I've been trying to get into the "spirit" of things...since my kids can hardly wait to go Trick-or-Treating...Here's something I thought was kinda cute...I just listed a bunch of your names, and here's what popped up. Awwww, you guys are sooo generous! Springie's Halloween ... You will dress up as The cat in the Hat, despite earlier plans. Metalliant will get you Some stale lollypops MeridianDay will get you fake blood Cep will get you An invisibility cloak Cricket will get you A headache Metalliant will get you A magic crystal ball that shows you how you will die QuizGalaxy.com

MeridianDay doesn't believe in fake stuff

So... you gave me real blood then??? Yipes!!!

We dont much celebrate Halloween here, hehe we just tolerate it but thankyou for the festive cheer Having said that I havent really seen many trick or treaters around.

So, you mean, no kids trick-or-treat over there, across the big pond?

Not really, its mainly yobbish 16 teenagers. In fact there is a police curfew around parts of Leicester that prevent gatherings on Halloween. Which was challenged by a teenager who said it was against their human rights.

Originally posted by Springie So, you mean, no kids trick-or-treat over there, across the big pond?

Like Cep said, mostly gangs of children going around asking for sweets and/or money. I did see one girl (a teenager) coming into a pub and asking to do trick and treating around the pub but was turned away. M Mostly the idea is this, we all turn our lights off and stay quiet and hope the kids think t hat nobody's home.

We still do the go round to the neighours thing. Used to get about 50-75 per year, new place expects 20. We shut thing down after about 8, though, when the teenagers who can't be bothered to dress up and/or bring a youngster start taking over. Old place, though, over 2/3 of the houses were dark. I think there are more kids in this place. Cricket

We tend to celebrate Halloween a lot around here. Have a parade and all but everything is done by 8pm though, unless you go to a private party.

I dread halloween. It's an annual blackmail event. If the teenagers don't get stuff, they vandalise the cars. Fortunately enough of the kids who were doing it got tracked down and given ASBOs, to put the others off. But I suppose as time passes it'll start up again. And because they're wearing masks, it's hard to prove who it is. We installed CCTV because it was such a problem. You do see the odd group of teens or parents herding small children around to do the "in the spirit" halloween trick or treating, but not many. I never take my daughter trick or treating because, as Cep and Metalliant said, we don't really do that over here. And the ruination of any kind of possible fun by the teens means it doesn't have much hope of starting up. Same with the carol singers, unfortunately.

I don't mind the carol singers that much but I still don't open the door. Mind you, I haven't seen them for a few years. As I am sitting here typing, wondering would any carol singers do a rap version of a carol?

Such a shame! I know the teens around here get into some mischeif, but it doesn't seem as widespread as it does there. Mostly, Halloween around here is for the kids...lots of trick or treating. I can't imagine having to turn my lights off and pretend I'm not home...how awful!!!

I think it's because it's not really a traditional festival over here. It used to be, but it got eclipsed by Guy Fawkes (5th November) for a long time so the only thing anyone bothered with for halloween was some scary tv and radio and maybe a few local events/parties. Now Guy Fawkes has been out for a few years, probably because of changes in the law about buying fireworks or something, maybe because of stranger paranoia. People don't really want to walk their kids around in the dark due to stranger paranoia and cold and rain, and so the kids who're considered big enough to be out by themselves trick and treat because it's what they see on imported US tv shows. Of course, in those shows everybody's in on it because it's a long established tradition, whereas here, it isn't. The adults aren't into it, most of the adults don't go out and buy the sweets or whatever. And the trick or treating kids just go and buy a cheap mask, there's no effort, and because they're older kids they're after money rather than sweets. As I've had to deal with the local trick or treaters, I've taken to getting fun-size chocolates in. So they're getting the thing they're meant to be getting, but not what they really want.

I paste a sign on our door saying, "Look up now and you'll see whose aiming at you." or "You have eggs, we have rifles"

You could post this sign, Cep...LOL Wow! I really had no idea...in our neighborhood there are lots of young kids...so it's a lot like the TV shows. Some neighbors even make a little "haunted house" for the kids to go through...There are also local pumpkin patches that have corn mazes, and hayrides for the kids. We went to do that 2 weeks ago. Can you tell me a little about the Guy Fawkes day? I've heard the name before, but don't know what it's all about...

Guy Fawkes was the most famous person in a group who wanted to blow up King James II (the 4th scottish King of England after King James I, Charles I and II) and the House of Lords with gunpowder. I can't remember exactly what happened but that's basically it. It does seem that from September, I can hear a lot of fireworks going off duing daytime as well as nighttime and most of these haven't anything to do with Guy Fawkes night on the 5th Novembe and kids did tend to buy fireworks and throw them around willy nilly and there was (probably stil is) few accidents or jokes as the kids would claim. There was a film out early this year called Vendetta, about a masked vigilante wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and going around killing the nasty right wing fascit government bad guys.

