How do you celebrate Halloween (or not)?

[Aniia]

I love to hear how other people celebrate holidays 😃

 

I wasn't allowed to celebrate Halloween when I was a child. My mother was super religious and fearful, so every October 31st we had to sit in the house with all the lights off, pretending we weren't home while our neighbors knocked on the door. It was pretty miserable lol. But as an adult, I've always made a point to be festive with my family!

 

Our current window decoration is a statue of a black cat that is spooked by a mouse in a Grim Reaper costume. We've got some other decorations around the house, a skeleton and zombie posters and spiderweb garlands and spooky lights. Our Homeowner's Association won't let us decorate outside, so we just brought it all inside! I'll be picking up some smallish pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns next week, and aside from giving out/hoarding candy, I always bake pumpkin stew inside a pumpkin shell on Halloween night, usually with a scary movie. I'm thinking this year I'll try my hand at a pumpkin pie, too - it's been years since I made one from scratch!

 

How about you guys? Do you celebrate or decorate for Halloween (or another autumn holiday, if Halloween is not observed in your country)? Do you have any pet peeves about the holiday? I do - its when people dress as political figures. Halloween for me is sort of an escape from reality, and seeing political costumes just yanks me right back down to earth. But, to each their own!

[Wolves-and-Wings]

1 hour ago, Twimm said:

 

I wasn't allowed to celebrate Halloween when I was a child. My mother was super religious and fearful, so every October 31st we had to sit in the house with all the lights off, pretending we weren't home while our neighbors knocked on the door. It was pretty miserable lol. But as an adult, I've always made a point to be festive with my family!

I don't see anything wrong with Halloween. If you don't mind me asking, what is your religion and what was wrong about Halloween?

 

So I really enjoy Halloween. My friends and I started a tradition last year. We're going to go in a haunted corn maze again this year. We scared ourselves silly last year! We're not adults, we're not children either, but we still go trick or treating. LOL

Edited October 3, 2018 by Wolves-and-Wings

[GhostMouse]

I LOVE Halloween! It's my favorite holiday. 🎃 I used to live in an apartment complex that did pet costume contests, so I would make costumes for my pets to enter there. Then we moved into a house in a neighborhood and we would make crazy elaborate themed decorations based on whatever we had chosen for the year (with matching pet and people costumes, of course!) And we'd host a Halloween party. Then we moved to a house that isn't in a neighborhood, so we don't get trick-or-treaters anymore.  (And we don't know anyone here to invite to a party.) Last year Halloween was too soon after our move for me to do anything at all, but this year I put up our indoor decorations and I'm working on pet costumes for my own amusement! 

I can dig up pictures of past years if anyone's interested!

We've also started going to haunted houses for the past couple years, and this year I'm committed to getting in my 31 days of horror (or Halloween-related, at least) movies!

[Aqub]

When I was little I used to go trick or treating, but I'm too old for that now. Still, my parents and I carve pumpkins and buy lots of candy! It's almost better to buy the candy, then you don't get the weird stuff you never intend to eat... 

 

Sometimes we put up decorations but we tend to get lazy with that for every holiday... 

 

I live in a really out-of-the-way place on an obscure dirt road, so we've never had trick-or-treaters... 

[Cottoncat]

Even though Halloween isn't really celebrated here (while stores still sell Halloween decorations and stuff), I like to dress up and watch spooky films and other things in the spirit of Halloween. I also have a plenty of Halloween decorations, especially pumpkins, stored in a box in my room. I am ready.

 

When I was young we used to host Halloween parties at our place and they were great! Me and the friends who attended tried trick or treating too, but we didn't end up getting any candy since no one else in the neighborhood would celebrate.

[Aniia]

11 hours ago, Wolves-and-Wings said:

I don't see anything wrong with Halloween. If you don't mind me asking, what is your religion and what was wrong about Halloween?

