Thread: Random observation on 2009.

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Expansion of the haunt into part of our rear gardens really paid off, despite much extra work and expense.

Producing a flyer for the haunt and posting it in local shops, particularly the ones near schools really worked too, with around double the number of TOT's from last year (nearly 200 this year) and the vast majority in costume...Even the adults.
Costume of choice for boys of all ages seemed to be Vampires, Witches for girls and Ladies.

Having a "stooge" in amongst a group of TOT's to get grabbed and dragged off by the scareactors increases the screams by a factor of 10 and TOTpanicreflex by an equal amount

Comments like "Man...I took the Kids to Alton Towers last weekend, and I tell you what, this is way bloody scarier!" make you want to break character, reach out and hug someone.

Halloween is getting BIGGER in the UK!!! and it's official...
Officially released figures confirm a twentyfold increase in retail sales over the past 10 years, with figures looking to top £2 million this year, up 15% on last year despite the recession.
(I think I spent most of that....)

Originally Posted by Baron Samedi

Halloween is getting BIGGER in the UK!!! and it's official...
Officially released figures confirm a twentyfold increase in retail sales over the past 10 years, with figures looking to top £2 million this year, up 15% on last year despite the recession.
(I think I spent most of that....)

That is good to hear..
A friend and I were just discussing this.. He is a Manxman and his sister now lives in Bath. His Mom and Sis both said that American Halloween really made an appearance this year. Sounds like Fancy dress parties are giving way to full fledged Halloween madness.

As for here, I spent this year hosting a costume contest in Las Vegas. The main thing I noticed rings true to what has been said in this thread, homemade costumes are way up.. however only with the guys.. Girls were 95% store bought "naughty" something or other. I was sooo tired of seeing naughty Alice, Nurse, Snow White, Police Officer, *insert any female icon here*

Don't get me wrong, as a guy I enjoyed it.. but as a Halloween enthusiast I was really disappointed.. Fine line I guess

This is a great thread....so positive

- I had more people in costume this year as well....mostly homemade, and VERY creative.
- I not only received thank you notes on my doorstep, but also thank-you gifts???
- Halloween props in the stores were WAY down this year, but thankfully I had lots from previous years, so, well, yeah....I saved some money this year Hopefully there will be more new things to choose from next year

My wife and I did "trunk or treat" at my church this year,....The Lord blessed me with a wife that loves Halloween as much as I do.....we saw lots of great costumes come through and the good thing about "trunk or treat" is we always have lots of tot'ers. Our theme this year was Creature of Frankenstein and the bride of....since we just got married a month ago. We gave out those choc eyeballs and gummy body parts. We were a hit in the parking lot. lots of homemade costumes ......the best was a family as the food groups made of cardboard, the Dad was a steak, Mom was milk and the kids were fruits lol that was funny!!

Seemed to be alot of store bought zombies this year and batman.(all 6 yrs and under)
Thankfully we only saw maybe 3 scream masks....quite a few pirates and lots of transformers... mostly bumble bee one yoda but lots of clone troopers and Vaders. lots of vampires as well. It was a great Halloween and hate to see it go but we're getting ready for the next one.......as we are expecting our first baby, we may be Popeye and Oliveoil and the baby...wait for it............wait for it.......yes you guessed it Sweet pea.

Originally Posted by Aether

That is good to hear..
A friend and I were just discussing this.. He is a Manxman and his sister now lives in Bath. His Mom and Sis both said that American Halloween really made an appearance this year. Sounds like Fancy dress parties are giving way to full fledged Halloween madness. ....

I'm not too far away from Bath, myself...

Being a Saturday this year, a lot of the pubs had fancy dress parties which would probably account for a fair percentage of the increased sales in costuming.

It would still be nice to see more houses decorating, though, rather than just the odd pumpkin or two in the window.

Way more TOTers this year

During Halloween night when I'm beat and thinking I might skip next year. Comments like "This is great, thanks for your hard work" from the parents renews my passion for next year.

Laser vortex is the best cheap prop I've ever made. Everyone liked it.

...was raking leaves yesterday...we found a pair of black tights in the front yard???

Size 7-8, they certainly don't belong to any of our kids. My only conclusion is Kyle scared someone out of their pants...

I live about 20 min outside of Philadelphia in New Jersey and really think that the world series had a lot to do with out lack of ToT'ers past 7pm, after which we had about 2, of course right before then we had a big group prompting me to open up that last bag of candy oh well my co-workers enjoyed the leftovers. We usually have a big party every year but I had a wedding to go to in Florida so we forewent the party and did more in the front yard since we were flying in on Halloween and didn't want to pass up handing out to the ToTs. We had lots of people driving by to see the house and all of my ToT'ers thanked us for candy and commented on how cool our house was! We are definetly gonna do more outside next year! Funniest moment of the night was a boy about 12 or so his comment had nothing to do with the stuff on the lawn he was with a big group of kids and kinda kept hanging even after i handed him his candy he finally looked up and said Wow your house smells really good, like cookies or somethin, lol! Kitchen spice candles my favorite! So ok Phillies, sorry but I'm puttin a hex on you for next year! Two years in a row is enough, I'm havin my party next year so no world series ok since Philadelphia fans could care less about any other teams everyone will come if they aren't in it!