Halloween

[AngelPants]

Nope we don't celebrate it. I pretend its not happening. We live in suburbia but have never had someone knock so I assume noone in our area celebrates it either.
We did trick or treat once as a kid when the neighborhood watch from where we were living at the time organized it but never again!

[Rowellen]

We've never really celebrated it as such. But I see it as a bit of fun for the kids and when they are a bit older, we will make more of an effort. I don't think I would let them out trick-or-treating. We usually get one or two groups at our place but none this year. DD & I went to a dressup party on the weekend. She wasn't fazed by the costumes. The kids had a kindy dressup day. All the carers dressed up and quite a lot of the kids too. DD was sick so she didn't go. I forgot to dress up DS. Whoops. I had every intention of sending him in his batman costume. To make up for it, I let him wear it at home until it was time to go to bed.

I love the idea of handing out apples. I know my kids would be thrilled. I will try to remember that for next year because we now have a bag of lollies that we don't usually eat.

[Phteven]

next year dd will be in kinder and other activities, and i am kinda dreading feeling like i have to participate in activities (like halloween) i'm not really into.

You don't have to participate if you don't want to. Our school did some stuff this year so they asked about doing some trick or treating at home. I said no way and then I had a bit of a rant about cultural imperialism, sustainability and commercialism.

For people who belong to minority religions in Australia this is something they deal with every Christmas and Easter so Halloween is just another festival that I say no to.

[sangie]

next year dd will be in kinder and other activities, and i am kinda dreading feeling like i have to participate in activities (like halloween) i'm not really into.

I'm not into it either but DD's kinder is doing a halloween party today and she came home the other day asking if she could go 'trick or treating'. So clearly they have been talking about it in kindy. Thankfully she wasn't keen to dress up as anything scary and she made it quite clear that she wouldn't eat any 'scary' cupcakes lol! So she is going today as a fairy.

You don't have to participate in activities you aren't into but I wouldn't want my DD to feel left out either. I did say no to 'trick or treating', not my thing and I hope she doesn't ask to do it every year lol!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

next year dd will be in kinder and other activities, and i am kinda dreading feeling like i have to participate in activities (like halloween) i'm not really into.

Ours was quite good this year, they had spooky dress up, not Halloween IYKWIM. As adults we got what it was about but according to DD1 it was a kinder party food day
It's something you can easily discuss with staff who would understand.

[~TT40~]

I have a slight love and obsession for skeletons...so they are up in our house all the time anyway, including our housemate Clavius who is a life size skeleton, he is part of the family. because of this people thing I am all into halloween too.

Im not =P I do celebrate Samhain, but do it in autumn. we got trick or treaters but had to honestly say we just dont have anything sorry. (which wasnt completely honest, because DH does have a stash, but it had been moved cause we had visitors with little kids over last week and we had to hide it after one of them got into it. and he couldnt remember/find where he had hidden it =P) he found it after they left and then said to me "might be a bit wrong me chasing after them saying we have lollies after all....people might think im a peado"

Im also a bit uncomfortable with the whole getting candy off strangers thing...seems a bit hypocrytical to me...

in saying that, a friend was telling me that the army base suburb all get into it and people put a balloon on the letterbox if they are involved, and there is even a sausage sizzle and such at the community hall as well, and use it as a family evening. so when Spock is older we might give that ago.

[helle]

We celebrate it and have as long as I can remember. Halloween has definitely been celebrated here in Australia in the last 20-30 yrs. I am 37 in a few weeks and I have been trick or treating since I was little. I clearly remember my whole neighborhood doing it.
My kids love it too.

My pop remembers doing it as a kid also and he's in his 60s. It has been popular for awhile. I think it's whether your parents actually did it or not as to whether you view it so.

[~TT40~]

i just remembered when we were kids mum and dad let us trick or treat only at our house. and dad use to trick us by putting chilly powder on twisties and put nuts in a smarties box....ahh fun times =P

[~Gee_Whizzy~]

[QUOTE=LimeSlice;3224963]It isn't just pagans, to be specific.
There are Day of the Dead traditions in most societies in the world, and most have developed independently of each other over centuries. [/QUOTE

very true!! my DH is Chilean and he was telling me that in Chile The Day of the Dead is actually a public holiday for them!

