Halloween, bonfire night and Christmas

[Toastycornflakes]

I’m just interested in considering how different these events will be this year. I’m guessing there will be no trick or treating and have already explained to my kids that we will have to give it a miss this year. Also the town’s bonfire and fireworks night is obviously cancelled as around 2k people normally attend. What are you doing instead for these events? I was thinking sweet hunt maybe for Halloween and a film and maybe fireworks in the garden for bonfire night.

Also Christmas! I haven’t thought that far ahead really but how different are you expecting it to be and what are you thinking of doing this year instead? Or are you hoping to pretty much do as you normally do?

We will watch for fireworks as tend to see quite a few from where we are, will miss handing out candy to the trick or treaters though. Christmas Day will be just us and should be as usual. Will ensure everything is bought very well in advance in case supplies run low again or delivery times are increased. Hope to have guests for a few days but not making firm plans as all too unknown at moment

Our local farm does pumpkin picking and a big Halloween event. It’s always popular and crowded but not ticketed. This year they’re still going ahead as normal (no prebooking). I am curious how this will pan out! I do want to go still I think.

I don’t think I’d be cross if we had trick or treaters. DS isn’t old enough to go really.

I hate firework nights anyway.

Christmas... think I’ll be going ahead as normal tbh!

I would love for trick or treating to happen but cant see it. I plan on decorating, getting the kids a pumpkin pinyata each and taking them to their grandparents doors to knock for sweets (pre arranged).

Bonfire night will light up the fire pit and roast marshmallows to watch the local ones.

Christmas I hope to be as usual. We would normally only see my parents and perhaps my brother and SIL so if guidlines remain the same as the current ones (in Scotland) we would stay within them.

Honestly if the gov mess with Christmas by not allowing us out or letting us see any family then I can see a lot more people just ignoring the rules.

Why are we getting the government ruin our lives???

Piñata is a great idea for Halloween!

I'm stressing about Halloween, its my favourite time of year and the kids usually have back to back parties and activities. We will go pumpkin picking and I've made a list of lots of at-home activities - themed dinners, movie nights, scavenger hunts in the garden, games, crafts - but I'm really, really hoping that at least the parades and outdoor stuff are still on

I hate Halloween but it’s going to be a shit, miserable, fun free winter.

It will certainly be sad not to cram into the school hall to watch the children do their Xmas nativity/shows its always a big event at my dc school the children all love it and the teachers make every year brilliant.
Halloween we will probably still go pumpkin picking not sure about trick or treating

Halloween is DDs birthday and bonfire night is mine so for one year we might get our birthdays to be birthdays!

The kids won't be going 'trick or treating' but we'll decorate a little bit, dress up (in existing costumes) & watch a Halloween movie with some snacks (I'll try to make an effort with them)

Local Bonfire night I'm hoping will go ahead, but if not I'm sure one near enough will. If it feels 'too risky' we'll just sit out & watch what we can from here. Usually quite a few as we are higher up so can see a fair distance.

Christmas we usually have with friends. It's them hosting this year just them us & her DG's brother. (Who, being single, could be a bubble if he wanted) I've already said to them that we are happy to stay home this year if they'd rather & they said they didn't want to think about that yet, so we'll decide much closer to the time, but I suspect we will stay home. I don't think it's going to be sensible to be staying in other people's houses, especially when no one will be wanting window's opened etc

Frankly, this year, I'll happily settle for being alive, well & not in the middle of numbers worse than April.

Halloween our local pumpkin picking place is going ahead but reduced numbers. I’ve already booked my tickets! It’s been ticketed for a couple years now anyway. So we’ll do that, dress up & have a silly disco & party food. I’ll probs drive my DD’s down to my parents & trick or treat just at their house! Assuming we aren’t back in local lockdown.

Bonfire night, we have a small garden but maybe we can do sparklers.. I go to my uncles garden who lives overlooking a huge valley & you can see fireworks for miles! I’ll do a bonfire tea as usual. Hot dogs & jackets!

Christmas, I’m praying we can see family but I’m preparing that we might not. I’m instead in the process of booking loadsa Christmas events round me to try make it a magical time none the less. Going to Dunham Massey to see the lights, booked a couple Christmas trails, a Christmas train ride & im just hanging on for tickets to be released for our fav Santa’s grotto. My daughter will be delighted she can stay 2m apart from him this year 😂 I’m not sure I’d be volunteering to play Santa this year though!

