Halloween... Do kids have it too easy these days? 😒

[Catsup]

In my day and age (many moons ago) my Scottish parents would balk at paying for a pumpkin. They'd then risk a finger (and several hours) hollowing out a turnip, bunging a stumpy candle inside, pulling a bin bag over my head (with head/arm holes), and setting me off on my merry way!... Aibu to really feel my kids with their fancy pants pumpkins and actual costumes haven't actually lived?

YANBU, the terror of the sparklers catching on your binbag and melting it onto your skin was very character building

Yes they do.
I'm old enough we didn't have a pumpkin option.
You just had to risk snapping your wrist in two hollowing out a neep.
Although our costumes were quite ornate we always had to do a turn before we got any sweets, nuts etc.
I regularly tell my dc they don't know they are born!

I didn't even see a pumpkin until I was about ten, and even then only one person had one and we were all fascinated by it.
Neeps all the way here!

I wore a bin bag as a costume when I was a child... I told my daughter recently and she was horrified at the idea.

I also can’t remember pumpkin carving either 🤔 yet it’s something I do with mine every year and this year I’m taking them to go and pick their own pumpkin!

It was a hollowed out turnip and a plastic false face when I was wee. The sort that was rigid and cracked really easily and then the cracks pinched your skin. Character building indeed.

Also, kids these days don't know the underwhelming yet joyful experience of a box of indoor fireworks.

We used to also hollow out a swede when kids. Sad, sad, wrist aching, stinky times.

Ah. The bin bag witch costume. And cardboard hat. Happy days!

Though we never celebrated Halloween, as my mum hated it. And I'm not a fan. But we had awesome Halloween parties at brownies.

We did not really do Halloween in the 1950 era, or even later than that.
But when married with two children, we as family went to live in the USA for three years, in 1976. Then Halloween was a massive thing in the USA, the whole land seem to be covered in massive Pumpkins and all the the gaudy crap surrounding Halloween.

We lived in an affluent area, and the whole streets were full of entire families, all the family, with aged grandparent too, all dressed up like one big pantomime show everywhere, It was all very very noisy everywhere, big Halloween banners strung up. dogs dressed up in scary costumes. The Americans do things big style.

A couple of years after we came home to the UK, I noticed that lots of this big time Halloween stuff was coming to the UK shops, as we tend to follow suit here, with all this razz stuff from the USA. So now it's just the same here in our little island.

Never did anything for Halloween as a child, it was never a thing where I lived. Mischief night and bonfire night were huge though.

we tend to follow suit here, with all this razz stuff from the USA. So now it's just the same here in our little island.

Except that the USA actually got Halloween from Ireland and Scotland.

The descriptions of hollowing out neeps are Scottish ones.

It is true that England is following USA influence but if they'd had more sense they would have copied the Celtic nation's decades ago 😉

Ignore rogue auto correct apostrophe.

The descriptions of hollowing out neeps are Scottish ones.

And in my case, Irish. Although Northern Irish so possibly influenced by Scotland.

Halloween was always a thing here. I'm in my mid 40s and we definitely did the whole dressing up as witches stuff when I was wee. Where I lived there even used to be a Halloween bonfire for the whole community. We don't have bonfire night here so maybe it was an attempt to replicate what we saw on Blue Peter (they were always big into Bonfire Night) and adapt it to our local area.

Hollowed out swedes are MUCH creepier than pumpkins though. Also we used to bob for apples.

In the 70s we definitely did Halloween in Yorkshire. Hollowed out swede, costumes made of old sheets/cardboard/whatever we could find. I have a very clear memory of knocking on a neighbour's door to trick or treat, and him chasing us down the street as we had woken him up! We did bonfire night too with apple bobbing and Yorkshire parkin.

Did pumpkins used to be expensive or something? My parents rarely let us have one either.

@Oysterbabe I think they just weren't a 'thing' in the UK, probably also really expensive. I had a US pen pal at the time too, and I can recall being in awe of the photo she sent me of her 'massive house', umpteen (3)carved pumpkins on the outside steps, and her awesome costume!... By contrast the sad little photo returned of me sporting my bin bag, and clutching my turnip after the garden twine holding the lid up had snapped? 🙄 Probably made me look like we lived under a rock and were yet to discover electricity.

Yes! This has made me laugh! I loved Halloween but growing up in Belfast meant no fireworks - and definitely no pumpkins.
My DD wants a very specific witch costume - which this year she won’t even be wearing out anywhere - and I have yet to agree. I tried to explain to her that in my day I usually made cat ears or spider legs out of black construction paper, put on some black (or school navy) tights and a bin bag and that was it!

We had a few apples on strings dangling from a door frame to bob for and wet apple bobbing in the baby bath (plus the hollowed out swede as previously mentioned). We didn't go out at all.

We never got sweets either. Home grown apples, complete with bruises and worms and monkey nuts, or impossible to open brazil nuts. We kept them and gave them out the next year.

Turnips, bin bags, cardboard hats and apple bobbing in 1980s North Yorkshire. Along with a few ghost stories to scare ourselves silly before trick or treating (with actual tricks) Followed by Mischief Night and Bonfire Night. Definitely no pumpkins 🎃

My DBs used to hollow out the turnip but leave the skin in tact so the light shone through the 'windows' - it meant the candle never got blown out when we tramped round the houses on a wintery Scottish night.

Pumpkins are not the same challenge.
The school (primary) Halloween party was great, costume competition (home made but usually the most original one, so not necessarily the most ornate), dookin for apples, champers (mashed tatties with charms in them), prize for best turnip lantern.

I’m Irish and in my house we never had pumpkins or turnips at Halloween. We got monkey nuts and mandarins! And barn brack. Trick or treating wasn’t a big thing either. But we played lots of games at home.

YANBU, the terror of the sparklers catching on your binbag and melting it onto your skin was very character building

Sparklers at Halloween?

Yes OP I agree. Once you have experienced the acrid smell or burning turnip it can never be forgotten.

Pumpkins were simply not available.

Also we used to bob for apples

Is Bob another word for Dook for apples, face in a basin of apples floating in water?

We also did a variation on dook, kneel on a chair and drop a fork from your teeth into a basin of apples.

But Op, 2020 an the shite that it is, isn't the year to say this generation have it easy.