Plans For Halloween

[Misty_Morning]

I am so excited. This is the first time in about 16 years that I live in a neighborhood with alot of kids.

I used to always go all out for halloween. I'd buy the little baggies and stuff them with snickers, sugar babies, sugar daddy's, heath bars, M&M's, gumballs, and lots of other stuff. No candy corn though...hated that as a kid.

I'd carve a few jack-o-lanterns, have banners and get all dressed up to give out the goodies. I had so much fun and I am looking forward to it this year.

I'm just trying to think of what to get dressed up as. One year I was Smurfette, another year I was a biker chick (that didn't go over too well with some of the parents though), another year I was a cowgirl, another year I was a hippie chick, another year I was a witch, and still another year I was a mad scientist.



So, I thought I ask all ya'll for suggestions....got any?



BTW...I miss not being able to hand out popcorn balls, candy apples and caramel apples. I completely understand todays mindset of parents....but maybe I can put notes in the maiboxes of some of my neighbors introducing myself and alleviate some of their fears. Whatcha think?




Also, what are yor plans? going to parties, staying home and handing out goodies, or taking your kids out for trick or treating?



Just curious.

 

[fieryjen]

This year is the first I've lived in a neighborhood where trick-and-treating takes place. I don't have children so I don't have an excuse to go, but I think I would like handing out candy.

 

[MagicaPractica]

So, I thought I ask all ya'll for suggestions....got any?

Also, what are yor plans? going to parties, staying home and handing out goodies, or taking your kids out for trick or treating?

Just curious.

I happened to like candy corn as a kid. As for plans, nada. No more kids trick or treating out where I live, they've all grown up and none of my own. Just sit home and watch Charlie Brown I guess. As for dressing up, how about a scarecrow?

Oh, and just give it up on the homemade treats. Sorry but I would have to know you pretty well to let my kids eat homemade treats from your house.

 

[carsonshepherd]

It's mine and my BF's first anniversary on Halloween and I hope we'll be doing something fantastic, and not going to some crappy Halloween party.

How about a warrior princess?

 

[Weird Harold]

I'm just trying to think of what to get dressed up as. One year I was Smurfette, another year I was a biker chick (that didn't go over too well with some of the parents though), ...

So, I thought I ask all ya'll for suggestions....got any?

Pirates are big this year, so how about this:

http://z.about.com/d/couponing/1/0/W/m/21754.jpg
http://z.about.com/d/couponing/1/0/W/m/21754.jpg

(That's the first hit on a image.google search for "Pirate Wench" there are some less racy examples in the first 20 of 11,700+ hits.)

 

[Trinique_Fire]

The notes in the mailboxes is a good idea. Maybe you could host a small pre-Halloween get together with some of the kids AND parents and have popcorn balls, candy and caramel apples, etc., instead of passing them out on Halloween night. This way you can establish yourself amongst your new neighbors and still get the goodness of all the "non-safe" Halloween night goodies. Go with the mixed bag candy on the 31st. Lots of mini jawbreakers too. Those were always one of my faves.

No idea on that Halloween costume though. I'm still deciding myself.

 

[FatDino]

My roomies have talked me into taking Oct 31st off and going 'trick or treat' with them...........and we're all in our 20s.

I'm afraid our neighbors will rather throw rocks at us than handing out candies.

And I haven't got a clue what my costume will be.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

My roomies have talked me into taking Oct 31st off and going 'trick or treat' with them...........and we're all in our 20s.

I'm afraid our neighbors will rather throw rocks at us than handing out candies.

And I haven't got a clue what my costume will be.

I'm 22 and I go trick or treating.

Why the hell not, dig?

Take the free candy and run.

 

[fieryjen]

People will keep trying to convince me to go trick-or-treating with them, because that way they'll have an excuse to go: "She's foreign, she's never had anything like Halloween before." You'd be surprised how popular I get all of a sudden.

Anyway, the one time I did go, I didn't have a costume so I just threw something together. I ended up being a rainstorm. Complete with crazy hair, cute umbrella and make-up and clothes all in dark blue, grey and black. It turned out pretty cute, actually.

 

[Chantilyvamp]

Pirates are big this year, so how about this:

http://z.about.com/d/couponing/1/0/W/m/21754.jpg
http://z.about.com/d/couponing/1/0/W/m/21754.jpg

(That's the first hit on a image.google search for "Pirate Wench" there are some less racy examples in the first 20 of 11,700+ hits.)

lmao and points to my closet...i own that That minus the hat and trade thigh high highs for the stockings and my thigh high boots are much better and that was my costume for last year!