@UnalliterativeGeorge I'm with you as I have a birthday around those dates too!

Halloween is a big thing where I live, but I don’t think it’s going to be this year. We’ve already decided we’ll go pumpkin picking, carve it and light it in the back garden. We’re not decorating the house, trick or treating or handing sweets out either. Just be very quiet.

Our local council do a fantastic Bonfire and Fireworks display but they’ve already cancelled it. The Christmas markets and a small festival that always happens the first weekend in December have also been cancelled.

Not sure what we are doing yet for Christmas, we’ll see a bit closer to the time.

I've never taken mine trick or treating, we usually put a pumpkin out and wait in to dish out the sweets.

This year I was thinking of pumpkin carving, a scary film, making Halloween cakes, a 'night' walk in the woods with torches. Sweet hunt is a good idea.

Bonfire night will probably just be a few small fireworks in the garden and a hotdog. Usually go to a display. Guessing loads might not be on.

I wonder whether there'll end up being more injuries from people doing home bonfires and fireworks

Christmas will be the same for us, dd at that age where she still wants to do trick or treat but she's too old so quite relieved anout that. We dont participate other than to stick a pot of haribo on the doorstep as our dogs are escape artists.

Fireworks- meh! We do enjoy a local(ish) free beach display but i sincerely doubt it would go ahead.

I struggle with crowds anyway so wont miss much.

I was thinking about Christmas the other day because of the nightmare it creates for Supermarket buyers who will be currently planning for Christmas without the benefit of knowing what the situation will be in December.

Places like Waitrose and M&S will be already drawing up their Christmas catalogue for Christmas Dinner.

But do they order the same number of large Christmas joints as in previous years or will be looking to try and get lots more smaller joints to reflect the current restrictions?

Its a difficult one.

I think catalogues are released early next month with ordering happening straight away.

My suspicion is that small and medium sized joints will be much more popular with demand for huge roast much smaller as people dont have huge extended family Christmas dos to the same extent. And this may affect availability.

I do expect a massive flouting of any rules there are still in place, but many grandparents will still be cautious about seeing the whole family like they normally would.

So my tip would be to have a good think about how you are going to do it andvwhat you want to buy sooner rather than later.

There might be big bargains to be had on Christmas Eve if the supermarkets balls up their purchasing BUT they did that two years ago and tightened up massively last year to avoid too much discounting hurting their profits. My gut feeling is they will er on the side of caution and risk shortages rather than over order in the current climate especially after the experience of 2018.

We will pumpkin pick (the farm appears to intend to be open) and carve. We don’t do anything else for Halloween anyway and I don’t encourage trick or treaters, our pumpkins are lit in the back garden.

Fireworks, if we can see them from windows, great. Otherwise we wouldn’t go to a display anyway, my sensory sensitive children can not tolerate the combination of dark, crowds and firework noise even with ear defenders.

Christmas, I’ve already mentally written off nativity play, school Christmas fete and visiting Santa, although delighted if those things are possible. I’m still hoping for “winter lights” at a Stately Home near us but not holding my breath. We will attend what church services we can and if we can only do Christingle at home via zoom with homemade Christingles then that’s what we’ll do. I’m assuming Christmas Day will only be our household rather than the usual 14+ people staying multiple days, which I’m sad about but will make the best of. One low key Christmas isn’t a big deal. I’m already buying Christmas gifts for the children. We will put up the tree, set out huge numbers of outdoor lights, have a non traditional Christmas meal of whatever we fancy and probably play board games and watch tv.

And then on NY Eve we will celebrate the end of crap fest that has been 2020.

Thank you for starting this thread OP as I've been wondering the same!

Halloween is a big thing in our community. We will still decorate our house (inside and outside) and light pumpkins outside. I'm waiting for the suggestions on the local facebook page about how we plan do to trick or treating this year as a community. It might be that we leave sweets outside for trick or treaters to help themselves or we stand out and somehow give out sweets from a distance. Not quite sure how unless we can attach a sturdy bag of sweets from the end of a broom or something? We will also go pumpkin carving as a family, I checked today and the events are still going ahead but they're being ticketed. Late on Halloween night we will watch a scary film with yummy food.

