Does anyone not celebrate Halloween?

[heartbroken22]

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

I hate to see all the plastic tat. Straight in the bin the day after. If you go shopping in America around this time there is just so much Halloween stuff! Then it’s Christmas stuff.

too much stuff!

I celebrated Samhain. Time to let go of that which no longer serves you and make way for the new. I spent Saturday at a yoga, cacao and meditation retreat to support me doing this. It is more in tune with the natural cycle of the seasons and nature and is a time to go inwards, slow down and reflect. Also a time when it said that the veil between the living and dead is at its thinnest. Myself and dh did some painting last night ( I'm shit at painting) but it was nice and meditative.

My kids celebrated Halloween by eating junk and watching scary movies.

Samhain - that sounds great

I'm from the northeast and Halloween has always been celebrated in my family. My parents were dressing up and carving turnips in the 60s, going round houses and doing apple bobbing and other traditional things. Just because some parts of the UK don't have a tradition of Halloween celebrations doesn't mean it's American or made up nonsense 🙄
And it doesn't have to involve plastic tat if you don't want it to. The same way Christmas doesn't have to involve excess consumerism and elf on the shelf and Christmas eve boxes and other things people like to whinge about.

I'll make the most of any excuse to have fun with my DC. If the last two years have taught me anything, it's to seize the moment and do what you can, when you can. We didn't have any plastic tat, but we did have party games and apple bobbing and fun food and my son told me he'd remember that day forever. They're planning next year's games already! Halloween doesn't have to have some deep meaning; it's a fun time with DC and that's what's important.

@StandUpForYourRights you know Halloween actually originally came from Ireland…not America.

I can understand people avoiding if they have religious beliefs.

I have always seen it as an excuse to have a get together but I also used to have Shrove Tuesday pancake parties and had the post GCSE party at my house with 25 teenagers because I like hosting and no other parents wanted the responsibility or risk to their house. In turn DS has become a good host and just recently ingratiated himself with his girlfriends new flat mates by cooking dinner for all seven of them.

Both mine and DS Mothers did not host much at all.

We told them it is a load of rubbish and they do not seem to have any interest in it at al anyway - we do a traditional Nov 5th with jacket potato sausages etc

Same here.
It's always " omg you are so miserable" on here but it's not really something we have done and most people don't seem to bother.

I just feel like this year it's a bit out there everywhere. Tried to put something on for my daughter on bbc iPlayer and every show had a Halloween special. For babies and toddlers? Seriously? Even the shops with decorations and things. It was just ridiculous. Let's see if anyone remembers bonfire night. I've always seen Halloween as very American. My 5 year old daughter wanted to go trick or treating but we did something else instead.

We carve a (cute) pumpkin, stick a candle in it, and cook something nice with it. It’s more an evening of hygge than a celebration of Halloween.

It does help that trick or treaters can’t find our house.

I don’t, personally.
i used to take my DCs TorTing when they were young as it was fun for them.
I never decorated the house or anything.
Now they’re adults DD loves it and goes to parties etc, DS isn’t bothered.
I ignore it - no decorations, but people don’t come down our street anyway as it doesn’t lead anywhere.

We used to carve pumpkins, have soup and sweets and watch a spooky film. Can’t recall any parties.

When I was a child it was just a Scottish/NE thing that I was aware of. All pretty low key and homemade. No tricks. Treats were ‘earned’ by telling a joke, reciting a poem or doing a magic trick.

I even heard a piece in the radio this week from a vet dating that dressing up your dog isn’t a good idea.

Ps: bonfire night was much more of a thing when I was a kid. Penny for the guy, jacket spuds and soup at someone’s house etc. i loved it! DC’s primary did a great fireworks night as well.

Halloween isn't American!!

It's always been a big deal in my family, our street had a big parry every year, sparklers, fancy dress, apple pies with a coin in it. Warding off the darkness and all its implied horrors in the winter to come, see scary things? We're not scared of you.

Bonfire night has much more offensive roots, James 1st enforcing a celebration of the oppression and attempted eradication of the Catholic faith. The way people continue to treat each other over religious differences is far scarier than a witch or a zombie.

And all my decorations live in a box and get re-used annually, and the kids cobble a costume from our face paints and dress up they already own.

I don't celebrate Halloween because it is bollocks.

I used to take the DDs trick or treating very occasionally when they were small just so that I wasn't a total misery guts, but all are grown up now and simply haven't been bothered about it at all for years.

She didn't it was American, but that she sees it as American.

She's right. Much of modern Halloween culture has migrated here from the States where it was a bigger thing than in the UK due to the US' puritan roots.

That doesn't mean it was exclusively American, but that it was more widely celebrated there is undeniable.

I don’t know anyone who ‘celebrates’ it as such. Getting the kids dressed up to go T or T-ing is not what I’d call ‘celebrating’ - it’s just going along with it.

Why don't you celebrate Halloween?

No, we never did, only once when ds was about 4 and we went trick or treating with a friend who had preplanned it with her neighbours. Just not interested. And it encourages too much plastic tat.

I feel the same way about Bonfire night. I've seen too much sectarian shite in my life to care if Bonfire night celebrations fade away.

I ate a Mr. Kipling's orange and black fondant fancy - does that count as celebrating Hallowe'en?
When I was young we didn't celebrate Hallowe'en. We celebrated Bonfire Night, with fireworks and sparklers and bonfires. Children did go round 'guying', which was asking for money, but they usually said a rhyme before they got any pennies.

We don’t celebrate it either. I just don’t like it. Find it all very American, over hyped and don’t really see the point of it. It’s not really a celebration. It’s just an expensive dress up day. I also hate the idea of knocking on doors which in my mind is basically asking strangers for sweets so kind of rude. I know some will only go to houses with decorations out, but round here that doesn’t seem always be the case. The kids know we don’t do anything and they just get on with it. Last night they were both out at clubs anyway so couldn’t go trick or treating.

Which bits are American?
Guising and souling (knocking on people's doors for treats) go back to the 15th century in the UK.
Carving lanterns out of vegetables has been done for hundreds of years.
Dressing up in scary costumes has been done for hundreds of years.

The pumpkins are American, obviously. What else is "modern Halloween culture"?