Bring Back Shit Halloween

[worldshottestmom]

Just seen this posted on SM and honestly refreshing to see;

"BRING BACK SHIT HALLOWEEN
Because when the fuck did it turn into Christmas with spiders?
A "Boo basket?" What the fuck are you talking about? You're not going to convince me that halloween now requires a hamper with spooky socks, themed snacks, a Halloween book and a cuddly ghost called Gerald.

Halloween was a black bin bag with holes cut in it. Your mum would stick some green eyeshadow on your face, back comb your hair and send you out looking like you'd been electrocuted. Costume sorted. Total expenditure: 37p.

Want a mask? Here's some hard plastic that smells like fish.
"Dad, I can't breathe".
"You'll be fine".

Some years you might get those cheap plastic witch fingers if your mum was feeling really flush.

Halloween decorations?
A pumpkin your parents have carved with a bread knife while swearing at it. Put a tealight in it and stick it on the doorstep. Job done.

There were no matching pumpkin pyjamas, no personalised wicker baskets, no £18 ceramic ghost mugs. You got a multipack of fun-size Mars bars and were threatened with your life if you opened them before 6pm.

And don't even get me started on Halloween Eve boxes. It's called the 30th of October. Go to bed.

I'm all for making memories with my kid, but consumerism has really got some of you in a pumpkin spiced chokehold. You can have fun on Halloween without buying a bunch of shit you'll never use again.

If you GENUINELY enjoy going all in, have at it ❤️
But for those who don't, please don't be pressured into thinking every occasion needs a gift hamper and a balloon arch.

Sometimes the magic is just putting a bin bag over your kids head and letting them terrorise the neighbours".

Now despite the obvious use of AI, I have to agree. I can't help but feel so nostalgic over Halloweens gone by, when it wasn't some big main event and everyone could just relax and enjoy. I think it does indeed feel like a second Christmas now, or a pre-Christmas if you will. Like there's a lot of pressure to make everything fun, themed, perfect. It just sucks all of the genuine fun out of it, idk. Feels like life in general these days. I think this is having a global impact on kids that is noticeable, in that they are all growing up to have expectations around these events and if they are not met then they are annoyed and disappointed. Or they think everything has to go to plan or else the whole thing is ruined. I also think it dampens their imagination; they don't think of fun things to do to pass the time because the whole evening is planned and structured. If they ever find themselves bored they run to mummy because she plans everything and comes up with all the fun ideas.

I have fond memories of literally wearing a bin bag while trick or treating with my cousins while my mum was at work. The fondest memories of my life. Now I'm flooded with videos here there and everywhere about the "perfect" DIY Halloween snacks and decorations I can make to ensure my Halloween is "perfect"!

Keep your boo boxes, keep your £20 ghost mugs, hand me the bin bags and the mars bars.

Not sure we needed to read all the AI. My kids love halloween. It is their second favourite festival. And i am an adult who can control doing what I want with my children.

I hate all the 'good old days' shite on SM.

You can do what you want, I decorate and shit for my kids too. I just like reminiscing about days when things were simpler. I'm not saying you can't enjoy Halloween, I love it.

Perhaps I'm just a pleb for buying into this, " 'good old days' shite on SM."?

I'm all for children having fun at Hallowe'en but the amount of landfill it must generate is depressing - shops full of plastic Hallowe'en tat - I agree it's over the top, it's a shame people don't improvise with what they have..

We used to carve a turnip (I can still remember the smell). There weren't loads of pumpkins on sale as there are now.

My mum set up apple bobbing one year with Coxes in a plastic bowl. Another year my mum dug out some of her black clothes (which of course were floor length on my sister and me) and we dressed up as witches and pranced round the house.

Trick or treating wasn't a known thing in my part of the UK - I think in those days it was much more regional in the UK whether people did it or not - I first heard of it when I read Judy Blume's 'Blubber' (a US children's book).

I mean I agree with your nostalgia for the good old days, but also objectively speaking I think you're at risk of believing everything you see on social media if you think the average family are having an insta-perfect Halloween filled with boo boxes and £20 ceramics and precisely crafted homemade snacks - the vast, vast majority I know like to have a bit of fun around Halloween but it's much more low key - bin bags and fun size Mars bars a plenty, mums having their best go at some pretty ropey face painting and generally wholesome fun the order of the day, round here anyway. It's the same thing every 'holiday' (urgh Americanism), social media and shop fills with North Pole breakfasts or valentines tables or whatever else - it's all designed to make you buy stuff but for the most part I reckon people aren't taken in, they might buy a few things but generally who's to deny them a tiny bit of joy from buying some themed biscuits or a few balloons or whatever?

