School me on Halloween

Discussion in 'Chatty Pad' started by bellbird, Oct 18, 2019.

  1. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

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    I'm gonna admit my knowledge of Halloween has come from tv and you guys (scrapbookers in the US) over the years - it's gaining commercial popularity here but i kinda still don't get it - this is about my level of understanding
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    (Do you actually have pumpkin carols? Is it really all about the candy/lollies because it's been so long since Easter?? You can buy sugar throughtout the year, right?! Or is it more about scary stuff for you? (I may avoid the gallery slightly at this time of year!) Does pretty well everyone in the US love Halloween? And is it just like any other holiday where it has some deeper meaning but it gets lost and dysfunction shines through?
    [​IMG] )
    Feel free to share your fave things about Halloween and October - with or without gifs - and explain it like i'm from outer space and have no idea what's going on
    [​IMG]
     
  2. GlazeFamily3

    GlazeFamily3 Peeking in everyone's windows ...

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    I have friends who have different takes on Halloween and are obsessed with the scary and gory parts of the holiday.

    But for me and my family, it’s just a fun holiday. My daughter dresses up and goes trick or treating. Houses that are giving out candy turn on a porch light so you know which ones to go to and which ones not to go to. We put pumpkins outside, but they aren’t carved into jack-O-lanterns because none of us actually enjoy doing that. That’s usually about the extent of it for us.

    This year, we live in Hershey PA which is the birthplace of Hershey’s chocolate and where a lot of it is still made. Halloween seems to be a bigger deal here. Hersheypark (an amusement park here) has 12 nights called Hersheypark in the Dark around Halloween time. They have trick-or-treat stations and do other fun activities like dance parties, turning the lights off on some of the roller coasters, and stuff like that.
     
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  3. KimJ

    KimJ Did you check in the refrigerator?

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    LOL I'd say there's a pretty wide variety of how Halloween is viewed/celebrated here in the US too. There are some who avoid it for religious reasons. I honestly have never looked up the origin/significance. I'm not into spooky/scary stuff ever, so I don't care for that part of Halloween. For me it was always just a fun night to get dressed up in costume and go trick-or-treating or to a party, but now that my kids are older, we haven't really celebrated for quite a while.

    DD is 17, and much to her chagrin, her friends still want to go trick-or-treating this year. It's more about just the fun of going than the candy itself, but as one of the tallest/oldest-looking in her group, DD has gotten disapproving comments from judgmental adults for years already. :blahblahblah

    As far as I know there are no pumpkin carols. :giggle About the only Halloween songs I can think of are Monster Mash and Thriller (sort of) but they are not really sing-alongs. :-)
     
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  4. gonewiththewind

    gonewiththewind I choose joy.

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    I can remember dressing up for Halloween one time when I was in elementary school. I was a clown and my mom glued a red nose on me. I ended up getting really sick from the smell of the glue. LOL The school had a parade so all the kids were able to walk in their costumes. Honestly, I only remember that one time and don't remember any others.

    I know we didn't go trick-or-treating to other people's houses. I didn't do any of that until I had children. Even when we dressed them up, we didn't dress them in gory or scary costumes, and we did steer clear of the houses that were decorated in a very creepy way. I think Olivia's last time going out was when she was in middle school, but that was so she could go along with her younger brother. Daniel stopped going in elementary school. He preferred to just have the money we would have spent on a costume and just buy his fave candy.

    History.com has a pretty good explanation of the origins of Halloween and how it moved to the US: https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
     
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  5. FarrahJobling

    FarrahJobling FarrahJobling

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    pumpkin carols...:giggle

    YES! we totally need some. I'm going to look up some lyrics right now!
     
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  6. tkradtke

    tkradtke Professional Brainstormer

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    When my kids were younger, Halloween was a much bigger deal... now we're all more into fall in general.

    When they were younger, it was ALL about the costume! Both of my kids dressed up through eighth grade. They both went to schools that had uniforms and it was a big deal to wear something else on Halloween. Clara's school was a preK-8th grade, so all of the kids paraded through the halls in their costumes.. I loved to go! The middle school teachers always did a group costume and they were so creative! Trick or treating stopped for both of them around 7th grade. My daughter enjoys passing out the candy now. She would probably still dress up for Halloween at school, but her high school has a uniform and very rarely allows out of uniform days. My son stopped in high school because he no longer had to wear a uniform and coming up with a costume required effort... sigh.

    My daughter LOVES scary things and does use Halloween as an excuse to watch horror films with her friends. She loves going to haunted house attractions this time of year too. My son is not a fan of the scary stuff.

