Candles and Halloween

[Chimbos]

Out trick or treating with my kids this evening. I stay right next to them as they are quite little and on quite a few doorsteps there were real lit tealights inside pumpkins. I do realise that the chances are low but soooo many kids wear those super flammable dresses and it would just take a kid bending down near a pumpkin with a large mouth and a candle pushed next to it for the dress to go up in flames. Perhaps I’m being paranoid but AIBU to nudge people towards either using LED tealights or keeping the pumpkins out of reach of children?

Echoing the Claudia Winkleman story but neither my street or any of the houses I passed on my hour dog walk had pumpkins or flames, and we didn't have any trick or treaters.

I'm with you OP. It gets really busy here and there isn't room for parents to walk up to all the doors.

It could easily happen and it would be horrific. If you read the Claudia W incident, the poor girl's tights melted into her skin. She was eight at the time so not even particularly little kid. It would happen in a split second and just not worth the risk.

I think if I were to decorate for Hallowe'en - I don't anymore, but I used to when my children were small - I would use real candles in my indoor pumpkins/lanterns which would line the window sills; I would quite happily use LED lights in outdoor displays. I already use LED lights for some of my Christmas/winter decor like lanterns in hallway, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.

@CheeseWisely I thought the laws had changed about dress up clothes because of what happened to Claudia's daughter (I'm sure she started a campaign about it??).
I am shocked that it hasn't changed.

I saw a few too and was surprised. Some used LED candles which is what I would do. Ignore the comment about sucking the fun out of everything.

The children actually DEMANDED sweets?? As in ‘GIVE ME SWEETS!’ This must have been very frightening for you. I’m sorry this happened to you 💐

Some retailers (apparently) increased safety standards to come in line with nightwear after her campaign. Which is still a long way from the standards for normal clothing.

@CheeseWisely that's not good 🙁

This. Pumpkins with 2 tealights and a lid on it here. Can't see a significant fire risk here.

We use to have a turnip on a string with a real tea light in it. Not sure about the flame retardant qualities of your average black bin bag but somehow we managed to get through the night without being set alight.

Were these trick and treaters lifting the lids on the pumpkins?

Sure, come and knock on my door for free sweets for your children then lecture me about fire safety in return 🙄

If you begrudge the free sweets, why have decorations in the garden advertising the free sweets in the first place though?

There's an awful lot of finger pointing going on here at candles but it seems to me it's the clothing that's the main issue, and it's mostly those puffy plastic busy dresses that are the main risk, the onus should be on the parent to not put their child in that, when shell suits were melting people in the 80s they didn't ban indoor fireplaces, they told people to stop standing next to them in plastic, because they needed to be told apparently.

@ByMerryKoala My parents chucked the carrycot part of the pram with me in it on the back seat of the car for journeys. I'm still alive, so by your logic I shouldn't have bothered buying my Son a car seat?

So continuing that analogy, are you proposing candles be made illegal?

And in the meantime retailers and parents continue to buy clothing thats ‘dangerous’?

@Gnomy Well pram carrycots aren't illegal AFAIK. They're just no longer used in a dangerous way.

I said in an earlier post, the laws and regulations on outfits need to change, but in the meantime it's an odd hill to die on, defending the right to mix naked flames and young excited children in floaty fabrics.

Parents can tell their kids to stand back and the kids will obey. But if they are wearing big billows costumes, which a lot of Halloween costumes are like, it becomes more difficult.

I'm not saying that parents should stop using real candles per se (although if it elimited the chance of a child suffering third degree burns on your doorstep, why wouldn't you?) But I've seen so many pumpkins left on doorsteps right where the kids need to stand to be able to knock on the door. Either use LED candles or put the pumpkins to the side out of the way of trick or treaters and their costumes.

I had a real candle inside a pumpkin on my driveway tonight. If you are concerned, don't bang on my door on my property demanding sweets....

Tbh, no one 'demanded' sweets from me and my partner dressed up for the trick or treaters, so no begrudging here either, but I kind of agree with this.

We use real tea lights. One small one inside huge pumpkin. Always have done. I've never even considered using led tealights for it and this is first time I've ever read of others using them.

We could hear everyone outside as they talked about which houses they child go to. Lots.of, "Wow! Those pumpkins are brilliant," but not a single, "Ooh, we can't go to that one, the candle.is real."

In the past people would have created their own costumes rather than buy cheap flammable tat so it wasn't an issue I suppose. We used to go out in sheets and homemade masks and hats, and so did my kids.
We used real lights, it didn't occur to me to do otherwise. I did take all the Snickers out of the Celebrations though, which I only thought to do this year.

I do absolutely agree that the onus is on parents to make sure their children are acting safely. But personally I'm fine with using LED.

80% of shop bought Halloween outfits don't meet fire safety rules. Read an article about it yesterday.

And your response does?

No - the hem of a floaty long dress or robe could easily drop inside the pumpkin unless you’ve done what I did and put the top back on as a lid. Not everyone does - some chop the top off and leave it wide open.

@BellissimoGecko that's terrible.

I do think it's parents responsibility BUT a pack of LED tealights is very reasonable if you buy Amazon's own make. They are also great in power cuts and at Christmas. I would encourage people to get them if they weren't previously aware of the potential danger and are happy to switch.