Whenever I tell people about the turnip-carving, they look a bit 
. They also don't really understand why I get so excited about halloween. Can I ask you all grew up? Aberdeen for me - I've assumed it's a Scottish thing, but not entirely sure.
Halloween used to be so fantastic. You'd carve out your turnip (or rather, your dad would do most of the work hollowing it out and you'd get to do the fun bit making the face!), spend ages making your costume and learning your party piece - which would need lots of discussion with the friends who you were going guising with. Then halloween itself was a mad evening when all the kids were out on the street. There was none of this 'only go to people you know, or who have decorations up', so the rumours being exchanged felt like life-and-death 'number x has really good stuff', 'don't go to number y - the guy there's a weirdo'. It felt like the world was ours for the evening... and, of course, there was all the chocolate 
.
I still get really excited about halloween... and then I'm always disappointed. Here, it's only little kids who come out (we used to go guising until at least 14), and they don't do a party piece, just say 'trick or treat'. I wonder whether they even think it's that special - it's surely not that different from all the other times they dress up during the year, especially since the sweets probably go into the 'treat jar'.
Do kids in Scotland still go guising like we used to?