The Hunter kids have done Halloween in the past ..
By KATE HUNTER
I need somewhere to go next Wednesday night. I must to be able to take my children and we need stay for at least three hours. I am hiding from Halloween. I can’t stand it. And consequently, my children can’t stand me – today anyway.
I don’t know who the Halloween equivalent of Ebeneezer Scrooge is, but call me that. I will do anything to escape it, but I realise I’m but a voice in an increasingly pumpkin-filled wilderness.
Maybe I’m over-reacting. Trick-or-treating in our street is considerate and well organised. One mum takes charge and drops note into each letterbox asking who wants to be involved. Then, from the replies, she compiles a list of homes happy to be visited by groups of little ghouls (each must have an adult with them).
‘How bad can it be?’ My friends ask, ‘Halloween’s here to stay, why not go along with it? Surely that’s easier than trying to stop it?’
People assume I’m railing against the importation of an American tradition, but it’s not that. I love American-ness. I don’t have a problem when chips are called fries and I’d rather visit Washington than Canberra. We took the kids to Disneyland at Halloween two years ago. Mickey was wearing his pumpkin and purple tux and we had a ball – and quite a lot of candy (note casual use of Americanism). I’m all for sharing traditions and customs if we understand their meaning. But to so many Australian kids, Halloween is nothing but a lolly-grab.
There’s not a lot of neighbourhood bonding happening. The sugar-fuelled rush from house-to-house happens in an anonymous whirlwind of face-paint and rubber masks. No one knows who’s who and everyone imports school friends anyway. For parents, it’s nothing but a work, stress and expense. I suppose I just can’t be bothered with it and frankly, I don’t see why I should.
When my daughter is able to fashion her own bat costume from old umbrellas (she Googled it) or my son can hack into a pumpkin unsupervised, then fine – they can go for it. Until then, this mummy is jumping on her broomstick and getting the hell out of here.
If you DO celebrate Halloween and you are after a little inspiration click here.
Do you “celebrate” Halloween? Are you going to dress up? Have you decorated your house or are you staying away from pumpkins in any shape or form?
Comments
121 Comments so far
I’m all for celebrating Halloween, throwing parties and having fun. What I don’t appreciate is kids knocking on our door and expecting lollies.
Those who celebrate that particular tradition seem bemused by my objection or choose to ignore it but seriously, when did it become OK in Australia to expect, no DEMAND that others who don’t want to take part, give them something or risk the consequences?
Trick or treat was virtually unheard of when I was a kid and our own children never showed any interest in doing it when it started to catch on. Marketing and advertising appear to have put paid to that for the current generation but sorry kids, we haven’t stocked up on treats and won’t be answering the door tonight.
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While we’re all having a rant, I’d like to chip in a Gen Y opinion. I hate it when people get so up in arms about “americanisms”. We are such a multicultural society, and I (like most people) love embracing aspects of other peoples culture – that’s how Australian culture has developed and improved. And like many Australians, my genetic background is so mixed that I can’t be considered English. Who cares if I say trash rather than rubbish? I spell properly, use correct grammar, and embrace cultural influences in terms of food, art, cultural and so on – so why not in English?
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I’ve just been travelling around ireland, and in some towns people were dressed up for halloween every night – it was so adorable!! Every single shop/bar/club etc was decorated too! There didn’t seem to be any emphasis at all on the “trick or treating” part of it, but more on the festive celebratory part of it. Looooved it.
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I also hate the dreaded Halloween mostly because it scares by children and also because one of my children has a life threatening nut allergy. If she went looking for treats she’s end up in hospital in a flash. There are traces of nuts in all sweets – especially the Halloween type. When handing out treats pls spare a thought for the children who have food allergies – ask them if they have allergies before handing them treats and read the labels. ! I am putting a note onmy front door ‘no hallooween here – please try next door
’
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My mum (from Scotland) celebrates Halloween like its xmas. House gets decorated, people come from miles to check it out. kids come in & bob for apples, a traditional game from Scotland (try to get apples from a barrel of water without using there hands) & dig around in tubs of goo for little prizes. My mum has blended both Scottish & American traditions to make a great night for the local families to enjoy without the door knocking.
