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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

I hate Halloween

38 replies

Candlesandrust · 30/10/2019 14:50

I hate Halloween, I can't wait for it to be over every year. Tacky costumes, gangs of teenagers hanging around, having to hide in the house from kids and their parents banging on the door. Pumpkins are food of the devil.

This is lighthearted and I am a grumpy old cow. Anyone else with me?

OP posts:

TheQueef · 30/10/2019 14:53

Clocking in.
Already five houses in our tiny street have 'decorated' stop it!
It just encourages it!
gonna have a big stinky bonfire tomorrow night

IamEarthymama · 30/10/2019 15:17

Me too!
But then I celebrate Samhain and loved Day of the Dead celebrations in San Francisco
I like a quiet evening thinking about the changing season, the people I have loved who died, I reflect on the things I hope to concentrate on in the winter months, both practical and in my relationships.

It's the tons of plastic, the lack of interest in where the All Hallows Eve tradition came from that annoys me.
I don't like fancy dress either.
I don't mind trick or treating here, it's just little ones who I know who came calling so that's fine.

I do think I might be a grumpy old bugger though.

flopsytheflatcat · 30/10/2019 15:19

I hate it too

TheQueef · 30/10/2019 15:20

At a push, under ten years old, bin bag and sellotape costume, crappy face paint.
Anything over that can fuck off.
Especially teenage fancy dress parties.

Sirzy · 30/10/2019 15:20

As long as they stay away from my front door then people can do what they like! (That’s legally and morally acceptable of course(

DulciUke · 30/10/2019 15:25

I love Halloween, the decorations, pumpkin carving, etc. However, there are years where I just can't be bothered. In that case, I go out for the evening--catch a movie, go out to dinner. By the time I get home, all the fuss is over.

kerryleigh · 30/10/2019 15:25

I will just go away tomorrow. From work straight to a friend for a chat /coffee/glass of wine and go home after 9pm.. I've had enough of it. I've always bought too many sweets and ended up stuffing my face days after Halloween passed.

SimonJT · 30/10/2019 16:11

I love halloween aka gay christmas, I have a halloween party tomorrow (going as a ninja turtle) and a halloween night out on saturday (we’re going as mario and luigi).

WreckTangled · 30/10/2019 16:14

I hate it too. The dc always want to go trick or treating because their friends do but they end up with silly amounts of sweets and ds gets scared. Other children act horribly spoilt and grabby too.

Luckily I've planned for us to go to the theatre tomorrow so we can miss out on all of it.

ItsJustTheOneSwanActually · 30/10/2019 16:22

I'm in Canada and it's HUGE here.

DH and I get our flu shots and then hide in the pub every year. We joined in the first couple of years after we emigrated, but we really can't be bothered.

And the doorbell scares the living shit out of the cats

Sayhellotothethings · 30/10/2019 16:29

I don't like the way we do it in this country. I like day of the dead and stuff in other countries. In this country it's just commercial shit that encourages begging from your neighbours and the purchasing of cheap costumes that we throw away after one use.

lolaflores · 30/10/2019 16:31

I have wonderful childhood memories of Halloween. But it was DIY. It feels very stage managed now and I dont like how the bigger kids have muscled in. I think it's for the under 10s. That said, I am beginning to get sick of disinterested parents slogging round the streets with some fairly entitled kids on a grabby free for all.
IN MY DAY ...in Ireland...we had to sing a song. Trick or treat was Amerucan and nothing we understood. So the humiliation of singing some old bit of shit earned u the sweets or monkey nuts, apples, grapes hazelnuts. Or...to get rid if you. I'm not sure if the singing thing was everywhere.
Its been monetized like everything but if everyone keeps buying into it, that's how its going to be...bit of a shame

IfWishesWereFishes · 30/10/2019 16:34

I fucking hate Halloween. The most pointless and time consuming of all the bloody 'holidays'.

bigchris · 30/10/2019 16:37

Do you mean even if you haven't put a pumpkin out people still bang on the door ? That's very bad Halloween etiquette!

TheQueef · 30/10/2019 16:41

Don't you start me on adult parties Si the house on the corner has an annual one.
Oh how I judge.

