Halloween
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive October 2008:
Halloween
Do you all participate in it? Do you take the kids trick or treating? Do you answer your door to trick or treaters if you are at home?
I often wonder why people don't answer their doors to the little ones who come trick or treating every year. It seems in our neighborhood, more and more people do not answer their doors, even even they are at home. Basically, if you do not want trick or treaters you leave your porch/outside lights off. Every year it seems more and more people do this. It is sad in a way. I do realize some people do not celebrate it because of religious beliefs.
We give out candy,and we also go trick or treating with the kids. It is my favorite part of Halloween. I loved it as a kid, and love it just as much having to share this ritual with my kids.There is just something "special" about Halloween night. I love walking down the street in the dark, and seeing groups of kids, looking all cute in their little customes. I love seeing people in the neighborhood, or I normally don't see on a daily basis. I think it is just a fun time.
So do you celebrate? Do you give out candy?
If no celebration, why not? Sure if you don't have any kids at home I can see why it would not be as much fun.
My kids go trick or treating. They are older now so they pretty much go off with thier neighborhood friends. My ds usually comes home early to help pass out the candy.
It's a bit bittersweet that I don't walk with them anymore but they would be mortified if I tagged along. lol
Sometimes I stay at home and pass out candy sometimes my neighbor and I sit outside and pass it out. Depends on the weather.
Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays but the kids do love it. I do like to see all the little kids dressed up, too. Then you get the teenagers that have no costume or just a mask that hate to give up their Halloween night. 
I would say 75% of our neighborhood participates. Some go way over the top and others pass out candy.
There is an older divorced gentleman that lives across the street. No kids of his own but he decorates his house (for Christmas, too) and passes out candy.
My kids are too old for trick or treating, and Sarah's not even here, anyway. We buy candy, light a pumpkin, etc, but we leave on a weird street, so hardly get any trick-or-treaters. 
There are only 2 houses that even face the street I'm on, and my next door neighbor doesn't hand out candy, so there's really no incentive for anyone to come my way. Also, we're in the middle of the block, so you'd have to walk a ways to get to my house. My next-door neighbor to the north faces the cross-street, so I bet they get a lot more kids than we do. We should go hand out candy at their house! LOL! (2 for the price of one.)
We do Halloween here! There is neighborhood trick or treating which we have been doing for about 8 years and I still love it. We never did that growing up. We do trick or treating at teh mall and they do a haunted hayride thing at the park and a parade with businesses giving out candy downtown. I think we might skip something this year. Last year the kids got really tired of dressing up by the time the last couple events came up.
My 8 yr old dd is going as Hannah Montana. My 9 year old ds wants to be a wrestler or Bruce Lee. My 4 year old changes her mind daily but I picked up the deluxe Cinderella costume at a yard sale this summer so I hope we can just go with that. She also mentions cheerleader and karate girl lol!
Dh gets torn between walking around with our kids and handing the candy out. Usually he mostly stays home. When we bought the house he loved how great a front proch we had for trick or treat
Halloween is full scale at our house..
DD 13 wants to be a dead Hannah Montana
DD 11 well she goes between a witch and a devil
I am going to be Alice in Wonderland (dress up for work)
DH is going to be a demon.
We don't walk with the girls anymore but we do hand out a TON of candy and I normally run out and I buy more every year. I think it is because as my kids say I buy the "good" candy (M&Ms, snickers and stuff like that)
Halloween is SO MUCH FUN! We definitely do trick-or-treating. We've always lived in the country until now, with zero trick-or-treaters, so living in a neighborhood will be a different experience. We always drove to a neighborhood where we lived before, LOL! We would love to give out candy, just never lived in a house that allowed for trick-or-treaters. I'm sure we'll be here for a few this year, which we will all enjoy.
DH and I haven't dressed up with Natalie yet, but we were talking about it lastnight. We really want to! This year Nat is going to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. DH *might* go as Gaston, if we can pull something together fast enough.
Nat and I are busy making treat bags for her pre-K class, as well as for our new neighbor friends. I've spent so many nights in my craft room making Halloween cards, way more than I need, but I just love Halloween! We do tons of Halloween crafts together (dd and I). Today it was a witch with crazy yarn hair, yesterday was a pumpkin patch, and the day before we made Frankenstein and his girlfriend, LOL!
