A skeleton walks into the bar and asks for a beer... and a mop.

because oct 31 = dec 25.

I love that! I'm stealing it!

I think this is actually the first year I've ever carved my own jack-o-lantern -- since college, I've usually lived in apartments up till now). I know it's the first time since I moved here that I've used my gas oven (to roast the seeds with curry powder, yum), because burning off the dust while preheating, set off my smoke alarm. (Yeah, I'm lame, or at least microwave-dependent.)

Also, I only bought my first pomegranates of the season yesterday -- usually I get them in time for my birthday (a week ago). Gotta have pomegranates for Samhain! ;-)

I think the most we've ever had was 6.

We had a girl come by offering insurance, in the event of the house being egged. It felt so wrong.

For the first time, our son did not want to go out trick-or-treating. He just wanted to sit at the computer and read Girl Genius Online.

I've had two groups, for a total of 7 trick-or-treaters tonight. Since it's 8:31, I don't expect I'll see more. I feel cheated! I bought lots of candy. I even changed the burned-out porch light so I could turn it on. The two groups showed up before I even got it turned on. But the folks at work will be happy to help with the candy on Monday

Our neighborhood is full of 40-year-old homes and 65+-year-old residents; we get very few trick-or-treaters nowadays. I kinda miss 'em.

The next street over, which is known fairly widely as *the* Halloween street in the area, was probably getting well over 100, judging from the number of kids we saw on the street there. (We get some of the overflow, plus the local neighborhood kids. It's a great chance to chat a bit with the neighbors you might normally only wave to in passing.)

Many of the houses have elaborate decorations, costumed candy givers, and even some games. ("Halloween Idol" has been a big hit the years it's been done; this year, there was a Wheel of Fortune-style game up the block instead.) For our house, we reused an old dragon/dinosaur costume the kids had outgrown, stuffed it, and placed it on top of a cave-like "lair" that my son helped build to hold the candy. The older kids had to reach in to get some, though for the younger kids we were nice and handed them ourselves. ("Is it sleeping?" one little one asked. We assured him it was. To the older ones who came later, we'd explain that it had already eaten by then, so we were *pretty* sure it was safe to reach in now...)

Our daughter spent the afternoon with a friend of hers who lives in the suburbs, and then they came to our neighborhood to go trick or treating, along with her friend's mom. I gather it was a rather bigger crowd than they're used to, but it sounds like they had a good time. And if we dole it out slowly, our kids may well have enough candy to last till nearly Easter...

Did see one cute tot dressed as a bear. Mom & Dad looked raffish. Bikers? Not a costume, mind you.

The high-end neighborhood across the street had more action, including several groups of teen boys with no costumes who were from other neighborhoods. (It's a young-yuppy and retiree nieghborhood.)

One of my kids (4 yrs) was saying that he didn't like taking candy from people because it wasn't fair.

I'm not sure I parse that, but between the two kids, we have three pieces of candy in the house, because the 1.5 yr old was even less sure of the whole thing.

There's not even enough candy to steal some unnoticed.

It's not a work of art, but I had lots of help.

We're in Austin for the Celtic Festival, so no trick-or-treaters; our house rarely gets more than about a dozen anyhow.

The commonest trick played in my old neighborhood was TPing (aka "rolling yards" in some regions) -- taking rolls of toilet paper and throwing them repeatedly into someone's tree in such a way that the branches became all wound up with the paper. At least it was biodegradable...

Cutest of the 10 we've had so far: A little girl who said "Mommy messed up my costume so I'm just wearing makeup." (No word on how Mom felt about that; she was at the end of the driveway, though, so she heard it.)

Here in the land of Oz, the whole Halloween thing has never taken off to the same extent as in the US, although I did spy a number of small children clutching freshly purchased witches-hair wigs and monster masks while I was shopping yesterday.

They didn't try trick-or-treating my apartment, probably because they'd need a Sherpa guide to make it up the numerous very steep stairs.

OTOH, my office went all out on the Halloween theme because head office (in the US) sent a memo about holding a Halloween decorations contest.

But then I bumped into the highly energetic and capable mother of the American family in the village. Result: my kids, her three, and the two daughters of the Australian/Dutch family all dressed up and visited one another's houses, plus those of a couple of well-prepped locals who were willing to give out some of their Sint Maartin† candy early and experience a little foreign culture in exchange.

My daughter recycled her brother's old Jedi knight costume, while he went as a wizard (with cape, hat, spellbook, and glowing juggling ball*). The others all went for princess/witch crossovers. Mothers were witch, pirate, and (sorry; I had to) Sarah Palin.

Most of the locals we passed on the street looked at us in bafflement. The teenagers, however, called "Halloween!" and "Trick or treat".

Then we went into the graveyard, where two of the dads were creeping with lanterns, making strange noises, until we caught them.

The kids loved it all.

-----
† 11 November, when the kids go out with home-made lanterns and sing songs for treats.
* He had to get the right page in the spellbook before he would make the ball glow in the dark alleys. He had, let us say, magic-user timing.

