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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask about your Halloween traditions and ideas?

30 replies

DastardlyDoris · 14/10/2018 12:21

Do you make a big deal of it and do stuff that takes weeks to prepare and costs £££ or do you ignore it, shut the curtains and pretend to be out? We are a split household on this! DC would make it the biggest celebration of the year. Does anyone do fun stuff that doesn't take loads of effort or cost a fortune?

OP posts:
Nomad86 · 14/10/2018 13:04

I'm not really keen on the idea of trick or treating at strangers' houses and basically begging. So we only visit houses that are decorated. We also bake some gingerbread or cakes and hand them out to the people who give us treats. So it's an exchange and a way to get to know neighbours, rather than annoying people who'd rather be left alone.

cardibach · 14/10/2018 13:08

I don’t have any and have never made a big deal of Halloween. Some posters will no doubt want to chip in with ‘why post then?’ Well, I think if people who don’t make a big deal don’t pos it becomes this big competitive thread of who makes the most fuss and the fact that it’s perfectly normal to not make any goes missing.

AllHallowsQueen · 14/10/2018 13:16

I love Halloween but find it pretty underwhelming in the UK so I try and spend it in the States when I can. Last year we took our son trick or treating in New Orleans, it was brilliant. We don’t trick or treat in the UK.

I try to find a pumpkin patch that has Halloween events and there is an event in our local community. Other than that we carve a pumpkin, bake something fun and will do a few themed craft activities. My son has a November birthday so when he’s older we’ll do a Mexican Day of the Dead themed birthday party!

Also it is compulsory in our house to watch Hocus Pocus at Halloween!

RoobyMyrtle · 14/10/2018 13:17

When my kids were here for Halloween we used to go crazy - decorating the dining room like a full on witches lair and most of downstairs. They would have a party with spooky treats and a gingerbread Halloween house then go out trick or treating. Now they're away at university I just decorate a couple of windows and put out a pumpkin to show I'm available for trick or treaters to visit. I might dress up if I can find my cloak and hat 😂🦇🎃

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 14/10/2018 17:25

My DC are later teens now. When they were little we had parties and decorated.
Now I decorate to invite the Trick or Treaters - usually they're early evening , small groups with the parents hovering by the path. We have chocolate Fun Size sweets .

Nothing nasty , no evil clowns or zombies or any of that shit .

Spiders, pumpkins, bats, ravens/crows
Candles
And a Hallowe'en Tree ... oh yes Grin

Hillarious · 14/10/2018 17:31

The kids used to trick or treat in the neighbourhood and we had a pumpkin outside the house and welcomed trick or treaters. The kids accumulated enough chocolate and sweets to keep them going until Christmas!

Nowadays, no pumpkin, to indicate we don't have anything to offer to trick or treaters,

Bit of a relief, really. I always hated Halloween.

wildbhoysmama · 14/10/2018 17:49

We host a Halloween party every year. I have 4 siblings and a load of nieces and nephews and it saves us hosting Guy Fawkes/ Xmas / Easter! We invite best friends with their kids too, so it ends up a bit mental, bug that's all part of the fun.

We decorate the downstairs and outside the door and have a few lit pumpkins etc. ( Light up balloons in the downstairs loo are a particular favourite). Lots of nibbles, treats and spooky cakes etc. Everyone must dress up- the adults are usually hysterical costumes, we all make an effort.

Games: Dooking for apples, blind folded search for a plastic spider in spaghetti with black food dye, eat a marshmallow from a bowl of icing sugar.

The trick or treat game is always a favourite: You prepare some pieces of paper with either ' treat ' written or a trick/ dare eg sing the frozen theme/ kiss an auntie / do a hanstand/ go outside and shout ' I do stinky pumps' etc. Hilarious when the adults get these. Doesn't cost a penny. Finish with some games - best dancer( inc glow sticks) pin tail on Halloween cat etc.

Anyone who comes in guising ( in Scotland it's called this) has to sing/ dance/ tell a joke/ poem to earn their sweets.

You

EnglishRose13 · 14/10/2018 17:53

I've never been Trick or Treat-ing. I'll never take my son, either.

