Halloween, should I?

Great idea go for it... please keep us updated.

So the "littleys" may enjoy Halloween, and you may enjoy Halloween, but the local teenagers may not?

sorry to be the killjoy here, - and going against the flow- but I think it would be really scary. I remember as a child thinking that one of our neighbours was a witch and the fear I felt has stayed with me all my life! I think it is different being scared by something in a book or a tv programme to real life. The other thing is that I hate everything to do with Halloween!

I hate halloween and shall be locking myself in the wardrobe!

Just a personal opinion.. but I can't stand Halloween.
When my children were young, I drummed it into them that they were not to accept sweets from strangers. Knocking on doors and expecting and accepting sweets from god knows whom...Why is it ok on Halloween?...?

It is getting crazier every year. Where I live, there were local newspaper reports last year of grown people in scary masks jumping out from bushes and mugging folk.

As for scaring small children (when they are with their parents) , I thought it was the morn for the trick or 'treater' to be the 'scary' one, not the person answering the door. How far would you take scary?... Green painted faces this year... Next Year the 'scream' mask. Where will it end?

This is one tradition I'd gladly hand back to the USA.

Lemongrove, if you lived in England you probably hadn't ever heard of Hallowe'en. It was a purely Scottish and Irish tradition in the 1950s and '60s. English families in the Glasgow area then celebrated Bonfire Night, which we found a very odd idea, as the rest of us would never have dreamed of celebrating the Gun Powder Plot!

A witch's cat does not absolutely have to be black. There's an old Scottish tradition for grey striped cats, so your tabbies sound fine to me.

Isn't it Shakespeare who called a witch's cat Greymalkin, or was it the famous witch trials under James VI?

All credit to you Phoenix for immersing yourself in the spirit of the occasion. Like other posters, I wonder if a 'Beware of the Wickedy Witch' sign on the door would be a good idea too?

Have fun! x

Do it every year, just dusted off the witches hat, it'll just about do for this year, but definitely will need a new one next year, funny tho, don't need to replace the scarey makeup, seem to need less each year

Another year DD put up fake police tape, with a Hallowe’en message, across the front path and on the railings. It misfired. No one came to the door!

One year SiL, dressed in black, was left to give out treats while we went trick or treating. He put in his theatrical vampire teeth and played some seriously spooky Japanese music. When the doorbell rang he opened the door, solemn faced and silently held out a bowl of sweets. Then he smiled ...

Halloween was actually started in Scotland and Ireland and the tradition of "guising" going out in disguise is still very much a part of Halloween in Scotland and the far north of England. It was the people who emigrated to America who took these traditions with them. Now that Halloween is more commercialised in the UK and America it has become a more popular event than it used to be. I lived in the north of Scotland for quite a few years a long time ago and back then the children made all their own disguises, not much shop bought then, and they had a lot of fun inventing something to guise in. Also they did not just knock on the door saying "trick or treat", when they knocked you invited them inside and they had to earn their treat....telling a joke....singing a song....maybe a funny poem. It was good fun for the children and the adults alike. Obviously times have moved on and it would probably be seen as inappropriate these days to invite them into your home, however these were much simpler times then and we mostly knew (even in their disguises) who children were who as it was a real community event.The mother's made a lot of the treats themselves, toffee apples, Scottish tablet, with just a very few shop bought treats included.

"Witches" were often the community Wise-Women who were turned to for medical advice as doctors were usually frauds and quacks.

When things went well, all was good. When things went wrong the Wise-Woman was blamed, damned, accused of being in cahoots with the devil and subsequently tried (the verdict being a foregone conclusion) and horribly burnt to death.

So it's just a bit of FUN to make a game of the lives and deaths of these women?

Although it was called mischief night!

We don’t get any children visiting at Halloween at all ( we live a bit out of the way, as it were) but go to DGC’s house and help with it all there.Children nowadays do get a big kick out of it all.
When a child, I don’t remember doing anything at all.

I’ve been tempted for years to do this. I do have a glow in the dark skull with ghostly sound effects and that has frightened the really littlies so decided a witch opening the door might be too much.
Now that I have a littly in the house the pumpkin gets removed sharp at 7 when he goes upstairs for books and bedtime, the curtains are drawn and the fun is over.
As for large teenagers with fearsome masks holding out bags for sweets, they always got short shrift. Our front door got egged one year and a plant in a pot kicked over another year. Two bad years out of 40 Halloweens isn’t bad.

Been decorating and 'doing ' a window since my son was small. He has Asperger's syndrome and was too afraid to go out in the dark-so I did it to encourage the children to come to us instead! We now have people that used to come as kids bringing their own children round. This year my d and three year old Gd will be dressed as witchs giving out the sweets. Always have some chocy buttons for very little ones. Go for it and Have fun!

? juliette

DH dressed up and ready to terrify our visiting small people.

I’ll be wearing a scary mask from Poundland this year when I open the door (big bag of lollies ready).
I have form though, a few years ago I opened the door, said ‘treat please’ and helped myself to one of their choc bars. They were shocked and Mr M’s car got a kick on their way past.

Saggi Halloween crossed The Atlantic a long time ago, but from here to there, possibly by the potato famine emigrants from Ireland. It’s a very ancient Celtic tradition, also called All Hallows’ Eve. It marked the end of the old year. I do remember celebrating it, nominally, when I was a child. We used to try to bite chunks out of an apple suspended from a string. Quite tricky. Bonfire/firework night is on 5 November, recalling something quite different. If only it actually were confined to the 5th but it seems to go on for weeks. Wish they’d ban the noisy ones.
Phoenix go for it. You sound a lot of fun!

I shall ignore Hallowe'en, I lock the door and switch the lights off. I live alone and am alarmed by strange visitors. I'm sorry if this makes me sound an old misery.

Definitely go for it. The children will love it x

Go for it and have a great time, the kids will love it

What fun! Being a grumpy old woman myself, I'm afraid I reply to 'trick or treat?' with 'I'll have a treat please!' That gets rid of them x