Did I mention I love Halloween? I can't wait until it gets here!
Tara, a dead Hannah Montana? That's just disturbing! LOL
Yes Yes and Yes to Halloween!
I LOVED it as a child. I had so much fun going around with my friends. The older we got, the farther we would go until we finally decided that we had PLENTY of candy! My brothers would turn on a halloween record (creaking doors, moaning ghosts etc)and a strobe light in their front bedroom. Our house was at the end of a cul de sac, so you could see the spookiness from all the way up the street. As a teen I was embarrassed by it but then again thought it was so cool. LOL
My dh and I switch off on taking the kids trick or treating and handing out candy. This is his year, which means that it will be a beautiful, warm night here! I ALWAYS get the freezing cold Halloweens! This is only our second year in this house. Last year we didn't have many people in our development yet, so not much trick or treaters. We may have a few more this year.
After we trick or treat, we always go to my mom and brother's neighborhood (they live next door to each other) to show then how the kids look. And then the kids trick or treat there too. They have a big neighborhood with TONS of kids. There are people all over the place. Neighbors light their campfire and sit in the driveway handing out candy together. It's lots of fun.
My brother bought 4 HUGE bags of candy from BJ's...that's how many people they get. I bought 3 small bags of candy for our neighbor hood.
The other night we got home and I saw something on our front step. It ended up being this bowl of fun Halloween stuff with a note saying "you got Booed!". It's this thing a neighbor started. You get a bag or bowl and fill it up with goodies. Pick 2 neighbors to give it to. Wait till it's dark outside and go put it on their front step, ring the bell, and run. There is a note in it explaining that it was just a fun thing to do for Halloween and to keep it going! Once you get booed, you tape the ghost (included in the note) on your door so you don't get booed again. The funny thing was that my son rang our neighbors bell and ran....right out of his shoes! So he had to go back and get his shoes. I don't think they saw who it was though.
My ds is going to be Harry Potter and my dd is going to be the Statue of Liberty
Patti, What a cool idea. Lol at the shoes.
Well, I don't like Halloween. I think I've mentioned that before. I don't dress up, and I don't decorate the house with creepy stuff. I get nightmares if I see creepy stuff. I know, I know, I'm a grown woman. sigh
I do try to make it somewhat fun for the kids. I decorate a bit for Fall, we do carve a pumpkin, and we do hand out candy. Thankfully, young kids come to our door and they wear the cute costumes. No creepy costumes, yet.
I think this year will be the first where I allow the children to go out. They were too young before and dh always worked on Halloween night. This year he will be home. He can take the kids and I'll pass out candy.
Oh, and I could not believe the price of a costume! Ds wants to be a Red Power Ranger. He's gonna have to pick something else or go generic. lol
A dead Hannah Montana...my dd has gone as a dead cheerleader before so I can relate.
She wore an old uniform and made half of her body looking like she was in a plane crash. I
wasn't very thrilled with it but it was inexpensive.
Not sure what the kids are wearing this year. My ds, who is 11, usually ends up hating his costume so goes as a weatherman, wearing my parker and carrying a microphone. He'll stand at the door, sway back and forth, like he is in a rain storm, and say trick or treat!
What size costume would he need? Ebay has some for about $15 with shipping. I agree some costume prices are crazy!!!! I wish I could sew, my mom always made ours.
I found my ds's Harry Potter costume at a garage sale in August (he had already told me that he wanted to be Harry Potter, it's not like I chose it for him) for $2.50!!!!!!! I was so excited and I'm so happy that he still is happy with being Harry Potter. Now the woman who sold it to me told me that when she bought the costume, the glasses did not come with it. We could not beleive that. How could you sell a HP costume without the glasses? She had to buy them for an extra $5. She was nice enough to include the glasses with the costume at the garage sale.
I found dd's Statue of Liberty Costume online for about $13. And I made her a torch. They were asking over $10 for it online!
Our town goes Halloween crazy. Several streets are closed and people compete to outdo their neighbors on decorations. It's bigger than Christmas as far as the lights go ...
Lots of fun.
Ame
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