Plans for this year is a bit hectic for us...today we are decorating the house and carving pumpkins with kiddie this afternoon after she has the morning with the in-laws. We will then later in the week take the pumpkins to the in-laws to keep. When we get in the states we will find a costume for kiddie (if she doesn't take her bat fairy costume) and we will go tricker-treating with this godchildren.

I don't know if I'll dress up though if I find something I might. I know I have an outfit for after the kiddie goes to bed but I wont be answering doors in that Boots, black lace bra, thigh highs, black elbow gloves with purple sparkly web on them and possibly a black witches hat wit purple on it.

 

[Seattle Zack]

"Women have only one Halloween Costume. It is a slut. You may be thinking, Wait, I've seen women dressed as sexy witches, sexy cats, sexy hoboes.... But I assure you they were all dressed as sluts dressed as witches, cats, and hoboes. For us, Halloween is solely an opportunity to wear the whorish clothes we chastise true-blue sluts for wearing year-round."

--Stephanie Weir, Esquire, October 2002

 

[SlickTony]

Since Halloween is going to be a work day for me, I'll probably run up some kind of costume. I was thinking pirate, but hardly the slut-pirate in the illustration; we essentially have no dress code where I work but I don't want to be responsible for starting one or getting a dormant one enforced. I was thinking something simple and that I already have the ingredients for--I've got knee breeches (ok, they're capris) a frilly white poet shirt, a sash, and a bandana. Maybe a toy cutlass to go with all that.

I wish we could just get over this parental paranoia with regard to Halloween treats. The guy who, as far as I'm concerned, kicked this whole business off--Ronald Clark O'Bryan, who poisoned his kid with a cyanide-laced Pixie Stick to collect on the insurance, and sickened a few other kids as a coverup--lived in my town. That was totally aberrant, and happens once in a blue moon. The other stuff, about the razor blades and the needles, while true, is much rarer than most people think.

Snopes on poisoned candy

When I was coming up, my mother used to make decorated cookies and put them up in little saran bags with black and orange ribbon tied around them, and they were quite popular. I've sometimes thought of doing something like that myself, and putting one of the 11 kajillion address labels I get in the mail from charities on each, on the grounds that people ought to figure out that if I were going to issue something harmful, I wouldn't be putting my name on it, now would I?

Now, in addition to the Halloween paranoia, I've been to school festivals where people who provided cakes for the Cake Walk were told that only storebought cakes were accepted. That's just pathetic.

 

[jomar]

I live in a neighborhood where the kids have mostly outgrown it so we get fewer and fewer. I kind of sort of miss it - cute like puppies.

 

[Misty_Morning]

I just had a GREAT idea.....in addition to handing out all the "good" candies...I'll put some dental floss in each little bag!


I'm gonna call my dentist tomorrow and see if he can give me some sample floss.













Jesus, I am the biggest fucking nerd to walk the face of the earth.

 

[SlickTony]

I think it's a wonderful idea. Last time my husband went to the dentist he came back with the cutest little thing of floss--it was a little tin about the size of a quarter, only thicker, and the floss came out a minuscule hole in the center. It is probably possible to get hundreds of these wholesale. After all, kids get enough candy as it is.

The nicest venue for kids on Halloween, it seems to me, is an apartment complex. When we first came to J'ville we lived in one for about three years. You don't have to worry about traffic like you would in a typical suburban subdivision. When I went with my son, I was astounded by how many people he knew, and who knew him, whom I did not know from Adam.

 

[fieryjen]

I just had a GREAT idea.....in addition to handing out all the "good" candies...I'll put some dental floss in each little bag!


I'm gonna call my dentist tomorrow and see if he can give me some sample flo



Jesus, I am the biggest fucking nerd to walk the face of the earth.

I like that idea. If I was a parent, I'd be favorably impressed.

Now, in addition to the Halloween paranoia, I've been to school festivals where people who provided cakes for the Cake Walk were told that only storebought cakes were accepted. That's just pathetic.

I'd be pretty pissed about that one. Why don't they just ask for monetary donations, since that's what it basically boils down to. Makes no sense at all.

