Are you celebrating Halloween this year?

Halloween is almost here. Do you have any special plans? Are you carving a pumpkin?


DH and I usually carve a pumpkin, so we will need to pick up one at ASDA soon. I will admit, I miss going to a pumpkin patch and picking my own. Also, I miss the size of US pumpkins. There ones here are more like baby pumpkins.  ASDA is selling a huge bag of big white marshmellows right now so I may pick those up. I only ever find bags with small pink (eww) and white marshmellows.

We don't have any plans for Halloween - I thought about posting a sign on the gate telling neighborhood kids to come and get candy. To do this I need to fix the stones on the walk as they are a tripping hazard first. I thought about sitting around outside with a bucket of candy but I feel a bit strange about this. Funny how none of this bothered me in the US, now I feel strange. Almost like the wicked witch trying to lure kids over to my yard with candy... 

How about you?

No.  Been there. Done that.

Halloween is my fav holiday .... And I have to say i agree completely about the pumpkins . We haven't gotten ours yet because I'm hopeful that I'll find some of decent size. But I got the fake cotton web with some fake spiders and a creepy door sign to help bring what I'm use to here.. But we live in an apartment so more then likely we won't get any trick or treaters.. I say do what you are use to doing. If that means sitting on the side walk and pass out candy then you go right ahead.. You may be living in the UK but it doesn't mean you have to give up your American customs

No.  Been there. Done that.

Halloween is yearly, come celebrate again!~

I've not done any decorating, I probably won't to be honest. Out of delivering leaflets as a side job to about 800 houses I've only seen one decorated and their address started with a 31... so I guess they felt obligated to  No pumpkins carved... and I didn't see any carved the two years that I've been here. They pumpkin bin at ASDA is getting buyers, so where are all these jack-o-lanterns at?

My neighbourhood is full of kids and it's a Friday night, so I'm sure we'll get some guisers.  Will pick up some sweeties to pass out to the jokers.   

Nope.  I'm not into it at all.
Apart from that, I also live in a 2nd floor tenement flat in an area with very few children, so it would be pretty much pointless.

I wore plastic vampire teeth at work last year for about 15 minutes.  That's as much as I'll bother with! 

I bought candy my first year here but nobody showed up, so I haven't bothered since. I'm not really into Halloween, but I do decorate for fall. Every year I notice quite a few people do a double take when they go by my house, looking at my Autumn wreath. It's certainly nothing special as far as USA standards go, but in four years I haven't noticed anyone else with fall wreaths on their house.

Every year I notice quite a few people do a double take when they go by my house, looking at my Autumn wreath.

It may be that wreaths have a sort of pagan connotation...

Funny you mention wreaths... I was just looking at some pics of Christmas wreaths online and thinking about making one this year... pagan huh? 

If you are in London, and dressed in costume on Halloween, Chipotle is holding its annual "Boorito" event from 5pm to close, where you can get a burrito for £2, and all proceeds are donated to charity (Jamie Oliver Food Foundation)

Me? I will carve a pumpkin or two and leave them out on my window ledge with tealights in  We did have a few trick-or-treaters last year, and it seems like the popularity of Halloween in the UK is growing.  I probably won't decide whether I'm giving out candy or not until the day of.

pagan huh? 

Well these symbols are often very old. The simple circle.....clippings from the dead and dying branches....the berry itself, a promise of rebirth in the cold and dark of winter. The wreath, hung atop a tall poll (heh) during the frolicking of the mid-summer solstice, the ancient female fertility symbol of roundness and continuity....Hakuna Matata.

Or not, I don't know....I have been reading a lot about the Freemasons and the Illuminati lately - Dan Brown kind of stuff. For instance some put great meaning into Julius Caesar's adoption of the wreath as head dress. But some say he chose it simply because it hid his growing baldness.

Well these symbols are often very old. The simple circle.....clippings from the dead and dying branches....the berry itself, a promise of rebirth in the cold and dark of winter. The wreath, hung atop a tall poll (heh) during the frolicking of the mid-summer solstice, the ancient female fertility symbol of roundness and continuity....Hakuna Matata.

Then too -- when I first came to these Islands (several centuries ago) and wanted to put a Christmas wreath on the front door, DH was horrified.  He explained that the wreaths I saw at the green grocer's were for funerals.  (I got one anyway)

Oh absolutely! Halloween is my favorite holiday and believe me, in the states we used to go all out. I've noticed it's not as big here, but it's slowly catching on. I have a 9 year old daughter that still enjoys dressing up and trick or treating - so we will be doing that! We've decorated around the flat, carved a pumpkin and DH and I are even dressing up too. Just because I live somewhere new doesn't mean I'm going to stop participating in my favorite holiday!

I'm a little sad that Halloween is becoming the major autumnal celebration here -- at least as the commercial deal it seems to be.  When I first arrived here Halloween was pretty much a non-event (in England anyway).  There was no trick-or-treating, no specially packaged sweets, no costumes.  You might find the odd pumpkin at the greengrocer's but they were usually large pale yellowish things -- not conducive to carving.  You could always carve out a swede but no easy task!  Around the middle of October the urchins would be at street corners with their dummies made of old jumpers and trousers filled with leaves, usually crammed into a box or broken down pram.  They'd shout "Penny for the Guy!" as you went past, expecting a handout so they could buy fireworks and blow their hands off.
But I love Bonfire Night with it's gatherings of families and neighbours.  So magical huddling around the bonfire on a dark cold night, sharing traditional foods.  And then the fireworks (always a bit nervous about them being set off by non-professionals)  Bring on the parkin!