 

My mother was raised in a small family church group of Pentecostal Christians. Over the years she's relaxed, but when we were growing up she tried to shelter us from the secular world - she was uncomfortable with romance in pop culture, for example, and would change channels whenever someone was kissing on a TV program. Holidays were always stressful for her. She wouldn't tolerate Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, because they took the focus of the holiday away from the religious aspect of it. And Halloween was Satanic and evil, and she was terrified of everything about the holiday. She was afraid kids would get razor blades in their candy (I looked it up once - there have been zero cases in the U.S. of that ever happening), and she was scared of whoever was knocking at the door, and of people just generally behaving Evilly outside while we hunkered down in the dark. The first time I was able to trick-or-treat was my senior year in high school, because my friends basically kidnapped me lol.

 

As for me, I'm just spiritual, not religious. Sort of an odd mix of Pantheism and Taoism.

 

10 hours ago, GhostMouse said:

I LOVE Halloween! It's my favorite holiday. 🎃 I used to live in an apartment complex that did pet costume contests, so I would make costumes for my pets to enter there.
I can dig up pictures of past years if anyone's interested!

 

That sounds adorable! I would love to see pictures of your pet costumes My cat wouldn't tolerate any costume whatsoever lol, he'd have it off in less than a minute and then would shred it with fury.

 

We used to get more trick-or-treaters here than we do now. We live in a center of condominiums, so its mostly restricted to just the neighbor kids. A lot of kids go to the wealthier suburban communities because they have the best (read: the most) candy-givers and decorations, and it certainly doesn't help that our Homeowner's Association has banned all outdoor decorations - but I've always thought that as long as we've got one person who knocks, I'll keep giving out the candy!

Edited October 3, 2018 by Twimm

[Tetelestai]

Used to trick or treat when I was a kid. Halloween was always my favorite holiday and autumn has always been my favorite season. Carve pumpkins, prepare a handmade costume (or an assortment of stuff thrown together LOL), and a hayride. Last time I passed out candy, I was 20. My uncle and I celebrated Halloween alone that year. My uncle was always a Halloween nut, he moved the following year down to Alabama and that's when the Halloween celebrations stopped for me. Thinking about carving a pumpkin this year, loading up on spooky movies, and enjoying a bag of candy. Honestly my only Halloween tradition nowadays is this game, haha.

 

Also come from a very religious household (and I still am), but my parents did allow me to have a fun childhood.

[GhostMouse]

Alright, here we go! Spoiler tags so I don't overwhelm the thread with pictures.

2012: Dog dragon costume (2 pictures)
 

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2013: Cat costume for dog (her favorite animals are cats!), mouse costume for cat. (2 pictures)

 

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2014: Addams Family (I left the cat alone this year, my husband and I dressed as Gomez and Morticia, so the dogs were Wednesday and Pugsley) (1 picture)

 

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2015: Jurassic Park/Jurassic World (We dressed as the main characters of Jurassic World - although my version of Claire wore running shoes instead of heels! I dressed both dogs and both cats as raptors, although I couldn't get a good picture of either cat. The cats were the green raptors, one dog was the brown raptor, and of course one dog is Blue. We also themed our house decorations to match, and had raptor and t. Rex sounds on loop playing from the garage and the window by the door.) (2 pictures)

 

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2016: Pokemon (I left the cats alone again this year. The dogs are Growlithe and Arcanine, we dressed as Ghost-type Pokemon trainers, and the house theme was Ghost Pokemon!)

Dog costumes first: (2 pictures)
 

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Pictures during the day (5 pictures)

 

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Pictures at night (3 pictures)

 

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Edited October 3, 2018 by GhostMouse

[Aqub]

@GhostMouse I love your pets and their costumes! And those pokemon themed decorations are awesome.  It looks like you guys have so much fun on Halloween. Do you have something planned yet for this year? 

[Kaini]

I would always trick-or-treat as a kid!