    Trick or treating was a big deal... I think partially for the candy and partially just to be out running around after dark with their friends. We live in the city though... so trick or treating never took long... their bags would be filled to the brim within a block some years (houses are close together, along with multi-unit condo buildings mixed in... didn't have to go far to hit a lot of places). Here everyone's porch lights are always on, so the indicator is Halloween decor on the outside... those were the only buzzers our kids were allowed to ring. Then they would all usually come back to our house to dump out their bags and swap candy.

    Some years we carve pumpkins, some years we don't. I don't love doing it... but sometimes Clara gets motivated and wants to do it.

    No Halloween carols... but I do have a Halloween Playlist that I made for one of Clara's birthday parties when she was around 9 (her birthday is the 23rd of October and one year the only option for booking her party was on Halloween).
     
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  7. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

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    Totally - there's no 'Oh Christmas Tree ' equivalent for pumpkins or something else?!
     
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  8. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

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    So what's on your playlist (apart from I'm now assuming Monster Mash & Thriller )? I always found the Teddy Bears picnic rhyme creepy but I don't think it's a song _DD has been listening to the Beetlejuice soundtrack but she has earphones & I can't lip read so her lipsyncing means nothing to me
     
  9. bonnenuit

    bonnenuit Why do I always have to be Captain?

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    Halloween to me is about trick or treating, pumpkins, and dressing up. We live in a small tucked away neighborhood so it's usually just neighbor kids who come around. When our kids were little, I would walk with them around the 'hood while they trick or treated and DH stayed home to pass out candy. For a while we had hardly any kids come by; now we have more younger families living here so the number of kids has increased.

    I just love seeing the little ones dressed up in their costumes when they come to the door! One year there were three kids in a family dressed up from Titanic - one was the iceberg, one was 1/2 the ship, and the last one was a victim of the sinking - very clever! Last year one kid was in one of the inflatable TRex costumes - what a hoot!
     
  10. corsicar

    corsicar Dinner tonight? Something chocolate I'm sure!

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    Growing up we never did Halloween. My mom was pretty sensitive to its religious/spirit origins. We would turn off all the lights and play in the back bedroom, but we lived on a quiet street so never had many trick or treaters anyway.

    Now, lots of the churches in our area have neighborhood fall festivals with games or trunk-or-treats (people decorate the car trunks and kids trick-or-treat around the parking lot). I enjoy dressing up and always try to help out at our church event.

    I feel like for the majority of the population, it's a commercial secular event like Christmas has become, with costumes instead of presents. Outdoor lights and decorations have gotten more elaborate. Halloween parties for adults are common the weekend before. And now there's a movement to make the Saturday before Halloween "National Trick-or-treat Night" so parents don't have to deal with kids staying up late and wired on a school night.
     
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  11. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

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    Thanks for all the info & links everyone, after additional thought, I think pumpkin carols would significantly improve Halloween but nevertheless, I always look forward to TLP's Halloween Bash - it's my favourite thing about Halloween!
     
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  12. Tree City

    Tree City Get a stepladder, I'm busy

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    As a child I had NO IDEA there was anything controversial behind the start of Halloween. For me, it was simply a day to put on a fun costume and get candy. We live in a neighborhood where other parents drive here and drop off their kids so they can trick-or-treat. But since I'm a fan of facts and my experience isn't everyone's...Here is an article from CNN with some statistics for you.

    I will say that when I was a kid, the parents didn't do ANYTHING for Halloween for themselves. No party for them. No costumes. NOTHING. Heck, my parents didn't even walk with me through the cul-de-sacs as I got my candy. But now... a good friend of mine down the street invites us to a party every year. We're expected to dress up. Then we walk with our kids around the neighborhood. It's like the party just moves outdoors. Halloween seems to be about the parents more than it is about the kids! I know 20-somethings who spend big money on their costumes and on going out on Halloween--which goes back to the whole "make it the last Sat of the month" thing--it isn't just for the kids lol.

    IDK if any of this answers your questions...I'm just trying to explain what it's like for me, both in my childhood in the Wild West craziness of the 1980s and now, in the "Try not to be a Helicopter Parent" 2010s.
     
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2019
  13. Dalis

    Dalis Jose Cuervo is NOT a good friend

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    For us is about me and Bianca time. She picks her costume, we plan how we can execute it and just have fun making it out. I love this time!
     
  14. cookingmylife

    cookingmylife Pizza would be my last meal, except ...

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    I put lots of fake pumpkins out and have my fireplace mantle covered with little ceramic pumpkins courtesy of the $store. We rarely got many trick or treaters and my children were teens when I bought this house so I used to buy a token bag of candy (Snickers) which ended up being all for me. :clap

    But I thought you should hear this song...
     
