[Countess No]

(I knew the title would draw you in! )

5. Creative costumes turned into *****-o-Ween.
No kids wear homemade Halloween costumes anymore, which pulls a huge chunk of enterprising spirit out of the holiday -- but even worse, the store-bought costume industry is turning tykes into Vegas strip-club performers. Now adults are following suit, using Halloween to bust out of boring attire one day each year (those fishnets aren't going to wear themselves). Showing off your jingle-doobers is perfectly fine if you are of legal age and you don't mix slutty and Disney-kid-stuff in any way. But can we all agree that so long as poor Olaf the talking snowman from Frozen is a sexy costume, then Halloween has taken a turn for the worse?

The blatantly over-sexualized children's costumes coupled with the child pedo (strike) themed adult costumes are rotten to the core.

4. Halloween lost the tricky part.

Relevant Halloween traditions went toilet-flushy-bye sometime after I reached the socially legal trick-or-treating age. It used to be fun as hell to turn your garage into a makeshift haunted house for the neighbor kids and send dad out in coveralls with a fake chainsaw to hide in the shrubs and scare the 'nads off all the shameless candy beggars. Today all the carousing has gone away for fear of litigation, loss of rental deposits and possibly just laziness. It's less effort to download Halloween apps on to the kiddies' iPhones than to teach them how to plant fake insects or bob for apples -- and this makes Halloween so boring it might as well be Tuesday night at Applebee's.
Still, it's possible to can commit a few pranks on Halloween night without serious injury or property damage. Do a polite ring-and-run, give out cans of potted meat instead of candy, maybe even toilet paper your own house and blame someone else for it.

3. Where have all the homemade treats gone?

It's really too bad you aren't allowed to give out homemade treats on Halloween; every year, you have to wrestle with whether to save cash by giving out cheap candy or be the cool house with the fun-size Butterfingers. Fresh-baked cookies, rice Krispies treats and popcorn balls would be a welcome change and a genuine money-saver -- if you don't subscribe to the theory that ****nuckles out there are determined to bake razor blades into brownies.
Face facts, though: No Halloween pervert is going to attack kids' innocence these days, because public schools already killed it.

2. Trick-or-treating isn't even fun anymore.

People are so paranoid these days that old-fashioned, door-to-door trick-or-treating has been effectively replaced by zoo-boo, mall-walking and the bane of the Halloween holiday: trunk-or-treating. Instead of enjoyable neighborhood candy-soliciting, the kiddos can go to a parking lot to collect a few handfuls of raisin boxes, toothbrushes and gluten-free caramels from car trunks and then stick around for four more hours while trying to get their gossipy, pumpkin spice latte-fueled parents' attention. Staking out rich people's houses, predicting candy offerings by lawn-care techniques and practicing social skills by actually talking to people you don't already know are some of the things that made Halloween great.
Trunk-or-treat sounds more like a threat than a good time, and substituting this for the traditional dress-rehearsal-for-life, outside trick-or-treating sadly reinforces the community-killing theory that kids aren't safe leaving their porches.

1. Santa Claus killed the Great Pumpkin.

The biggest reason why Halloween sucks now is because Christmas has become the only holiday that matters. Every year Christmas music, decorations and aggressive marketing campaigns come on earlier, and Halloween keeps getting pushed out to make room. Pretty soon stores will just start selling light-up Santa lawn figures holding pumpkins to save time, and poor Thanksgiving will officially be renamed "Black Friday Eve with Chance of Turkey Supper."
Halloween traditions are fun, and it's sad that a night of costumes, bad Thriller dancing, free candy, watching The Nightmare Before Christmas and accidentally stepping on little plastic spider rings is being bled dry by Santa. Soon the scariest thing about Halloween will be the old-timey ghost stories of what it was like to celebrate it back in the day, when the Great Pumpkin landed on October 31.

http://blogs.westword.com/showandtell/2014/10/five_reasons_why_halloween_sucks_now.php?page=2


I stumbled upon this article and feel like many of the author's points are valid.

