Thread: Halloween Around your Area..

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Folks I have been driving around (work, to get more props, to pick up friends etc) and have noticed my city has really picked it up this year..I can remember as a kid people would rent out vacant strip mall stores and set up haunts (I would remember my brothers and I going out with my parents to get something to eat and see the awesome strobe lights and occasional people dressed up hanging around outside), so many homes decorating like crazy however it seems the last 9 years or so that hasn' really been the case..in other words nobody rents out space and charges a price to spook people and people just don't do up their homes with Halloween decor..

I was wondering how are things there in the US, and other parts of the world? Is is as bad as it has been here in Canada? I am happy that folks are putting stuff out I remember from my chilld hood; like FAKE BODIES put onto chairs (stuffed clothing with either pumpkins for the face or skelaton heads etc), hanging decorations from trees (I just put up two today, more to come and will have pictures), carved pumpkins and many not just one..these are the sights we Halloween lovers like to see..

Not many people in my area have done much, however it is nice to see as I drive around the city is engaging in the Halloween spirit..afterall Halloween is unique and nobody should pass it up..

There are TONS of professional haunted houses by me, must be 20 within an hour's drive. It's great, but not many people in my neighborhood decorate at all, with only a few actually going all out like i do. There are lots of halloween stores, which are always packed when i go into them, but i just don't see a ton of decorating. In our city they moved TOT to 5-7pm on the saturday BEFORE halloween. That coupled with them moving daylight savings time to Nov 1st means it's light out for the entire TOT. As you might expect, we went from an average of 300 TOTers to around 100. Sucks. Oh well.

Cities and townships can declare trick-or-treat times all they want. They don't decide when Halloween is.

Their proclamations don't matter. On Halloween Night, my bells rings and I give candy.

As for my community, about one out every five houses in the suburban areas has something, be it orange lights, a pumpkin or two, skeletons on the door or hanging ghosts.
Halloween is as popular as ever, and the generation coming up has even more affection for it than the one before.
I think slowly but surely, Halloween will continue to grow and settle into the mainstream calendar, as much as Christmas or Thanksgiving - and I mean among normal, everyday folks, not the gibbering ghouls that hang out in this forum.

It's still a bit of an uphill struggle here in the UK.
I've had a couple of Pumpkin lights in the front windows for a week or so, and I'm often being asked "Oh...When's Halloween then"??

I'm looked on as rather eccentric (and possibly a little crazy) for what I do at Halloween..
It's seen as somewhat "OTT" and to a large extent it's seen as an "American thing" ....In the past I've even been asked if I've lived in the States.

But still, on the 31st the TOT's will come...As they do every year.

Stuff is starting to pick up around here .. I would say 1 in every 3 or 4 houses is decorated. Christmas is still bigger though, its pretty much ever Christian House (there is a large Jewish and Muslim population here, but even some of them still do Santas and non-religious decorations)

I was told by a Irishman I met one time that in the UK and Ireland Halloween isn't as big. The Irish are starting to celebrate it more but a lot of English don't to it because its too "American" .. I guess the stiff-upper-lip and all that.

Last year there were a few houses done in my neighborhood, none to the extreme that I go to. This year there isn't much more outside the other houses other than a pumpkin or two.

Originally Posted by HDawesome

I was told by a Irishman I met one time that in the UK and Ireland Halloween isn't as big. The Irish are starting to celebrate it more but a lot of English don't to it because its too "American" .. I guess the stiff-upper-lip and all that.

To be fair, it's not a stiff-upper-lip thing, more of a cultural normalcy thing. Guy Fawkes Day (Bonfire Night) has been a generally more popular holiday in England for quite awhile. It was something everyone could get in on - kids collected goodies for 'the Guy', people built effigies of Fawkes, bonfires were built, the community rolled out the punch and cider, and when the image of Guy Fawkes was burned, fireworks would shoot from the blaze.
Good fun, and a healthy reminder of the religious turmoil of the past.

