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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To find Halloween utterly tedious?

248 replies

TheGigglingGazelle · 26/10/2019 19:02

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?

OP posts:
SafetyAdvice0FeedWhenAgitated · 26/10/2019 21:12

What the heck is "doing duck apple"
I am scared to google in case something horrible comes up on urban dictionary 😂

BoxFox · 26/10/2019 21:12

Me too queenbodenica

CileyMayRhinovirus · 26/10/2019 21:15

Any excuse to dress up, have fun, cook up some treats, have a little party.

I love all the holidays. Especially Halloween. Even more so Christmas. Love 'em. Great distraction from the mundanity of life. And to put a smile on the kids faces, obviously.

bruffin · 26/10/2019 21:22

WTAF!!!!!! You know it’s an ancient festival that originated in this part of the world and had always been celebrated in the UK and Ireland?

Halloween wasnt celebrated when i was a child on the 60s on london. My DM was Welsh and never celebrated it either.
We celebrated Guy Fawkes and did penny for the guy .
Halloween was talked about in assembly but as All Hallows Eve . It was something we saw on american programmes. I know now in other parts of the uk there are traditions, but not really in the South.
I never let my dc go trick or treating, but occasionally had a party because DC were September babies with a lot in their class so parties clashed , so i did Halloween party instead.

Wheat2Harvest · 26/10/2019 21:22

The idea of knocking on complete strangers’ doors and then having to make small talk with them is my idea of absolute HELL.

But most parents whose children do trick and treating go to houses where they know the occupant and where there is an obvious sign - such as a carved pumpkin - outside the front door.

I love having children come around (with parents hovering in the background) and feigning fear at the sight of their costimes.

satanstoenailsandwich · 26/10/2019 21:28

'Hate the way it is more about horror these days '

It's literally always been about the souls of dead folk visiting the earth Confused

FluffyAlpaca19 · 26/10/2019 21:30

I don't mind the kids dressing up & calling on our neighbours but I draw the line at decorating the house etc. I wasn't brought up in a culture that celebrates Halloween so it's new to me. Death & scary things were seen as something to be wary of and prayers said etc rather than having fun.

It's Diwali this weekend in case people were wondering why the fireworks are going off a bit early.

lazylinguist · 26/10/2019 21:36

I liked it as a kid, partly because my birthday is on Halloween, but I can't really be arsed with it as an adult tbh. My dc sort of get excited about it, but the whole thing lasts a couple of hours- they get dressed uo, go trick-or-treating... that's it, Halloween done for the year. It's a bit of an anticlimax imo.

zukiecat · 26/10/2019 21:44

Pagan here and it's Samhain for me

The end of the Celtic year and I'm looking forward to to our ritual next week.

I also celebrate Yule and not Christmas

Jinxed2 · 26/10/2019 21:47

I don’t mind the kids dressing up etc but for some reason Halloween seems to be dragging out to like a week long celebration?! Also my pet hate is dressing small children up as horror movie characters, saw one earlier on Facebook, a 2 year old as Chucky with a bloody plastic knife. W.T.F?!

zukiecat · 26/10/2019 21:48

BertieBotts

Imbolc is celebrated on 1st February,

It's marking the first day of the beginning of Spring

SlightlyStaleCocoPops · 26/10/2019 21:51

I wonder if the posters who that think trick or treating is just begging feel the same about penny for the guy...?

Dutypaid · 26/10/2019 21:54

@safetyadvice0feedwhenagitated - it's not an American tradition.

SafetyAdvice0FeedWhenAgitated · 26/10/2019 21:57

@Dutypaid yes. I am fully aware

Zerrin13 · 26/10/2019 21:59

I agree with you OP. Complete tedious crap. Nothing to celebrate whatsoever

ColdTattyWaitingForSummer · 26/10/2019 22:01

I think doing duck apple means apple bobbing

RufusthebewiIderedreindeer · 26/10/2019 22:01

My children prefer Halloween to Christmas

Ive never been able to figure out why

Unless it’s because they think its less pressure

Must ask them sometime

Dutypaid · 26/10/2019 22:03

@verysadstorync - it's not solely Scottish either. It's Celtic.

LolaSmiles · 26/10/2019 22:04

We celebrated bonfire night more as children, but now it seems to be less bonfire night and more town centres doing massive firework displays and weeks of idiots letting their own off

Halloween was nice in the area I grew up in but it was quite low key. Carve a pumpkin it turnip, make do costumes (eg ghost out of a sheet, black clothes with some facepaint, bin liner and a hat for a witch) and you'd only trick or treat on people you knew.
Now there seems to be a huge amount of plastic tat required, lots of cheap costumes to bin after, decorations etc and people trick or treat everywhere. That's before there's the adults who also need loads of tat for one day.

Dutypaid · 26/10/2019 22:07

Good to hear SafetyAdvice. I'm don't like the fireworks, bon fires etc (feel sorry for the wildlife), but what I find most tedious about it is when people believe it to be an American import.

Willow2017 · 26/10/2019 22:09

Oh give over. It's fun and at least it's not that complete waste of time called Christmas where people put up with family bullshit and also put themselves in stupid debt for one day a year.

Exactly it doesn't go on for 4 months beforehand, there are no threads on MN full of angst about relatives visiting at Halloween or insisting you do it thier way each year, wondering how you can afford to buy presents for 50 relatives etc etc.

YANBU. Halloween is not a thing and people who try to make it a thing are annoying, to say the least!

You know what's annoying? This crap Year after year. You would think by now people would actually know it's a pretty ancient tradition Iin UK especially Scotland and Ireland and in some parts of the most of England.

It's one bloody night.
It's fun for all of us who participate in one way or another.
Yes adults are allowed fun to.
And you know what? Nobody is forcing you to do anything about it but that doesn't give you the right to be downright rude about those who do.

Willow2017 · 26/10/2019 22:11

North of England ffs.

SafetyAdvice0FeedWhenAgitated · 26/10/2019 22:12

@Dutypaid I really thought it was clear that I was joking about people who proclaim it American...

bruffin · 26/10/2019 22:13

Dutypaid
I dont think you realise how regionalised it used to be.
As i said in the previous post, we only saw Halloween on american tv programmes back when i was a child.

namechangetheworld · 26/10/2019 22:15

God there are some miserable fuckers on here.

Wearing costumes and decorating the house with tat isn't my thing either, but my DD4 loves knocking on the neighbours doors to show everyone her costume and gorge herself on sweets an hour before bed time. Some of the people on our village make such an effort, it's brilliant to see.

My parents always closed the curtains and switched all of the lights off on Halloween. It's one of the overriding memories of my miserable childhood.