 

I distinctly remember dressing up as Darth Vader multiple times (lol) including once to the church halloween party (LOL). In the mask no one could tell who I was (it was a really fancy voice changer one, not just a plastic one that only covered the front) and I didn't make the reveal until the very end of the party. Everything thought I was a boy and couldn't figure out just whose kid I was lol. My dad just kinda let me go free, swordfighting with the kids dressed up as jedi and only speaking via the voice changer. Hilarious.

 

Nowadays...

 

I tried to hand out candy in my new apartment, but nobody came to the door 😕 Everyone goes to the richer parts of town or other towns altogether to trick-or-treat, no one stays in the apartments. I cosplay Kylo Ren and was all dressed up, too x'D I just wanted to make some kids happy!

 

So instead I'll go to my dad's house a town away and give out candy there. He's too lazy to do it anymore, but it's a more affluent neighborhood and he's happy to hand over the reins to me.

[GhostMouse]

@aqub We don't get trick-or-treaters in this house so I'm not doing anything outside this year. I am working on some pet costumes for my own amusement though, I'll post pictures when they're all done!

[Aniia]

Those are awesome pictures, GhostMouse! That pokemon scene is epic, but my favorite costume for your dog is the cat outfit!

 

[sakurakid]

i love halloween! i can't wait to see the dc event!

i think in this year i dinner with a strage  foods (example hamburger at  hand shaped and purè and the cake  (i hope the chocolate cake XD)

And i watch  a movie (casper or hocus pocus ) or  a ghost  show if the italian tv  you put them on the air.

[Nagapie]

I used to always throw a party with my friends in upper comprehensive school and dress up for whatever costume competition my school had going on. Both of those traditions kind of fell apart over time though, as my friends moved to different parts of Finland and I went to an upper secondary school where literally no one else would even attempt to dress up for halloween. Nowadays I mainly just buy the halloween themed candy and maybe have a small party with my family or my best friend. Finland doesn't have the whole trick-or-treating culture USA has or anything like it so a lot of people here basically just ignore the whole thing exists and do nothing. Pretty boring if you ask me.

[saarkin]

I love Halloween.  Every year we put up my decorations by Oct 1st and I also add to the decorations at my house.  I don't like to scare little kids so I decorate in fun ways with lights and creative cute props.  This year the big addition is a homemade replica of Zero the dog from Nightmare Before Christmas and his Doghouse.   Also I added a set of three pumpkin that talk, tell jokes, make funny faces, sing and other things.  They are projected animated pumpkins on uncarved pumpkins not animatronic.  My wife and Kids are just as in to it and we all dress up.  Yesterday we went to the local pumpkin patch for our yearly visit and spent the afternoon doing corn mazes, riding rides, enjoying the petting zoo etc..  And then all through October we drive around at night on different days and look at the lights and decorations people have put up.  It's such a great fun time for our family.

[Leidarendi]

I throw a big costume party at work.  It's a lot of fun - decorations, food, games, and spooky halloween music.

[Aniia]

18 hours ago, saarkin said:

I love Halloween.  Every year we put up my decorations by Oct 1st and I also add to the decorations at my house.  I don't like to scare little kids so I decorate in fun ways with lights and creative cute props.  This year the big addition is a homemade replica of Zero the dog from Nightmare Before Christmas and his Doghouse.   Also I added a set of three pumpkin that talk, tell jokes, make funny faces, sing and other things.  They are projected animated pumpkins on uncarved pumpkins not animatronic.  My wife and Kids are just as in to it and we all dress up.  Yesterday we went to the local pumpkin patch for our yearly visit and spent the afternoon doing corn mazes, riding rides, enjoying the petting zoo etc..  And then all through October we drive around at night on different days and look at the lights and decorations people have put up.  It's such a great fun time for our family.

 

That sounds like a lot of fun with your family, and I love the projected pumpkin faces! Our decorations aren't too scary, either - the best year was when I stuck our skeleton out on our front step and positioned him with his light-up eyes as if he was daring kids to come get candy... with no moving parts or sounds I figured it would walk the line between creepy and too creepy for young children. It was pretty cute to watch the four-year-olds carefully tiptoeing up to the skeleton and then slowly edging around him to get to the candy.