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My parents are also Scottish, and they love Halloween (and get very upset when it’s referred to as “American”). I have some awesome memories of bobbing for apples, etc. I’m a bit disappointed in a lot of Australian’s attitudes towards it, actually
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Since it’s an autumn celebration it really only has relevance in the northern hemisphere. As such, I don’t see the point of it here in Australia.
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Amerikanisher nonsense
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Kate, your neighbourhood actually sounds like it does do Halloween the right way, what with that lady doing the letter drop etc. On our street last year I saw a few kids dressed up and I panicked because I didn’t have anything that I could give them. But it turns out they didn’t knock on my door anyway, maybe a share house on three 24 year olds isn’t deemed safe by mothers in my expensive neighbourhood!
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Aren’t we second most obese country in the world? Don’t we already have enough holidays that revolve around eating too much?
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HALLOWEEN IS NOT AMERICAN. Sorry for shouting but that irks me terribly. It is an ancient, celtic tradition. The ONLY part of Hallowe’en introduced by America is “trick or treat”. In Scotland for hundreds of years, children have been going to doors and saying “the sky is blue the grass is green, are ye daeing Hallowe’en?” or something similar. Then, we would “do a turn”, tell a joke, sing a song, do a dance or a trick and then and only then would we be given sweeties, or sometimes money if no chocolate was available. The difference being earning the loot, not demanding money with menaces as they do in the USA.
However, Hallowe’en IS NOT AMERICAN. And I am utterly sick to death of hearing it described thus. It was huge in Scotland when I was growing up as a child, and has been being celebrated by Celts since long before the United States of America even existed.
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Of course you’re right, Anonymous, but most Australian kids grow up on a steady diet of American sitcoms. When they think of Halloween, they’re thinking Trick’or’Treating American style, not a charming and meaningful Celtic custom. I could be wrong, but I’m not
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I’m an adult who does not have children yet and I love special occasions more than anything else in the world. I have been quite disappointed by the lack of them since moving to Australia however. In America there was July 4th and Halloween; in Europe there was carnival and the local celebrations of the country I was living in.
I buy lots of candy every halloween hoping some Aussie kids will knock on my door but they never do. They never do
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“I buy lots of candy every halloween”
Try buying lollies instead.
Oh, and there are some special occasion in this nation. January 26 and April 25.
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“I’m all for sharing traditions and customs if we understand their meaning. But to so many Australian kids, Halloween is nothing but a lolly-grab.”
And Christmas isn’t all about getting presents? And Easter isn’t all about Easter eggs? Plenty of kids have no idea otherwise, so why is Halloween any different?
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“so why is Halloween any different?”
Because at Christmas and Easter I do not get random strangers knocking on my door begging for gifts with the threat of egging my car or vandalising my property. Last I checked, that is called extortion.
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I know that Halloween isn’t a thing that we celebrate in Australia but years and years ago I found an American blogger and I got hooked on reading about her parties. (She even streamed them live each year!!) I loved the decorations she would hand make, the food and just her general love of it all! As a result I had a Halloween party and had a fantastic time.
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I live in America and have had both my kids here, so it’s all they know.
It’s such a fun night. The kids get together with their friends from the neighborhood and we all walk around house to house, often stopping to chat, it’s a very social, friendly couple of hours. The preschool and primary school they attend will have a party and parade on the morning of Halloween and the kids love that!
It also seems so fitting that the leaves are changing colors and it’s the start of a new season.
When we do move home, I’ll miss this, although I’m sure the kids will have other Aussie celebrations they’ll enjoy instead.
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im with you Kate – i hate it. we dont live in a great neighbourhood at the moment and heaps of bratty, pushy kids come looking for lollies- never with an adult… our neighbour’s house got egged last year because she forgot it was halloween and didnt have any lollies for these teenage arseholes that came knocking…so that was their idea of a ‘trick’ wtf!!!
in America it would probably be fun because they ALL get into it and its a big deal… but here it just seems so pointless, and you are right, i doubt many kids know the meaning or traditions behind it.
