what you think of halloween?

[adam7485]

. ok. halloween can be a fantastic time for all people kids and everyone, but am i the only person to think it brings the worst out of people? 2019 before covid i got a taxi to a local pub who were having a halloween party and we almost had a nasty accident as some kids threw something in front of the car. how we didn't have an accident was probably more luck than judgement. to think that a good celebration and fun has become tainted by the actions of a certain group of people?

I love the handwaving away of any issues with moral messaging and Christmas. Ah yeah, a strange man coming into your house at night and leaving presents. Definitely nowhere near as bad as a stock phrase of trick or treat

@AosSi

I love the handwaving away of any issues with moral messaging and Christmas. Ah yeah, a strange man coming into your house at night and leaving presents. Definitely nowhere near as bad as a stock phrase of trick or treat

Give it a month or so and everyone will be losing their minds about Elf on the Shelf. But we have firework moaning to get through yet.

@AosSi

I love the handwaving away of any issues with moral messaging and Christmas. Ah yeah, a strange man coming into your house at night and leaving presents. Definitely nowhere near as bad as a stock phrase of trick or treat

You do know Father Christmas isn't real, right?!

Give it a month or so and everyone will be losing their minds about Elf on the Shelf.

Oh, I am READY 😆

@lazylinguist

What is the consequence if a stranger refuses to give a treat when asked?

Absolutely nothing, in my experience. Children go to door, inhabitant of house gives sweets if they want to. End of story.

Complaining about the idea of tricks, and then complaining when told there aren't really tricks any more, on the grounds that it's encouraging children to use confusing language, is a truly feeble objection.

There are lots of festivals and traditions which have changed over time, keeping only the nice, fun bits. It must be disappointing for the grinches to find nothing genuinely worthy of pearl-clutching and disapproval in the way people generally now celebrate Halloween.

Feeble? I'm guessing you've never tried washing eggs off your front window...

Say, one year, your DC are not given a treat on Halloween & do then play a trick. How would you respond? Hard to tell them off if you've been encouraging trick or treating for years.

“Give it a month or so and everyone will be losing their minds about Elf on the Shelf. But we have firework moaning to get through yet.”

😂😂

Say, one year, your DC are not given a treat on Halloween & do then play a trick. How would you respond? Hard to tell them off if you've been encouraging trick or treating for years.

My children don't even have the concept of it. Plus they don't go out unsupervised. It's just not an issue.

You do know Father Christmas isn't real, right?!

And we all tell kids Santa is fake, don't we? It amounts to the same thing. We're leading them to believe a strange man is coming into houses at night and that's a-ok.

MN and Halloween will never fail to crack me up.

Give it a month or so and everyone will be losing their minds about Elf on the Shelf. But we have firework moaning to get through yet.

"In my day our stocking had an orange, a penny and a whupping with a big stick. And we were HAPPY! This over commercialized, American Elf nonsense....yadda yadda yadda".

Ah the competitive misers are a sight to behold

Santa isn’t real?!!!

Say, one year, your DC are not given a treat on Halloween & do then play a trick. How would you respond?

My dc understand that they go the houses that have Halloween decorations and look prepared.
If they knock on house that doesn't open for any reason they just leave and go to the next.
It isn't a difficult concept.

Where we live younger dc are with adults and there therefore are lots of adults around to keep an eye on what is happening. It is a really fun positive atmosphere. When the sweets are gone the pumpkin and lights go out and it is finished for another year.

Intimidating 🤣 Christ alive.

Anyway we go guising, not trick or treating so no problem here.

Never done it,don't intend to either,absolute waste of hard earned money, all the rubbish you buy and then bin it,and you ever thought about saving the planet?obviously not.

Why not rename it to something less intimidating to the recipient?

Call it guising like we do in Scotland.

Children dress up.

knock on decorated houses.

Perform a party piece.

Get a sweetie.

Fun and tradition - fir those who want to take part.

all the rubbish you buy and then bin it,and you ever thought about saving the planet?obviously not.

