To think Halloween is just another massive marketing ploy we've all fallen for.

[Blwean]

Reading this article today https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/30/halloween-boo-basket-useless-clutter?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1HhG1J-mqf1zU7ss8lxMCkNwsMJVTKudjgEt4auGVFrS8qwKuIUUUBmQc#Echobox=1698686636

Apparently Halloween spending is set to surpass £1bn in the UK this year for the first time and shops have been making a concerted effort since 00s to introduce more products and use social media influencers to push them.

Then there's pumpkin patches. Basically fields where people place pumpkins as there's none actually growing there and people pay silly prices to go and take pictures for Instagram. A friend of mine paid £50 to take her and DCs to one of these places then she's shelled out £20 on each of them for costumes and over £30 on decorations. It's her business what she spends on but just last month she was complaining about cost of living.

I'm all for celebrating Halloween but it's just about spending more and more money each year. The Instagramisation of it has ruined it and everyone just blindly spends loads on costumes they'll use once and other meaningless tat. Its the shops cashing in and we're all just like sheep who follow the marketing and influencers so we spend more

speak for yourself, I haven't fallen for anything

Oh joy, another thread about the consumerism of Halloween. Have a day off

Yeah, it is, but no one forces you join in (I don’t), and a £1 billion of consumer spending isn’t a bad thing. If people enjoy it and get something out of it, good for them!

I had literally never heard of ‘boo baskets’ until this thread, so they can’t be that widespread. I just ignore all the Halloween fuss, other than trick or treating because DD loves it. No one is obliged to buy mounds of tat.

I don't mind the pumpkin patches, it's helping British farmers and they biodegrade. The rest is mindless plastic tat.

I don’t like the plastic crap but if some entrepreneurial farmers can get money out of it by putting some pumpkins in a field then good luck to them, with the current state of agriculture they need all the sidelines they can get.

Even if that's true, it's a really fun night for everyone, so all good as far as I'm concerned. 🎃

Yep, just commercialism to persuade the gullible to buy loads of plastic tat from China and loads of sweets/chocolates.

YANBU.

I don't understand how this stupid American tradition made its way over here. Eldest DD loves the aesthetic of halloween, but we never let our kids celebrate it. Especially not because a lot of the local yobs egg and spraypaint our house every year!

At least it’s a marketing ploy that people enjoy. And it’s entirely optional, unlike everything that goes on around Christmas.

I think there’s something to be said for having a festival that isn’t about religion.

I hate it, we don’t participate. It’s all sorts of wrong encouraging children to knock on doors and expect sweets. How can any part of that be right? Who is behind that door? Perhaps someone elderly who is scared! It’s just wrong.

It was when Walmart bought ASDA.

I haven't spent anything on Halloween related products.

I've made some traditional caraway cakes and we'll have our usual ritual to pay our respects to the dead later.

Actually that isn't quite true - I did buy a swede to carve!

Don't participate at all- and didn't when our son was younger either (he's 25 now)

Its not an American tradition, it is a British tradition- USA is about 250 years old, most of their traditions come from somewhere else

The old turnip-carving, guising stuff comes from the Celts. But the modern halloween as we know it is American.

The kids love it, costumes and sweets, frankly I think mine are more into it than Christmas. And I love them being happy, so its win win.

I don’t understand how all of these people with children who are struggling so much and can’t afford to eat, can afford so much plastic tat.

We just reuse decorations and some of the costumes - we have for years. People don't have to spend if they don't want to.

And when the pumpkins are finished with our chickens enjoy them!

It's an excuse to dress up and be daft and have fun and the kids love it.
It's commercialised for sure, but no more than any other 'holiday' really, except Bonfire night I guess, that seems to be all about fireworks now.

I don't go mad at Halloween, but my daughter is off with her mates doing trick or treat and will likely come back with sweets and stories.

It's a silly America thing, pushed on to make firms money from trash. I don't get involved.

I love Halloween but from experience UK Halloween doesn’t come anywhere near close to US / Canada Halloween celebrations. The yob culture with people damaging property which a previous poster mentioned is also not really seen here.

nothing to do with the celts, a British tradition going back many centuries before the existence of USA and a Christian festival

Yes that seems to be when Halloween really kicked off here. I guess Walmart saw a big opportunity in the market to Americanise it all a bit more and its worked. Plus social media really amplified the aesthetic a lot

When I was a kid in 90s we sometimes celebrated but it was all fairly basic and not all houses did trick or treating