[Boo Boo]

We had a ball, went out trick n treating and had a few at our house too. lots of fun, the kids loved it, so all good.

[Cassius2]

we have a neighbourhood halloween deal where a family across the road do a letter box drop with a balloon asking that those that are happy to have trick or treaters knock on their door between a certain time frame put up the balloon on the front door and that anyone can come and join. Last year it was just a small little group of 12 in only our street, but this year it was MASSIVE! and it was so so much fun. all the kids really got into and there were around 50ish kids (from toddlers to tweens) all out and about with parents in small groups...and the trick or treating really went above and beyond our street, so it was really really fun to meet a few of the other people in our community in neighbouring streets. the older folk really loved having the kids come knocking on the door and we got to really have some good chats and well wishes in general. I was so impressed!

I think what works is that it is an opt in, opt out system and there is a clear time frame for when the trick or treaters will be turning up (in our case between 6pm and 8pm).

[nothing2lose]

But you can't contain it to the people in your neighborhood with little children. From what I see there are a lot of teens as well doing it. I'm not sure all would be aware, or respectful, of an opt in, opt out system.

[Rouge]

Well it obviously works for some communities or it wouldn't have been going on as long as it has we have a very tight community. There is one area/street that everyone goes to. The rules are lights on knock, lights off don't. We all know each other. There is no fear of strangers. Or upsetting neighbours. And each year houses add themselves to the list. I hear more complaints from people saying they didn't have many kids than the opposite.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I think it's just going to be one of those things, either you like it or you don't but just like my parenting choices will be different to others i'm sick of the snide comments on FB about the 'american holiday' and us being in australia and how it's so stupid.... actually it's NOT traditionally an american holiday and yes we are in australia but we take on other religions & cultures holidays so why not have a bit of fun with this.. thats my two cents.

[Rouge]

Well said. Maybe if we shared the loot it'd take away the bitterness

[hj1981]

Nope, don't agree with it! and don't like the idea of encouraging/enabling children to take lollies of a stranger! we warn them about stranger danger all the time, so how can it be okay for 1 day of the year to go knocking on strangers door's and accept sweets? It is not as if that one day is going to stop all the "bad" people out there! Poor kids must be confused.
But I'm a mean mummy ;-) as they get older and really understand the potential dangers they can make their own minds up, but I won't encourage it.

[Phteven]

actually it's NOT traditionally an american holiday and yes we are in australia but we take on other religions & cultures holidays so why not have a bit of fun with this.. thats my two cents.

If we did take on other religions and culture's holidays I would agree with this but the reality is that we don't. I can think of a few holidays we could take on that would be much more fabulous than US style Halloween. Loi Krathong is a Thai festival where people make little boats with banana or bread and decorate them and then float them off downstream with candles. It's so, so pretty and far more lovely than Halloween. They have a water festival too where they water bomb each other. Once again much cooler than Halloween. There is a festival in India where they throw coloured powder about. Bastille day is a celebration of liberty, equality and fraternity - ideals we could all aspire too. Obviously there are oodles of other splendid festivals around the world but the one we seem to be embracing more over recent years is Halloween as it is celebrated in the USA which IMO is the lamest All Hallow's celebration on Earth.
I guess it's just another facet of our reliance on importing American culture rather than building our own.

[Rouge]

But that is a huge generalisation. And probably very incorrect. As someone who loves ALL festivals be they religious or not I disagree completely. And as someone who learnt about Halloween by my Irish grandparents I have to say no. And they loved scaring the crap out of kids who took hours to dress up. Just like my grandfather loved dressing up as Father Christmas each year too. If all it is to you is a plasticky greedy lamo holiday then that's fine. But to me it's seeing my kids have a great time. They love all things different and or spooky. And they've been criticised for it. Yet on Halloween when they trick or treat they don't get criticised, or accused of being weird. And we don't trick or treat every year. But we do decorate the house and carve pumpkins, and watch scary movies and even tell ghost stories. Why? Because it makes my kids happy. It's not about asking pedo's for candy. Or buying plastic stuff. Or not being able to separate traditions across continents. It's fun. That's all.