Page 2 | Does anyone not celebrate Halloween?

PineapplePear · 31/10/2022 22:44

Im from a catholic background, but atheist- still celebrate Christmas and Easter, these traditions go back further and it’s just fun to have celebrations. Why not?

Lampzade · 31/10/2022 22:47

I don’t and have never ‘celebrated’ Halloween.

lizzardinablizzard · 31/10/2022 22:48

We do pumpkin carving, as we had to do one for school when dc had just started (pta competition), and he is now asking to do that. A bit of a waste of pumpkin but fun!

If dc asks to go treat or tricking we will prob take him but he hasn't so far. I wouldn't be looking forward to him having obscene amounts of sugar before bedtime though.

We don't do scary in our house. I don't watch horror movies. DC finds the lava in Moana scary (younger than 6yo), and is not keen on any of the Halloween costumes (some are really gory!).

We often go to the cemetery to lay flowers for family passed away. I'd hate for dc to think of tombstones as scary or to start fearing zombies coming out of the graves etc. It's all creepy and tasteless, imo.

I don't get Halloween, so no, nothing celebrated here as such.

RedHelenB · 31/10/2022 22:58

heartbroken22 · 31/10/2022 22:02

What do you say to your kids if you don't?

Id say "Have a read of mumsnet they all agree with me"

AlwaysLatte · 31/10/2022 23:08

We do always celebrate it, but it's totally fine if others don't. Children learn that different families live differently and that's fine too. My children don't celebrate Diwali but are aware of it and appreciate that others do.

Privacyrequirednamechange · 31/10/2022 23:08

My 13 year old thinks it's babyish. Everyone to their own.

It's not mandatory.

Heatherjayne1972 · 01/11/2022 05:22

No it’s not for us
why on earth would anyone ‘celebrate’ death horror and gore
there’s enough negativity in this world already

Never done it. Don’t own any decorations never done trick or treating with the kids

doesn’t stop people knocking tho - and one parent getting angry when I said I dont have sweets/ or do Halloween

RambamThankyouMam · 01/11/2022 05:24

We're Jewish so we don't do halloween. We have a festival in springtime called Purim where we dress up in costumes. On Halloween we don't do anything!

BreatheInFor4 · 01/11/2022 05:26

I’ve never celebrated it.

Took my DC trick or treating when they were young, as they found it exciting and fun. Didn’t feel the need to share my feelings of apathy towards it!

They’re teens now and understand I don’t give a toss about it.

BatshitCrazyWoman · 01/11/2022 05:31

I'm in my late 50s, and grew up in the south east. When I was a child, I remember Bonfire Night and penny for the guy. We never marked All Hallow's Eve at all, I don't remember pumpkins and all the stuff that's around now! So, no, I don't mark it in any way! My (now adult) DC were mildly interested so we did a bit of pumpkin carving when they were young, but didn't decorate the house or anything. To me, it feels like 'Halloween' suddenly appeared and people started going all out 😂 Doesn't bother me that other people enjoy it, though. It's meaningless to me

MrsSchadenfreude · 01/11/2022 05:54

We did Bonfire Night and Penny for the Guy when I was a child. Not Halloween. I spent a large chunk of my life in Poland and we used to celebrate All Saints’ Day on 1 November and put flowers and candles on the graves.

BonesOfWhatYouBelieve · 01/11/2022 06:21

DDs are too young but I won't do anything for Halloween. I don't morally object to it or anything and I'm not religious, so wouldn't stop them going to a Halloween party if invited. But aside from trick or treating (which I will not do), I'm not sure what else is actually involved in "celebrating" Halloween?

As for what I'll tell them, we don't get trick or treaters round here so I'll just tell them I don't want to, and the neighbours don't do it anyway. Which will be true, no houses have any decorations or pumpkins to suggest they welcome trick or treaters. If they ask to carve a pumpkin the answer will be no because I hate food waste.

KangarooKenny · 01/11/2022 06:24

I took my kids when they were little, but then I read somewhere that it’s like begging, and you are allowing your kids to knock at strangers doors, so it doesn’t sit well with me any more.

Dacadactyl · 01/11/2022 06:28

I just tell the kids that its not a date that has ever been important to anyone in the history of our family. I say that we are not about to start new traditions based on nothing and that ridiculous plastic tat from Tesco isnt coming in this house.

AuntieMarys · 01/11/2022 06:30

Never did it with the children when they were young.....I don't open the door on Halloween either.
I've no problem with those celebrating Samhain...quite the opposite.
I just don't like the way it's now a huge commercial festival...a reason for people to buy more plastic tat.

jewishmum · 01/11/2022 06:33

We take joy in seeing decorations in shops and windows/doorways and we look forward to Purim which is a holiday where we dress up.

