Bringing in some light

[Lidlfix]

It's hard for everyone right now, by varying degrees granted, and sometimes it's nice to blether. I'd like a thread that doesn't turn into political debate. A Chat if you like with a Scottish perspective that has a gentler vibe. I admire the posters with strong political views, knowledge, interests and thick skins - qualities I lack. But it's not for everyone.

My fig and blackberry candle is lit and my nice coloured gin bottles have wee LED lights in. I feel refreshed after my two week hols but worried about the term to come. Come share what you're doing to bring in some light, your wee treats, autumn booze concoctions or just blether.

We get back from our holiday on Sunday and we're going to spend Monday getting our Halloween decorations out. I bought a few extra this year to cheer us up.

I might put the outdoor tree lights up earlier that usual. Not the house ones, they're too Christmassy, but the tree ones. I liked when we lived in Canada and the outdoor lights were up well into January and February. It definitely brightened up the long winter evenings.

I don't know what we will do for Halloween, the kids won't be happy about not going out and I reckon we'll still have loads of kids at the door. I reckon all the cute small ones will stay in and we'll have dozens of teenagers instead.

The only way to avoid them is to not have a single decoration outside but then our house will have to look dark and miserable and I don't want that.

Is there a set position on whether we are allowed to leave a bowl of candy on the front steps this year but no knocking? In theory it's still a covid risk - you could handle it with gloves on though.

It's difficult I don't spray and wipe down groceries and never have since the whole situation kicked off. But I know plenty people who spray and leave for 72 hours. Fruit, veg etc I wash or peel anyway.

Leave a sign saying external packaging has been sprayed and contents are individually wrapped? Make a wee Halloween rhyme out of it so it's less "clinical"?

Is there a local FB page where you could open a discussion as a consensus view might be the best way so the DC don't get confused.

I hope there will be some guidance on guising this weekend!
We are just going for the decorations. My dcs are too old for guising now but we always welcome them.... I think local schools are just doing class parties instead this year.
The colours at Pitlochry are gorgeous at this time of year. We love Dunkeld and Rumbling Bridge, the trees are amazing.

I'm wary to do anything for Halloween this year but not becasue of covid. As you folks say, there will be less little ones out and whilst I don't want to demonise teens, I had two afterall, we've had a fair bit of low level hassle from a group or more over the last few weeks. Throwing eggs, banging on doors, knocking over bins and just general dumbfuckery.

I suspect anything left out would just be prey. It's a shame, although I've not done anything for the last couple of years, we generally have well over 100 at our door of all ages and the teens (even the "rougher" ones) have always been polite and done a turn and got a couple of sweets/mini chocolate bars. I did think about maybe tying wrapped sweets to our cherry tree. I'll mull on it and hope the troublemakers come to their senses over the next week.

We left out a bowl of sweets one year when we had a small baby and the first group of kids took the whole lot. Won't be doing that again.

@Rae36

We left out a bowl of sweets one year when we had a small baby and the first group of kids took the whole lot. Won't be doing that again.

We did that at the end of an evening when my two were toddlers and in bed. it went fine and people just took a couple as per the note. It's just so unpredictable though. It's a shame when people spoil things for others.

I think I just brought down the happy vibe of the thread so apologies :o

I'm hoping the wide boys calm their jets over the next few days and we can plan some nice things in the estate, which they'd be welcome to join in with.

I usually make up a wee bag cheap multi pack crisps, wrapped chocolate, wrapped chewy sweet, tangerine . Some years they've been gone in an hour and I've had to raid the packed lunch cupboard other years DDs have been complaining about the cheap crisps months later. Cannot win. Well this year I will might.

@WaxOnFeckOff that's a shame! I'm a stickler for children doing a turn to get sweets, if they won't come in the house and sing or tell a joke they don't get a thing!
We have a lovely party in the village, everyone brings food and decorations and lanterns and all the old folk go and watch the parade and have a cup of tea. The prizes are all things like " Best cat" or " Cutest Dracula" so they all get something.
Really going to miss that- the Halloween trail will have to do 😪

That sounds lovely @grumplass. DH is from a village and has us in hoots with some of the halloween costume competition photos from when he was a child - and an adult. Lots of the adults dressed up too.

As kids, we always had to learn our "turn" before heading out, with tumshie lantern. Folks not quite as likely to bring kids into the house nowadays (not to do with covid...) but plenty of turns done on the doorstep and lots of folk set up stuff in their garages too (door open...)

We were really poor growing up but our halloween stash would keep us going for months! Well apart from the apples which were generally eaten earlier.

