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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To hate Halloween

86 replies

Lucydogz · 31/10/2016 13:56

I went into town today, and there was so much crap merchandise on the Halloween theme, all of which will be in the bin tomorrow. Plus loads of shop assistants wearing related costumes and makeup. I'm so old that my children were brought up pre-trick or treat - I remember watching ET and not knowing what they were doing . I probably come across as a grumpy old woman, but it just seems such a waste.

OP posts:

Murphysgirl · 31/10/2016 13:58

I completely agree but I also admit I am a grumpy (not that old) woman!

NightWanderer · 31/10/2016 14:02

I bought up a load of stuff cheap for next year. Cant wait! Just wondering what to do with myself during November until i can put up the christmas decorations.

Giratina · 31/10/2016 14:05

I'm with you on the tat decorations that end up in landfill, but what's the issue with shop assistants dressing up? It's just a bit of fun. Unless the costumes are inappropriate or overly gory I don't see a problem with that.

Laiste · 31/10/2016 14:09

Firstly you're not allowed to hate Halloween on here, because it's so much FUN apparently, so not many will stick their head over the parapet and agree with you.

My thoughts are yep it's a bit of fun for young kids to dress up, help do a pumpkin, maybe do a bit of trick or treating and eat sweets for a couple of hours before bedtime and that's about it. So many people go waaaaay OTT now though. I blame social media. It's quite obviously a big competition to be the one who made the most effort.

OvariesBeforeBrovaries · 31/10/2016 14:12

I'm not hugely fussed on it but I wouldn't say I hate it. All of my friends are getting dressed up and going out and posting on Facebook constantly about how amazing it is, but I just can't get excited about it. DD is dressed as Thor today though, trying to get into the spirit of it all.

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 31/10/2016 14:12

I agree OP.

However expect to be told to stop being miserable as it's all 'just a bit of fun'

Mymothersdaughter · 31/10/2016 14:13

I can't wait to turn all the lights off and hide in my house tonight as though Halloween didn't exist. No candy from me!

MrsJayy · 31/10/2016 14:15

Ive always hated it its such a hooha the Dds call me miserable they are probably right

FlopIsMyParentingGuru · 31/10/2016 14:15

I don't particularly like it.
I don't like children standing on old people's doorsteps demanding sweets. I don't like scary teenagers at my door giving my children fear each time the doorbell goes for a week later.
It could be a great community time but it just stinks of greed and fear right now.

KondosSecretJunkRoom · 31/10/2016 14:15

I love Halloween.

My tat doesn't end up in a landfill, I keep it under the stairs for the next year.

mammybops · 31/10/2016 14:22

I hate Guy Fawkes celebrations more but will join you in the hate Halloween club.

FlyingElbows · 31/10/2016 14:25

You're so old your children were brought up pre trick or treat? You must be hundreds of years old! Our halloween stuff lives in an enormous box and just grows every year.

Mumofttwins · 31/10/2016 14:26

YANBU.

I can't think of anything worse than knocking on strangers doors, asking for sweets. I'm not old either.

I have a couple of buckets full of sweets for those that do come round.

I'm such a joy

BarInSpace · 31/10/2016 14:30

YANBU. Glad someone else feels the same! There are always loads of threads about Christmas being "wasteful" so it should be possible for some of us to be grumpy about Halloween too (What's the Halloween equivalent of Scrooge?)

The doorbell will ring repeatedly later, and while it's fun to see people I know with children enjoying the Trick or Treating and costumes, it's not so enjoyable to have to plaster on a grin and proffer sweets to the surly teenagers I've never seen before, with their unsmiling parents. So although I wouldn't tell people IRL, I'll be relieved when it's done for another year.

badtasteflump · 31/10/2016 14:30

Flying I am not hundreds of years old and when I was a kid hardly anybody bothered with Halloween - there definitely wasn't all the 'stuff' in the shops you get now - Halloween was just a (little) warm up to Guy Fawkes then. I think it's a shame that Halloween has taken over now, and Guy Fawkes night is forgotten in it all, but there you go, times change etc...

If I were young now though, I know I would love all the Halloween hype, so I go along with it for the sake of the DC. If you don't want to join in you don't have to - just don't answer the door to anybody you're not expecting tonight, simple as that...

hazeyjane · 31/10/2016 14:31

We keep our decorations year after year. The kids love getting their costumes together and put loads of thought into it. We only trick or treat people with pumpkins out, usually houses we know. I love seeing what costumes kids are wearing who come round, little ones and big ones.

Eolian · 31/10/2016 14:31

YANBU to hate Halloween - everyone's entitled to their own opinion. YABU about the tat. Shops are full of umpteen kinds of disposable tat every day of the year. Sometimes it's season-specific, themed tat. The rest of the year it's just... tat. You can buy tat or not buy tat at Halloween , just like you can the rest of the year.

My dc will be wearing home-made costumes which they thoroughly enjoyed creating with dh's help, have carved pumpkins whose insides have been made into lovely soup. No tat, no waste. They will be going on a torchlit walk through the woods, apple bobbing, and going to a few houses of people they know who will happily give them some sweets.

Halloween, like any festival, is what you make it.

AnneTwacky · 31/10/2016 14:32

We don't do Halloween because of our religion, so are off out to a light party instead.
Have nothing against giving sweeties away but hate the whole trick or treat thing. It would be great if people could respect that and not repeatedly knock on the door when we don't answer it. There are plenty of people who do want to participate.
We shouldn't have to feel like we have to hide in our own house.

OracleofDelphi · 31/10/2016 14:35

I grew up abroad where my dad worked for an American company. As such, Halloween was Massive! Everybody had parties, everyone dressed up, houses were all decorated to the max, and it was brilliant. However I never went to a Bonfire night until an early teen, and I hated it.

Still do, I am pertrified of fireworks and cant take my children. DH loves fireworks so it works out well. I think its loud, and noisy and scary and totally unnecessary..... So if you want to hate Halloween thats fine, but others do like it - and thats fine too.

thingsthatgoflumpinthenight · 31/10/2016 14:35

But you don't have to hide, just don't answer the door!

soupmaker · 31/10/2016 14:36

I'd like Halloween if it wasn't so bloody commercialised. When I was a kid in the 1970's it was all homemade dressing up, dooking for apples, taking bites out of treacle covered rolls suspended on a broomstick and one night of it at most. I'm Scottish so there was no trick or treating, guising only. For some reason I also really object to pumpkins, it's turnips that lanterns should be made from FFS.

I can't bear it basically but do my best for the kids.

5th of November however I bloody love.

BarInSpace · 31/10/2016 14:37

If you don't answer the door but are clearly in, I expect some visitors may assume you want a "trick". Same with refusing sweets to hard-faced people I've never met. I'll be honest, it can be intimidating.

MrsJayy · 31/10/2016 14:40

Not that keen on guy fawkes night either im clearly a miserable fecker

KondosSecretJunkRoom · 31/10/2016 14:40

As a parent, I'm so glad to be around for the turnip-pumpkin changeover. When I remember my grandma going at that turnip with the knife like a woman possessed -well, I think I'd do myself an injury.

HarmlessChap · 31/10/2016 14:40

Hate it too. If it was a few of the neighbourhood kids, who I knew, then it wouldn't be a problem but mostly it's an excuse for feral teens to intimidate people and act in an anti-social way while having their faces hidden.

Even when its the tots I hardly recognise any of them or their parents. Quite a few of the kids and their parents are pretty rude and entitled and you even get a few vile parents smoking in my doorway stinking out my house. I often wonder if some of the parents are Candy Fagins and consume as much of the collected spoils as the kids do.

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