The Halloween fans on the Dope got themselves a whole darn forum, so I’m officially claiming one small thread for those who don’t savor the haunted hullabaloo of October 31. I can’t be the only one, right? ::crickets::
I don’t begrudge the Halloween lovers their fun, but it’s not for me.
Even as a young child I hated Halloween. I was very shy, and even the promise of mass quantities of candy wasn’t much of a draw for having to sing songs and tell jokes to total strangers. Besides that, I always got stuck going trick-or-treating with my cousins, who liked to steal my (usually one) joke and leave me standing there like, :eek:
It didn’t help that I was terrified of my own shadow AND the youngest of six; my siblings are 7-13 years than me and back then were inclined to be sadistic. That, at least, ended after my one sister decided it’d be super funny laffy time to hide behind the bedroom curtains and start playing Ghost in the middle of the night. That episode resulted in me shrieking so loud the neighbors from across the street started banging on the door demanding to know what the hell was going on.
On top of that, my mother never let me have the costume I really wanted. According to her, girls had to have cute and/or ladylike costumes so I was stuck being a pink bunny (think the bunny suit from A Christmas Story) when I wanted to be a punk rocker, and was tormented at school accordingly.
I hate Halloween. It’s a “holiday” about death. Uggh. Most of nature is dying now anyway, we now have to have a celebration about it?
Another thing: 364 days a year children are told not to take candy from strangers. And that it’s not polite to beg. So what do we do tomorrow? Tell them to beg candy from strangers, supposedly as a bribe for not committing vandalism.
This will be our first halloween in this house; I am wondering if everyone around here understands that because our porch light is NOT on, they should NOT stop here. Hope so. I think the house down the street with dozens of orange lights and spotlights and bats and spiders and so forth looks very odd; I never really heard of halloween lights until this year. Is it getting more so every year or is it that I lived in LA in a neighborhood where few people could even afford xmas lights let alone orange twinkly lights? Anyhow: yes, I am a halloween hater! and Proud of It!
I’ll be working late tomorrow, intentionally. And I turned outside lights off at the house, as a sign not to bother.
Although I hold out hope that one of my friends might suggest going to a bar instead of staying at the office.
Yeah. I’m not a fan of Halloween. Or the rest of the “holiday” season. Ba Humbug, and all that. (Actually, I plan to post that tomorrow on Facebook.)
-D/a
I’ve got some neighbors that are not into Halloween. Every one of 'em though puts out a thing of candy and a sign saying “help yourself.” Seems like a win-win situation
Our porch lights will be off as usual. And just in case, our blinds will be drawn so the light from the TV doesn’t accidentally draw any moths to the flame, as it were. And considering that we haven’t handed out anything over the last 6 years and we don’t decorate, I expect any neighborhood kids wandering about will avoid our place. I’m thinking of parking the truck halfway down the driveway as added insurance.
To be honest, I don’t actually hate Halloween - I just don’t want to deal with it. It’d be different if I had kids of my own, but my baby is 26…
Lucky you. I think the kids in my neighborhood deliberately ignore the houses on either side of me (the guys on one side sit out on the porch in costumes and hand out candy; the other side is decorated up like a Halloween Haunt-O-Rama and lit up like a movie set) and knock on MY door (dark, undecorated, no lights on downstairs).
Halloween was virtually unknown in Sweden until some 10-15 years when a business owner saw an opportunity to make more money selling stuff connected with it and now it’s all over the place. Disgusting.
Not a fan of horror, gore, scary stuff, etc… Also don’t like dressing up in costumes. So Halloween is not my thing. Also, I hate the commercial kitschyness. It’s the time of year that I love. If we could have a holiday just about the changing of the leaves and arrival of the fall, that would be way better.
Thank og my wife is like me. No urge to drag the kids to some pumpkin patch and buy pumpkins and fight mass crowds to say, “We went to local Annoying Farm; did you? Oh, little Katy picked out the biggest pumpkin, and we had to buy it. And little Timmy…blah blah blah”.
Yeah, nice 3-dollar, ready-to-ignite-in-a-ball-of-fire costume straight from the Chinese sweat shop. It almost makes me believe your little kid there is a real, live Disney Princess!
Not a big fan here. My point is always who wants to decorate their house to look like crap? Plus yuck, pumpkin carving is a mess. I was over it about 10 years ago when it took like half-hour just to get one triangle-eye out of this crazy-big pumpkin with sides about five inches thick! Gah! I wanted to throw that thing in the street.
I would like to vote in favor of fun-size Almond Joys, however.
I don’t hate it, but I’m not a fan. Either I spend hours helping my kids put together a cheap, but not embarrassing Halloween costume or I fork over $15-30 each so they can have some stupid “ninja” or “princess” costume that looks like crap.
Then we have to go to one of those stupid “trunk or treat” things because that’s what my husband prefers. Get it all over and done with in an hour, but the kids are encouraged to be rude and go to each car multiple times. Of course, half the people there just show up and park their car around the corner so they can get candy but not have to pass it out. Sure. Come mooch off the group! Why not?
The only thing that makes the whole holiday worth it are my mom’s homemade doughnuts. We go every year to help her make them and she hands them out to trick or treaters (only possible because it’s a 30 year old tradition in a small town.)
Of course, trying to get back from mom’s to the trunk or treat (20 minute drive) on time causes way more stress than it should every year.
I’m in favor of Almond Joys of any size, shape, or season Halloween candy is the one part of the business I’m prepared to enjoy.
kayaker, I don’t know if it was just a local thing but we’d spend weeks in school music class being forced into learning Halloween songs so we could entertain the strangers before they’d give up their candy. Oh, no, it wouldn’t do just to knock on the door and say “Trick or treat,” the bastids wanted a whole Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
Halloween candy is the one part of the business I’m prepared to enjoy.