Now It's Officially Halloween - Another Money-Making Spree.......

My church organised a Light Night instead of Halloween and it was such good fun. We had around 400 people through the doors for crafts, games, football cage, mini donuts on strings and free hot dogs. A great evening for the family.

I'm genuinely not meaning to be horrible or anything but I can't stand Halloween, never could.

As a kid I had ''adults'' trying to force me into stupid outfits and trying to push me out the door. I kicked and screamed and said no, to be shouted at ''you'll do as you're TOLD'' and I continued to rebel.

I absolutely hate the whole thing and as I'm arachnophobic it's always terrifying for me to go into shops etc. and be surrounded by fake spids and webs, and all the horrible pumpkins!

I don't open my door to strangers or kids anyway but especially not at Halloween!

I actually really dislike Halloween and always have. Our last house was on an estate and trick or treaters used to knock. I always gave them a big smile, say I didn't like Halloween, but as it's my daughter's birthday on the following day, I'd celebrate that with them if they came then - and they could have as many sweets as they could take away. I then made sure that there was an enormous amount of sweets ready for them the next day. They were lovely children, and tbh, many of them spent lots of time in our house anyway, as they were mostly friends of our own children and they seemed to like the cakes I made....😊

One of my girlfriends had bags of sweets to give away, which were taken. The next morning she came downstairs to find that all the glass at the front of her house, the lounge windows and part of the front door, had been egged! Horrible

In the fifties, where I lived, ‘ guisers’ were expecting money. When doors were opened, the call was ‘ a penny for the guy ‘. The money was for fireworks for Guy Fawkes.

2nd November. Garden Centre has a sale of halloween items The rest of the indoor sales is completely Christmas. No items for bonfire/Guy Fawkes night. I hope we don't import Thankgiving to go with Halloween. My DD has been trying to resurrect Apple bobbing . Great fun that everyone can take part in.

Have seen a lot of posts on Fbook from various people giving away piles of sweets this weekend.......my children got far to many sweets anybody wanting them. Would it not just be easier to do fewer houses?

We just had one this time. A young ghoul with a white face, a cape and a very polite manner

I asked if he was on his own, and he pointed at a similarly dressed man who turned out to be his grandad, so I told him to take sweets for Grandad too. He (the grandad) howled in appreciation, which was fun.

Seems to have taken over penny for the guy- probably fiver for the guy now 🤣
Love watching all the activity, just a bit of harmless fun

Another street where we had children in amazing costumes mostly accompanied by adults. All very polite and just took a couple of sweets each. Loved seeing the pictures of my granddaughters in their Halloween costumes.

MissAdventure

I live in a really rough area, but have never had any problems with teens demanding money, or getting up to no good.

I once had eggs thrown at my windscreen as I drove home from work. Fortunately I was close to home at the time because I could barely see in front of me. Took ages to clean it. Just a bunch of lads having some fun 😏

Hate it...totally been taken over now by Americanisms Trick or Treat is an American tradition not a British one....

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202411/medium-971147-42222651-d010-4969-826b-688904c14674.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202411/medium-872876-b196bb42-b1c2-4338-bd54-08ce8078a39c.jpeg

mae13

RosiesMaw2

Pedants’ corner?
Or Moaning Miseries’ United?
Never mind, saw my first Christmas Ad on TV recently, once Hallowe’en is over, we can moan about that.

🧙‍♀️ 🎃 👻 💀

Reality is not quite your thing, is it?

No need to be personally offensive.
My “reality” included a Halloween tea with my grandchldren, some harmless dressing up, rather a lot of Haribos/Rocky Road and a fun evening.
No scrounging, money-making spree, or hard cash involved.

Why “Pedants’ corner” anyway? It’s not exclusively for moans

Three of my grandchildren go trick or treating with their mums, they have a lovely time. I'm a curmudgeonly old bat and turn off the lights that show from the street so nobody else calls.

Where I used to live had one little girl who came every year with Mum then with little sister! Because I always left my china pumpkin out with a tea light in they called me the Pumpkin Lady! Said it was ok to come to mine! Must have spread the word as got lots of happy little ones till the night some miserable ratbags stole my Pumpkin! Hope they burned their fingers as it was lit when they came in my gate grabbed it & ran! Teenagers who were only out for ruining everyone’s evening! They came back later with duck eggs & covered my & my neighbours fronts in eggs! Never bothered after that as it was no longer any fun!

mae13

RosiesMaw2

Pedants’ corner?
Or Moaning Miseries’ United?
Never mind, saw my first Christmas Ad on TV recently, once Hallowe’en is over, we can moan about that.

🧙‍♀️ 🎃 👻 💀

Reality is not quite your thing, is it?

Your reality may be different from that of others mae13.

I'm sorry if yours is not good and you have scroungers coming round demanding money.
It must be quite frightening.

RosiesMaw2

Pedants’ corner?
Or Moaning Miseries’ United?
Never mind, saw my first Christmas Ad on TV recently, once Hallowe’en is over, we can moan about that.

🧙‍♀️ 🎃 👻 💀

Reality is not quite your thing, is it?

We only had two little boys at the door. I'm annoyed that I bought two big bags of sweets in anticipation. In my youth my dad forbid me to knock on doors. He said it was begging!

When we were little my DM didn’t approve of us going round peoples houses asking for a trick or a treat, she felt it was akin to begging. But she did help us get dressed up and we had dooking for apples, the basin was filled with water and apples dropped in, you could choose which way you want to try and get an apple, the first was to kneel in front of the basin, put your hands behind your back and immerse your face int the water to try and get an apple very messy, or we could kneel on a chair again arms behind your back and you had to drop a fork from your mouth into the water to try and spear the apple. Simple pleasures but great fun.

Tradition? I don't remember Halloween being a 'thing' when I was a child. My first experience of it was early 1980's when the teenagers next door let my Dad's car tyres down while he was visiting, they left rotten tomatoes on our driveway too. I never celebrated Halloween and my children never did either, they showed no interest in it. Fast forward to 2002 my next experience, living in a 1st floor flat I had eggs thrown at my windows. This year some local children came round and visited the houses that had pumpkins outside but one elderly neighbour, a nice lady who lives with her grown up disabled son had eggs thrown at her windows. I hate Halloween.

I was quite sad that we only had one lot of half a dozen (all very polite and said thank you) though admittedly I wouldn’t have been surprised if there had been none at all - there are few families with young children around here.

Still, at least my pumpkin in the window wasn’t entirely wasted.

When we were childreb back in the 1940s/early 50s it was bob apple, great fun.

Round our way - Wigan - they only knock on your door if your house is decorated . They only expect sweets and are accompanied by an adult who kind of stays on the path while they knock . They look lovely in their face paints and outfits and obviously really enjoy it . Was great to see them this year .

We weren't allowed to do anything like that, in case we enjoyed it, I presume

It was never trick or treating for sweets before the American habit was adopted. Same with pumpkins, how many can remember carving a pumpkin when young? Also, buying outfits for dressing up, never. The outfits were home made from eg bits and pieces of old clothing, cardboard. Turnips were scraped out for lanterns. Children did a "turn" eg a verse from a song, poem, told a joke or two, something to warrant reward, which was, Money!