I know our Walmart had the indoor garden center fully stocked with halloween items 2013. This year halloween was delegated 3-4 aisles and really had lame items. Target had a so-so showing. It seems from the threads I have read that many people are not into the halloween spirit and deciding to take a breather this year.

The trick part of this article really struck me as truth. Nobody can play harmless, fun, and innocent tricks on people anymore. You might as well walk into a police station and confess before the trick even begins. Also, get that lawyer on speed dial.

Also- the homemade treat point just had me. I love candy apples, popcorn balls, cupcakes with festive frosting, but no parent in their right mind would allow their kid to eat a complete stranger's food. Even of they were good people with wholesome treats, what if they gave your kid food poisoning, or had a kitchen that would make Gordon Ramsay scream?

So what is up?

 

[Madame Leota]

Sorry - not gonna jump on this bandwagon. Yes, Halloween has changed from what we remember as children, but every generation says that about the memories they cherish from childhood. Truth is, not one of these points stated is anything new. Christmas has always been bigger and more popular, homemade treats have been frowned upon since the 70's and people have looked for a "safe alternative" to trick or treat since that time as well. And speaking of tricks, the custom of trick or treating was implemented to buy off pranksters in the first place.
So, even if customs evolve and change over the decades, Halloween is and will always be the best season of the year!

 

[PMTT]

I agree!! I made a similar facebook rant the other day. I'm a modest person, I don't want to show the world everything God gave me in the name of Halloween! I've also told the kids that next year, everyone is getting home made costumes, so they better start thinking about it way before 2 weeks prior to Halloween or they are going to end up with nothing!

 

[Countess No]

I agree!! I made a similar facebook rant the other day. I'm a modest person, I don't want to show the world everything God gave me in the name of Halloween! I've also told the kids that next year, everyone is getting home made costumes, so they better start thinking about it way before 2 weeks prior to Halloween or they are going to end up with nothing!

Making our own costumes was a huge highlight of the halloweens of my childhood. I do remember the square boxes of costumes at Kmart, and how much I longed for them. I thought they were the best costumes ever and would spend forever in the store looking at them. But we always had to make our costumes, and looking back at them, realize they were the best costumes ever.

I posted this article to pick the brains of my fellow halloween lovers, not to state or prove any of the authors points were true. The author's points are his opinion.

All opinions and comments are welcome!

 

[Countess No]

Sorry - not gonna jump on this bandwagon. Yes, Halloween has changed from what we remember as children, but every generation says that about the memories they cherish from childhood. Truth is, not one of these points stated is anything new. Christmas has always been bigger and more popular, homemade treats have been frowned upon since the 70's and people have looked for a "safe alternative" to trick or treat since that time as well. And speaking of tricks, the custom of trick or treating was implemented to buy off pranksters in the first place.
So, even if customs evolve and change over the decades, Halloween is and will always be the best season of the year!

It will always be the best season!

 

[dbruner]

The ways that Halloween has changed don't make it worse, its just an evolution. The only thing I don't like about all of the additional trick or treating opportunities kids have today is that I didn't have them when I was a kid, they can score some serious candy if their parents take them to several events!

 

[Bruzilla]

I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, and making your own costumes was not an expression of imagination or creativity... it was an expression of my mom and dad didn't have the money to waste on a costume. For us it was a highlight short of just Christmas to get that magical box that not only transformed you for Halloween but for weeks after - depending on how diligent you were in keeping your costume from falling apart and how good mom was with needle and thread. Kids today can make amazing costumes with all the variety of accessories and props sold, but back then the accessories were a sword with a red stone at the end of the handguard and red plastic pitchforks on a black plastic stick.