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  15. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    For us it was always all about the candy for my kids. They loved getting dressed up in a costume and then going around trick or treating. Most years we go over to a friends house to trick or treat and the adults walk around with them (so I can get pictures obviously) :giggle and we have a cup full of hot apple cider as we walk. This year neither of my kids want to dress up and go treat or treating so they are officially "too old" which is kinda sad for me. How am I going to use all the cute Halloween kits if they won't dress up? Ha ha!
     
  16. jk703

    jk703 CEO of Anything and Everything, Everywhere

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    Growing up, it was a party at school, then the school parade of costumes, after school walking/trick or treating, collecting candy, hanging out with friends, probably pizza for dinner and too much candy eaten.

    It was similar for my kids... but then adults wanted to have fun too, not just trudge along and slowly walk around the neighborhood. So, we had our group, brought our candy as we trick or treated to hang out, and we also brought along n adult beverage drink cart (though we had plenty for those that didn't want to partake - water, juice, etc.). We offered candy to kids and drinks to adults as we roamed around the neighborhood. Fun for all.

    Now, my kids are getting older and last year it changed again.... One didn't dress, but hung out and gave out candy. Then he ended up going out for a little while. So.... the kids go off trick or treating. And the parents get together to hang out, hand out candy, eat taco soup and have some adult beverages. Then the kids come back, there is some sorting and trading of candy, then walk home to head to bed.

    One thing that hasn't changed ever... we always eat too much candy.
     
  17. jk703

    jk703 CEO of Anything and Everything, Everywhere

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    Ha... one last year was not dressing up, and pry again this year. I use SnapChat filters for Halloween, and get a couple shots with each boy. :giggle Works for now!
     
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  18. Becca Bonneville

    Becca Bonneville Oh my God Becky

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    We throw big party at my sister's house each year on the Saturday before. We have lots of fun games (cackle/howling contest, Halloween trivia etc.), music + dancing, costume contest and Halloween themed treats/food. We decorate her house around the beginning of October. We don't go overly creepy with it since there are small kids around too but we do have fun with it.

    This year my sisters and I are dressing up as the Sanderson sisters (Hocus Pocus). Everyone has fun just hanging out, playing games etc.

    On Halloween, when my kids wanted to, we would go up to town (we live in the country) and go trick or treating. This year my husband will be at the fire station doing trunk or treat and I am thinking the kids will just end up there as well.

    The kids school (middle and high school) lets the kids come to school dressed up and they have contests and games there too on Halloween day.

    I personally do not love scary so I don't do haunted houses or things like that. I am too much of a baby when it comes to that.
     
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  19. LeeAndra

    LeeAndra A total Betty.

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    Growing up, Halloween was not a big deal. It was basically watching "The Great Pumpkin" on TV and going ToTing (which we did at the mall until we moved into a neighborhood when I was in sixth grade) on Halloween.

    Now, though, it is a much bigger deal with EVERYONE (churches, non-profit organizations, and parks in particular) having Trunk or Treats (where the kids wear costumes and walk around in a parking lot and "trick or treat" from people's cars) and/or fall festivals where costumes are encouraged. We did lots of homemade costumes when I was growing up because it wasn't worth it for one night. Now that you can take your kids to ToT every night for the 2 weeks before Halloween, it's not such a financial investment! A friend of mine & her daughter usually go to more than 25 (!!!) different ToTs in October. Almost all of these events are free (except for the zoo -- see below).

    I took my kids to Zoo Boo at our local zoo (where vendors set up tables inside the zoo and pass out candy) this past weekend. Since we're members, it's free as otherwise I wouldn't go. There are always really long lines & not enough candy to justify the $10 they charge per person if you don't have a membership. We will also go to Trunk or Treat at their school this Friday night.

    For actual Halloween, we ToT in my sister's neighborhood (which is more well-to-do and one of those neighborhoods people drive their kids to so they can ToT) and then have pizza & candy afterwards. My kids think it is a "rule" that siblings have to have coordinated costumes so they have been Little Red Riding Hood & the Big Bad Wolf, Wonder Woman and Superman, a knight & a dragon, Curious George & The (Wo)Man in the Yellow Hat, and, this year, Mary Poppins & Bert.

    There is a famous (in the Midwest) haunted house a few miles from here but I don't like scary things so the kids and I have never been. We also don't watch scary movies, have scary costumes, or decorate for Halloween but other people I know do those things.
     
  20. keepscrappin

    keepscrappin ScrapWithTheWind

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