Halloween!! :D

That would've been priceless!

but very Glasgow!
I remember last year seeing a guy in a chicken costume in the station, for no apparent reason.

but very Glasgow!
I remember last year seeing a guy in a chicken costume in the station, for no apparent reason.

Seriously?? Maybe he's the official welcoming committee? LOL!  I haven't been to Glasgow yet but hubby's best friend is from there so I know a trip will happen eventually.  Maybe I'll be welcomed by the chicken guy or Superman.  That would be sweet! LOL!

Yeah, put up decorations and kids are bound to come a knocking amd sometimes more than once! Last weekend we had three 'boys'' with masks on knocking on doors holding bags and I opened it and told them to come back when it's Halloween. This has happened every year I've been here.

We're due to put up decorations this weekend, we do it because our own children love it and they help with the pumpkin carving too. This year we will be taking them to a local kids Halloween event so they can still jon in the fun. 

Here is the party supply link:

http://www.partyrama.co.uk/pcp/Thanksgiving_Party_Supplies.html

It only has a few Thanksgiving Day items but check it out. I actually saw more stuff when I was out shopping the other day. There is a massive selection for their Halloween decorations and costumes!  

When I was younger (late 80's/early 90's) we celebrated Halloween at home - carving swedes (rather than pumpkins), apple bobbing and hanging ring doughnuts from the ceiling and then eating them without using our hands , but we weren't allowed to go out Trick or Treating (my mum reckoned it was too dangerous being out in the dark - especially as the paths were unlit and there were lots of bushes/trees around for people to lurk in). We also often had a Halloween/Bonfire Night party at our Brownies/Guides meetings too .

We haven't really celebrated Halloween in our family for several years now though (as we're all older) - last year I completely forgot it was Halloween until halfway through the day, lol. I did go to a Halloween fancy dress house party in 2007 though - one of my friends was living in a big Victorian student house (6 floors!) and the tenants decorated it with cobwebs and fake spiders and things (it had a really cool spooky atmosphere).

But in the last 20+ years, I have seen Britain getting more and more Americanised (changing in other ways too; and not for the better)... to the extent that it's barely anything like what it was when I arrived and fell in love with the place.
I really don't want to see Halloween becoming popular here like it is in the US... can't we just leave some things as they are?     :\\\'(

(probably not a popular opinion, but... it's mine.)

You're right - it's probably not a popular opinion, but it's mine too. I liked Halloween well enough in the US, but why does the UK have to be the same??

Also, the happy Halloweens I remember were in the '70s when every single child in the neighbourhood went out trick or treating. Every single one. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had even one child come to the door in the US when I lived there. Probably 1980-something. I'm sure it's still something children get involved in at school (dressing up, etc.), but in my experience it's not celebrated in the US nearly to the extent it was 30 years ago.

You're right - it's probably not a popular opinion, but it's mine too. I liked Halloween well enough in the US, but why does the UK have to be the same??

I agree.  Is there anything the US won't export?  

Also, the happy Halloweens I remember were in the '70s when every single child in the neighbourhood went out trick or treating. Every single one. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had even one child come to the door in the US when I lived there. Probably 1980-something. I'm sure it's still something children get involved in at school (dressing up, etc.), but in my experience it's not celebrated in the US nearly to the extent it was 30 years ago.

Agree with this too, though I don't remember the '70s, when I was young in the '80s I used to go out with my friends, alone, until quite late at night, and trick-or-treat all around the city.  IMO Halloween has been sanitised beyond all sense, what with "approved trick or treat times" that end before dark and not letting kids go anywhere without a parent.  There's a Ray Bradbury short story that really sums it up nicely, but I can't remember the title...


ETA: I think it's Time In Thy Flight

They always had approved times and even a date in my hometown.  Trick or Treat is always on the Friday before Halloween, because then everyone can stay up late eating candy and teachers don't need to worry about hopped kids in class.

It was that way when my dad was a kid as well.

But, in the town where I went to grad school everyone was out with their kids in 06.  All the college students handed out candy to all the little kids.  It was really cute, but it was a small, college town.  

I also think part of the problem is that the UK doesn't have a history of Halloween celebrations.  So where at home your are little you get candy, you get too old, you hand it out and decorate the house.  In my village it has just turned into a bunch of obnoxious teens demanding candy.

It was that way when my dad was a kid as well.

I must be older than your dad!!! 

I must be older than your dad!!! 

I doubt, my dad is 67.  But it is only like that in my hometown, all the other towns do trick or treating on Halloween.

Convenient if you want more candy.

DS has commented on the changes he's observed in Leeds (that well-known student hive) and it seems to him that the students are always running around in costumes.  I asked if this was a Halloween thing?  No, he didn't think so.  Hen nights?  No. It seems to occur any time of day not just at off-to-the-pub time. Anybody observed this elsewhere?

It seems to be a particularly Leeds Uni thing unfortunately. The dreaded Headingley run (involving visiting all the pubs between Far Headingley and town in fancy dress)  now seems to take place almost daily so that most of us are entirely blase about seeing groups of doctors, Tarzans, Hawaiians, etc etc. Fortunately the independent real ale bar, Arcadia, has banned customers in fancy dress, so there is a haven of peace in Headingley still.

but why does the UK have to be the same??

But we had guising here long ago (well certainly in Scotland), it's not new it just died out and then came back again, sort of. Halloween was taken to the US by the Scots and Irish (and probably the English to some degree)

Is there anything the US won't export? 

I would have said - Is there anything others won't import? One can only sell what someone is willing to buy.

I would have said - Is there anything others won't import? One can only sell what someone is willing to buy.

Exactly.  If you don't like Halloween, don't buy the stuff.

You don't want your school to have a prom?  Get on the school board, or whatever, and put a stop to it.  Don't pay for your kids to have a limo and a fancy dress. 

It is not that difficult.

I emigrated to the UK on 31 October 1985... 

How funny, I emigrated on the 31st October too. Although I actually arrived on the 1st November.

DS has commented on the changes he's observed in Leeds (that well-known student hive) and it seems to him that the students are always running around in costumes.  I asked if this was a Halloween thing?  No, he didn't think so.  Hen nights?  No. It seems to occur any time of day not just at off-to-the-pub time. Anybody observed this elsewhere?

Pub crawls. The best known is the Otley Run. You can always tell people are on the Run when they're in costume.

My first few years here I never really saw much of Halloween and absolutely no trick or treating but the last couple of years it's become more mainstream. We now get a handful of trick or treaters at our door. It's not always popular, though. I know quite a few people who don't like the fact that it's another American imported holiday. 

This year I'm going to a Halloween party. I'm dressing up as a jellyfish. I'm quite excited about it.

I would have said - Is there anything others won't import? One can only sell what someone is willing to buy.

But would they want to buy it if it weren't offered to them?