Halloween ideas?

[TGP 63506]

It was non-existent (the trick-or-treating) last year. Probably a different story in the late 50’s when these houses were new. 

 

But now, all sorts of nope. One house on the street behind me did a thing in the front yard:

 

***digs up prior attachment***

Caspar Class sheet ghosts around a faux campfire with big inflatable spiders lurking in the shadows. 

 

My 18th of October drawing for “Inktober” will likely be my only observance of Halloween.

 

 

Here is a link to the Inktober thread. Do go back to the beginning. 

Edited October 19, 2019 by TGP

[Sylverthorne 21166]

I usually carve a gourd, because I enjoy doing that, but not much else, because.. well, I live out in the country, and we don't get many trick or treaters. ^^;

 

[Crowley 95031]

Living in an apartment building in NYC... I might as well be in the middle of nowhere. No trick or treaters, no one will see any decorations I put up... I will still carve a pumpkin, watch some movies over the week, and... yeah, probably eat some candy. Plus, since it's a weekday, I have to spend it at work. At least the local brownstones have been really doing a bang up job of decorating for the holiday. I'll take some pictures this weekend to share. 

 

Oh, I'll dress up the girls and walk them around in costume for all the little ghouls and goblins to see. 

[TheAuldGrump 42120]

Make an old fashioned Jack O'Lantern - from a turnip, rather than a pumpkin.

 

 

 

The Auld Grump

[Chaoswolf 108046]

23 hours ago, Beagle said:

Given that most of us on these forums are fans of the fantasy genre I'm surprised there isn't more of a Halloween buy-in. I have an image of America as being very enthusiastic about Halloween. How would you describe Halloween in the States?

That's how it used to be. Due to a variety of different factors ( questions of safety and Christmas arriving earlier and earlier every year being the big ones, IMO ) have led to a decline in the popularity. At least that's how it seems to me, and that's kinda sad, because it was always my favorite holiday.

 

22 hours ago, Inarah said:

 

Here we are 2 weeks from the date and Fall/Halloween is already being replaced in stores by Christmas (some of which went up as early as July).  Bah, humbug!

 

I agree!

 

22 hours ago, KruleBear said:

Yeah, the commercialization seems to be the sad part of most holidays in the US anymore. 

 

It almost make you wonder if the candy companies were behind the hyperbole of homemade candy dangers in the late 70’s and early 80’s. 

That is an interesting question.

[Crowley 95031]

2 of the best houses on my block.

[TGP 63506]

7 minutes ago, Chaoswolf said:

22 hours ago, KruleBear said:

Yeah, the commercialization seems to be the sad part of most holidays in the US anymore. 

 

It almost make you wonder if the candy companies were behind the hyperbole of homemade candy dangers in the late 70’s and early 80’s. 

That is an interesting question.

 

At this point The Nanny State is annoyed at its corporate citizens for putting sugars in every foodstuffs and it’s annoyed at its actual citizens for noshing on anything with sugar...

 

Candy, Sugarcane = evile, evile, eeeevil !!

 

(That works ^ better if you voice it like Abe Simpson, Homer’s Dad.)

 

 

I don’t remember the anti-homemade candy hyperbole. My mum never made candy. Cakes mostly, but not candy. My grandmother made pies and cakes. 

 

[Generic Fighter 3156]

When I was a kid, my parent's house would get somewhere in the 60-70s every Halloween. Now, they are lucky to get 20 or so. Which is a shame because Halloween is my Dad's favorite holiday by far! Mostly due to being on a road that is far away from the center of town but also in part to all the local kids having grown up and left the neighborhood. But my apartment is on one of the two main roads in the middle of town, so we easily get over a hundred kids and usually close to 200! I set up 100 bags of Candy and got a bunch of random candy to give out once those run out. I also give out glow sticks for safety as a lot of the roads here have inconsistent lighting.

 

GF

[KruleBear 4348]

2 hours ago, TGP said:

 

I don’t remember the anti-homemade candy hyperbole. My mum never made candy. Cakes mostly, but not candy. My grandmother made pies and cakes. 

 

I remember things like homemade sugar cookies, hard rock candy, candied popcorn balls, and caramel apples. Maybe a couple house would have “store” candy and one of those would be icky black licorice.

 

My wife’s siblings and kids did the 1 mile fun run at the airport last night and she said it was a blast with most people in costumes. 

[Beagle 14968]

Thank you for all the responses.

 

Halloween is so hit and miss here, some streets really get into the spirit of things and the majority of houses do something to decorate the house/garden. On other streets you'll see nothing at all.

For many villages there's a a bonfire and fireworks on or around November the 5th and you tend to see blend of all the old Pagan rituals being honoured in some sense before and after that event, albeit in a modern form.