As for the lowering amount of Halloween goods we see for sale, we have no one but ourselves to blame for that. Stores carry what sells, and sells at a specific price point. They can't afford to stock up shelves with stuff that's going to sit there for two months and then suddenly disappear on Nov 1st when everyone shows up for the clearance sale and the store takes a loss. Christmas stuff is far more profitable because people will buy that before the holiday, not after, and pay full price rather than 50%. You want more and better Halloween stuff? Get your behind out there and start buying it before Nov 1st!

As for homemade treats, they always ended up in the trash at our house... especially those horrid popcorn balls. And who wants to eat chocolate chip cookies after they've been crushed, battered, and beaten for two hours in a pillow case that's been swung, dropped, stepped on, and fallen on? The folks at Nestles never added metal reinforcement ingredients to the Toll House recipe, so they tend to turn to a cookie-like dust on Halloween.

As for being fun, I noticed something with my kids that I think might be a growing trend. When I was growing up, parents didn't hand out money to their kids the way they do nowadays. Most of our parents were raised during or just after the depression and/or WWII, and they were used to doing without, so Halloween was a BIG DEAL for us because there was no other time of the year that we would be sitting on a stash of really good stuff. We would make that stash last until Thanksgiving and wheel and deal trades like we were on Wall Street. Nowadays kids usually get candy and goodies whenever they want, so the idea of spending hours going house to house to get candy isn't really worth the effort. I think that's why the work many of us on this forum do is so important to keeping the holiday relevant. I'm seeing more kids coming to our house for the entertainment value and the candy is really secondary.

 

[RCIAG]

Not to defend "sexy" everything, because I hate that crap too, those site that sell those "sexy" costumes are adult oriented site in general. Yes you can get the "sexy firefighter" at Spirit & anywhere else, the ones that make the news like the one pictured above is a lingerie/adult site. It's what they do all year. They sell lingerie, shoes, clothing & it's all sexy stuff & they do have plus sized stuff too. The models in the pics for the plus sized stuff are plus sized too which is a nice change because a lot of plus sized sites don't bother with that.

They get the publicity because their stuff is supposed to be over the top sexy, it's what they do & what they're known for. It's sorta like complaining about Victoria's Secret selling sexy bras & panties. Every year this is how they get publicity, they put out whatever is hot at the moment in a sexy version. Yandy is the company & if you wanna find something sexy they're the place. If that's your thing, great, but I gotta agree that I don't wanna see a sexy tween costume.

The internet has sorta ruined stores on Halloween too. Why drive 30 mins. outta my way to check out a store for something they most likely won't even have anymore when I can click on Amazon & have it in a day or 2 with free shipping?

As much as I hate to see Christmas in September in any place that's not a craft store, that's just the way things are now. And if you see something for Christmas that you like now & don't get it now, come Dec. 1 it will be gone so this whole early Christmas thing sorta feeds itself in a horrible way.

 

[budeena]

Halloween is for me. If there is only one ToT, it will be worth it.
Someone just posted recently the one homemade costume where it looks like a monster has them from behind. It was awesome and I am sure there will be plenty of them next year.
Halloween lets me be the selfish, self-centered a**hole I was born to be. I get to make things that will scare the crap out of people, people think I am the weirdest human on the planet and the bug spray guy gets creeped out when he comes out to spray the house four times a year and there are skeletons in the pond, skeletons with weeds growing through their chest cavity, skeletal parts hanging like a butcher shop. My car has a Mr. Thrifty dressed in a child's pajama with feet seat belted in the backseat. At one time I had six of the cosmetology heads rolling around in my trunk. The box-boy at the grocery store got a good scare.
YES! Halloween is just for me.

 

[amylw1]

theres a fine line between sexy and slutty and it depends on how the outfit is carried in my opinion. yes some people do where outfits from the 18+ shops that should only be bedroom attire but thats their choice. a few years ago (b4 monster 3 appeared and i had a good figure) i had a long blue dress that had x meshing inbetween bust the main bust area was material and from under bust to belly was open "slit", there was a split up 1 leg and i wore it to the local community centre party (mainly for kids) with few spiders and a witch hat with blue hair and so many people asked where i got it from as it was unusual and pretty instead of the normal black.

i was brought up that you only go trick or treating at houses that have pumpkins/halloween decs and not to every door. you wait a few seconds and if they dont answer you leave. this is also how i've brought my kids up but sadly they have to have an adult with them as times have changed and its not safe for them to go out on own like me and my mates used to.

