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Original poster

thought I was the only one who took a SWEDE trick or treating!

75 replies

alwayshappy101 · 27/10/2016 12:29

When I was younger,my mum used to dress me in a bin bag for halloween.she couldn't afford a pumpkin either,so she used to painstakingly carve out the middle of a SWEDE and put a tea light in and a bit of string through to take with me.
one year she forked out for fake scars which she stuck to my face using lemon curd!

I thought I was the only one-until today.I was talking to a sales assistant in a shoe shop who's mum dressed her in a bin bag and carved a swede for her too!

Are there any other bin bag wearing swede takers out there too?

OP posts:

Tarttlet · 27/10/2016 12:32

I think you've posted in the wrong section...

Notavictimbutasurvivor · 27/10/2016 12:33

Was you in a relationship with the suede?

itlypocerka · 27/10/2016 12:34

We had swedes, but no bin bag - never allowed to actually go out trick or treating but we had our carved swedes alright.

moglovespumpkins · 27/10/2016 12:36

swede here too

Haggisfish · 27/10/2016 12:36

Carved swedes, yes. With a teaspoon! All bloody day it took us!

Original poster

alwayshappy101 · 27/10/2016 12:36

Oh dear.
not in a relationship with the Swede.
didn't like the Swede much

OP posts:

daisytalks · 27/10/2016 12:37

Count me in! I also remember my mother carving a Halloween swede! (Her hands must have ached after) & black bin bag costumes for that witchy look

GourmetChild · 27/10/2016 12:39

Always a swede and bin bag witch, but we all called swedes turnips! Didn't know they were called swedes till I was nearly 30!

ferneytorro · 27/10/2016 12:40

Yes always a swede - don't think I knew what a pumpkin was to be honest. Yes to bin bags as well - have a photo of me and some friends when the new McDonalds opened in our town having chips on Halloween dressed in bin bags witch costumes. Also used to use bin bags to make dresses which we would then wear whilst making up dance routines with a Minipops cassette in the garage (off to watch the Mini pops on YouTube).

Original poster

alwayshappy101 · 27/10/2016 12:40

So glad there are so many swede carvers out there.
I have trouble just dicing a swede for Sunday lunch.

OP posts:

liquidrevolution · 27/10/2016 12:46

yep. Bin bag and swede here. Although one year I wore a face full of cold cream too.

The 70s were ace.

OrianaBanana · 27/10/2016 12:51

Yep it took bloody ages. And it stank!!

I think we only managed a tiny one, it looked rather sad.

LuckySantangelo1 · 27/10/2016 12:58

How on earth do you carve a swede with a teaspoon?! I have a hard enough time chopping one up with a massive knife!

RosettaPebble · 27/10/2016 13:06

I once left it too late to buy a pumpkin for ds. They were all sold out and poor ds was

We have a cooking apple tree in the garden so I found the largest Apple I could amongst the windfalls and carved it like a little pumpkin for him. I put a birthday cake candle inside and gave it a string handle.

He loved it

It has become a yearly tradition now. All the scary apples lined up on the window sill. It's great, they are free, easy to carve, no waste and they smell good when lit!

But yes I had a swede or a turnip as a child too. Not very cost effective with the amount of broken knives

RickJames · 27/10/2016 13:11

Yes - swede here except we called them Turnip Lanterns. Definitely a thing!

iklboo · 27/10/2016 13:13

Definitely a swede and dressed in a bin bag. With flour and my mum's block mascara as make up.

iklboo · 27/10/2016 13:16

Although the other year we left it too late to get DS a pumpkin so he got a butternut squash instead. Frankensquash.

thought I was the only one who took a SWEDE trick or treating!

Summerisdone · 27/10/2016 13:17

I never did the swede, but I always wore a bin bag and my uncle would paint my cousins' and my faces with my mum and aunt's makeup.

weegiemum · 27/10/2016 13:19

We still have a turnip on halloween. The smell of burning turnip is halloween in this house!

wornoutboots · 27/10/2016 16:35

always a swede.
no trick or treating
we toasted peanuts in their shells over the candles in our swedes.
70's halloween

Onedaftmonkey · 27/10/2016 16:39

Bin bag witch and swede hear too. glad i wasnt the only one.

legotits · 27/10/2016 16:46

Turnip.

Not swede.

Heathen.

My DF used to do it with 'the big knife' and insist on mashing the waste with potatoes so it wasn't wasted.

When I were a nipper I thought pumpkins were the American version of Turnip.

Shouldn't this be in stately homes?

UptheAnty · 27/10/2016 16:47

Turnip here posh

MissMillament · 27/10/2016 16:53

Swedes (or turnips as we called them in Ireland) were the traditional Halloween Jack o Lantern. It was only when the Scots and Irish brought their Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century that they discovered the pumpkin and realised that carving swedes was a mug's game. Hence the reimportation of the tradition to the UK. But your mum was right.
Although in Ireland we were dressed in sheets rather than bin bags.

MargaretCabbage · 27/10/2016 16:57

My Nan still does a swede instead of a pumpkin. She did us bin bag costumes too.

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