Also to counterpoint the nostalgia, specifically on Halloween, things used to get pretty dodgy round our way back in the day, it definitely wasn't all innocent 7 year olds holding their cousins hands skipping down the road trick or treating (although that did happen too), the older teens used to join in too and there would inevitably be drinking and smoking, egging houses and so on and would be a general minor menace all night, there was definitely no respectful ignoring of houses that weren't decorated, it was considered quite fair game to ask for money if sweets weren't provided etc, whereas nowadays it all seems very calm and respectable, kids extremely polite and only ever knock on houses that are clearly welcoming...

You know Halloween, like every thing else, isnt compulsory?

Don’t like it, don’t do it.

Im not sure that getting kids to carry a naked flame in a turnip swinging around on a bit of string, that dug into your hand something awful, while decking them out in a flammable bin liner and nylon witches hat was the golden days to be honest.

YABU, I love commercial consumerist American Hallowee'n!

OMG same. Usually beloved of Reform voters and people who never met a greengrocers' apostrophe they didn't like.

Used to love Halloween, black sack, monkey nuts and a bonfire and sparklers. It's still quite old school in our house trick or treating them back home with a few friends after for a little party with traditional games like bobbing for apples.

Yeah, in the 'good old days' we only had to lie on the floor, with the TV and lights off around Christmas to avoid the carol singers, now we have to do this in October too

I just hope it doesn't extend to occasions like Ascension Day or the Summer Solstice.

Pumpkins annoy me.

The pumpkins are grown for size rather than taste and most people throw the innards away rather than eat them. Then the shell gets thrown away. Many homes have multiple pumpkins.

It's mad using so much agricultural space, time and resources to grow food waste when we could be using it to grow food to eat.

This drawing made me smile.

We had swedes for lanterns, dad cut out the lid and after we'd spent the whole day hollowing those horrors out , we drew our faces on them and he cut those out and attached the string so we could carry them. We weren't allowed to waste bin bags 😱 & any old sheets were kept for covering furniture when painting the house , so no costumes for us at all. I never cared though tbh. We weren't officially allowed to go trick or treating, our parents classed it as begging, we still did it though we just never told them until a few days later, long after we'd scoffed all the goodies😂

Does anyone still do duck-apple or apples on strings?

My dd said her friends were doing boo baskets. After she explained it to me I told her she would have no screen time for 8 years if she did that. Bloody boo basket!

Yeah, we duck for apples.

We did apple bobbing and donuts on strings until a few years ago, kids 19 and 16 now so won't this year!

Yanbu. The amount of plastic tat in supermarkets gets bigger every year. It is disgusting.

Were you being serious?
It's becoming a new tradition.
Why not just ask her if she wants a few little treats?

Mumsnet checklist:
Plastic tat - tick.
Shit - tick.
Shite - tick.
No screen time - tick.
It’s not compulsory- tick.
Naked flame - tick. (Kids’ costumes being ignited)
I just need “grim” and “crass” to complete the bingo card.

I’m 50 and it wasn’t really a thing when I was growing up in England. Certainly no extravagant celebrations or parties, trick or treating wasn’t even a thing where I lived and friends agree. None of us did it. And grown adults definitely didn’t celebrate obsessively, decorate their homes and go dressed up strangely to pubs like they do now. All so bloody weird 😆

YANBU. I hadn’t yet heard of a ‘boo basket’, so mine won’t be getting one 😂 I also remember fondly all of the same Halloween memories you shared, I remember those witches fingers! Thank you for the nostalgia.

We still bob for apples in the washing up bowl!

I think both can co exist just fine, the same way some people do Christmas Eve boxes some don’t etc etc, but this year I realised I needed to come off sm because everything I love about autumn and Halloween was so overdone about it, nothing puts you off your autumn viewing of the Gilmore Girls, or the general cosiness of autumn like everyone trying to outdo each other with carefully staged instagram photos, or ai generated renditions of what cosy means, added to influencers showing pristine houses with window seats and full colour coded book hauls.The put out perfection on sm is everything that autumn with its messy, crunchy leaves, gale force winds and general mess is not!!!