 

[SlickTony]

I like that idea. If I was a parent, I'd be favorably impressed.


I'd be pretty pissed about that one. Why don't they just ask for monetary donations, since that's what it basically boils down to. Makes no sense at all.

Exactly! I am so glad that my kids grew up before this nonsense. I remember asking someone why, and they mumbled something about liability. I suppose it's because it's felt to be safer if the cakes are more uniform and come out of just a few places. But think of what message you're sending: if it's real, if it's unique, if it's got a personal touch, there's probably something wrong with it.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Around her trick-or-treating just isn't done any more. Parents are much too afraid for their children.

I remember when I was a kid we ranged about 1/2 mile in all directions by ourselves in search of candy. But we were a lot deffernt then. We knew about the guy on Willamette who handed out red hot pennies (yes he really did) and the gay guy on Wall street who always invited the boys in for a warm cider, and so on.

All the kids in the veighborhood networked. "So and so is cheap this year" or "Go to the green house on the corner cuz they have good stuff." Were we smarter? In street smarts I think we were. But the whole world was different then. People didn't lock their doors, there were a lot fewer people and it seems to me now that everyone knew everyone in the extended neighborhood. It's really like our parents didn't have to worry about us on Halloween night. They did, but just didn't know it.

 

[cloudy]

We'll take spidey trick or treating at a local mall - he loves to see all the other kids - then his dad will take him round the neighborhood while I hand out the candy at the house.

Exactly like last year.

 

[fieryjen]

Exactly! I am so glad that my kids grew up before this nonsense. I remember asking someone why, and they mumbled something about liability. I suppose it's because it's felt to be safer if the cakes are more uniform and come out of just a few places. But think of what message you're sending: if it's real, if it's unique, if it's got a personal touch, there's probably something wrong with it.

Really. I don't exactly know what a cake walk is, but does it somehow prevent the name of the maker of the cake to be on or near the cake? And in any case, what is there to be liable about?

I have honestly never ever bought a cake from a store. There are too many simple recipes you can quickly make instead. And: Uniform cakes? Is there anything more boring? The last cake I made for an official event was for a Track-and-Field party. It had a track all around the cake, a sprinkles-filled pit for the long-jump and a marzipan-mat for the high jumpers (over a toothpick). I like getting creative with this stuff. Once I have kids, I'll get pretty mad if their school asks me to buy some buttercream-smeared cardboard-cake.

 

[Misty_Morning]

There's another big thing that seems to happening across the country.


Churches turn their parking lots into trick or treat venues. Folks Come all dressed up and have all the candies in their trunks. The kids walk along and do " safe" trick or treating. And theres always a central locale where there the church members grill hamburgers and hotdogs and have fellowship.

When I was living in Memphis...this is where I would take my god daughter.



It was safe and fun.

 

[SesameStreet]

Due to all of the nutcases out there parents don't let their children go door to door in my area either.

 

[SlickTony]

Really. I don't exactly know what a cake walk is, but does it somehow prevent the name of the maker of the cake to be on or near the cake? And in any case, what is there to be liable about?

This basically describes a cakewalk.

I think what the organizers are concerned about--these are people for whom someone coined the extremely clever term The Noisy Fearful--issues such as, is the kitchen of the person making the cake up to the Health Code? If you have animals in your house, which lots of people do, your house is probably ipso facto in violation. And when the cake comes from a commercial bakery, they can be more sure of the ingredients, i.e. that there isn't nuts or something. I swear, I don't know where all this allergy business came out of--when I was coming up, I knew a few people that had "hay fever"--pollen-induced bouts of asthma--and that was it. I never knew anybody who was allergic to nuts, peanuts, eggs, and the whole panoply of things that you have to take into account when you're providing food. I went to a party once and was really surprised to find "male" brownies (with nuts) because I had been used to only encountering female ones for lo these many years.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

There's another big thing that seems to happening across the country.


Churches turn their parking lots into trick or treat venues. Folks Come all dressed up and have all the candies in their trunks. The kids walk along and do " safe" trick or treating. And theres always a central locale where there the church members grill hamburgers and hotdogs and have fellowship.

When I was living in Memphis...this is where I would take my god daughter.



It was safe and fun.

Yeah, around here they call it "Trunk or Treat"

 

[fieryjen]

I just noticed... you miss not being able to hand out all these goods?

Who's making you?