We get many trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood since we have sidewalks and it's safe. So I carve 4-5 pumpkins using the Pumpkin Masters kits, and put them near the shrubs. I do it for the kids, and even the teenagers comment on how "cool" they are. Inside the house, I hardly decorate unless I am having a party.

We never get any trick or treaters, not much of it done around here that I know of.

As far as decor...I have a nice hand blown glass pumpkin, I do something with it on the table or buffet, that's about it. Ten years ago I lost most of my decorations in a flood, down in Ohio and just have never replaced them. I have replaced some of the Christmas stuff though.

As far as foods...some years I get ambitious and make pumpkin cutout cookies, they're fun to decorate.

Nancy

Halloween is a big deal on my street. We have one of the few streets that has sidewalks and the houses are close enough together for kids to go from one to the next. I get about 100 kids! They come from all over the community, which is mostly very large homes with huge lawns and no sidewalks.

I put twelve pumpins on my fence posts. I'm always amazed that no one knocks them off except the occasional squirrel. I leave them up from mid-October until they freeze.

I decorate outside and even put up a few things inside. It's fun although the kids say hello to me and I never can figure out who it is in those costumes!

Another reason its popular is that it isn't based on a religion (I know that's where it got its origins), so everyone can join in. We have a neighborhood pizza party in late afternoon before the ghosts and goblins arrive.

Whoever gets to my door last gets whatever I have left. I just dump it all in the last bag and turn out the lights.

Since we get tons of kids and now the parents are dressing up too, I put out some luminarias on the sidewalk and a big pumpkin on th porch. If the weather is warm, I will sit there and hand out candy rather than wait for the bell to ring(or the dog to bark). No indoor decorations though. And dinner is a warm up, so I can be at the door. I love to see the very little one, those that can barely get "trick or treat" out.

One year I answered the door with a giant bowl of raw broccolli and cauliflower in my hands and left the candy hidden. Only one kid took it. He is my neighbor, so Mom knew it was "safe". They next year, he was dissapointed I didn't have any. Seems he like the stuff more than candy.

When my kids were little, I went all out. Tombstones in the yard...various buried body parts, a stufed dummy that was in a "casket". Spiders on the outside of the house. The kids loved it. Now that they are older and gone from home, I don't decorate. We moved into our "new" house last year and didn't get one trick or treater. I bought 5 bags...my future DIL bought 5 bags...and not one trick or treater. Do you think living about a block from a cemetery and a block and a half from the pet cemetery has anything to do with it?

As long as the school behind my house is there , there will be trick or treaters at my house. My three children are grown and two of them have a child each, but I still get over a hundred kids come to my door at Halloween. I don't decorate. My son likes to dress up and scare the kids by enticing them to reach into the bowl of candy and then his friend comes up behind them and says I want this one. Really freaks some of the kids out.But when the candy runs out, the light goes out and we don't answer the doorbell after 8 pm.

Yep..I don't go all out..but I love all things fall...So yes..I do do Halloween...
Every year I think about having a party...but I never get around to it..can't decide if I want to do an adult party or a family party.

I love reading what everyone does for Halloween! Growing up it was one of my favorite holidays.

DH won't let the kids trick or treat which completely makes them sad, but we do give out candy. In our old neighborhood we got around 30-40 kids, but now we're in a more rural area and far from the street. I'll be shocked if we get any.

I decorate for Fall, mums, pumpkins, corn stalks, maybe a jack-o-lantern with the kids, but nothing scary or too overtly Halloween.

My BIL goes all out for Halloween. One year the Rabbi asked their kids what the "holiday of lights" was, meaning Hanukkah, and my nephew called out "Halloween, our house is all lights!"

I love Halloween. Our next door neighbor does a great, seriously spooky house with sound effects, spooky lights, skeletons that clatter at the windows and a giant spider that scurries out from under the porch when someone comes up the walk. Our house pales in comparison with it's strings of halloween lights, glowing pumpkins up the walk & candelabras in the windows but the kids love it...I think because it's not scary like the house next door, just spooky.

We get a TON of kids! Most of the roads around us are very rural with the houses far apart so our neighborhood (which was an old lake community) is ideal for trick or treating since the houses are close. There are a lot of children in the area, our town does a hobgoblin parade & party the weekend before, it's lots of fun.

We set up the enclosed porch as spook central with the lights & the candy. One of us sits there with the dog so that we can greet the kids ( we don't have a doorbell) and the lights usually go off around 8:30 or so.

