I dislike Halloween

[willieversleep]

I've two young DC and I just dislike the waste and effort of Halloween. I don't mind doing other things with them but Halloween seems like a commercialised waste of time/money.

AIBU - Halloween is just a bit of fun

AINBU - it's rubbish

Tsk, you’re not allowed to dislike Halloween on here don’t you know?!
Load of old rubbish if you ask me, and people have taken it too far stretching it out for a month or so.
But I will concede this year it’s not as bad as kids have had a bit of a crap one, and if they are just dressing up at home then what’s the harm (thank God no trick or treating!)?

Wow sorry I didn't realise it was such a sore spot. I haven't seen any of the previous threads so apologies if it's been done to death.

Christmas and Easter have a religious focus in our house. But yes unfortunately a lot of the stuff is very commercialised. I didn't say Halloween was crap but I did say I disliked it. I'm not offended by people saying they dislike Christmas 🤷‍♀️

I remember Halloween as a different experience when I was young and there seemed like there was a lot less to it. My post came after a pumpkin carving experience that was wasteful as no-one likes the pumpkin flesh and so was binned.

You can’t know if you haven’t seen them, so don’t sweat it. It’s an annual thing. Someone dares to say they don’t like Halloween and there is a massive pile on from people who think it’s the best thing since sliced bread - was an eye opener for me as it was never a thing when I was growing up.

I think most things have become wasteful and over commercialised sadly - but on here you’ll only hear from the mums who make costumes out of recycled loo roll and eat pumpkin soup for the next month (or so they say!) Someone must be buying all the toot I can see out there (and I only go to the supermarket once a week!)...

YANBU Halloween is bollocks

If Christmas is still a religious festival for you, then the comparison is perhaps less valid in some ways, but I still don't understand why people tut so much about the waste and commercialism of Halloween when it is absolutely minuscule compared with that of Christmas.

It is easy to celebrate Halloween very cheaply, and to go for the more wholesome side of it - pumpkin carving, homemade or improvised costumes etc. It's not so easy to do Christmas cheaply and wastelessly unless you're willing to be the ones not buying presents for relatives and never hosting at Christmas etc.

I love Christmas and have no strong feelings about Halloween (even though it's my birthday) but I do find it bizarre and a bit illogical how much dislike is directed at it. It often seems to stem more from a feeling that it's (supposedly) a tacky American import than any more concrete reason tbh.

I tut about both. How come we are all David Attenborough and crying about turtles and then we buy hideous plastic shite?

Yes I can’t stand it - lots of things associated with it that I don’t agree with.

Never let our children “celebrate it” and fortunately they now can’t dislike it as well.

It is done to death OP..every year..same old 'it's begging, it's an American import' blah blah bollocks.

It's a bit of fun for the kids. Life is miserable enough at the moment.

Don't do it if you don't want to. Don't open the door if you don't want to. It's really not that fucking complicated.

'...(less expectations, no shitty presents to buy for adults who are perfectly capable of buying things for themselves, no family politics) at Halloween you do you, however much, or little, you want to. YABVU.'

Yes this ^
I love it and so do the dc. We also don't waste anything as reuse our decorations each year. We love to bake halloween themed treats and it is so much fun esp for the dc. We are making extra efforts indoors this year with no trick or treating. This year we will have homemade creepy treats, nice food, movies and music, games for the dc and I can't wait!

'no-one likes the pumpkin flesh and so was binned.'

OP roasted pumpkin is gorgeous, it also make a great ingredient for cookies and cakes; abundance of lovely recipes online!

@ShelbyCherryBlossom

I'm a pagan and get fed up of people pissing on our holiday. Fine if you don't want to celebrate it but please stop calling it commercialised crap. Why not spend the day educating yourself and your kids on history instead?

Pagan observance of Samhain is far more interesting than all the commercial stuff, tbh. Isn’t it like a New Year?

I’m not arsed about Halloween and I hate trick or treat because random people ringing my bell makes me jumpy, but Halloween parties are fun and I liked going clubbing on Halloween as a student.

It's not my favourite holiday but I don't hate it either. It's better than bloody Valentine's Day.

@OhCaptain

🙄 who cares what any of us think? If you don’t like it and don’t want to participate, don’t.

FYI it has a long and interesting history. It’s not a made up, commercialised waste of money.

