What are your autumn traditions?

[Cam2020]

Morning all,

I didn't want to post this in chat in case I get lynched by those clinging on to summer!

Inspired by a couple of autumn threads, what are your traditions? We don't have many, but they are: forest walks, pumpkin spice lattes and decorating the house for Halloween, getting sweets for local trick or treaters, which my 3 year old loves.

What do you like to do?

As a family we visit westonbirt for the celebration of colour every year. It's so beautiful and the kids adore the gruffalo trail. Wellies and coats are needed some years, others have been jeans and T-shirts. Always need to have hot apple cider and hot chocolate at the end though.

We have a fantastic community spirit with celebrating Halloween around here. The vast majority decorate and lots set up haunted houses/scenes in the front garden.
It is really fun and everyone follows the rule of only knocking at decorated houses.
We usually have a little party for the kids with a firepit and marshmallows a few days after Halloween (can't do it with flammable costumes ).
We end the season with fireworks. My youngest finds the noise and crowds too overwhelming, so we head up to a hill just outside of town with camping chairs, blankets and fish and chips.
We get to watch a lot of different displays from a distance and dc are happier.

We do a lot for Halloween - decorate the house, organise a village party, the dc go trick or treating and we host a sleepover after.

I imagine it will be a lot different this year, though!

Last year I finally gave in to the pumpkin spice latte trend and it was a revelation. Cant wait for them again this year, with a shot of white chocolate syrup. It's well lush.

I'd like to take the kids trick or treating but not sure it will be a thing this year! Where I live now it's not really a fuss but where my mum lives everyone makes a big deal we may try and go down there to do it if we can.

I start making flavoured gins/ vodkas for Christmas gifts. I pickle a lot too!

Pumpkin PYO I always get lovely photos doing this, which are good for the October month on photo calendars for family Christmas pressies. 🙊

Fireworks displays.

Pyjama shopping.

Welly walks followed by leaf pictures.

Remembrance service.

We are going to hopefully do lots of things around Halloween. DS is 3 and adores all things spooky and as we are going to be turning his life upside down in November with a new baby sister we thought we'd go all out for Halloween. We debated a party but it's a bit too close to my due date so we are going to decorate the house, dress up, go to a local farm park that are growing their own pumpkins and have spooky tractor rides.

Also hoping to take him to his first ever fireworks show. And we want to go to the westonbirt lights thing too. Might save that til December though when they do a winter wonderland.

Last year he cried when offered hot chocolate... hoping for a better result this year!

Well I;m still clinging onto Summer ..........actually no I;m not , Autumn is my favourite time of year too .

Love Hallowe'en, I decorated outside , buy a load of sweets .
My DC are adults now so they're not bovvered (though a couple of years ago I took DD and a couple of her mates to Thorpe Pak a couple of days before Hallowe'en which I didn't think I'd like ..but it was brilliant)

This year its a Saturday (and I always book the 31st+1st off to tidy up after ) so it's over the weekend which is ideal.

DD has her winter bedding on Nov 1st .
I buy winter PJs for their Dec 1st Box ( Christmas Eve Hamper but they have it early)

Channel 5 starts with the Christmas films (some are dreadful )

Start drooling over jumpers

There's a Fireworks display near us , about 10 minutes walk. We all go to that . When we had guinea-pigs , they were brought indoors over GuyFawkes so we had to rustle up indoor cages . We have two cats now , so make sure they are safelyi indoors .

Don't know how this year is going to pan out .
DH and I had a trip booked to Bath Christmas Market but that's cancelled

This year I’m moving house. Where I am now we always had truck or treaters. I always made sure I left work early so there were lots of lights and they knew there’d be treats.
Where I’m moving doesn’t do that, or I don’t think they do! I’d be happy to see I’m wrong.
Normally I love the start of Strictly too.
Again, where I live now we’d do lots of apple picking. I’m excited to get north to Scotland and hopefully have colder crisper autumns again.

So many lovely things and some great ideas! I'd forgotten about fireworks! We normally do some in the garden. Last year I made a vat of chilli and we had hot chocolate with Baileys.

I'd love to do a PYO pumpkinl and the gin making sounds amazing! I've never heard of westonbirt, but about to look that up!

@70isaLimitNotaTarget I was WFH a lot last Nov and Dec last year and got started on the Sony Christmas Movie channel - some absolutely awful films but I watched them anyway . Sorry about the Christmas Market, I love going to those.
I'd love some winter bedding and crockery!
I found myself looking at a Christmas planner that flashed up on my FB page today and deciding I needed one!

@Emmagen my 3 year old loves spooky things too and has since last year. She made me get our box of Halloween things out today . They went back away once she was in bed and she's in childcare for the rest of the week now, so hopefully we'll at least get to weekend before she wants to look at it all again!

I’m looking at autumn bedding as well a change from the flowers green of summer, maybe orange darker peach. Leaves themed, then December red Christmas themed.

I make my Christmas cakes during October half term. I start my Christmas vodka st the end of August. Last year I added cranberry to my list - it looks beautifully festive!

Lots of walks, one at least I let the kids go dressed up in their costumes which makes for great photos. We decorate for Halloween including the dolls house and pull the giant box of spooky stories from the cupboard. We'll usually watch some scary movies and the Hammer Horrors with popcorn dusted in cinnamon sugar.
We'll make gingerbread. Usually a haunted house or the witch's from Hansel and Gretel.
Pick your own pumpkin and carving.
Board games by candlelight. I bought Horrified by Ravensburger in lockdown and I think that will be great this autumn/winter (you work together to defeat monsters like Dracula rampaging around).