 

[Countess No]

Does anybody (old people like me) remember these? Halloween costume patterns that mom would sew for an awesome costume? My mom sewed many of my costumes from patterns such as these.

 

[Countess No]

Not to defend "sexy" everything, because I hate that crap too, those site that sell those "sexy" costumes are adult oriented site in general. Yes you can get the "sexy firefighter" at Spirit & anywhere else, the ones that make the news like the one pictured above is a lingerie/adult site. It's what they do all year. They sell lingerie, shoes, clothing & it's all sexy stuff & they do have plus sized stuff too. The models in the pics for the plus sized stuff are plus sized too which is a nice change because a lot of plus sized sites don't bother with that.

They get the publicity because their stuff is supposed to be over the top sexy, it's what they do & what they're known for. It's sorta like complaining about Victoria's Secret selling sexy bras & panties. Every year this is how they get publicity, they put out whatever is hot at the moment in a sexy version. Yandy is the company & if you wanna find something sexy they're the place. If that's your thing, great, but I gotta agree that I don't wanna see a sexy tween costume.

The internet has sorta ruined stores on Halloween too. Why drive 30 mins. outta my way to check out a store for something they most likely won't even have anymore when I can click on Amazon & have it in a day or 2 with free shipping?

As much as I hate to see Christmas in September in any place that's not a craft store, that's just the way things are now. And if you see something for Christmas that you like now & don't get it now, come Dec. 1 it will be gone so this whole early Christmas thing sorta feeds itself in a horrible way.

That is an excellent point! I get most of my items online. The internet has had a huge effect on the way we celebrate halloween!

 

[Countess No]

I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, and making your own costumes was not an expression of imagination or creativity... it was an expression of my mom and dad didn't have the money to waste on a costume. For us it was a highlight short of just Christmas to get that magical box that not only transformed you for Halloween but for weeks after - depending on how diligent you were in keeping your costume from falling apart and how good mom was with needle and thread. Kids today can make amazing costumes with all the variety of accessories and props sold, but back then the accessories were a sword with a red stone at the end of the handguard and red plastic pitchforks on a black plastic stick.

As for the lowering amount of Halloween goods we see for sale, we have no one but ourselves to blame for that. Stores carry what sells, and sells at a specific price point. They can't afford to stock up shelves with stuff that's going to sit there for two months and then suddenly disappear on Nov 1st when everyone shows up for the clearance sale and the store takes a loss. Christmas stuff is far more profitable because people will buy that before the holiday, not after, and pay full price rather than 50%. You want more and better Halloween stuff? Get your behind out there and start buying it before Nov 1st!

As for homemade treats, they always ended up in the trash at our house... especially those horrid popcorn balls. And who wants to eat chocolate chip cookies after they've been crushed, battered, and beaten for two hours in a pillow case that's been swung, dropped, stepped on, and fallen on? The folks at Nestles never added metal reinforcement ingredients to the Toll House recipe, so they tend to turn to a cookie-like dust on Halloween.

As for being fun, I noticed something with my kids that I think might be a growing trend. When I was growing up, parents didn't hand out money to their kids the way they do nowadays. Most of our parents were raised during or just after the depression and/or WWII, and they were used to doing without, so Halloween was a BIG DEAL for us because there was no other time of the year that we would be sitting on a stash of really good stuff. We would make that stash last until Thanksgiving and wheel and deal trades like we were on Wall Street. Nowadays kids usually get candy and goodies whenever they want, so the idea of spending hours going house to house to get candy isn't really worth the effort. I think that's why the work many of us on this forum do is so important to keeping the holiday relevant. I'm seeing more kids coming to our house for the entertainment value and the candy is really secondary.