Yep wax we got MONEY when we did our party pieces as children!! Those days have gone( thankfully).

Virtually every year we have a couple of nights with a bit of bother just as the dark nights come in. This year it has persisted and lots of arguments on the local groups as to whether they should be lynched/locked up or whether it's poor darlings, no bad kids etc.

I tend to sit in the middle. I know a lot of the activities are closed, but there are general facilities such as basketball hoops and lit football areas so not like they have nothing, from what I hear, they aren't the kids that mummy or daddy would be ferrying to their swimming lessons and scouts anyway. No judgement, that's exactly my background and at this time of year would be having massive games of hide and seek etc. We seemed to manage to entertain ourselves without causing bother.

There’s a nice community event called Window Wanderland.
25th,26th Oct instead of the lantern parade.

There’s definitely one in the Battlefield/ Langside area but other areas too, I think.

I remember getting a 20p piece guiding and being thrilled. That plus saved pocket and tooth fairy money meant I could get a 60p book from the book club at school which we generally couldn't afford. I also devoured books so my DM preferred to take me to the library .

@grumplass

Yep wax we got MONEY when we did our party pieces as children!! Those days have gone( thankfully).

Oh yes, real money!!

DSs have occasionally come home with cash, especially if they've knocked on the door of a young couple or single block who failed to purchase adequate (or any) supplies :o

Friend and I once got threatened with a gun though. We didn't bother knocking on that door, the woman at the window with the rifle wasn't giving good vibes. We walked past quickly but she still opened the door, waved the rifle about and shouted something that we didn't quite hear as we were legging it up the road. Once we were out of shooting distance we thought it was hilarious. Don't remember even mentioning it to my mum or dad!

My mum never let us do Halloween, they equated it to begging and being American. I love it - I lived in America for a spell and I miss it most this time of year at Autumn, Halloween, Thanksgiving because there are no half measures and these are so much fun and warm hearted. People decked their whole front yards out and I loved seeing my neighbour's toddlers in cute fluffy duck costumes, pretty much obligatory to go round all your neighbours with pumpkins out.

I even like the grumpy teens as they usually came later, and I always had too much candy so was glad to see them scoop it up, was once a grumpy chocolate field teen myself.

Oh it's not American, it was guising in Scotland before the USA was even a twinkle in someone's eye! :o America of course existed but not the USA.

I do love seeing how they go nuts though, we have a family from the USA on our estate and it was always the house the estate kids enjoyed the best, as you say, it's go big or go home in that culture.

Definitely a fan of the pumpkin, who knows how many kids lost fingers and limbs trying to carve out a turnip, but the smell of burning raw turnip is very evocative.

I get the begging statement though and i don't think you were alone is missing out because of that.

No you're right, it was a common enough attitude then, knocking on people's doors and asking for stuff being begging!

@WaxOnFeckOff I eyed up a swede for carving today but backed off for the reason I thought I'd end up cutting myself!

The smell too when the candle got going. No delicate Ikea tea lights then

Yes the smell of burnt neep ( boak)
Wax, a rifle is horrendous!!! That would have put me off forever!
My memory is of those masks that were made of a weird papier-mâché stuff like egg boxes, they were sold in the grocers with the monkey nuts.
Then there was that time in the 80s and 90s when you couldn't do Halloween in schools in case it was Satanist.

[quote anon444877]@WaxOnFeckOff I eyed up a swede for carving today but backed off for the reason I thought I'd end up cutting myself! [/quote]
We had a coal fire growing up - only heating in the house btw - and we'd heat the poker up til it was like lava and try to burn into our turnip with mixed success. It's amazing we never burned ourselves or the house down the amount of time we spent playing in that fire, melting down crisp packets to make jewellry was another habit.

I could however clean, set and light a fire by about age 5 and make proper chips including peeling and cutting up the potatoes and deep frying them in an open pan of dripping! Trips into town to go to the swimming pool/museum/cinema at about age 7. We once got on the correct number bus but going in the wrong direction. We had no more money for fares so just had to stay on until the terminus and hope the driver took pity on us and let us ride all the way back again, home about an hour and a half later than expected. No mobile phone and in fact, no house phone either. My mum didn't seem to be that bothered when I got back either :o

I love Mumsnet.
This thread is totally like balm for the soul, thank you @Lidlfix And I promise I won't mention politics.
We all know that we can honestly say what we really feel in other threads but can still share lovely moments and memories 💕💕💕💕

No wonder you remember the smell, burning a turnip with a poker!