I do love to have Halloween parties since we have lots of spook appropriate stuff and it's an excuse to make things like hot chocolate with ghost shaped marshmallows, pina ghouladas, finger shaped breadsticks (complete with almond fingernails)& the like. I may do one this year since my son will be old enough to really enjoy it.

I do have a master decorating plan for this year if I can score the items cheap enough on ebay. Remember those light up plastic jack 'o lanterns, ghosts & the like? I'd like to put one in each window. I'd need at least a dozen but even if I just got enough for the upstairs windows it would look SO cool!

Sadly, our Christmas decorating pales in comparison..

Nina

When the boys were small and we lived in a neighborhood with tons of kids, we decorated the house and dressed up in costumes. And it was great fun!

Well, the boys are grown up and moved out - except one. We moved two and a half years ago to another town. We're out in the woods and have had no trick or treaters since we moved in. So no more decorations.

We do dress up the house for Christmas but that's it. And only the interior. All the old outside decorations are now stored in a barn.

Enjoy the journey.

eal51 in western CT

At our last house, I found that the more I decorated the more trick/treaters I had. One year the weather was going to be perfect, it usually rains, and I really went crazy with cob webs, giant spiders, sound effects, about 20 or so pumpkins and even had ghosts hanging from our huge maple trees. I think that year I had about 150 kids come to my door.

But now we live on 5+ acres with a very long driveway so no treaters but I still decorate a bit.

Michelle

I've been involved with my son's Halloween for the past 14 yrs. They have been on the local news several times in the past & it's held just a few blocks away, thank goodness as there are 100's & 100's that come by the "Haunted Dead End". The Police Dept. is there to control the crowds, it is truly amazing what they put together.

I'm in charge of "MAKE-UP" & @ their home page, my DIL is the beautiful chick w/the blood at her mouth, & my handsome son, is the evil looking monster at the far rightside w/ the jagged teeth & gray face.

Here's a link if you would like to take a look at their site

Here is a link that might be useful: Haunted Dead End

We love Halloween, and like Teri, we love ALL things fall. At my last house, with my ex, we really went all out with a graveyard, sound effects, fog, etc., and we had TONS of kids.

Steve and I are building up our decorations now. I may or may not be as dramatic as before, but we have a blast. We love to dress up and hand out candy, and be the "scary" or "cool" house on the block.

If (or when) we have a bigger house, I'm TOTALLY doing an adult Halloween party!

In the seven years we've lived in this house, we've had one kid knock on our door. We live on a very busy street. So we have a big pumpkin carving party the weekend before Halloween instead. Everyone brings their own pumpkins, carving implements and alcohol. Somehow, no one's ever gotten hurt. It's the easiest, most low-key party ever. We hang lights in the backyard and bring down the box of Halloween stuff from the attic. Last year, the girls made a bunch of spiders out of balloons, pipe cleaners and pom poms. We love Halloween.

I host a annual Adult party every year in my local Hibernian Hall where im a member ....we usually have a ball...last year I went as a Willie Wonka Oompa Loompa it was hilarious!

This is my favorite trick-or-treater (DGS). How could I not decorate???

Actually, we get a number of trick-or-treaters. I don't go all out in the house, but I try to make it festive for the kids.

I was looking to see if I had posted the pic of a recipe I SWEAR I'm gonna do this year, and came across the work of Dick's son...a math prof.

Lucy, very neat site!! Looks great..
Maureen, Love the pumpkin 22/7!
Mustangs, adorable gson. He would be happier if you gave him candy instead of a banana!!LOL. One year I was at my sister's and she left boxes of raisins for me to give out...heck, they almost threw them at me! I love your jack o lantern! I have never seen one like it, where did you ever find it!
Eileen, you rent the hall and throw your own party?? WOW you really do go all out!!I think I asked you if you knew Agnes, a past pres of the Lady Hibernians,,I forget if you answered...
I do some decorating, but much prefer decs for Christmas than Halloween. Have to have some fun things for the gkids though!

I do put out pumpkins along with autumn leaves and a hay stack out front. We have tons of kids that come to the house each year.

Kathleen, Thank you, he is adorable. Actually the banana is a prop for his monkey costume. The copper JOL has a great brass handle. I got it at Sam's Club about 15 years ago. I keep it on the porch Halloween night for the kids to help themselves to candy in case I don't hear them come up. Tempting fate but I rarely have kids come whom I don't know!