And don't be fooled - The British know what Halloween is. They watched "Ghost Watch" on the BBC years ago live, they still have 'fancy dress' parties on Oct. 31 and they still like a good horror film for the season.

It's pumpkins and trick and treat that are slower to revive in England. Kids this time of the year say "Penny for the Guy" in some parts of England more than "Trick or treat", (and some simply yell "Halloween!" at the door, not "trick or treat").
Halloween is there, it's just not as big of an event, though it seems to be getting healthier.

I'll say this much. The years I lived in Suffolk, I met a lot of fans of "The Nightmare Before Christmas". That movie had an immense fanbase in England.

I'm glad that you posted this thread. I thought it was me at first but I have noticed that it appears that less people are decorating than last year.I have about a twenty five minute drive to both of my jobs and I remember who had what out last year. They don't have anything out this year. It's really pretty sad when you can't at least put out a jack-o-lantern.

Surprisingly reserved where I live.. I have not seen much of anything.

Our biggest hit is that a major player in the haunt industry out here (Bob Koritzke) passed away suddenly last July, leaving 5 very large commercial haunts empty and hundreds of staff, actors and support people completely out of the spirit.

I am still holding out that people were just waiting until this weekend.

Originally Posted by Spats

To be fair, it's not a stiff-upper-lip thing, more of a cultural normalcy thing. Guy Fawkes Day (Bonfire Night) has been a generally more popular holiday in England for quite awhile. It was something everyone could get in on - kids collected goodies for 'the Guy', people built effigies of Fawkes, bonfires were built, the community rolled out the punch and cider, and when the image of Guy Fawkes was burned, fireworks would shoot from the blaze.
Good fun, and a healthy reminder of the religious turmoil of the past.

And don't be fooled - The British know what Halloween is. They watched "Ghost Watch" on the BBC years ago live, they still have 'fancy dress' parties on Oct. 31 and they still like a good horror film for the season.

It's pumpkins and trick and treat that are slower to revive in England. Kids this time of the year say "Penny for the Guy" in some parts of England more than "Trick or treat", (and some simply yell "Halloween!" at the door, not "trick or treat").
Halloween is there, it's just not as big of an event, though it seems to be getting healthier.

I'll say this much. The years I lived in Suffolk, I met a lot of fans of "The Nightmare Before Christmas". That movie had an immense fanbase in England.

Yeah..the Halloween spirit is still here...just not to the same level as in the US. It is getting bigger, but we still have a way to go.
A lot of pubs and clubs have Halloween themed parties, but private Halloween parties and TOT'ing are, by and large, a comparative rarity. Home Haunts are virtually unheard of.
Personally, I don't think it's a case of stiff upper lips. The holiday is just perceived differently. In some areas it is discouraged (not banned), not for any religious or moral reasons, but because it is seen by the local authorities as a potential catalyst for anti-social behaviour.

When somebody presumes to tell me that my version of Halloween is "Too American", I simply remind them that most of their Christmas traditions had their origins in Germany...And that the Turkey that graces their Christmas dinner table is a native American bird...No native Turkeys here in the UK. The traditional English Christmas bird was a Goose.

Bonfire night or Guy Fawkes night is changing too..
Very few children ask for "A penny for the Guy" nowadays...It's discouraged as street begging or intimidating behaviour...Demanding money from passers by.
The days of large community bonfires in towns and villages, such as Spats describes have largely gone due to local council health and safety regulation..
There was even a move to ban the sale of fireworks altogether a few years ago, as it was claimed that the flashes and bangs were causing distress to immigrants and asylum seekers who had come here from war torn countries.

Times change, peoples attitudes and ideas change, and many traditions change along with them. Some may say for the better. Others may not agree.

Ten or fifteen years ago, it was unusual to see a house with outside lights and decorations at Christmas time. Nowadays it's a very common sight.
To many, it's welcomed as adding a touch of cheer to the dreary winter nights.
To others it's seen as "over the top, tacky, cr*p"..

Seems you can't please everybody all the time.