Another great point! I grew up in the 60s/70s, and candy and cookies and soda and treats were not an everyday affair in our home. When a holiday came, it was like heaven because we were allowed to eat our fill of Christmas cookie, halloween candy, etc. And you are totally correct! Many kids can have a soda or a treat everyday. It isn't the olden days of the candy haul from halloween that was jealously guarded and traded and counted.

 

[the dogman]

If you're going to complain about sexy costumes being sold by a lingerie website, you might as well complain that Victoria Secret sells sexy panties while you're at it. Leg Avenue and Yandy are primarily lingerie stores, of course they sell sexy costumes. Yandy sells only in adult sizes and and Leg Avenue's Junior costumes aren't like their adult counterparts. If you're trying to avoid sexy costumes, common sense would be not to buy from a lingerie store.
So far, the 'sexualized' kid's costumes have had poor names but cover just as much as a regular school uniform. Maybe I'm behind the times and above the knee skirts are just too sexy for anyone anymore. 'Skin tight' costumes have simply been costumes that fit properly instead of being a baggy, over-sized sack. My favorite has been the outrage at the 'high heeled' boots, that only have a one inch heel and do not come with any costume because none of the costumes cited came with shoes.

I've seen a lot of cherry picked arguments crying 'only this is available' when it's not and a 5 minute browse through the catalog shows that it's not. Spirit has three or four different options for Adult Disney Princess costumes, ranging from a full skirt, proper character costume, to a naughty costume for going to the Adults Only party. Complaints about nurse costumes, ignoring that there' are nurse scrubs and doctor's scrubs available [as well as a few zombie nurses]. Witch costumes are too revealing when you ignore the undead Salem witches, the theatrical Wicked Witches and well, half the witch options. Want an angel that isn't naughty? Spirit has three, iirc, a few more for the Devils.

My point is, some people need to take the outrage blinders off and actually look at the available costumes.

Trunk or Treat, Zoo-Boo, Mall runs? A pretty good idea if you live someplace where there are no sidewalks in the neighborhood [like a subdivision], where there are numerous derelict houses and dangerous neighborhoods, or someplace rural where all the houses are all spread out. Holding a trick or treat party someplace where the kids are all in one area and many parents are around, with party games and decorations to keep everyone entertained isn't a bad idea. If the weather is bad, an indoor candy run is much more comfortable. It's different, but different doesn't mean it's ruining everything.

Halloween sucks when you feel a need to be outraged at every little thing, to the point of being selectively blind to everything that disproves your personal offense.

 

[ichasiris]

I was a 90s kid, and while we still bought costumes, we usually added to them with our own spin or blood or whatever to make it better.

As far as sexy costumes, I don't have a problem with them. I think just as long as people are getting in the spirit in their own way, I say all the power to them. Besides, I used to work in a costume shop and while I wore our fabulous authentic Broadway costumes most days, I also enjoyed putting on a cute skimpy version of some costumes from time to time. I'm in my 20s, I have the body for it, and I had recently gotten into the gym and taking care of myself and was proud of the way I was looking.

I say anything and everything Halloween is fine by me. Like I tell everyone, I love ALL denominations of Halloween, be it scary, horror, sexy, cute, weird, funny, cheesy, corny, vintage, anything with a hint of Halloween makes me smile.

By the way, sexy costumes have actually been around a lot longer than we care to admit

My version

 

[Countess No]

If you're going to complain about sexy costumes being sold by a lingerie website, you might as well complain that Victoria Secret sells sexy panties while you're at it. Leg Avenue and Yandy are primarily lingerie stores, of course they sell sexy costumes. Yandy sells only in adult sizes and and Leg Avenue's Junior costumes aren't like their adult counterparts. If you're trying to avoid sexy costumes, common sense would be not to buy from a lingerie store.
So far, the 'sexualized' kid's costumes have had poor names but cover just as much as a regular school uniform. Maybe I'm behind the times and above the knee skirts are just too sexy for anyone anymore. 'Skin tight' costumes have simply been costumes that fit properly instead of being a baggy, over-sized sack. My favorite has been the outrage at the 'high heeled' boots, that only have a one inch heel and do not come with any costume because none of the costumes cited came with shoes.