Great pumpkin Maureen.

Yep, we decorate to the hilt for Halloween. Always something scary. It is just so much fun! We have been doing it since the girls were little and continue to do so even thou they are teenagers now. We also give out the king size candy bars. We WANT the kids to come to our house for Halloween. We have certain kids that have been coming to our house for years that don't even live in town. Their parents drive them to our front door and say this is a never miss house. The parents also thank us for decorating and passing out candy. We love doing it and enjoy the kids. NancyLouise

I would if I could. My neighborhood doesn't have many children so we don't get ANY trick-or-treaters. Many of my friends are immigrants who don't understand Halloween at all. And the one friend who did costume parties moved to Nevada.

:-(

I met Agnes before but we dont know each other really... there is a young generation on the board now my best friend Patty is the treasurer. I rent the hall and charge a cover and then do dj buffet and prizes...the AOH has there own party seperate from mine.

Party on, Eileen, have fun! Agnes is the O'Leary's related to the Corcoran's I thought you knew...but it was the wrong ones!

The kids are grown, but we decorate a little bit - pumpkins, mums, straw, scarecrows. DD and her BF usually carve pumpkins.

And I am going to try to buy candy that I don't like so that I don't start eating it well before Halloween and then have to go out and buy MORE! (Not that I've ever done that, of course!)

Lucy! Wow! I can't believe I've missed that for all of these years. It's like I live under a rock. My son is too little & would probably be terrified but I know that my husband is going to have to check it out.

See...everybody "does" Christmas but so few do Halloween to that extent :-).

Mustangs- most adorable monkey EVER! I love the copper pumpkin too, very nice.

Nancylouise- I'm like you, I try to buy really, really good candy. I've found that things like candy eyeballs & skull lollipops go over really well, too. But I like the idea of regular sized bars! The candy all goes in a big wooden bowl and we keep a resin skeleton hand in there to "grab" the candy with. Just about everyone asks if they can have the hand.

Virginia- oddly enough no matter how much candy I buy there seems to be a lot less in the house once Halloween rolls around. I just can't bring myself to buy nothing but Butterfingers!

Nina

YES!!! I love where we live but we don't get any trick or treater but I still decorate a little bit on the outside of the house and at the top of our driveway but inside I full blown...nothing really scary but definately halloween. I have so much stuff that I will start decorating the first weekend in Oct and usually end by Columbus day. The "halloween stuff" will stay up until the first weekend after Halloween and the fall stuff incorporated in the decorations stays up through Thanksgiving. Need to save my strength for decorating for Christmas.

We are the people that have to go to other neighborhoods for trick or treating. So last year I went to my old neighborhood where I grew up, parked at my aunts and took my DS and his friend around the neighborhood. Boy was that a mind blowing experience, not only did I relive alot of halloweens in my mind but I saw neighbors that I hadn't seen in years and they were suprised to see that I had 12 years old son. Funny how you always remember people when they are young. For me that was one of the best Halloweens!

Ok now I want to start decorating! Maybe I should by a pumpkin on the way home!

Another fan of Halloween here!! We have had some great parties over the years. I remember one that we bought enough dry ice to keep a swimming pool smoking all night. I've hosted a few up here at the lake over the years. Always a good time for the kids as well as the adults. I still put up the decorations, the hay bales, pumkins, lights and whatnot. I wish I had a scanner to post some pics....y'all would be scared or ROFL!! LOL.

David

Oh yes, I love Halloween. I know some people say it's religion based but to me, it's just an excuse for kids to get free candy and I think you're never too old for free candy!

I get as many as 500 trick or treaters, last year I think I got around 300, it was a really slow year. I live right in town. It's pretty rural, so everyone that lives in the country brings their kids into town for the costume parade and trick or treating. We carve Jack O Lanterns with stencils and Ashley made the garage into a "Chamber of Doom" one year. Amanda's birthday is November 2, so she often had a Halloween themed birthday party. She always had lots of attendees because our motto was "get more candy than you would trick or treating"!

Last year Ashley had to work and I didn't put up any decorations. She's already asking me if we are going to decorate this year, and I didn't think she'd even notice. Goes to show you....

Yup, love Halloween. I don't like Christmas, though, it's become an overblown, fully commercialized farce, if I didn't have the family Christmas party every year I'd throw the artificial tree away and never put up another decoration. Other than the absolute necessities, like Christmas cookies and watching Rudolph with Makayla and Christmas Eve candlelight service, I've pretty much been boycotting Christmas.