Originally posted by Cep I paste a sign on our door saying, "Look up now and you'll see whose aiming at you." or "You have eggs, we have rifles"

Of you could get an army of and throw them at trick and treaters and carol singers. If you watch the beginning of The Addams Family film, you will see them pouring boiling water of carol singers.

I think the early fireworks might actually be divhalli celebrations. Bonfire night or GuyFawkes is as Metaliant has just stated, a very strange celebration of the death of a traitor. Its celebrated a heck of a lot more then Halloween which a lot of people view as an American holiday more than an English one however even it has lost its appeal. I view the coming months as possibly many others do, as perhaps the worst time of the year in Britian. Yobbish louts demanding goods in exchange for the threat that they might not smash your front garden up, the same louts then throwing fireworks at each other and poor animals letting them off every sodding night running upto bonfire night and then the same louts thinking that carol singing is another excuse for trick or treating. Not forgetting the twats that drink and drive at this "merry" season and the ensueing capatilist crap of shoving every sodding Xmas sale down your throat to further cheapen what Xmas used to be about. Oh and lets not forget the dreaded "who will be number one at christmas"..... I say.....who gives a shit.

The kids all dress up for school over here, and most under 12 go around. When I was a kid the teens would sometimes egg a few windows or toilet-paper a car, but that was the worst of it. Don't even see that much anymore. For a few years the Humane Society (spca) would ask that you keep your black cats inside, and not adopt out any black animals, for the weeks leading up to it, for fear of them being used in Satanic (or other) rites, but that fear seems to have gone down. I rather like the holiday. It gets the kids and parents out and about, meeting the neighbours. I hate the idea of everyone locking the doors all the time so they can stay safe; safety comes from having lots of people outside and knowing your neighbours. Pumpkin patches and hayrides and hayrides. Yep. All the 5-year-old classes do that. Rocket brought home seeds we had to keep safe till spring. Eeeps, don't get me started about Christmas. All the ads for toys that you know (from having convinced your own parents to get the earlier version) will be played with for about two months. We encourage long lists, in the hopes that we'll like at least something on it. Worth the effort, though, to see their faces on the morning.

Originally posted by Cep I think the early fireworks might actually be divhalli celebrations. Bonfire night or GuyFawkes is as Metaliant has just stated, a very strange celebration of the death of a traitor. Its celebrated a heck of a lot more then Halloween which a lot of people view as an American holiday more than an English one however even it has lost its appeal. I view the coming months as possibly many others do, as perhaps the worst time of the year in Britian. Yobbish louts demanding goods in exchange for the threat that they might not smash your front garden up, the same louts then throwing fireworks at each other and poor animals letting them off every sodding night running upto bonfire night and then the same louts thinking that carol singing is another excuse for trick or treating. Not forgetting the twats that drink and drive at this "merry" season and the ensueing capatilist crap of shoving every sodding Xmas sale down your throat to further cheapen what Xmas used to be about. Oh and lets not forget the dreaded "who will be number one at christmas"..... I say.....who gives a shit.

Yep, that's sums up what's so wrong with the British Isles between September til January. My stores has now put up all the Xmas shite which I hate putting out especially all the stuff that you can't find on the seasonal area because notbody has put on LIS (labels which show the bar code numbers and prices of the stock), so nobody can find anything. As for the No 1 at Xmas, I don't listen to the radio hardly at all now because of the shitty music that's on. Mind you, Cep, you should work in a shop like mine, where you can hear all the usual Xmas songs for about 8 or 10 hours. I feel like committing sucide when that happens every damm year.

Originally posted by CricketBeautiful All the ads for toys that you know (from having convinced your own parents to get the earlier version) will be played with for about two months.

Hehe thats nothing, our shops start putting out their Xmas wares at the very end of summer, bang on August the first.

I happen to LOVE Christmas...and all of the cheesy Christmas carols...but August is waaaayyy to early for me to get into it...usually, after Halloween, I'm ready to get into it, though..."Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells.."

I'll have to agree with Cep and them on this one Springie, I'm not much into Christmas anymore either. The stores kinda kill the mood too early.

I used to like Christmas as a kid but now as a grown kid......I mean man, then with all the shops and all the cacky TV shows and films now, it kinds of kill the mood. Same thing with halloween. I watched ITVs GMTV (Good Morning TV) and there was a report that one of it's reporters and cameraman was attacked by some teenage yobs. This has made me a bit nervous as I will be working to 9 pm and will have to come home, hopefully not through a bunch of yobbish kids. And if anybody sings Jingle Bells one more time, I will throw pumpkin custard pies at them.

Originally posted by Cep

Originally posted by CricketBeautiful All the ads for toys that you know (from having convinced your own parents to get the earlier version) will be played with for about two months.

Hehe thats nothing, our shops start putting out their Xmas wares at the very end of summer, bang on August the first.

We haven't. Our Xmas stuff cvame out this October. Though for once, we didn't run out of fans this summer.