[Spicedpunch]

I don't do anything but I love seeing what others do, especially dress ups! My new workplace is going to have a Halloween dress up so it be interesting to see what people come to work with.

[HeatherMarie]

When I was a kid Halloween was kind of a big family event. Early-ish on Halloween my parents would take me trick or treating around our condos, but then we would go to my grandparent's house where all the kids in our family would gather and go trick or treating together around that neighborhood. If we weren't too tired after that some of us would go to my aunt's house and go around that neighborhood. I have memories of getting my makeup retouched at my grandparent's house before going around the neighborhood (I was a witch that year, I believe I was a witch three separate years). Oh, and my grade school always had a Halloween carnival, complete with 'hayrides' (a cityfied version I guess) and a haunted house in the auditorium. One year I dressed up as a princess for the carnival but the dress turned out to be really annoyingly uncomfortable.

 

When we moved here and I got 'too old' to trick or treat, I'd help mom pass out candy instead. We would both still dress up though. Then we moved into a place where we happened to have young kids next door, the daughter I became really close to and I took her trick or treating a couple years. Nowadays we don't actually do anything at all for Halloween, except maybe take advantage of the candy sales. The apartments we live in don't get *any* trick or treaters at all, I don't think the complex actually disallows it but I guess the kids around here always go other places. It was *so* disappointing the first year, sitting outside with buckets of candy and we only got one single trick or treater the entire night. 

[saarkin]

@HeatherMarie I know how you feel.  When we moved to our current house I was so excited because we lived near multiple schools and there were lots of kids in the area.  We got 7 trick or treaters that year.  That is what inspired me to decorate Oct 1st and add to it every year.  Kids saw the decorations while out with their parents and the next year we had 30 and each year grew until last year we had around 100.  It was the best year and I'll never forget the joy on their faces as multiple kids said "I have been waiting all month to come to this house!"  It made it all worth it.

[Gluria]

I never celebrated Halloween and I don't plan to ever do.

It's not nearly as big a thing here in Germany as it is in the US, so when I was a child I didn't know about it anyways

 

I'm not a big fan of partying and holidays and dressing up etc. So. Only thing about Halloween I look forward to is the DC event

Edited October 15, 2018 by Gluria

[hedy]

Like the other fellow Finns here have said, Halloween in Finland is nothing big apart from stores selling themed decorations and candy. As a kid, I sometimes had my birthday party in Halloween-theme (my bday is about two weeks from Halloween) and sometimes our school would have a party or costume contest. In the years of living on my own it has become a running joke with me and my boyfriend that for the whole of October, when I see something cool Halloween related in a store, I tell him I'm gonna get it for our "Halloween Party". I never really buy anything, but we usually have one night around Halloween when we just drink wine and cook great food and watch a movie in candlelight. This year I've finally persuaded him so that we might actually watch a scary(!!) movie this year and I bought us some face masks and other pampering stuff so it'll probably be a spook/spa themed two-person party!

[GhostMouse]

For those of you watching scary or Halloween themed movies this month, I started a movie thread couple weeks ago. It hasn't gotten any traction so I thought I would share it here to see if there's any interest at all.  

I need to get my list back up to date...

 

 

[Fortis]

My church has an event on the weekend before Halloween called Trunk or Treat. People bring their cars, and decorate them up in Halloween fashion, and pass out candy to the neighborhood kids. They also have a few gift cards for the people who had the best displays in their cars. I won second place with a wizard's potion shop setup last year. They've also got carnival like games and a chili cook-off contest. It's a lot of fun.

[Laryal]

Well i use to go out trick or treating getting dressed up then coming home for cake an ice cream then opening my  birthday presents yep Halloween is my fav  not only cause of the holiday but my birthday as well. Our church even holds a fall festival type where we play games  eat an make a bondfire to have smores.:)

Edited October 25, 2018 by Laryal