Annie

I put an orange light bulb in my outdoor lamppost.

I love Halloween! I just bought a sign that says "the Witch is in." I plan on putting it over my desk as soon as we're done moving the office. I don't decorate much at the house though. I do have a Halloweeny sign to hang on the door and I usually get a few pumpkins and gourds for the front steps. They are mostly for me because we don't get any trick-or-treaters.

Quite ironically, DH and I dressed up like gangsters a few years back and went trick-or-treating over friends' houses with beer koozies on Halloween. The ironic part? We still got candy (no beer)!

Maureen, love your pumpkin pi!

I love Halloween! A holiday with no obligations! My DS has had a pumpkin carving contest three years running and we plan to do it again this year. An afternoon carving pumpkins with friends, snacks and cider.

We usually dress up, too. Homemade costumes only.

~Amanda

I have a long driveway than winds into a wooded area...I hang skeletons from the trees. Hee hee! Even if I didn't hang the skeletons I still would have no trick or treaties that come to my house:-( We live to far from the main road. Halloween is my birthday and we always "do" Halloween in some sort of way.

Glenn and I got married on Halloween :)

Most kids in the neighborhood know if they wish us Happy Anniversary they get extra candy.

I usually paint the windows and the storm door with Halloween images. People usually think I put up huge colorforms when I've actually painted the stuff, they are blown away when I tell them I made 'em.

We usually shut things down just after 8 and either go out or have a private dinner to celebrate.

BOO !!! My daughter loves these, and yes we love Halloween !!!Popcorn Balls
Yield: 6 servings

1/2 c Molasses
1/2 c Corn syrup
1 1/2 Cubes butter (3/4 cup)
Salt
8 c Popped popcorn (measure after popping)

Cook 1/2 cup molasses with corn syrup until thermometer reaches hard crack stage, about 270 degrees. Stir in butter and salt. Have the popcorn in a bowl. Slowly stir in the mixture with a wooden spoon. Coat all the popcorn. IMPORTANT! Butter your hands lightly and shape the popcorn into balls. Make them the size you want. Set them on wax paper and let them harden. Wrap the ones you don't eat with wax paper. (To make these Bloody Popcorn Balls, add a bit of red food color paste to the corn syrup mixture, it will give it a reddish tint. Tint to desired color

Used to go all out when the kids were little, decorations , homemade treats, I dressed up as a witch and scared all the little kids! LOL.

Now that they are gone I find it a royal pain, guess that makes me a real witch!!!

The little kids are cute but after about 7:30 it's just older kids who really put no effort into getting dressed up. Half don't say thank you, or don't even bother saying trick or treat.

I'm thinking this year we just might make dinner reservations and avoid the whole thing.

When the kids were younger, we'd get really into Halloween. I always got dressed up to help at the elementary school parades when the kids were in school there, always brought up snacks and helped with the class parties.

These were always a big hit at the class parties.

SEVERED FINGERS
2 tablespoons red food coloring
30 blanched almonds
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

Heat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with Silpats (French nonstick baking mats) or parchment paper, and set aside.

Place food coloring in a shallow bowl. Using a small paintbrush, color one rounded half of each almond. Set aside to dry.
Separate 1 egg. Set aside the white. In a small bowl, whisk together yolk, remaining egg, and vanilla. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, confectioners' sugar, granulated sugar, and salt. Beat on medium speed until well combined. Add egg mixture, and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the flour, and mix on low speed just until incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic, and chill until firm, 20 to 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in half. Work with one piece at a time, keeping remaining dough covered with plastic wrap and chilled. Divide the first half into fifteen pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece back and forth with palms into finger shapes, 3 to 4 inches long. Pinch dough in two places to form knuckles. Score each knuckle lightly with the back of a small knife. Transfer fingers to prepared baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough.

When all fingers are formed, brush lightly with egg white. Position almond nails; push into dough to attach.

Bake until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Cool completely. makes about 30 cookies
Martha Stewart Living

It is my favorite holiday, but I haven't "done" Halloween in a long time. Maybe I will do a party with a hay ride this year. Hmmmm. I had better start planning.
Sherry

I love Halloween, too! We have an adult/child party each year - and are always looking for great ideas.