All of yours our mine too :)
But, in addition, I always bake a Bakewell tart too. Often in the first week back at school (I'm a teacher).
We go trick or treating on Halloween too.
So excited for autumn!

Those talking about homemade vodka - I'm intrigued!! How? X

Wow @Dinosauratemydaffodils you have some brilliant ideas! My daughters loves Hansel and Gretel at the moment, she would absolutely love making that house!

@Holothane I've been thinking about autumnal bedding plants too. This is the first summer I've ever planted any and I've really enjoyed it! I'm a total novice, so I'll be ringing my mum for advice!

Feel like I need to get involved with the gin and vodka making and I absolutely love bakewell tart!

Reading all these ideas is making me more excited now

Blackberry picking and making blackberry crumbles and blackberry whiskey.

Walks to crunch the leaves and collect conkers and pinecones.

Slow-cooker stews.

Apples - pies, crumbles, toffee apples, mulled apple juice and Sophie's Apple Cake which was a recipe I got from a girl in my halls at university which I've made ever since.

Decorating around the front door - leaf wreath, pumpkins and crysanthemums.

Halloween dinner - black (sepia)spaghetti with meatballs stuffed with olives to look like eyeballs and a jug of tomato sauce "blood" to pour over.

Sparklers and firepit and toasted marshmallows.

Traditional halloween games

My spotify halloween playlist.

Taking time to remember all my loved ones who have died.

Buying a bottle of really good scotch.

Sausages and mash and onion gravy.

Making Christmas presents.

Starting a crochet project.

Reading detective stories by lamplight with the good scotch while sitting under a heated throw.

Wearing lots of tweed and knitwear and general 1930s inspired outfits.

.Dressing up for Halloween.

Making the Christmas cake.

Planting things for the following year.

Getting excited over seeds for next year.

Lighting lots of candles.

My father, husband and children all have birthdays between mid-September and the end of October, so there's a lot of birthday related stuff going on.

I change my perfume to a smoky, incensey one.

My daughters loves Hansel and Gretel at the moment, she would absolutely love making that house!

I got a gingerbread house mould from lakeland and we just try and make it as creepy as possible. This year a request has been made for Baba Yaga's chicken legged house...I'm tempted to cheat with a sticky gingerbread cake covered in icing for the legs and just make the house from gingerbread.

Ds loves playmobil so I'm going to get him some of the new Scooby sets for him to find across October. Halloween is our wedding anniversary so we try and do something for us as well. Usually little scary gifts, a ghost story or Halloween themed murder story, autumnal candles, fudge and of course the skeleton bride and groom my Sil gave us make an appearance.

Also yorkshire puddings and gravy.

Those talking about homemade vodka probably flavoured vodka doordine
Like the legendary DishWasher Vodka ( though I made Skittles Vodka and it dissolves without going through a cycle )

Things like Chrisymas Pudding Vodka would be dried fruit , cinnamon stick, cloves , maybe brown sugar ? Infused then strained .

I really want to try Werthers Vodka but I don't drink myself and I don't think anyone in my house would drink it .

I buy a couple of Christmas crockery bits ( usually HomeSense ) and every year I look for The Thing .
The Thing is what catches my eye ( if it's in Home Sense I know to buy it straight away) that is the inspiration for my Christmas Table .
Might be a plate , napkins , crackers . I know when I see it

I absolutely love Autumn.
I sometimes put Autumnal things on my front windowsill like conkers and silk autumn leaves.

We go out collecting conkers and always have hot chocolate with the works when we get back.

Halloween is a big thing on our estate, we decorate our house but some of the neighbours really go for it!
We have friends over & go trick or treating with them.

We go to a lovely country house with secret tunnels that hosts a spooky Halloween trail, this is really lovely and great for photos.

On bonfire night we often go to a local village with a great big fire.

DD sometimes makes a chocolate bonfire cake with matchmakers or chocolate fingers and coloured fondant flames.

We start a bit of Christmas shopping and try out the latest coffee shop autumn drinks. I really want to like pumpkin spiced latte but I just don't!

Ooh yes we had a Christmas gingerbread house left over one year and made that into a spooky Halloween house - that was a great centrepiece on Halloween

Oh gosh and making pies with all the blackberries we've collected and apples from my parents trees.

Chrisymas Pudding Vodka

I need this in my life! Sounds amazing!

Ds loves playmobil so I'm going to get him some of the new Scooby sets for him to find across October.
Brilliant! DD loves playmobil too!

I really want to like pumpkin spiced latte but I just don't!
Luckily they've all got in on the action now. Costa did a nice bonfire latte the other year which was lovely and not sickly like pumpkin spice, if that's what you don't like.

I change my perfume to a smoky, incensey one.
I do this too! I switch to Coco which is a bit heavy fro warmer weather.

So much inspiration from this thread!

I recommend "Merry Midwinter" by Gillian Monks too, it's got some lovely ideas for Halloween onwards into Winter. My mum bought me as a stocking present last year and there is definitely a few things I want to try with the kids.

(This thread made me pull it out and have a read in a bath full of apple & cinnamon bubble bath tonight).

@Dinosauratemydaffodils thank you for the book recommendation. I just ordered Merry Midwinter from a eBay book seller for £5.50 delivered if anyone else is looking to purchase.

Making apple chutney and Delia’s mincemeat (lots since we’re 🐷🐷 for mince pies).

Maybe also Christmas puds but sometimes don’t get around to those until December.
Invariably a big pan of Thai style pumpkin soup, made from the Halloween pumpkin put in the window for trick or treaters the night before. Waste not want not...