I bought DD some eyeball candy last week as a treat, not for Halloween.

Wishyfishy · 01/11/2022 06:37

We never did Halloween as a child, just not mentioned at all. DH had carved a pumpkin or two with his family but never been trick or treating.
Was it as big in previous generations? I don’t remember friends mentioning trick or treating until they were teenagers, and then it just takes a bit of a more sinister tone (teenagers in Scream masks with eggs to throw).

School doesn’t advocate dressing up or run any kind of Halloween themed disco, which is great with me. I do let DC do pumpkins and go trick or resting because they want to, and it’s not that big a deal but honestly I don’t enjoy it and find it all a bit awkward. We only started doing the Trick or Treating when they were old enough to know (from Tv, friends etc) what it was and ask to do. I’d much rather not…

Elmo230885 · 01/11/2022 07:42

Do it, don't do it. It's completely up to you. All families are different. I have fond memories of getting dressed up, seeing friends dressed up, being excited to be out at night etc from when I was a child.

This was my DD's second time Trick or Treating, shes 5. We met up with a friend from school. The joy she had from that 90 minutes knocking on (decorated only) doors, seeing her friends, seeing all the different costumes and decorations, laughing at me when I couldn't figure out where I was in the new housing estate and the happiness on the faces of those answering the door is well worth it. There's a particular street near us that goes all out.
She wore last years costume and we put up last year's decorations, all of which were hand-me-downs. She didn't even ask to eat any of the sweets she had got. We usually grow our own ( small and a bit rubbish) pumpkins but I forgot this year to plant them!

The only thing that bothers me is people that don't do who feel the need to get on their high horse calling it allsorts of names. Its not begging and the " its soooooo amercanised" statements make my eyes roll. Just leave others to it.

(I'm not a fan of/ don't do Xmas eve boxes, baby showers, gender reveals, family pj's, refer to anything as making memorie etc, I'm sure theres others but o would never drag anyone down that chooses to do these things)

KittenKong · 01/11/2022 07:44

I don’t because I’m a grown up. When DS was little we used to have parties when the kids all dressed up and went bowling.

Namechangedforthisonetoday · 01/11/2022 07:47

I went to a catholic school and we had a Halloween disco every year, the headteacher used to judge the best dressed! I may be completely wrong (and happy to be corrected), but I don’t think the origins of Halloween or anything ‘against’ mainstream religion are they? I know it’s very commercialised these days but the DC enjoy it and we take it for what it is, just a bit of harmless fun.

KittenKong · 01/11/2022 07:48

We didn’t have ‘trick or treat’ when I was a child. No kid over the age of 12 would be seen dead out guising as it was the little kids in home made costumes with turnip lanterns going tin neighbours to do ‘a turn’ and get a reward if sweets, monkey nuts, tangerines and coins.

picklemewalnuts · 01/11/2022 07:51

We did an old fashioned Halloween- we played games in the dark, hunt the thimble etc. We carved, stuffed and ate pumpkins, bobbed for apples that we cooked and ate. Did face painting.
No horror, no nasty, no 'celebrating' horrible things.
It was about not being afraid of the dark, playing with scary ideas so they became less scary.

We didn't trick or treat, or answer the door. My kids were quite sensitive (as was I!) and found it quite distressing.

I lived briefly in quite a rough area, and answered the door to a group of lads as big as me in horror masks. Gave me and my toddler a bit of a shock, when we were expecting a neighbour.

I don't like the excuse it gives to terrorise neighbours. Even if 99% of trick or treaters are lovely little families, they provide cover for 1% of nasty little hoodlums to cause mayhem.

KittenKong · 01/11/2022 07:55

Ooo a bun covered in treacle and dangled from a rope!

etulosba · 01/11/2022 08:02

I'm in my late 50s, and grew up in the south east. When I was a child, I remember Bonfire Night and penny for the guy. We never marked All Hallow's Eve at all, I don't remember pumpkins and all the stuff that's around now!

I’m in my early sixties. Pumpkins and the whole orange theme are a relatively recent introduction. When I was a child we carved smelly lanterns out of turnips but no trick or treating that I remember.

CaronPoivre · 01/11/2022 08:02

Never have. The children went out twice, I think. The children weren’t overly bothered as very few of their friends did. It’s not really a celebration, is it? Their first primary school celebrated he following day - All Saints - with a light party, which was always popular. We also did quite big harvest suppers which involved pumpkins, candles, lots of good food and time with friends.

We told them the truth. It’s not a real celebration in the U.K. Even our Irish friends didn’t buy into it because it’s a nothingness, an empty attempt to create an artificial event full of plastic tat and not much more.