It's history isn't all that long. While Samhain and similar festivals in other regions celebrated the start of the latter, darker half of the year, the idea of 'thinning veils' and links to the dead only began to appear with Sir John Rhys' work in around 1892. The 'mounds are open' line from Irish poetry was mistranslated, so that also doesn't refer to the Sidhe running amock.

It's more likely that the death-aspect came into play with All Hallows, before being cobbled onto Samhain during the folk/pagan reconstruction of the Victorian era and beyond, and only heightened in recent years as we inexplicably link it to ancestor worship/offerings such as the Mexican Day of the Dead and other indigenous practises.

@ShelbyCherryBlossom me too and it’s the same every year on mumsnet. Halloween threads should be banned 😀.

The purchasing of plastic buckets, sweets and trick-or-treating only really gained traction in the UK (outside of a few communities who did 'guising', but let's not pretend they did it in some nylon thing from Asda nor did they TP their neighbour's homes) when we started seeing it in American movies. Before you knew it, people 'remembered' that it 'always' been a thing, even if you'd never so much as donned a bin bag before then.

Anyway. Also pagan. But I'll be sticking to the fires and the dark, and not worrying about the dead.

Don’t buy tat 🤷🏻‍♀️
People who trot out the begging line just make me laugh. It’s not begging to go to a house with a lit pumpkin displayed, who clearly WANT to hand out sweets.
Hallowe’en is a lovely giving time... people make the effort to decorate their houses for others, for no reward. Kids often enjoy giving out sweets as much (or nearly as much!) as receiving.
There are loads of lovely craft and costume projects to do.

Lots of fun, none of the expectations of Xmas.

If you don’t like it - that’s fine. Go do your own thing and leave the rest of us to enjoy it 🙂

I have one solitary experience of Halloween.

At my friend's house, age 9, excited and dressed up as witches.
Threw a couple of firecrackers on the floor outside their kitchen door.
Frends mum and friend walked me home, through 50 yards of the pitch dark local park and a few empty streets holding an empty plastic pumpkin.

I never saw the point, before nor after.

Doesn't seem to be a bit thing in my area though.

@ChocolateCherrybomb so sorry that was your experience of halloween as a child, what a shame.

and only heightened in recent years as we inexplicably link it to ancestor worship/offerings such as the Mexican Day of the Dead and other indigenous practises.

I think the traditions are starting to mix everywhere, I know in Italy traditionally some people people (eg my nonna) go clean grave yards on November 1st and bake hard 'bone biscuits', but now the younger generation dress up and have Halloween parties.

I like Halloween, I also went to a 'light party' once which I enjoyed.
Things are only as commercialised as you make them. DS1 will be wearing his builder dress up clothes and doing some baking with me - may even have a go at bone biscuits if they are not too complicated.

I love Halloween. I don't have kids, don't go trick or treating as I imagine the neighbours would tell me to fuck off, and I'm not bothered for sweets.

But I love the history of it as a tradition and the idea of it being a thin veil between the living and the dead (I'm not religious/superstitious/spiritual, but it's interesting to me), I love horror films and the connection with autumn and it getting cold and dark, I love carving pumpkins, I love watching Hocus Pocus. This is my Christmas!

Last year I made cake and soup with the pumpkin flesh, and we left our pumpkins out for the squirrels later.
This year we will stay in and watch films with sweets instead.
It's what you make it, really.

I live in the US now and it’s normally huge in my neighborhood. Different people take turns to host a party and then the children are released to go trick or treating- older ones go in groups, you get in small groups with parents. Everyone hangs out on their pitches chatting and giving out treats. I’m not mad about it, but it’s a nice neighborhood event.

Of course, it’s not happening this year and my children aren’t happy! DD (15) and her friends have their costumes all ready and no party to go to. 😢 I’m thinking of putting out a table with little bags of sweets at the end of our path in case anyone does go out.

*younger ones in groups with parents

My daughter loves it and I think it's fun. I always loved spooky things as a child and wished it was a bigger deal in the at the time, so glad we get some family fun now.

If it's not your thing, it's no big deal.

Some countries don't have Halloween, they have an event on the 2nd of Nov.
Bloody hell. I take Halloween any day, because our holiday was very depressing driving around cemeteries, cleaning graves and putting candles on👀
Don't take me wring, it's a nice sentiment, but I always dreaded that day.