We do carve a pumpkin and I do dress my child and dog up in corresponding outfits.

kierenthecommunity · 14/10/2018 17:57

Turn lights out. Draw curtains. Take the battery out of the doorbell. Sit in the back bedroom Wink

Biancadelriosback · 14/10/2018 18:02

I always put a pumpkin out so kids know they are allowed to trick or treat here and we'll have sweeties. Hardly get any knocking on though which is sad. I'll take my son maybe next year or the year after, he's too young this year

Biancadelriosback · 14/10/2018 18:03

Oh, once he's in bed DH and I was a horror film and eat a horror themed meal which is basically a normal tea with a daft name eg spaghetti Bolognese is brain, blood and worms, paella is grated bones and fingers etc

Jb291 · 14/10/2018 18:10

Ugh I loathe Halloween and refuse to answer the door.

Poodles1980 · 14/10/2018 18:39

I love Halloween. I think because it’s an Irish/Celtic festival it’s always been a big deal in Ireland. We dress up and do trick or treat and play spooky party games but my favorite stuff is all the spooky stories and traditions my mum’s family have. After all it is all souls eve, if you peel an apple in one piece and throw it on the floor behind you, it will fall in the initials of the person you will marry. You shake the dust from your feet at your door to make the fairies release the souls they have been holding. You eat barn brack which is fruit cake baked with a coin, rag, thimble and a piece of stick in it. Coin is for wealth, rag for poverty, thimbles means you will not marry and the stick is for a journey.
Where my mum comes from in Ireland they will always light a candle in the window and put out an empty chair near the fire to welcome in the dead so they can go on their way on All Souls’ Day which is the 1st Nov.

wildbhoysmama · 14/10/2018 19:27

Poodles, do you call it guising in Ireland too? It's always been a big deal here in Scotland too. Indeed, the tales with lights out and flickering candles are magical. I do it every year with my S1 ( year 7) in the drama room which is blacked out- those battery flickering candles, spooky music and tales of how haunted the school is. They talk aboit it for weeks after.

newroundhere · 14/10/2018 19:28

My Halloween tradition is Bonfire Night Grin

Poodles1980 · 14/10/2018 20:12

No we don’t call it guising in Ireland I think that’s a particular Scottish name for it.

krustykittens · 14/10/2018 20:31

I'm Irish too, and we do all that poodles and leave a saucer of milk outside the back door as an offering for the Fair Folk so they don't come into the house and take a child! The village I grew up in had a square and we used to light a huge bonfire every Halloween and when everyone went home, they would take a taper from the bonfire and light their hearths with it. I always make Irish stew and barm brack for my kids, although they are teenagers now so we shall be heading into Edinburgh for the fire festival, rather than trick or treating! I miss Halloween in Ireland, the kids used to be dancing with impatience by the front door, waiting for the sun to go down and the first fireworks to streak across the sky (even though they are not meant to be on sale on the Republic).

Katedotness1963 · 14/10/2018 20:38

We always decorate, make sure we have plenty of sweets in, usually ones we don't care for so we don't eat them ourselves before the day, and carve a pumpkin.

Since joining MN I've added the tradition of pointing out it's not an American import...

MakeAHouseAHome · 14/10/2018 20:40

Trick or treating IS glorified begging. We turn out the lights and shut the curtains.

Cagliostro · 14/10/2018 20:45

I’m hoping to have some friends round this year as we moved to a house with space to have people over. Not sure about trick or treating though as we don’t know the neighbours at all or how it goes.

We do one thing every year though which is make a pudding called Body Bit Soup (looks like blood and guts etc)

Cambalamb · 14/10/2018 20:48

I buy a pumpkin, carve it into a lantern, make soup with its flesh, That's it. Dc used to trick or treat.

lessthanBeau · 14/10/2018 20:55

We love Halloween 🎃 we dress up and trick or treat. We're usually on a caravan holiday and attend the Halloween party on site. Also trick and treat round the caravans that are participating (the ones with Dec's and lights etc)
next year we will be in the USA for Halloween so can't wait for that.

HavelockVetinari · 14/10/2018 20:58

I utterly love Halloween, when we lived in London I used to do an amazing display or decorations - we got 150+ kids trick or treating every year. We moved to Derbyshire last year and only had 2 kids visit, I was gutted!

So - if you live in Grindleford, come to the house with the ludicrously over-the-top decorations and 10 pumpkins!

covetingthepreciousthings · 15/10/2018 08:23

I love Halloween, it's my favourite time of the year. I always book it off work so we can have a full day of Halloween activities.
My dream is one day to be invited to Jonathan Ross's Halloween party Grin

Agree with PP about watching Hocus Pocus.

Loved reading about the Irish traditions like the saucer of milk!

crivit · 15/10/2018 08:30

Cook a few bits and bobs, get some incense out and ritual. The door wouldn't be answered because I'm busy.