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.

Oh, my family used to ‘observe’ Halloween alright, but back then in the early ‘60s it was no different from my Father’s Day in Ireland in the ‘30s, really.

He was always like a gleeful kid for Halloween and Christmas though, as he’d grown up in very straitened circs.
He always carved terrifying swede lanterns to put in the kitchen and on the landing. His favourite Halloween game was so ghastly I’ll spare you, but it involved the darkened kitchen by candle light, all of us seated in a circle, playing ‘The Witch Is Dead’ and scaring the bejaysus out of us delighted kids 😈🙀
Bobbing for apples was a big thing, as Dad had always done it as a boy and we all loved it.

Costumes among us with our friends were never anything but bin bags or sheets (though now I think of it I’m amazed if there were such things as bin bags then. Maybe that was later, and the white sheets were earlier. Memories get confused!)

(I recall a big Halloween party with a friend’s very much larger, more ££ family back then for a big gang of us schoolchildren, and Mrs F. had really pushed the boat out for us, with fried chicken drumsticks (not a thing any of us got at home) and rice with ‘eyeballs’ (sliced olives (ditto!) Coca Cola, even! Wow!!
They were an artist’s family and the father had made some very gory sheets for us to spook around in, as there were loads of creepy places to hide around thst old house.
A fantastic party, and one whose excitement and scary fun is still a cherished memory, which says a lot about my life’s experience of Halloween rave ups!)

No ‘costume’ dressing up though ever, à la fancy dress. None at all.
I can’t recall that at any time tbh, not until the advent of renting videos and seeing what Americans got up to. Horrible tradition there.

It's out of control, but then again - so is everything else. I feel bad for those who can't afford to keep up with all this consumerism & for those who think their children must partake (against their own better judgement).
I feel really bad for those estates where kindly neighbours once joined in with some treats for local children - but are now planning to hide in the dark because kids are literally being shipped in, from miles away, to grab what they can.
I'm speaking from experience - last Halloween was completely out of control & wholly unpleasant. I'll be hiding in the dark for this one, as will most of my neighbours. Sorry for the local kids....

herecomestheairfryer · 24/10/2026 23:37
Our poor kids will never know the aroma of a turnip with a candle inside 🥹.

And the blisters earned by hollowing that turnip out with a desert spoon. That got bent.

I was in the Girl Guides, aged around 11-12 (mid 60s) , I don't think I'd heard of Hallowe'en before then but my mum bought me a large swede to carve out and gave me a candle that she found in the back of the cupboard. It took me hours to get anywhere near hollowing it out, I don't know how I didn't stab myself or cut my fingers to ribbons but I got the candle in and my god, the stench from it was horrendous.

Went to GG and the leader decided to take us outside and try to do a camp fire and cook sausages. The fire wouldn't light for ages, the sausages just didn't cook, it was freezing cold and so we didn't get to have our outdoor campfire bbq and sing Kumbaya or whatever around it as we were promised.

Oh, happy days ... 😱

Old fashioned Halloween was bobbing for apples , eating monkey nuts and maybe a few bags of crisps with cola . Then feck off home . Teenagers would often vandalise places with eggs or shaving foam . Good times eh 😂

Yes to nice Halloween, in which children are supervised, only visit the houses with Halloween decorations and don’t vandalise anything or intimidate the elderly.

No to boo baskets, as the kids already have loads of sweets and don’t need extra tat. I wish I could also say no to those awful gelatine sweets which are everywhere these days.

I love the cute hallowe’en. Pumpkins and witches with green noses and plastic figures. Fun and sweets, mini magical ‘parties’ and playing at potions. A cupcake with an icing spider on it.

The actual horror murder stuff is beyond grim. I dont mind boo baskets because when life feels tough its an easy way to make them happy. But maybe it’s a millenial thing to try and make things special as we all feel guilty we are poorer /smaller houses/less stable jobs than our parents.

I said grim 😁

Time to roll out the quote from a friend I grew up with “we were that poor we couldn’t even afford a turnip. I had to hollow out a potato from me da’s allotment and paint an inside out Presto bag black for a costume”.

I used to look at that potato with envy as we were even poorer but my parents had no truck with what they called begging at doors. For us it was a night sitting with the lights off and curtains closed. Then an early bedtime, ready to be up and at ‘em for a refreshing early walk to mass on All Saints Day to make sure we didn’t miss out on the pre show performance of the blessed rosary.

Awful lot of hyperbole on this thread 😆

Absolutely brilliant 💕

We did nothing for halloween as kids. I'd never seen a real pumpkin - turnips were the norm.
We had 1 halloween party in junior school. They hung apples on strings from the apparatus (remember that?). We were blinfolded and had to get a bite off the apples.
"The sky is blue
The grass is green
Can we have a penny
For halloween?"
Mother considered this begging, so we weren't allowed out.
No need to feel sorry for me - Christmas was a BIG deal in our house.
We also enjoyed bonfire night - the local display was fab.

"I decorate and shit for my kids too".

That's a bit much Halloween or no Halloween

Oh goodness yes, I was clearing out a lot of my mum's cutlery a few years ago and so many of the spoons were bent because of this!

Do your kids know what halloween is and it's releance in the calendar? I'm kind of assuming that they do?

There were pumpkins back in the last century, because my Mum usually grew one or two in the garden, well away from the courgettes.

I remember apple-bobbing at Brownies, threaded on strings, hanging on a line - and round at a friends' house - big bucket of water and lots of towels. And homemade treacle toffee and parking. No trick or treating - it upset the vicar, because you were encouraging the devil in.

I just wish people would spell Hallowe’en properly.

Sigh.

Skulks off to pedant’s corner with a bag of haribo and a hot chocolate with marshmallows on top. That’s marshmallows, not marshmellows.

(If there is someone already sitting in the corner I will return and correct the spelling to pedants’ corner.)

🙄

We went to buy a pumpkin. Customary swearing at it brandishing a bread knife. Made some soup from the guts. We did nothing else - friend gave us some decorations so we put those up. We will reuse them. It was basic. It was enough. YANBU OP!

Looking at the amount 50% off in The Range recently people round here are being careful with their money! No doubt some who do buy the rubbish complain about the Cost of Living too.

Should that not be Haribo, it's the name of a specific product? You're OK with hot chocolate as that's a generic name rather than a brand.
Best wishes, a fellow pedant.

You are right. I am sorry for causing any distress.