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Halloween is not American. And why are you all so anti American ? We celebrate Chinese new year. God forbid anyone speaks out against that. Educate yourselves about Halloween.
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totally with you on this kate
my opposition comes from it being an american tradition not an australian one
however while I see your point about the lolly grab I think the same one could be made about christmas
things are far too commercial these days
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Our kids were never overly interested in Halloween and now they are teenagers, even less so. I will have treats ready to give out on the night as I don’t like letting small children down by being a party pooper…its only harmless fun the last a couple of hours.
HOWEVER I blame the shops…especially those cheap, nasty $2 shops that sell all the Halloween crap a month before the event. If the shops were not so obsessed with making a quick buck the day would pass unnoticed by most. The shops ruin most things these days…Easter buns in December, Christmas decorations in September…if you don’t have a flag dangling from your car on Australia day you feel like your not celebrating the day properly. The shops are always trying to grab our money for stupid things…well I say NO. Still I am sure its just me. Rant over!!!
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I will let my dog answer the door on Halloween. He’s not a fan of strange people knocking on the door at the best of times. Difference is this time, I won’t try and stop him from voicing his opposition.
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Where are you going? I’ll come and join you!!
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My family used any reason to have a party so we were celebrating Halloween years ago (mid 90s). There was no Halloween decorations in the shops, we made our own. We didn’t go trick or treating because no one else did it.
But all my family got dressed up, we made decorated the house, made creepy food and played Halloween games. I remember my grandfather even writing a ghost story that we all featured in.
I definitely intend to pass this on to my kids. And I would LOVE Halloween to become bigger in Australia. I rarely get trick or treaters to my door, but I always have something handy just in case. To me it doesn’t really matter where it came from, or the tradition it arose from – but what traditions you give it as a family. And any excuse to get dressed up and have fun is good enough for me.
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I don’t really have an emotional opinion on Halloween. Fence-sitter that I am!
If I had bratty kids knocking on my door demanding lollies or playing awful tricks, I’d hate that.
But I remember in Primary School (in the late 70′s and 80′s) we always did fun Halloween stuff. Trick or Treating was sometimes mentioned and done, but mostly it was just fun craft, apple bobbing and a few other fun games. We loved getting dressed up, that was about it!
My eldest is only 5 but she is all over Halloween! A couple of years ago, my loveliest neighbour and mother of 3, came and asked 4 houses in the street if her kids and a couple of their friends to come to our houses trick or treating, she even supplied us with the treats! She accompanied them and they had a ball. My daughter, was a 3 year old tag-along at the time and she has not forgotten the thrill of it. Putting on a costume quickly, saying hello to a few neighbours. She never even ate a single lolly that she collected.
To them, the trick or treating wasn’t about a lolly grab, it was about knocking on the doors of some friendly neighbours so that they could show off their costumes.
Last year we were away for a long weekend with friends in the country on Halloween and the kids desperately wanted the dads to carve a pumpkin and do some Halloween crafts. That was it, the never mentioned lollies or anything greedy. It was lovely to see them having so much fun.
My lovely neighbour that I just mentioned actually just came over 20 minutes ago to give me some lemons from her garden and we arranged to have an early dinner with the kids on Halloween next week. Let them dress up, paint their faces and just have some fun at home. They will LOVE it. At their young ages, it’s just like any other dress-up, make-believe thing. Suspension of disbelief and pretending to be someone else for a while.
Imagination is a great thing.
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You’re lucky to have such lovely neighbours
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For people my age (i’m 22) Halloween is almost exactly like Mean Girls, it is the one day where it is “okay to dress up like a complete slut”. A lot of clubs and venues have halloween themed events, which are always fun to go to. I do like dressing up, and will be making a Black Swan outfit for my friends party wednesday night. Halloween= another excuse for a party :p
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My birthday is right around Halloween and for the past few years I’ve had an annual Halloween-themed birthday party. This year I’m turning 25, and I’m so glad Australia has finally caught on to this American tradition. I love Halloween!
