AIBU to be completely pissed off with Halloween?

[inabizzlefam]

Since when did we (the UK) start "celebrating Halloween?
Isn't it some weird american tradition?
I get Bonfire Night, fireworks, Penny for the Guy, etc, but all this Halloween shit everywhere (TV, supermarkets,etc) is seriously pissing me off. As if we don't have enough on with christmas decorations in the shops........in October, FFS.
To cap it all I now find myself being nagged senseless by my DCs to take them Trick or Treating, which I loathe. The joy in traipsing round the neighbourhood in the dark, freezing cold, bored shitless, knocking on peoples doors, "begging" sweets off them is ludicrous......I could buy a huge tub of sweets for my own DCs and get to sit in my nice warm house, not pissing off my neigbours....everyone's a winner. Neighbours get left in peace and DCs get to stuff themselves full of crap.
Apparantly, I am being a killjoy and "not entering into the spirit of the celebration".
What celebration? It's a bloody american celebration. What next, Thanksgiving? (TBH I have no idea what thats all about either....2 christmas dinners?

Google Samhain OP. Get an education on why some people celebrate it. It's not all trick or treat to some people.

Yes I think it's a load of crap & will not be celebrating. Won't be opening any doors to trick or treaters either.

thatstewie spot on

I was never allowed to go Trick or Treating as a kid in the 80s, but we did watch scary films and make swede Jack O Lanterns.

The past couple of years we've bought treats for trick or treaters, but they've never knocked. Apparently the local kids only knock on houses that are visibly into Halloween, so this year I'm carving a jack o lantern (OUT OF AN ACTUAL PUMPKIN!) to lure them (otherwise we'll go into some sort of sugar coma eating the sweets).

I'm early 30's and have always celebRted halloween, we had family meals, decorated the house, dipped for apples and then made them into choc lolly pops with orange sprinkles had dusting, then in a night time we made smores, with Gf telling us horror stories... with our torches

So the UK is not so united after all, as you seem to have left N. Ireland and Scotland out of the equation.

I'm in my 40s and went out at Halloween as a child in Scotland. It's not an American invention

Yanbu
Fecking out of control

I can't stand Halloween. Growing up in England in the 80s it was never a thing where we lived (north). Now it's everywhere and its just another excuse for yet more plastic crap to be manufactured in China, shipped over and piled high in the supermarkets. Only to end up in landfill by early November.

It must be a regional thing - I am 61 and never celebrated it in any way as a child. My kids are about 30 and were young teenagers when in our area Halloween was becoming popular. At the time I thought it was just a form of begging with menaces and as they weren't little ones I would never let them ToT. Apparently this has scarred them for life.

I NEVER put a pumpkin out or any decorations or lights, miserable old git but I still get children knocking. Evidently they don't know the "rules".

I'm pissed off with it. Answered the door tonight to a trick or treater! A mum and daughter dressed up but I was totally caught by surprise.
Them: Trick or treat!!!
Me: oh...is Halloween today???
The Mum: It's Halloween WEEKEND said very pointedly and with a sour look
Me: Sorry. I've got nothing

Wtaf calling tonight, not even Halloween, to a non-decorated house (because it's not Halloween) and giving me the face when I didn't pony up sweets.

I have no problem with Samhain, Guy Fawkes, Guising, or any other traditional festivities. Each to their own. Halloween in its current form is, however, neither traditional nor even, (IMHO) especially festive. It's mostly concocted by retailers to fill the period between summer & Christmas.

TBH I would have less of an issue with it if trick-or-treaters would a) go out on Halloween only, & b) only visit houses with decorations up, whose inhabitants clearly wanted to take part. Several days of bothering people isn't on.

Don't even remember pumpkins as a littlun, we occasionally had a swede with a candle in.

I've always celebrated Halloween. What I can't be doing with is the new-fangled English "Bonfire Night". Everyone knows that lanterns and fireworks and outdoor food and slightly gruesome fun activities and drink and toffee apples and all that malarkey belongs to Halloween and not to some spurious alternative celebration that no-one else in the world celebrates.

Mischief Night was celebrated in Northern England from around 1700's

Halloween/Samhain a few thousand years before that. (Yes people dressed up then too, to confuse any wandering spirits around the village/farms etc )

And yes its ONLY 31st (Unless you are from Kilmarnock!) I am older than god and went guising when I was little same as all the kids around here do. Tell a joke, poem, song to get your sweets. If they say T or T I still ask for a joke and dish out the sweets. Its a reciprocal agreement you decorate/put pumpkins out and provide the sweets, kids come to the door all dressed up to scare you and to relieve you off them. Easy.

And pumpkins are so much more easy to carve than bloody bagies! Much more fun. People like to put up decorations, thats our business, you arent paying for them, we love it we are not harming anyone.

I take it nobody will be putting up a Xmas tree or decorations then? Bloody German traditions coming over here and taking over.

All these threads have been making me think of an article I read a while back on giving children lots of presents. It argued that while the common theory is that kids shouldn't get lots of gifts in case they get spoiled the opposite might actually be true. Children who get gifts from people who love giving learn that giving is lovely and grow up to be incredibly generous. And all these threads are showing my how true the argument is.

So many, wah-wah-wah, I never did this when I was a child so it's really annoying that kids expect me to give now. It's very revealing. With some exceptions the general attitude to Halloween is that if you received generosity on the holiday as a child you are happy to give generously as an adult. But if you didn't then you have no generosity to share. So maybe think about breaking the cycle of mean spiritedness and teach children the joy of giving, so when they grow up they will love to give too.

Not a lot of celebration as far as I can see. A lot of orange tat in the shops, expensive outfits that my kids will beg me to buy, and asking me to go and knock on doors when only one of my neighbour's will answer.

It was not commonly celebrated where I grew up and it's not where I live now. So as far as I'm concerned YANBU.

Proper cannot be arsed with it. Love Guy Fawkes night though.

I am not against traditional celebration of Samhain etc. But banging on my door demanding sweets or you'll egg the fucking car is like standing on my doorstep on 24th December warbling Jingle Bells and demanding a fiver.

Repeating many but I'm early 40s and went trick or treating with swede lanterns in North Yorkshire as a child.

The bigger night though was Micky (Mischief) night on 4th November. We would plot our mischief at school for days!

pmsl @Attic
I've always hated it. Being held to ransom in my own home blah blah.
I do always have a bucket of treats for the little ones but I'm embracing it this year and traipsing round the pubs in my witches outfit tomorrow night. I'm even going to wear it to answer the door on the 31st.
Embrace it OP

It's Halloween. Take part, don't take part.
Folks were trick or treating in the UK waaaaay before America so you kind of lost me there

I spent a huge amount of time in the States mid nineties....that is where I saw Halloween on a huge scale.... Seems we are catching up though

I'm not a big Halloween fan either but since having my dd I just see it as a way of doing fun stuff with her like dress up, pumpkins (first time this year) and discos. I draw a massive line at trick or treat though. I haven't got over the girl from school who threw flour all over our brand new varnished wooden door and ruined it! My dad went on about that for a long time! It just seems like going round people's houses begging or causing trouble and should only be for really little ones with parents.

I know it's an old tradition, but secretly hate everything about Halloween. Unfortunately the family loves it. Totally get where you're coming from OP: I try to spend time on All Souls thinking happy memories of relatives who have passed away, getting the photos out etc.

Love bonfire night though, which the dc can take or leave.

I'm with you OP it's all commercialism to get us to spend more.
Must admit it's always been a celebration but not as huge as it is now - some people spend a fortune decorating house, costumes etc.

The Americans do make a big deal of it - we never used to so much.as if proms etc aren't enough !