Lucy, I have to say, I checked the site for the haunted dead end - and is that your DIL - the bride? She is really freaking me out. I may have nightmares tonight :-)

Seriously, how did she do that? It does not look like a mask, but it has to be- doesn't it?

Stacy,
Yes, that's my DIL, if you go back to the site, click on crew, you can see her w/o the makeup, she's the beautiful Lauren, & my handsome son is Rich (these 2 are married to each other).

Halloween has always been a big deal for me, guess I passed that on to my son & daughter. Each of my kids growing up has always had a custom costume that I made. Now into their adult life, the fun of it all is still with them, and I've never stopped making costumes! Each year between the 3 of them, they come to me w/their ideas, leaving me to figure the ins & outs of it all. Love it!

To answer your question about the makeup, I paste on professional prosthetics on to my DIL & Son faces, then apply the makeup. The event is huge and they're all involved in many antic's throughout the evening, so a regular type of mask doesn't work for them.

Sorry about the nightmares..we aim to scare the screaming geebee's out of you! ;-)

Lucy

I love Halloween also, but we don't get any children. We also have a house in a wooded neighborhood with 3 acre lots. But I still buy candy every year and hope.

We decorate for ourselves nevertheless. I have all sorts of things I do throughout the house and outside. I just ordered this Snoopy in the pumpkin patch. He won't even go in the front since nobody comes by - he'll go out back just beyond the deck where we can see him lit up every night! I'll of course have to do hay stacks and many pumpkins all around him!

I do think we might do a bonfire this year on Friday the 26th, which is the full Hunter's Moon. Sort of a work celebration for a project that's winding down in a couple of weeks. Was thinking of hot dogs of course and smores and such, but also having caramel apples and popcorn balls and making the back yard look really great for the occasion.

Does anyone do anything for dia de los muertos, or Day of the Dead on the 1st. After watching the Showtime series Dead Like Me and being TOTALLY crazed fans of Mandy Patinkin, I'm curious about doing some fun day of the dead thing.

{{gwi:1570867}}

Hi Femmelady, how's my dream kitchen treating you? :-) (Femmelady's kitchen was one of my inspiration kitchens when we were planning ours)

I love the Day of the Dead stuff but we don't celebrate. One of the catalogs that we get innundated with....Hearthsong, maybe?...had a kit to make the sugar skulls complete with molds & I was very tempted. Maybe I still will. Unfortunately that means that if I make them they're probably get eaten.

I love the bonfire idea, too.

Nina

I've slept with a black cat for years. Sometime two of them... whoo hoo! The dress up part is continual. Last I knew chocolate addiction was a GW expectation. Alas no children venture near my home... the stew is just so lacking that special flavor without them. Once threatened to turn a co-worker into a frog and was reported to hr for it. It went nowhere showing hr was smart enough not to scrw with someone reading a book of spells.

Some say I'm psychotic but what reality are they from?

: )
lyra

^I'm in a similar situation - no children in the neighborhood, but I will go to adult parties. I don't bother to decorate for Halloween, although I have in the past. There are some great parties in L.A. at Halloween, especially at Hugh Hefner's house and Shane Black's. I went to Shane Black's house one year, but the person who invited me no longer lives here. I have plenty of costumes, however, and two swords.

Lars

I love halloween. Decorations have really taken off in the past few years. I'm amazed at all of the aisles set aside in stores. My favorite thing to make for halloween is ghosts in the graveyard. It's like dirt cake, but with a graveyard theme to the top. It's made with pudding and oreos and pepperidge farm milanos. I added the recipe to my blog if you want to see. It's really easy to make.

Here is a link that might be useful: ghosts in the graveyard recipe

Hey Lucy, wow, you really have your work cut out for you making them look ugly!

I have seen many online sources for the prosthetics, would you mind telling me where you get yours? Oh my gosh, I'd love to do that...

Stacy, I've just picked up supplies for my son's costume, so I'll be working on his new scary look : )

The info you asked for is on my office computer & for the life of me cannot think of their name, & when I did a search I couldn't remember which one it was. We haven't ordered in a few years, as we have re-using what we have. Although they can be pricey , you can get several years out of the prosthetics. I'll get back to you tomorrow w/the info..

I dont decorate but we do hand out candy. One of my favorite holidays. I love to see the children all dressed up. Me and my furbabies sit on the front porch and hand out the candy.

Stacy,
here ya go..We get them from http://screamteam.com/

Lucy

ahhh - Lucy - thank you so much!