Was Halloween a big thing when you were growing up?

[BiggyJ]

As in - did you carve pumpkins/turnips, go Trick or Treating, have themed parties etc?
I can't say I did, or can't recall it being a big deal as it is now for my own teen DCs.

(Born mid 70s so was a kid during the 80s )

Yes, born mid 70s. My local youth club would hold a Halloween disco with games, apple bobbing, sweets etc. The idea was that it would stop us going out trick or treating.
I also remember a friend having a Halloween party when I was young (I must have been under 10 as the friend moved away then). All of this was early 80s in the West Country.

However I don’t recall people decorating houses or much being sold in shops.

Yes! My family is Irish, and we'd always carve turnips and have a Halloween party. Dad would make "spooky" food, but also colcannon as was tradition in Ireland. We didn't go guising often, maybe once or twice, but we always dressed up! We'd play duck apple, snap apple, tell spooky stories, and we'd always go on a ghost walk to find the local "ghostly monk". There was always bats in the field too, which we loved.

Halloween isn't American though, like is being said (though I love how they celebrate!). It comes from Samhain which is a very old tradition, and it's about celebrating the darker half of the year, and all sorts of other things. Yes, it has absolutely changed a bit but that's where it comes from. Lots of the things associated with it today come from old traditions. Dumb suppers, mumming, so on and so forth. It's really bloody interesting.

No, I’m little older than the OP, born ‘68 so a child of 70’s. It was always Easter, Guy Fawkes night then Christmas in my area.

In Dublin, we didn't say trick or treat, it was 'help the Halloween party'. It was mainly assorted nuts handed out, not sweets.

We did apple bobbing and eat toffee apples and mum and dad once threw me a Halloween party for my friends. I was about 7 and dressed as a black cat. No trick or treating. When I was about 13 myself and a couple of friends decided to try it. We only went to a few houses and ended up with some tangerines!

Yes, the most exciting night of the year for children, we went round the neighbours houses " guising" wearing costumes and singing songs or telling jokes to earn sweets, nuts and apples and oranges. Usually one house would lay on a bit more of a party with dooking for apples, biting treacle scones dipped in syrup and dangling from strings etc. special cakes in the bakers with charms and money in. Turnip lanterns.
This was Scotland in the 1970s.
It was very DIY with creative rather than fancy costumes, no pumpkins or expensive decorations.

Same here! Either a black bin bag and witches hat. Or an old white sheet to be a ghost.

My mum used to carve a swede for us - I'm not sure how, as they're solid - and attach string for us to carry it round. We only went to a few houses of people we knew though.

It wasn't a big thing at all

Born in the early 70's Ireland. Alway went trick or treating, but called it 'going round the houses'. Always dressed up, but not necessarily scary. Performed a song or joke at each house, and were given money, never sweets. There were always Halloween bonfires later in the night, and Halloween games in the houses, bobbing for apples, apples on a string, toffee apples and nuts were the treats. We also had Barm Brack, which was a fruit loaf, which had a prize ring baked into it. It felt like a very Irish tradition, that was something our parents had done before us.

Was a child in the 90s and I didn’t go trick or treating (although a lot of people did, I was too timid to knock on people’s doors), I remember dressing up, going to parties.

It was bigger in my late teens/early 20s, loads of Halloween parties, and an excuse to wear the bare minimum and lots of make up!

Yes, born mid 70s we did turnips, dressed up in bin bags and paper witch hats and went trick or treating. Houses weren’t dressed up like today. We did Penny for the guy and big bonfire celebrations too.

My younger sister born in 1989 did trick or treating…with a few other primary school aged neighbours would dress as a ghost or a witch in a crap homemade costume and knock on the 6 or 7 closest houses when it got dark around 6pm and receive a mini Mars Bar/Twix/KitKat. The parent who organised it had just moved to London from India.

For my brothers and me (older) we only knew Halloween from US TV shows, never celebrated it ourselves.

Snap but I’m 52 with an 12 year old. And the main difference is it’s easier to carve pumpkins than turnips!

Yes I thought that too @CheeseWisely .
Though I suppose growing up in the 70s/80s life was pretty insular.
There wasn't the ability to access the world at our fingertips, as there is now.
No MN for a start! 😂

Born 71, South London. We used to have Halloween parties held by the brownies. We made our own witch or ghost costumes. Made the hat out of black card. Did apple bobbing and other games.

We carved turnips, had a party with apple bobbing etc but we didn't go trick or treating. I was born late 60s

Yes, very much as @babsthebounder describes above. Guising around the neighbours, doing a song or a joke for your monkey nuts and sweets, maybe a 10p piece if you were very lucky. A bin bag cape and scratchy plastic witch/vampire mask. A neep lantern and dooking for apples.

Scotland (Glasgow) here & a 70's baby.
It was always a big thing up here. Was called guising (like Guyzing) rather than Trick or Treat.

A couple of years ago I was working with an english man & he was telling me that where he was from they never went out for their halloween. I was utterly gobsmacked - I said so what did you do (thinking maybe they had a party) & he said nothing.
I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks !

We would go out in our costumes (no jacket - It'd hide your costume) & go round the houses (even folk we didn't know). You'd be ushered into the living room to do your turn, maybe a wee song or a joke, and get your reward - sweeties & monkey nuts into a poly bag.
Then you'd go home absolutely freezing to dook for apples.

I honestly don't know how my mother carved a turnip lantern every year !

Yes, grew up in Scotland, born mid-80s. We called it guising and did a little joke, song or dance. Then home and we did dooking for apples. Sometimes we carved a neep and put a candle in to carry with us. It was very early dark in Aberdeenshire by the end of October. My costume was always a black cat, tail made from a wire coat hanger wrapped in old tights.

I'm starving, could murder some brack 🤤

Yup, but we called it Guising (as in disguise), carved neeps, played dookin' for apples and tried to eat scones covered in syrup off a string without using your hands.

We'd go round the doors but were supposed to do a "turn" for your treats rather than play tricks.

It's a Celtic tradition intended to scare off evil spirits on All Hallow's Eve and predates the colonisation of America by centuries.

Yes. I'm Irish so always been a thing. The days of the bin bag and monster mask and handing out monkey nuts are long gone though!
There are lots of Halloween festivals and parades here. Derry, Galway, Puca in Trim, Stokerfest in Dublin.

Yes, I'm 48 and grew up in a tiny Scottish village. The local Halloween party was a big event, and we went guising door to door.

Yes born late 70s and it was massive where I lived in Scotland.

Yeah. "None of us" = one poster

It was guising and you had to dress up and do a turn. None of the just knocking and begging.

It was mostly the wee ones with some of the teens minding the younger ones. It was a wee village - and everyone knew which houses were the best ones to go to and which were to be left alone.

Was a very happy safe time ( 20th century 😀).