Popskipiekin · 30/10/2019 16:42

Yes lolaflores with us in Scotland it was “guising” and you went out with your recorder/tin whistle/voice/magic trick etc, you had to perform on the doorstep to get something in exchange. Now it’s just grab and run. It’s grabby and altogether less cute. But very easy to avoid of course. Round us they’re very good about not knocking if you don’t have a pumpkin out. We tend to be “on” until 7pm and then draw curtains, lights out, escape until next year.

Original poster

Candlesandrust · 30/10/2019 16:43

I'm probably influenced by my mother who never allowed us to step foot out of the door on Halloween. That was for 'common children', terrible snob she was/is. Nothing to be snobby about!

No pumpkin outside the door, never had a pumpkin cross my threshold, vile orange signs of the devil.

OP posts:

lazylinguist · 30/10/2019 16:47

I'm not fussed about Halloween (even though it's my birthday!), but I don't understand why people get so grumpy about it. My dc are currently in the kitchen, companionably carving pumpkins. They'll dress up and go trick or treating with their friends for about an hour tomorrow, only to houses that have pumpkins.

How on earth does it 'encourage begging'? Do you think kids think "Ah - I got sweets from neighbours! What a great idea - I must try going round their houses on other nights of the year and asking for stuff!" They are given sweets which people have generally bought for the purpose of giving to trick or treaters. That's not begging.

lolaflores · 30/10/2019 16:50

All the houses were fair game for us and in a way it sort of gave you a sort of wild confidence. Knock on a door, sing a song to people who are squinting at you in despair. Get some crap. Repeat at the next door.
If there was a group of mixed ability, we all did what we were good at and divied everything up fairly at the end.
That sort of experience was exhilarating and scary. Wearing a mask disguise and being anonymous. Bit dark really for an 8 year old as I think about it.
Wish I could do it at 52...get arrested

lazylinguist · 30/10/2019 16:50

Also I've never had a child 'grab' sweets. And lord knows I'd much rather say "Ooh look at your scary costume!" and give them the sweets than have to stand there letting the cold in while listening to a succession of children warbling or ineptly playing instruments at me!

Leeds2 · 30/10/2019 16:56

Don't do anything for Halloween, never have even when DD was younger. I would have a bucket of stuff for trick or treaters, but in the fifteen years I have lived at my house I have only had one group call round and that was pre arranged by a neighbour for her children. So I don't bother with that anymore either!
I was in Tesco this afternoon and a lady was complaining that they had sold out of pumpkins, and only had novelty pumpkins which were a strange pale colour and of wildly different sizes. I wouldn't have bought one, they just looked odd.

WreckTangled · 30/10/2019 17:25

I've seen children grabbing sweets. People hold the bowl out and they grab as many as they can get in one hand. Also some people leave a bowl out and even if you're out early it's already empty. I actually saw one child grabbing all the sweets from the bowl at her own house which her mum had left out whilst they were doing the rounds themselves

ReanimatedSGB · 30/10/2019 17:32

Oh, each to their own and all that, but I have always enjoyed it. It wasn't much of a 'thing' when I was a kid, but I was aware that people elsewhere dressed up, had parties etc and was always rather sad that I was missing out. Ever since having DS we have celebrated it; our road is popular with trick-or-treaters so I'll do a pumpkin (and make pasta sauce with the insides) and lay on sweets. We usually try to get to one of the heritage railways Halloween Ghost Train Specials in the run up as well.

BlobbyTheLump · 30/10/2019 18:01

I'm neutral about Halloween. Don't hate it but definitely don't love it or actively celebrate it.

I fucking detest Mischief Night. That's when all the little bastards come out to play, someone ignoring the fact that you've not got a pumpkin pales into insignificance when the little brats are throwing rocks/fireworks at windows, through letterboxes, at people and at cars.

FudgeBrownie2019 · 30/10/2019 18:06

I love it. Round here it's a big thing where parents ship their DC into the area because it's known to be such a good celebration.

The DC are always beautifully behaved, the parents often wander about with a Baileys hot chocolate and there's an unwritten rule that nobody knocks on the houses that aren't decorated. Nobody does any kind of tricks, or causes any trouble and I've never seen anyones DC grabbing sweets.

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