To find Halloween utterly tedious?

[TheGigglingGazelle]

Just that, really. I get why it's fun for kids, but grown adults getting excited about it, and the way everything that happens any time around Hallowe'en has to have a 'spooky' theme? casts a sidelong glance at Strictly while typing Each to their own, but... I just don't get it.

Is it just me?

@TheGigglingGazelle

YABU. Don't bother with it if you don't like it. Nobody's forcing you.

I LOVE it, and me and my friends and close family go to the village pub for their annual Halloween party, and it's brilliant, and we all dress up. And shocker! SOME of us are middle aged (and older!)

AND we don't buy loads of 'plastic tat' every year; we have been re-using the same Halloween decorations for about a decade. And we recycle/pass on/swap/re-use our outfits.

I loved Halloween when I was a kid/teen, I loved it when my kids were young, and I love it now.

I never understand why people have to throw shade on others. Don't join in by all means, but mean comments slagging people off, like a few people have done here, just makes people look bitter, spiteful, mean, and jealous.

Imagine if someone said to you 'if you had more friends and family around you who actually like you, you could have fun on Halloween too...' That would be mean and spiteful, yeah? Well it's also mean and spiteful to diss and slag off people for enjoying something that you don't enjoy.

Only about 8 weeks til the 'Does anyone hate New Years Eve as much as I do, and think people are sad fuckers if they go out' threads start!

When people do that - just like with THIS thread - they just come across and bitter and jealous. Live and let live. ✌️

(Those 2 fingers are a peace sign by the way, not the F-off sign!)

OMG people having fun! They must be stopped!!

I am not really into Halloween at all myself, and I can't help feeling cynical that in the past 5-10 years it's been transformed from an evening of fun for children, into something that takes over every shop and supermarket weeks - if not months - in advance, is on the cover of every magazine, and people go crazy over fancy dress, decorations, and themed food! There are houses round where I live that have already had decorations up for well over a week, and it's still five days away! It seems to be turning into another Christmas. When I was a child, my mum used to buy me a cardboard witch's hat and let me do duck apple, but that was it. I'd never heard of trick or treating (except in American films) till I moved to my own house in the late 90s and was taken aback by kids ringing the bell for trick or treat - I remember giving them packets of crisps as I hadn't thought to buy sweets in!
We usually buy a pumpkin now and stick it outside, but that's as far as decorations go!

I am massively disappointed with this thread. It's been over an hour and not a single "We don't celebrate American things in our house"...

If you are online on actual Halloween night it's really good drinking game. Take a sip when "Ugh. American traditions" pops up online😁

Me too. Such a waste of time.

@TheDarkPassenger Remember that on MN adults must not have fun under any circumstances. No birthdays or Christmases past the age of 12, if you get married you must hold your wedding in a cupboard on a budget of £3.50, and Hallowe'en is an American import that no one had ever heard of 10 years ago and is therefore terrible.

(Disclaimer: I know that Hallowe'en isn't an American import)

I like it but I come from a country where it's not a thing so there's the novelty factor. My son is too young to really get it but he's excited about carving a "punkin". I don't go to parties or dress up but I like seeing other people's pumpkins and decorations, and weirdly I'm really tickled by Halloween editions of sweets and cakes. I don't by plastic stuff though and am generally quite minimalistic about Halloween, but I do like it.

I like the Halloween strickly and as child liked a party, but hate trick and treating, hate the fact it is soo commercial, hate the way every buys costumes these days. Hate the way it is more about horror these days some costumes designed for kids I think are totally inappropriate. I will be carving a pumpkin though.

I don’t mind halloween - but hate picking all the spent fireworks up form my garden. My poor little cat is hiding under the bed tonight and the fireworks are going mad out there

I like it, DS will squeeze into last years costume (which he's also worn to birthday parties this year)

The next day is all saints day in Italy, so i'll light a candle and my mum might have a go at making special biscuits.

I will happily celebrate most things tbh - one year we celebrated a Swedish version of midsummer for fun.

Personally I love Halloween, but I think its more to do with the time of year that I love. Autumn days and then the build up to bonfire night and Christmas. Reminds me of great childhood memories

We're off to Scotland this year for Samhain as the DCs are older (followed by a ghost tour on the 1st of November).

It's always been seen as a festival in the Northern hemisphere where the 'layers' between the living and the dead grow thin.

See dia de muertos, where the Catholic and Aztec traditions have melded.

It's obviously a celebration of times where dark is more prevalent than light.

Don't be a dick, you don't have to spend money to honour the turning of the planet and the changing of the year and the associated ancient beliefs.

But do you not see the atmosphere of place that happens?

The call of the dark? The frisson of excitement in corners?

I think it's a fun part of uk culture that should be embraced!

This whole OTT "celebration" isn't part of UK culture. It's yet another American import that retailers have jumped on and some people have fallen for the money-making exercise. No idea why. Perhaps because sadly many people are sheep and suffer from FOMO.

Halloween is ace. I love the way it’s just about having fun. The kids love trick or treating and it’s nice to see the neighbours smiling and having a laugh with all the little ones. It takes very little time and you can be as involved as you like.

Compared to the political nightmare that is Christmas it’s an absolute joy. No rows about whose house, whose dinner, whose MIL, getting into debt over gifts, people not liking gifts, Poole getting insulted over gifts, planning and buying for months of the year to have underwhelmed kids on the actual day. Getting fat. Big increase in suicides from the pressure and loneliness of it.

Somehow out of all the festivals I don’t think Halloween is the problem.

It’s just abit of fun!

It fills the retail gap between the kids returning to school in September, and Christmas.

I love it but then we love any excuse for a celebration in our house.
Samhain, Christmas, Easter, May day, Harvest, Chinese New year, Divali, Eid, Solstice, Notting Hill carnival, Lafrowda, Glastonbury.
Bring it on.

Hundred, it's been imported to the US by Europe and the Aztecs.

They may have commodified it, but you can celebrate in any way you choose.

I think marking the change of seasons and light is important.

Because that's how we mark our lives.

@HundredMilesAnHour bingo!! It's not an American import.
People that moved from Scotland to American took it with them.
My Gran and Grandpa remembered guising and they died recently in their 90s.

Another traditional kept alive purely for the retail opportunities...🙄

We ‘celebrate’ Halloween

We carve pumpkins

We play games and eat nice food

We’ve done Halloween stuff in my family since i was about 8

42 years ago now

My mum was obviously ahead of the curve

(My parents didnt decorate but we put some bits and bobs up)

YANBU.

I can’t stand it. I buy sweets and take the kids out (well just my youngest now) but when he starts high school next year it’ll be the end of it in this house.

So unnecessary, Americanised and over the top, and as for the waste given all the tat and shite all over the place. Absolutely hate it with a passion. Roll on next year when I go back to ignoring it again.

I love halloween aka gay christmas.

The call of the dark? The frisson of excitement in corners?

Do you know, you're right about that kind of unique thrill of Halloween (and guy fawkes too actually). I remember the feeling well as a child. All tied in with the clocks going back for me and it being darker at night too.

I adore Halloween. I'm having a party this year even though my kids are teenagers and one of them isn't even coming (got a better offer!)

I will be spending hours making coffin-shaped tortilla chips, jelly worms, graveyard cake, pretzel broomsticks, cheese pumpkins

the living room is being transformed into a potions emporium and there will be giant spider webs, bats, spiders etc

I love the dark, slightly transgressive humour of Halloween, it's fulfilled a cultural need for a night of misrule and bad taste for centuries and is no more a modern commercial invention than Christmas is.

And I grew out of competitive ennui many years ago :)