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 )

No, we're very aware it wasn't big in all areas of England. What we do know, however, is that it isn't an American tradition because what is seen as "American" is actually from over here. Guising and mumming were early versions of trick or treating. Houses were always decorated and parties and bonfires were had. Entire communities came together and celebrated. No, we didn't have pumpkins but we carved turnips. Dressing up has taken place since Samhain.

It's a centuries old festival with pre-Christian routes. Just because there are costumes and house decor available in shops doesn't mean it's an import. Blame consumerism if you don't like what's in the supermarkets; it happens to everything. Look how early the Easter Eggs are on display.

There's just an incredibly nasty attitude that Halloween is unimportant historically and shouldn't be bothered with. All people are doing is celebrating it with the change in times - as we have always done. If you track its history back centuries, you'll see it changed then too.

Bonfire night is also huge where I live. We have a village fair, fireworks, bonfire, the lot.

Used to trick or treat in the 80s in my part of London.

Used to also have a huge bonfire for fireworks and free displays on loads of commons now it’s one per borough.

Grew up in the north east in the 70s.
We would carve turnips, and go door knocking with the following rhyme:

The sky is blue,
The grass is green,
Have you got a penny for Halloween.

If you haven't got a penny,
A ha'penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha'penny,
God bless you.

We'd get 5p mostly!

Yes and we loved it! We didn't spend as much money on it - it really was bin liners and homemade masks - or a 99p one at best. Nobody ever really bought a costume but we used to go trick or treating on our neighbours and we'd do apple bobbing, after spending the day making Halloween crafts.

I’m maybe a year or two younger than you OP and we didn’t really do anything either. Never been trick-or-treating.

The only thing I did do was have fancy dress parties at Brownies and Guides. I won the Guides competition with my homemade skeleton, which was a black bin bag with paper bones stuck on!

I possibly remember carving a pumpkin once, but I’m not entirely sure if I did or not!

90s kid here and so many lovely memories of Halloween. My grandparents would host a party and then some of the adults would take use around the block trick or treating (with the rest back inside enjoying the warmth and booze).

My dad and uncle took us out one year and then it became a competition the next year when my mum and aunt accompanied us. We ended up with more sweets that second year!

Yes. I was a 70s baby.

Neep lanterns, guising, your party piece, dookin' apples, treacle scones...

Yep, born early 80’s. We would dress ip, go trick or treating & have carved swedes or pumpkins. Halloween disco at school. South wales

*roots not routes. Bloody phone

Yes! Born late 90s and often got over £150 from the neighbours

I remember this in Glasgow!!

Yes, but I'm quite young. And the love for Halloween didn't come from my mother's side. It comes from my dad's side. He would always decorate his house the best on the street, people would travel to see it and would be scared to walk up the path! He'd think of the best costumes for me to wear. And his parents would put on a little Halloween event for me each year as it was close to my birthday and i loved it.
BUT I don't think they'd have been this way about Halloween if they hadn't partly brought up my dad in America when he was young.
That definitely makes a difference.
I make a real effort with my child - we decorate (mostly for autumn though) and carve pumpkins .. I do her a little Halloween basket etc. BUT we don't get to trick or treat, as we live in an apartment. And there aren't really any houses around us.

That's interesting. May I ask what decade this was and whereabouts in England?

I was born in 1973 and went trick or treating my whole childhood.

I lived in Newcastle.

🎵 Halloween is here tonight, shut your doors and windows tight. Halloween is here tonight so give us a penny 🎵

It was for us (early 90's). Costumes were generally based around a bin bag but other then that not massively different. Decorated house, carved turnip (DC do pumpkin), and little party tea with cousins or whatever friends we're going with.

Main different for me was the lack of supervision, and resulting lack of manors. We we're sent without an adult from quite young and had no concept of only going to decorated houses. We went to every house on the block and knocked until someone came. Also about half the houses would give change instead of sweets, as an adult I know they didn't get sweets in or decorate because we weren't meant to go to them, but as a kid the £5 worth of 10/20p I finished the night with was awesome.

I was born in 1955. Bonfire night was a big thing when I was a child but Halloween was never celebrated. I don’t recall even hearing of it.

Nope. No-one bothered much with it at all, apart from the odd teenager running round the street with one of their mum's sheets over their head.😂

I think my dad carved a jack-o'-lantern using a swede once, but it was hard going and he didn't do it again. The main event was November 5th and everyone got far more involved with that.

Yes. We would be trying to go trick or treating for a week before Halloween. We would have other kids trying too.

We would mostly be dressed in black bin bags and some fake witches fingers for £1. Or glow in the dark vampire fangs and some fake blood.

When we stopped trick or treating, we would move onto penny for the guy.

A few Halloween parties in high school. This is late 90's early 00's.

Yes I was born in early 70s and remember going to the library for Halloween stories. Also apple bobbing in the brownies. We used to carve swedes and went trick or treating.

We also did pumpkins and apple bobbing in water. I visited my aunt in Liverpool one Halloween and they had apples on the washing line with £1 inside.

I was born in 81 (in Scotland) and we always had Halloween parties to go to. My mum was amazing at sewing and would make us some amazing costumes. I was everything from a witch to a pink elephant to a Christmas tree to Timmy Mallett with a knitted Magic the cockatiel which was later turned into a parrot so my brother could be a pirate. He was also a devil and a goldfish and different times. 🤣

Dooking for apples was always a must and my mum would carve "turnips" for us (they were swedes rather than turnips but they still weren't hollow like pumpkins).

I didn't go trick or treating until I was a little bit older though, I grew up in the west end of Glasgow so some neighbours would give us sweets but it was mainly parties then. Only after we moved out of the city to a smaller town did we go guising round the houses instead.

Op has unlocked my (blocked out) memory of the year my mum decided we were old enough to hollow out our own turnip, but not old enough to handle sharp knives. Took bloody hours with a cereal spoon.

No it was never a thing at all

No, not for me. I was of trick-or-treating age (I'm assuming 4/5 to 11/12 year olds) in the 60s and 70s. It was completely unheard of in my UK city.

It wasn't THAT much of a thing when my kids were little either tbh. It seems to have gone nuts in the last few years - maybe coinciding with the smart phone age.

Saw this meme on twitter earlier and it brought back so many memories!

70s/80s belfast, we used to say
Halloween is coming and the goose is getting fat,
Would you please put a penny in the old mans hat,
If you haven't got a penny then a ha'penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha'penny then god bless you

I was born in 1969

I don't remember carving anything (but my memory is shot...I'd think it was all the drugs I'd taken if I'd actually taken any)

We did play Halloween games at home apple bobbing, peanut rolling, eating a donut off a string etc and I do remember dressing up as a cat

Dh and I have always done Halloween and when children came along we did trick and treating at friends houses to Starr with and then in organised groups locally

The children were all home this weekend so we carved pumpkins and played games...and had high tea 😀