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I’ve always been jealous of friends who could combine their birthdays with Hallowe’en themed parties! Hope you have a great time Scarlett and Happy Birthday!!
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We spend years teaching kids about stranger danger yet on this one night it’s ok to take lollies from strange (mostly) adults? I don’t get it.
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Why would they be strange adults? Most children Trick or Treat in their own neighbourhoods where, presumably, they are familiar with their own neighbours.
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Isnt that just the same argument we might use about convincing our children its ok to sit on a strange man’s lap at Christmas in return for a photo or a lolly?
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It was my wedding anniversary before it was ever Hallowe’en in this country, so auntiechris and I will be off out to dinner as always.
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I hope that you and auntiechris have a wonderful anniversary.
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I have nothing against Halloween, to me it’s just an extension of Shamain anyway. I hate Americanism, and anyone using Americanisms in my presence (except those from the US or Canada of course) are very quickly corrected in the use of Australian English (watch out Kate haha). Firstly remember folks that Trick or Treating began in England NOT the US, they just took it and ran with it in bigger ways. Anyway, back to the point, even though we do not celebrate Halloween ourselves we like to keep some lollies ready for the local kids. If the little ones want to dress up and collect lollies from the neighbours (under adult supervision of course) then I’m not going to be a ‘Scrooge” and deny them a good time.
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While the word ‘folk’ itself can be considered of English origin, the word ‘folks’, particularly in the context in which you used it, is very much considered an Americanism. Wink.
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I find it kind of funny that you do not celebrate Halloween, yet you keep lollies for the kiddies that come knocking, because you don’t want to be a Scrooge. To me that is at least participating in, if not celebrating, Halloween. No offense meant, at all, of course! I just found that kind of funny.
And, I quite like that SOMEONE in Australia finally recognises that Halloween is not in and of itself an AMERICAN thing, just something that was adopted from the English and ran off the end of the earth with – something that IS very American. Americans like holidays – the decorating, the celebrating, the get togethers, the food………Halloween is pretty much the start of the holiday season which goes like a runaway train right through New Years.
As an American ex-pat, I am surprised at how much Halloween is beginnig to take off here. It seems to be a little more wide spread and a little bit bigger every year. Last year I did a little decorating (only a carved pumpkin with a candle and some door and window stick ons) and bought lollies to hand out to random trick or treaters. It was a lot of fun! After 8 years without Halloween, it was a nice treat for me to be able to do it. The kids were adorable!
My husband, as ocker as they come, always declared that Halloween was stupid, waste of time and money, and childish……until he came home with me a couple of years ago (Halloween through Thanksgiving). He had a blast – it was the one time I let him hide in the shrubs and jump out and scare the older kids – they love it! He loved it too, then said he wished Australia did Halloween.
It’s just a bit of harmless fun. It’s kind of like………a nationwide fancy dress party. There is cost involved, but like Christmas and Easter, it’s up to you as to how much you sink into it.
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Heaps of people know Halloween started in the British Isles. It’s not that much of a revelation.
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Hey Guest we don’t have kids ourselves so don’t worry about the celebrating side of things. Even Christmas is very subdued at our place. If we had kids I’d be joining in with them as a perfect excuse to dress up and muck around with them.
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Ok, call me a wuss and a confrontation avoider, but we’ve got plans for next Wednesday – any kid who arrives after we get home at @ 10pm better have a really good excuse!
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When we lived in the UK I was surprised at how big Halloween was there as prior to that it hadn’t been a big deal in Australia (not when I was a kid anyway) and I’d assumed it was American too. In London the kids would go trick or treating in the dark after school (at 4pm!) and the tradition in our neighbourhood in central London was if you wanted trick or treaters you had a carved pumpkin on your door step with a candle in it. The kids knew not to door knock the houses without a pumpkin, so if you didn’t want to partake it was easy to opt out. Back in Oz it just doesn’t seem the same.