 

In the cities it's far more inconsistent. Supermarkets sell pumpkins and Halloween sweets/cakes, pubs decorate, theme parks and garden centres do something thematic. What we don't have are dedicated Halloween attractions or stores selling good quality props and animatronics. 

 

 

Our local theme park has some stuff going on https://www.chessington.com/halloween/ but it's mostly aimed at kids and the place closes at 6pm!

[Sanael 14820]

Around here, most of the trick-or-treating has gone commercial. We live in a nice neighborhood with a fair number of kids (there are schools nearby covering grades K-12), but most of them go to one of the nearby shopping centers, where the stores give out candy. Stores like it because it gives them a chance to catch new foot traffic, parents like it because it's well-lit and the police know where to be.

 

It's sad that anonymous police protection and corporate strangers have become a replacement for knowing one's neighbors, but there it is.

 

I also really love Halloween, but I've largely given up on it. We'll have a bowl of candy at the door, and I might carve a pumpkin for the porch (I love carving pumpkins, but I am too often lazy about using the innards, so I feel bad about the waste), but that's probably about it.

 

If a hangout materializes, I'd probably be down for that. It's likely that I have some undead to paint, or someone who needs a Santa Muerte face.

[Glitterwolf 170063]

The Netherlands.

Commercial? - Stores sell Halloween decorations and candies.

                         - Advertising is Halloween inspired

                        - Theme Parks have special Halloween themes and rides.

 

Average people?- Almost no one decorates their house, ( maybe a few small items inside) aside from the odd person here and there.

                             - Trick or Treating? In all these years there was one family who put some linnen sheets on their kids with holes punched out for the eyes, Boooo...gimme candy! I think they were the                                        only ones in my old neighboorhood who did this and almost nobody had candy ready.

 

I would like it, a few years ago we carved out pumkins and loved it. But there is no one who joins us.

It might have to do with the fact that The Netherlands have  St. Maarten which is a little like that.

But even this is rare these days.

 

The day is celebrated on the evening of the 11th of November (the day Saint Martin died), where he is known as Sint-Maarten. As soon it gets dark, children up to the age of 11 or 12 (primary school age) go door to door with hand-crafted lanterns made of hollowed-out sugar beet or, more recently, paper, singing songs such as "Sinte Sinte Maarten," to receive candy or fruit in return. In the past, poor people would visit farms on the 11th of November to get food for the winter. In the 1600s, the city of Amsterdam held boat races on the lake IJ. 400 to 500 light craft, both rowing boats and sailboats, took part under the eyes of a vast crowd on the banks.

[Beagle 14968]

I'm going to see if I can find a Halloween themed boardgame to play with Mrs Beagle, any ideas?

 

Check out the HPLHS website and their Dark Adventure Radio Theatre plays. All available for download and an absolute winner for Lovecraft fans.

 

[Sanael 14820]

If you enjoy cooperative games, Eastern themes and incredibly high difficulty (to win), than I would highly recommend "Ghost Stories."

Gameplay is pretty simple, but actually winning is pretty fiendish. Theme of the game is the players are a group of magic Wuxia-style monks protecting a village from nightmare hordes of creepy demons. Winning a game of this is always incredibly satisfying, but that's often because it's your third straight game tonight and you lost the first two badly. I love this, but I know others just find it frustrating...YMMV.

 

If you enjoy storytelling games and appreciate the sort of bleak humor of Edward Gorey or Wednesday Addams, then I would heartily suggest "Gloom," in which players compete to reduce their (fictional) families from a collection of bizarre misfits to a series of gravestones in the most morbidly hilarious fashions possible.

 

There are others, but those are the two that come immediately to mind that work well with as few as two players.

[Beagle 14968]

8 hours ago, Sanael said:

If you enjoy cooperative games, Eastern themes and incredibly high difficulty (to win), than I would highly recommend "Ghost Stories."

Gameplay is pretty simple, but actually winning is pretty fiendish. Theme of the game is the players are a group of magic Wuxia-style monks protecting a village from nightmare hordes of creepy demons. Winning a game of this is always incredibly satisfying, but that's often because it's your third straight game tonight and you lost the first two badly. I love this, but I know others just find it frustrating...YMMV.

 

If you enjoy storytelling games and appreciate the sort of bleak humor of Edward Gorey or Wednesday Addams, then I would heartily suggest "Gloom," in which players compete to reduce their (fictional) families from a collection of bizarre misfits to a series of gravestones in the most morbidly hilarious fashions possible.

 

There are others, but those are the two that come immediately to mind that work well with as few as two players.

Thanks for that. I stumbled across Ghost Stories today and it peaked my interest. Gloom I've never heard of but will look into it.

 

Was also looking at Mysterium, Betrayal at House on the Hill and Ghostel, but think I'll go for one of your recommendations.

 

Thanks again

Edited October 21, 2019 by Beagle