Bonfire night - I'd be gutted if they cancel all the events, we're not too fussed about fairgrounds but it would be nice to stand and watch an organised display from a distance. If not, we will usually have sparklers in the back garden (garden is too small for fireworks), light the firepit and have hotdogs.

Christmas - the local panto and xmas market have already been cancelled. I can't see any works xmas parties going ahead either. My children are a bit older (teens) so they don't have nativity plays or schools xmas fairs anymore anyway. We will probably stay at home on Christmas day as a family. Gifting will be as normal but I'm conscious that we will have to shop a lot sooner to avoid the horrendous queues at the shops and delayed delivery times online. Food will be as usual too, again stocking up early.

Any other suggestions/ideas on how we can all make this year that extra special given the horrid year we've all had, then please do keep them coming!...

Sorry, I did write the below with paragraphs but not sure why they've disappeared 🤷‍♀️

I avoid Xmas as much as humanly possible all the time anyway. Was hoping the rest of the world might join in this year but from the Xmas crap that started flooding stores last month (FFS) I suspect not.

My kids (11 and 8) adore Halloween. They've already worked out that it probably won't be the same this year so they're planning a family party instead and want to make the house in to a haunted house. Not sure I'm up for the hassle of a party but I might have to, given the thought they've put in to it! They're even talking about organising time slots so we don't have too many people here at once!

Bonfire night, DS has already asked about. We have plans.

DH is trained to set off fireworks and usually does at least two of the local displays near us. We already are pretty sure they are off because at this point in the year they are already being planned and the organisers have to have their orders in for the fireworks. This hasn't happened.

I can see theres going to be a lot more people doing them in backgardens as a result there there inevitably will be more accidents as a result.

Not sure its going to be particularly fun time of year for that reason either. Lots of people will complain about anti social behaviour and lots of people will have gatherings bigger than are legal especially if they are in local lockdown.

Im ignoring Halloween. The school normally has a fundraising Halloween party for the kids after school but that wont happen because its run by the PTA and parents arent allowed in the school at present. That means the school miss yet another fundraising opportunity this year.

I’m already planning for all this to try and make the best of it.
I’ve booked tickets to do pumpkin picking at a farm already and hoping to do another outdoor day out once tickets released.
We’ll decorate and leave a bowl of sweets and a bottle of hand sanitiser on the garden wall.
One family round for a party hopefully- dress up, we’ll bake spooky cakes and watch something. May get one of those one ignition fireworks boxes and sparklers for the back garden.
Christmas- again will book a couple of days out in early December. Maybe not Santa but something festive, again outdoor. Local steam train may run with individual carriages for each family- I can see that being OK.
As soon as I finish work and DS finishes school we will isolate for a week doing lots of baking, crafts, films, Lego. I will buy some Covid tests I’ve seen at work (dentist) and then should be able to have family Christmas which is MIL who is in our support bubble and my parents.
I’d like to have one set of friends round for NYE but that may not happen- if not we’ll meet for a walk instead.

i can see theres going to be a lot more people doing them in backgardens as a result there there inevitably will be more accidents as a result 1000% agree!

Halloween itself I don’t mind missing but I’ll miss the pumpkin patch visit- actually can that happen, it’s outside?

I’m really sad that no panto or father Xmas visits.

I love Halloween. The local pumpkin patch and scary maze are advertised as being open so will visit there. We always decorate the house and I'll leave sweets and hand sanitiser outside on the evening itself.

We don't really attend bonfire events as my dog can't be left alone as he's so scared. We usually watch the local display from our window, but guessing that won't be on as crowds can't attend and it's their attendance fee which pays for it. May just do sparklers in the garden with the firepit and make s'mores. I'm sure houses nearby will set some off so we'll watch for those.

I have no idea what's going to happen for Xmas. I've been to christingle every year since I was born so I'll be disappointed to miss that. I hoping to keep an eye out for outdoor activities, maybe ice skating, outdoor Carol singing, and there's a nature park about an hour away that did an outdoor search for Santa's letterbox last year that may work. There's some cottages nearby that always put on a display for charity, so a walk down there. I'll keep an eye out for the santa train, and we've booked Chester Zoo lanterns.