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Michelle what few people are aware of is that Trick or Treating started off in England and was exported to the US. In usual US cultural style they made it commercial and huge.
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Last year I had kids turn up still in their school uniforms carrying plastic shopping bags. When I opened the door they said “trick-a-tree”. It was just a lolly grab for them. Not participating this year, so don’t come-a-knockin.
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There won’t be any trick or treating in my house.
Personally, I detest it – it just seems like an excuse for the teenagers (not even bothered to dress up) to knock on doors & demand stuff and/ or break things or vadalise the neighbourhood. Last year, 36 cars in our street (every single car parked outside) got spray painted with nazi symbols and giant penis’s. Lovely.
I had a neighbour approach me to warn me to keep my (black) cats inside in the next week or so because apparently at this time of year cruelty to black cats is pretty common. How awful.
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My husband is toying with the idea of handing out prunes if anyone dares to knock on our door. “ONE each now…”
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Whoa. I’m sorry to hear that. That kind of criminal behaviour is obviously about the people in the area (not you!
), not the holiday. I bet you whoever did that vandilism is doing all kinds of s*** at other times during the year too. I mean, nazi symbols?? Animal cruelty?? That’s some seriously psycho behaviour, it has nothing to do with a scottish/irish/english/latin/american tradition.
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In my current neighbourhood I love Hallowe’en. We know most of the neighbours and do a quick round of a couple of streets before packing it in. I supervise my own kids and take a couple more from over the road and set the groundrules about respecting people who don’t take part etc before we head anywhere.
I also reaffirm that this event is a one-off per year. We do NOT go around asking for lollies from the neighbours at any other time of year!
I kinda love seeing their faces and the faces of those who are ‘completely surprised’ by the ghouls at their door!
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God help any kids who knock on my door on the 31st.
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This is the time of year when I love living in a secure apartment complex (no children live here either) and not having to worry about it.
P.S. I don’t need an excuse to eat lollies lol
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We’ve never done Halloween and never will. And consequently my kids are the ONLY kids at school who won’t be going Trick or Treating………or so they tell me. I agree with you Kate, it’s just a lolly-grab. The kids don’t understand why they can go from house to house collecting lollies, except that it’s a competition to see who gets the most and best collection. And besides, we don’t need any more sugar in our house. The kids are still getting through the lollies from the show bags they got from the Ekka in August!
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We love, love Halloween. It is so much fun.
My daughter looks forward to dressing up like a little witch and loves anything to do with the fantasy of Halloween.
I really can’t understand why some aussies hate it just because the americans celebrate it in a big way. So what? At least they have fun, unlike so many here who morph into the fun police.
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“…at least they have fun, unlike so many here who morph into the fun police.”
Gee, I am sorry that I do not find “fun” in middle-class brats banging on my door extorting lollies so they do not criminally vandalise my house.
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Hi Mellie, I usually don’t blog on posts, but I thought I’d reply to why I dislike the “holiday”. And it’s not for the reason you gave… Young people have been awful to me. I won’t go into more detail online, it’s personal, but if you knew the full story it’d make sense. I used to answer the door every year on Halloween. I refuse to open the door this year.
Maybe your suburb is nicer than mine… I believe in rewarding people for being nice people and the teens/ kids around here are not nice. Otherwise I’d have no problem with it. Sorry to say, but it’s true.
Also, very recently, kids/ teens have damaged our property and public property. It was a regular day, not Halloween. That costs money to fix.
Sorry, I used to care, but, I’m not giving free lollies this year. I don’t have the cash for lollies either.
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I love Hallowe’en and thankfully my son is finally old enough to get into it too! Planning costumes, decorating the house, baking themed treats, etc.
For those who are against it because it’s a US thing (it actually isn’t), since moving to Australia I’ve been to St Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and Oktoberfest parties amongst others. None of these originated in Australia obviously. Even Christmas in July, Mother’s and Father’s Days first started as a celebration in the US. Fair enough to not like a tradition but I find it amusing how people seem to pick and choose which ones are too American or at least “not Aussie enough” to adopt.