Here too, if a good six time zones behind you. We just finished up our annual NaNoWriMo kickoff, in which participants as well as non-participating-but-supporting friends are encouraged to start showing up around 10 PM with potluck goodies, and at midnight we all start writing. People started trickling away again around 1. It's 3:30 now, and my husband is out driving home the last of 'em.

The two of them - hubby and the friend he's driving home - are taking part in their own side-project, NaPro[gramming]WriMo. They are shooting for 50,000 lines of code by November 30. I'm not sure exactly how one starts writing a program with nothing in mind but a final line count; it seems functionally different from starting to write a book with nothing in mind except a final word count. John says he's thinking of writing the most elaborate "Hello World" evar.

In any case, more NaNoing than Halloweening here, and goodness knows we never seem to have trick-or-treaters in our 24-unit condo/apartment building. But we did observe Samhain most solemnly by filling out our interminable Colorado mail-in ballots together over dinner. Go us!

The rest of the household where I'm staying were also out for the night, but before I went out with sister I dropped by two different friends' houses. One had lots and lots of kids, but was giving out pencils instead of candy; the other had candy but only a few kids. I kept being surprised by how many kids were out on the streets with their parents, though. I think it was a good night for it--nippy, but not too freezing cold.

(Though the gentleman at the bar dressed in little more than green feathers might have begged to differ, at least if he didn't change before walking to his car!)

I've been down with stomach yuckies, so I kept the light off last night.

Still, Guy Fawkes with giant bonfire and fireworks coming. That's the *real* occasion in darkest rural England. Halloween is slightly suspicious and foreign and might even be Catholic.

I'm not really a fan of the whole trick-or-treat thing because it always seems like a thinly disguised protection racket to me.

Well yes -- historically derived from the supernatural equivalent, via "as above so below...." Doesn't mean it can't be fun!

I did get a lot of kids without costumes, but what the heck. In some cases the costumes may have been buried under coats -- as a refugee from the North, I have a very different view of the local fall weather than my neighbors do!

I didn't do a costume myself this year -- no party, and I'd been running around buying a present for my sister's B-day tomorrow. (This year wasn't my best effort there, but I think it'll do.)

eric @#21: carved a pumpkin that I grew myself. Yowsa! I've never had a proper garden since early childhood, but if I ever do, pumpkins or squash of some sort will definitely be in it... the flowers are just so gorgeous!

Around here, the local towns set trick or treating times. Here it's 3:30 to 7.

I find it kind of disappointing. Similar to the Netherlands, they celebrate St. Martin's in just a couple of weeks. It's a lovely holiday, but also a quiet one, and it admittedly appeals to younger children.

(Not that I dislike Halloween! It just doesn't feel right here. I once won a prize for a costume: I concocted a penguin suit out of a Goodwill men's suit jacket, an old sheet, and yellow scrubbing gloves. Didn't speak to anyone at the party, and the friends who'd brought me didn't spill the beans. I won in the category "best disguised person" and the prize was a bottle of wine -- sans label.)

*We woke up with a window egged today :(

A paired Rove and Dalek? Isn't that too scary a duo even for the grownups?!!!
("Serge, it's Rose, not Rove.")
Oh.
Nevermind.

Wonder if anyone can guess the band? I suspect Hedgeprog probably can :)

I was a bad door-opener. When the pack of boys asked for more candy, I threw not-actually-enough pieces into the air and told them to fight for it.

Did anyone else -- especially in the Western time zone where hours were better -- watch the HPL-inspired movies on Turner? The Haunted Palace was passed off as Poe, with Lovecraft in the small-print credits, but featured Vincent Price as a certain Charles Dexter Ward. My husband had seen Die, Monster, Die! before, but "only in gray"; now we got the full lurid color, with only Karlov remaining gray. And I was fascinated, if also slightly bored, with the British Sixties version of The Shuttered Room: no frog monsters, nasty male hicks straight out of Deliverance, music that included harpsichords and tablas, Gig Young as kung fu action hero(!), Carole Lynley wistful/miserable but not the standard negligee-clad screaming ninny (see how she faces down Oliver Reed's would-be assault), and only two older actors managing anything like a true New England accent -- Flora Robson was one of these, and quite good in general.

My husband's from Maine, so we watched the thing with a mix of laughs and stupefaction, but I did learn something new via his insight: the young Oliver Reed looked a bit like Stephen King. (Same liplessness and wide face.)

It makes me sad. I love Halloween.

I really like all holiday rituals. I've discovered that they're really important to me, and I feel all out-of-sorts and lonely and empty if the seasons aren't marked at all. My boyfriend and his family don't do holidays nearly to the extent that my family does them, and it's going to be something to be hammered out, what holiday traditions there should be and why.

Our horror viewing for the night was a "Modern Marvels" on corrosion and decomposition that had been languishing on the Tivo for long enough we thought we'd better put it out of its misery.

I remember San Martino in Venice. Nice noisy street holiday, firecrackers going off, creatures on stilts, general aura of festival. Guy Fawkes without the bonfire? And then there are all the cookies, which almost qualify for Teresa's molded cookie thread.

