of year that you could use it as an alternative thing to do.

Our local church always organises an alternative to Halloween in the community. It's their way of embracing it without going against their beliefs IYSWIM. I'm not especially religious but join in, so this year is a lantern trail with clues etc... maybe see if any churches or other organisations are doing similar that you could join?

A few of the churches near me have "light parties" as an alternative.

We treat it like day of the dead in that we put up photos of our deceased loved ones and make a big feast and talk about them, tell funny stories etc.

But I love Halloween and was pagan for a long time so it does still feature as a day I love. This year we are going to see Scream at the local cinema once our feast is over, which I am looking forward to.

We have young children and they’re too little for anything scary, plus I don’t really like the scary decorations to be honest.

We’ve decorated the house with homemade autumnal things: cats, hedgehogs, frogs, leaves, broomsticks, pumpkins, bats are favourites. The DC made them (out of yoghurt pots/ loo roll holders / crepe paper etc) and have put them up around the house. We’ll be going pumpkin picking and on a Halloween lights trail closer to the actual day too. On Halloween itself, we’ll dress the DC up (they want to be black cats) and make a special dinner. Maybe pasta dyed different colours? They like hot dogs with edible eyes too. A few of their friends are coming over too for dinner. We’ll put a few orange and black balloons out and some plastic candles and music to set the mood. Then we’ll all go Trick or Treating just around the street together. The friends will go home and we’ll put on pyjamas, watch something really scary (they honestly just like Room on the Broom sort of level ) and let the DC eat their sweets.

There's Halloween slasher, violence, the shining with the axes and I'm never sure who those people cater for to be honest..

Then there is a gentle primative halloween with cute witches cats, pumpkins, bat's, owls...autumn leaves, hedgehogs... Harry Potter... Which caters for most people and most dc.. Without scaring them.
That's the Halloween we do... More casper

We do Samhain but we absolutely love it! We decorate, make wreaths and food and the kids dress up. We carve a turnip and some pumpkins too and we always light a fire or fire pit and some candles. We do some work in the run up to explain the origins and we also consider Calan Gaea and the Day of the Dead as well showing different festivals. We do love scary films though (apart from DH).

@reluctantbrit You can celebrate Halloween and also learn about nature….they aren’t mutually exclusive.

I’ve always celebrated Halloween, and while we put up some Halloween decorations now and carve a pumpkin (something we didn’t do when I was a child, pumpkins were seen as American, not really a thing in Ireland), a lot hasn’t changed. We do homemade costumes, play games, sometimes go trick or treating and eat some goodies!

@Anoisagusaris
Maybe because I am from a country where Halloween wasn't celebrated when I was a child I have no interest in it.

As I said, we don't stop DD enjoying it but we don't actively celebrate it.

For me autum is just too often ignored, in the UK we go from Summer to Halloween and then straight to Christmas (or according to our garden center, we move straight to Christmas since September). It's all about doing activities just for that one day instead of enjoying a beautiful part of the year.

A local church celebrates ‘Light’ and has the children come in colourful clothes, to dance to poppy/positive music, play with glow sticks, etc. I have nieces elsewhere who do this too, as their parents are religious Christians who feel Halloween promotes the occult and dark forces. I don’t know much else as I personally celebrate Halloween/changing of seasons. I think simply celebrating Autumn - the colours, the cycle of Nature, the gathering of harvest, is nice too.

We don't do anything for Hallowe'en, but instead we celebrate St Martin's day on Nov 11th.

We make lanterns, (both hollowed pumpkins and paper), and eat a special meal - sometimes we might have a party with friends.

No witches, ghosts or dressing up, but it's the tradition I grew up with. A bonfire would be traditional for St Martin, but we have a tiny garden so it's a bit antisocial for all the neighbours - we always try to go to a November 5th bonfire and fireworks display instead.

I always feel it's a bit of a mix of the English traditional Hallowe'en and bonfire night with elements from both!