Have you even read the thread?

Obviously not 😂

No need to do any of that.

@shouldistop

Intimidating 🤣 Christ alive.

Anyway we go guising, not trick or treating so no problem here.

You can’t see how it would be intimidating for someone vulnerable living home alone getting their door chapped every few minutes ? As I said my own elderly neighbour sits in the dark so people don’t think she is in. If everyone only visited houses that were decorated it wouldn’t be a problem. I don’t decorate and always have kids at my door . I wouldn’t not answer and my kids love giving out sweets to them. But it’s not fair for those who don’t want to take part.

MN and Halloween will never fail to crack me up

Me neither. Never fails to disappoint. There should be a Halloween topic 🎃

I never celebrated it as a child, unless invited to a party. I wish I could get away with that with DD but her dad bought her a pumpkin to carve one year and now we have to that every year (and it's horrible). A cheap horrible outfit that she will wear for a week and then be too big for next year. I refuse to decorate the house with tacky Halloween decorations.

But then I wasn't raised to celebrate it.

Easter is just a day I give chocolate eggs to my daughter. I don't really understand the need to celebrate that either. If I didn't have a DD, it would just be any other day to me.

It seems the problem is that the English are a bit rubbish at organizing Halloween compared to the Scots/Irish and Americans.
That really isn't the fault of Halloween.

If your neighbors are scared of the dc then maybe setting some community guidelines for Halloween alongside a time limit for trick or treating would help. Local people can than monitor on the night.
Lots of places in the USA do this and everyone knows what to expect.

It's really nice in our area, loads of people have their houses decorated and every one knows not to go to houses without decorations.

Only issue is that it's popular area for trick-or-treaters. There are loads of cars on the road and the door knocking is non-stop. We usually put a sign on the door at 7 to say we've stopped for the night. One year we went through about 300 sweets and ran out before 6:30.

It's great fun, if a bit expensive.

Pain in the absolute arse with dogs going nuts every time someone approaches

The problem with the people on mn, is that is full of bloody miserable people who don't even know their neighbours, who stop, drop and roll at the knock of a door and entirely resentful of the fact that other people live around them. And so seeing other people knocking on one another's decorated doors, having fun and sharing sweets gets chalked up as begging and harrassment.

@AosSi

You do know Father Christmas isn't real, right?!

And we all tell kids Santa is fake, don't we? It amounts to the same thing. We're leading them to believe a strange man is coming into houses at night and that's a-ok.

MN and Halloween will never fail to crack me up.

No it's not the same thing. FC (a) isn't real and (b) is a jolly character who isn't threatening. Kids knocking on your door saying trick or treat are real and can be threatening.

You can’t see how it would be intimidating for someone vulnerable living home alone getting their door chapped every few minutes ? As I said my own elderly neighbour sits in the dark so people don’t think she is in. If everyone only visited houses that were decorated it wouldn’t be a problem. I don’t decorate and always have kids at my door . I wouldn’t not answer and my kids love giving out sweets to them. But it’s not fair for those who don’t want to take part.

People obviously aren't doing Halloween 'right' in your area then.
Children and teenagers here only knock on decorated homes. They have their costume admired, tell a joke or a poem, get their handful of sweets and off they go.
As someone else said, not the fault of Halloween.
Anyway I was laughing at someone calling the words 'trick or treat' intimidating, seems an overreach.

@ducksalive

It seems the problem is that the English are a bit rubbish at organizing Halloween compared to the Scots/Irish and Americans. That really isn't the fault of Halloween.

If your neighbors are scared of the dc then maybe setting some community guidelines for Halloween alongside a time limit for trick or treating would help. Local people can than monitor on the night.
Lots of places in the USA do this and everyone knows what to expect.

I’m actually Scottish so there goes your theory . The police did send out messages on Facebook and Twitter asking people to think of others and only go to decorated houses. Still doesn’t stop people .