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The reason I won’t ever be celebrating Halloween with trick or treaters etc is that in Aus it feels like a ‘holiday’ that the shops are trying to get us to celebrate so they can get more money out of us! All of this Halloween stuff is showing up in the shops as though they think if they keep bombarding us with it that we will eventually want to buy it, and then continue to buy it every year. It’s like the holiday we didn’t know we were supposed to have that we are starting to look around and say ‘oh, I’m supposed to celebrate that am I? Ok, please let me pour lots of my hard earned into the shops coffers…’ .
It feels like all of the good family times of year are being horribly commercialised (yes, Christmas was always about buying gifts, but I don’t believe it was to the same degree where around this time of year everywhere you look you are starting to be slammed with it). Hot Cross Buns in the shops on boxing day… seriously?? Let us just enjoy our special occasions at the time of year that they occur, and stop diluting them by trying to make them more about money (Harvey Norman having an easter sale? What on earth do electricals have to do with Easter?).
So no I won’t be lining up to give the shops my money just because they tell me to. This is one of my pet hates, so my vent may be a little harsh!
I love the idea of Halloween in the countries where it really means something. In Aus though, it is an empty holiday imported by the shops. That just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, and is not something I want any part of.
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this was the exact rant I was having at the breakfast table this morning as I looked at the junk mail.
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Ahhh, who cares. If the kids want to get dressed up and go round asking for lollies why not? Last year my daughter and four of her friends spent ages walking around the neighbourhood, laughing, meeting other friends and collecting sweets along the way (she was 12). They had a great time. It was good to see them off the computer quite frankly!
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My theory on this is that we only seem to adopt “holidays” of other nations when it involved GETTING something. We don’t celebrate the 4th of July here because there are no presents or lollies. St Patrick’s Day is celebrated because people seem to think it justifies drinking at ungodly early hours while wearing green. We don’t celebrate Guy Fawkes either. See a pattern..?
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We dont celebrate the 4th of July here because it is America’s indendence day not ours. Imagine the silliness of celebrating every regions days of significance. We’d never do any work
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I think the reason we don’t celebrate 4th of July is that it’s American independence day and it has little relevance to Australia… Especially because they were declaring independence from the British and we’re still in the Commonwealth (not that I imagine many people would really care that much about that).
But I definitely agree with the sentiment that, on the whole, we are very quick to embrace the perks of holidays when it suits us, while disregarding the rest.
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We don’t celebrate Guy Fawkes day (anymore) largely because the only place we’re legally allowed to see fireworks any more is at a big festival, like new years eve etc.
I remember my parents buying firecrackers for guy Fawkes night when I was little and setting them off in our driveway etc. There would be fireworks going off all over the neighbourhood. Sadly got outlawed in the 1970s, so the night fell out of favour.
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amyfizzer — St Patrick’s Day is celebrated because many Australians are of Irish ancestry. It is significant to many Australians. Some celebrate Chinese New Year because we have Australians of Chinese ancestry. It is significant to many Australians.
While Halloween has it roots in Celtic origins, the demand for candy — sorry — lollies is an American past-time. There are not very many Australians with American ancestry. So it is not significant to most Australians
And as the other readers have pointed out, we would not celebrate 4th of July because a foreign nation’s independence is insignificant to Australians, just as 1 October does not either (China’s People’s Day) is insignificant to Australians, We do not celebrate Guy Fawkes because of the legal ban on fireworks. So it has become insignificant to Australians.
See a pattern here?
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Won’t be celebrating halloween. will b celebrating Beltane instead – more seasonally relevant to this time of year
I celebrate Samhain (or All Hallows) in May.
We’ll be putting a sign up saying no trick or treaters though there aren’t many kids in our area who do it, unless it’s run by the school.
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Yeah I know anon. But if we celebrate everything else based on the northern calendar I do the same with our Pagan holidays. Though IMO Beltaine is a whole lot more fun than Shamain.