Caroline @47 -- I hear you. I'm a big holiday fan, and my husband is emphatically not. Good luck!

Now that is crazy! Charmingly crazy, but much nuttier than this novel thing!

My little writing fest was both my own personal kickoff and my Halloween celebration (which is how I justified a candy bar); Finns don't do Halloween and I don't know anyone here doing NaNo. C'est la vie. At the very least, I was IMing with my girlfriend as I wrote and got to paste her chunks of story as I finished them. That was fun, and encouraging!

My dad and his crew back when he was rascally young fellow was a busy outhouse tipper-over.

Did I say that right? Maybe not ....

Love, C.

She has one son who is a teenager, and thus generally considered too old to get candy. He goes around to all the houses in the neighborhood about a week early, and leaves postcards explaining that he and his friends will be coming around Hallowe'en night collecting canned food for the local food shelf, and asking people to have a can or two by the door when they come.

Then, on Hallowe'en the "big kids" can still dress up and go out, and generally get lots of positive feedback from the adults. (Plus, a fair amount of candy, which they are freely given because they are being so nice.)

The little kids go out for regular trick or treating. We let them choose which houses to go to. They were pretty unanimous. Houses with pumpkins - yes. Houses with elaborate light and music displays - no. Houses with large bonfires in the driveway (we saw two of those) - no. Houses with no particular decorations but the lights on - maybe, if they know who lives there. Houses with other trick-or-treaters clustered around the door squealing - absolutely.

Then we go back to my friend's house, and the teenagers go down in the basement and watch scary movies and do whatever teenagers do. (My friend goes down at random but frequent intervals with such things as pizza and homemade cupcakes, to discourage whatever teenagers do without making herself obnoxious.)

The little kids stay upstairs and distribute candy and watch a different set of scary movies. Plus they eat pizza. All the candy they collect goes into a pile, and they each choose an equal number of pieces, usually some function of their ages. Then the leftover candy (a huge amount) goes to the food shelf with the canned goods.

The big kids had several wagon loads of cans last night, so I'm sure the food shelf was happy. My beloved child expressed the opinion that she would have been happier with more candy, but she didn't seem to feel strongly about it.

All told, there were probably close to 100 kids that showed up at her house. Lots of parents walking in the street, keeping an eye on things. One small child crying because he dropped his treat bag and no one would help him find his candy. Pirates, princesses, a Clone warrior, some kind of ghoul with realistic blood running everywhere, lots of generic scary looking guys, one Jesse Ventura. (It's Minnesota.)

How did the costumes work? She was in a box? He kept peeking at her to see if she was alive or not?

(It suddenly occurs to me that there may be some bizarre Orpheus and Eurydice things going on here that I'd never thought about because the experimenter and experimentee aren't usually seen as wandering round.)

This is a local craftsperson who knits 'kittyhats'; I bought a couple at a crafts fair for my nieces last Christmas, and they were a big hit. The nieces struck struck a pose with their new hats, and their mom snapped a photo. I did a LOLcat treatment and emailed to the lady with permission to use it if she could; here it is on the gallery page.

The guy I married set up the stuff at the church (rural church + busyish rural highway where people drive 55+, even on Halloween night = church running a Halloween party in the parking lot), and then took Youngest Urchin into town, and eventually to the football game so he could get more video of the marching band with his new camera.

What's a mummy's favorite music?
Rap

I'd have to do some research on timing to see if the Irish brought it over with the potato famine (which was about the time Christmas was being toned down and made into a hearthside holiday)

This year I wore my Fourth Doctor scarf and hat. Hardly a costume, as I wear it frequently anyway, but I was pleased and surprised when a couple of different people recognized who I was supposed to be. Perhaps they usually aren't attuned to it - or just aren't sufficiently outgoing, around here, to make remarks. ("Where's your TARDIS?" "Over there. I got the chameleon circuit fixed!")

At the masquerade of 1980's worldcon in Boston, someone came onstage dressed exactly like that. With nothing else on.

I was there!

One of the boy's first grade friends has her birthday the week before, and this year she announced to her parents that she wanted a combined birthday/Halloween party. They said sure, so that's what we did. It was a good party - good food, including kid-friendly stuff like plain pasta with cheese and finger-foods, beer & wine for the adults. They had "Monsters, Inc." playing on a projector in the garage, but the kids were mostly running around giggling and playing various things, not watching it.

Around 7:30 a bunch of us took the kids out trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. There must have been about 20 kids in our group; it being mostly first-grade girls, they were about 40% princesses and 40% fairies by volume. A lot of people were not home (or were pretending not to be) but those who were open for business were giving generously. It was fun.

Finally dragged the boy home about 9:15, where he attempted to throw himself into bed sans tooth-brushing, face-washing, or using toilet. A combination of Reason and warnings of a possible time-out eventually induced him to do the minimal prep and then flop into bed with parental approval.

Then I sat up late with the teenager and watched Dark Water, a good Japanese ghost/horror movie. (My wife doesn't do scary movies.) All in all, a good Halloween.

Of Trick-or-Treaters, though, I only had a handful, as usual. Maybe a hair fewer than last year, even.