I've seen a lot of cherry picked arguments crying 'only this is available' when it's not and a 5 minute browse through the catalog shows that it's not. Spirit has three or four different options for Adult Disney Princess costumes, ranging from a full skirt, proper character costume, to a naughty costume for going to the Adults Only party. Complaints about nurse costumes, ignoring that there' are nurse scrubs and doctor's scrubs available [as well as a few zombie nurses]. Witch costumes are too revealing when you ignore the undead Salem witches, the theatrical Wicked Witches and well, half the witch options. Want an angel that isn't naughty? Spirit has three, iirc, a few more for the Devils.

My point is, some people need to take the outrage blinders off and actually look at the available costumes.

Trunk or Treat, Zoo-Boo, Mall runs? A pretty good idea if you live someplace where there are no sidewalks in the neighborhood [like a subdivision], where there are numerous derelict houses and dangerous neighborhoods, or someplace rural where all the houses are all spread out. Holding a trick or treat party someplace where the kids are all in one area and many parents are around, with party games and decorations to keep everyone entertained isn't a bad idea. If the weather is bad, an indoor candy run is much more comfortable. It's different, but different doesn't mean it's ruining everything.

Halloween sucks when you feel a need to be outraged at every little thing, to the point of being selectively blind to everything that disproves your personal offense.

I agree with your point about the trunk or treats being a good option if people live in bad neighborhood, rural area, etc. Events held at schools and churches are fun and in no way ruin halloween, just keep the fun going.

I am not outraged or offended at anything, just trying to have a little discussion. I love to discuss halloween, and find that this forum is the best place for it.

Not many people in my day to day interactions want to discuss halloween in depth. People here seem to like to discuss it 24-7-365.

Different opinions and views are expected, and not disliked by me at all. I have to admit my parents took us to so many events when we were kids that halloween seemed to last a week, instead of a day.

We have 4 kids we halloween to the hilt. Their schools have gone the harvest route, and homemade treats are forbidden. As a matter of fact, candy is forbidden on halloween at our youngest's school. Too many parents are worried about obesity. More parents have objected to halloween on the basis of candy and sweets than on religious or lifestyle objections, and the compromise was a harvest festival with fruit, popcorn, and juice. No candy, no cookies, no cupcakes, on cakewalk, etc.

Total, total bummer.

 

[Countess No]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4rUiV_Hh74

Girls's Costume Warehouse

NSFW and has the f word many times! Do not watch if cursing offends you! So hilarious!

 

[xxScorpion64xx]

Halloween and sucks don't belong in the same sentence right now or ever....

 

[Countess No]

Halloween and sucks don't belong in the same sentence right now or ever....

What if a windstorm smashes your haunt, and then a torrential downpour finishes it off?

 

[Countess No]

I was a 90s kid, and while we still bought costumes, we usually added to them with our own spin or blood or whatever to make it better.

As far as sexy costumes, I don't have a problem with them. I think just as long as people are getting in the spirit in their own way, I say all the power to them. Besides, I used to work in a costume shop and while I wore our fabulous authentic Broadway costumes most days, I also enjoyed putting on a cute skimpy version of some costumes from time to time. I'm in my 20s, I have the body for it, and I had recently gotten into the gym and taking care of myself and was proud of the way I was looking.

I say anything and everything Halloween is fine by me. Like I tell everyone, I love ALL denominations of Halloween, be it scary, horror, sexy, cute, weird, funny, cheesy, corny, vintage, anything with a hint of Halloween makes me smile.

By the way, sexy costumes have actually been around a lot longer than we care to admit

View attachment 226543

My version

View attachment 226546

Lynda Carter- what an icon! Your costume looks great.