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Oh Kate, I couldn’t agree more!! I am very glad I live on an isolated farm – nearest neighbour is 4 mms away! I hate the whole concept of Halloween. Having said that, my daughter has a close friend from America, and she has in the past had Halloween sleepovers at her house, but she is on a farm also, so there is no trick or treating, just dress ups and eating pumpkin pie and so on. I’m fine with that, she has a great time. They really go all out with it.
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4mms is not very far at all
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unfortunatly we as usual, put this stress on ourselves. Kids don’t care if you have the perfect costume or the latest gear……just go with it:-) thats my golden rule on this sort of thing.
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I can not allow my children to go around the local streets begging for sweets. I agree with Kate. We have been invited to a party and we will do that. If anyone comes to our door asking for sweets, I shall inform them that we don’t indulge or condone the begging of food in this house.
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i dont answer the door on halloween, cant be bothered either! but i love dressing up as a slutty witch or something and going out!
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We love Halloween and always participate. I’m the mum in the street that letterboxesthe area the week prior, our front porch is decorated with goulish creatures and jackolanterns. Trick or treating is a wonderful and fun way to get to know your neighbours. We do it each year and the streets are alive with excited children being escorted by their parents. I have never encountered an opportunist teen or houses being egged or toiletpapered. Just fun and community spirit. It’s very popular in the suburbs I’ve lived, we usually run out of lollies despite buying bags and bags.
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LOVE LOVE LOVE Halloween!!
Mainly love the cooking side of it though,….
Last year I made “Witches Fingers” – which were actually delicious and this year I am making “Bandaids covered in blood”!!!!
Last years fingers…..
http://phoodie.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/phreakish-witches-phingers-halloween-2011/
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Phoodie, even though I don’t do Halloween, those biscuits are the coolest ones I’ve ever seen!! Hope you post a pic of the bloody band aids.
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Thanks PP!
Of course I will!
There’s a WHOLE Halloween post on it’s way this weekend!
Stay tuned
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Adopt me, phoodie! You’re the bestest mum ever!
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Phoodie, you’re a legend. Those fingers are bloody fantastic. And you better post a photo of the band aids or I’ll hunt you down!
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I am stressed about next Wednesday! Last year we had 2 groups of kids visit our house – we had no treats & were getting a toddler ready for bed – so I decided just to not answer the door to avoid embarrassement for all concerned. However both groups of kids kept ringing the door bell, looking through the windows & one even taunted the dog through the gate. All the while the parents stood talking to each other on the side walk. I got so frustrated with the rude behaviour of the kids that I went out to talk to the parents of the second group. Personally I would only go to houses I know or put a note in advance if I ever take my kids in the future. I’m thinking of either putting up a note to say no trick or treaters please or alternately welcoming trick or treaters up to 6:30 so my toddler can get involved & hand out candy. It’s all an added stress I don’t need…
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I was thinking about this last year…
If it was little kids (maybe kindy to year 6) dressed up in costumes, in groups with their mums or dads, coming to my door, I would happily give them lollies and maybe some little *scary* novelty type things. I might even put on a costume, and some decorations.
But in my suburb, the trick-or-treaters are TEENAGERS that don’t even bother dressing up. (I’m not kidding… 14, 15, 16 year olds) that walk around with bags demanding stuff.
I suppose i should be a bit more circumspect… the suburb that I live in, it’s probably a miracle that they’re even asking for stuff instead of just breaking in and taking it…
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The last thing that I wish to endure is a group of kids, buzzing around on a sugar high, begging for lollies at my front door.
PS…I’ll never call lollies candy or capsicums peppers. Halloween is another Americanism that I choose to keep at bay.
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“I’ll never call lollies candy or capsicums peppers.”
Yep. I will stick to using metric, calling chips “crisps”, calling fries “chips, trash “rubbish, calling zee “zed”.
And for once and for all, it is “MUM” not “MOM”.
And before I am accused of being ethnocentric, I speak four languages other than English and I am of Asian and Anglo Australian heritage.
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