AIBU to think that the whole HALLOWEEN thing is Americanised Shite.

[ModreB]

I never did trick or treat. And neither did DH. I am not old - mid 40's.

AIBU to think that its a money making excuse by the Supermarkets to extract more money from us?

I loved the new Argos book as well! And my gran's new Kay's catalogue when it was delivered, the SMELL of it.

I would love fireworks at home, but my cats would be terrified so we don't have them.

I'm really sad as this will be DD's first year trick-or-treating and I am going to miss it as I am away due to work. She is getting excited and has her pumpkin costume ready.

As for "normalising the occult", the whole point about dressing up as monsters, witches, etc. is about confronting that which scares us and making fun of it so that we become less frightened, not about normalising "occult". Though I suspect that occult does not mean what you think it means.

Or maybe the rise in Paganism is entirely due to plastic pumpkins and battery-powered skeletons. Or maybe it's due to the rise in people learning that there are other ways to approach religion and divinity?

You're right. Halloween is shite because of the bloody moaners in the U.K. who cannot celebrate it properly

This holiday makes me so homesick for the U.S. They KNOW how to do Halloween. My poor kid doesn't know what he's missing living here.

And what holiday isn't commercialised, by the way!?!?!?

Where are all these trick or treaters at Halloween, then, eh? Every year I run round the supermarket buying pumpkins and bags of fun sized mars bars in case some short vampires come a-knocking.

Then none of the little buggers turn up, so we have to eat the sweets ourselves.

It's a hard life.

My dad is 75 and even he loves halloween. He's been asking me if I've bought my pumpkins yet for about 2 weeks now. I think some people are just miserable by nature. Age doesn't have anything to do with it.

Also a really horrible way of normalising the occult to children.

Er actually Halloween would not exist without the Christian church.

Festivities involving fire at this time of year date back to pre christian times, it really is a northern European festival.

As someone with a birthday near Halloween I have had birthday/Halloween parties as a child, not done the trick or treating but I have certainly bobbed for apples, eaten apples off a string, thrown orange peel over my shoulder.

I tell you what is out of bloody order though. Someone coming round my house about 9pm and rattling my letter box and scaring the shit out of me, and why? What do I find on the floor the next morning? A 'no trick or treater's' card from the police

Why can't they put a 'yes to trick or treaters' on the other side?

oh and I do have friends from Yorkshire who said there used to be a tradition of another night at the end of October start of November (not Halloween, can't remember exactly when, just that is wasn't Halloween), when it had become a tradition of 'mischief night'

That's right. Mischief Night is November 4th and you play the tricks with no option of bribing your way out of it with a treat

Still remember the time I sneaked in to my grumpy Uncle's outside toilet and smeared the seat with black boot polish and he never found out it was me!

I remember having Halloween parties as a child where we wore spooky fancy dress and played games like bobbing for apples. But we had never heard of trick or treat - I guess why would you need to with Mischief Night not far off.

The only thing I dislike about trick or treat really is the large teenagers going round with barely an attempt to dress up and expecting money. I am Ok with the little kids calling and make sure I have a bag of fun size or something. Oh and I like carving pumpkin lanterns

I would love to do a full American style Halloween with decorations in the garden and whatnot but living on a rather genteel estate surrounded by lots of older church going people it might not be the best idea or in the best taste
The costumes round here are great though, I once got a group of teens a week before trying it on a little with the trick or treating, I told them to come back in costume on the night, and they did! I opened the door to find what looked like the cast of Thriller on the doorstep and this Zombie saying 'you told us to come back in costume'. They got showered with treats..
Laughing slightly at normalising the Occult, the Christian Church for centuries used Occult images to play on the fear of going to hell, have a look at some of the imagery used in paintings depicting death, some of it is terrifying!

I did trick or treat. but am 42 so don't know whether it got popular when I was a kid as McDonalds etc started when I was what 7 or so... so maybe American influences?

What surprises some Americans living in UK (friend was telling me about her colleagues) that some streets/houses don't trick or treat, or to the extent the Americans/Canadians do.

Her colleague lives in richmond and they said hardly any kids came round last year. However some London area houses I know DO decorate a lot and DO trick or treat.

horses for courses. I don't decorate but do hand out sweets/chocolate to the brats sorry little angels who darken my door!

If kids come to my door trick or treating it gets slammed in their face. I can't stand begging. Or shit costumes. Or gurning middle-class mums on doorsteps. Do fuck off, I'm trying to watch Corrie.

What a wonderful life you must have Ryan

Are you anti-Christmas as well? Or is that begging for presents from relatives, and begging for cards from friends?

What about WC children?

Are they allowed?

No, Mary, I only hate those tight-arsed home made gifts that one adult gives to another, You know the type: home made chutney; home made cookie dough Christmas decorations; home made fudge. I can buy fudge in Aldi for 69p, thanks. It's the sanctimonious middle-classness of it all. Go and spend some money, you tight arse!

Christmas is about Christ, no? The Wise Men took gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus, not a fucking jar of jam, a tray of brownies and a doily tea light holder.

I don't think I'd like any myrrh for Christmas,I don't even know what it is.

Baby Jesus would have been happy with a lump of coal and a satsuma.

It's like liquid ketamine.

Oh, I get you now.

You only like people who spend money on you.

I get it you arse

Maybe a jar of hand-picked olives?

Maybe I would like some then.

Can you smoke it?

Dammit, I missed a trick.

I should have said

you knob

Yes, Mary, that's it. Now you're talking. A friend of mine - who earns in excess of £75k a year - gave everyone a box of home made brownies last year for Christmas. She didn't get over my doorstep. I told her to fuck off and go and patronise someone else with her Kirstie Allsopp bullshit.

Yes, you can smoke it in its powdered form, but I wouldn't recommend that method. Stick to myrrh; you can gob it down like ale.

With the greatest respect, OP, YABU. I love Halloween.

I went guising as a child, no parents with us (I'm 27). I loved making a costume and feeling all excited with the nights drawing in.

And, regardless of its origins, yes, there's probably a big American element to how Halloween is celebrated in the UK these days. But is that always such a bad thing?

DH's favourite thing to watch as a child was It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. This world of candy corn and pumpkin patches looked like a magical place to him (DH was brought up in Ayrshire in the late 70s/early 80s - no offence to Ayrshire). He still loves Halloween, and the American elements of it which he loved as a child are still part of that.