Yup, it is commercialized. That's for sure.

It is all about good old American style advertising and consumerism. Halloween was a very low key, fun time for us kids growing up in the 50s and 60s--just corny home made costumes and local trick or treating for mostly homemade candy and such. I do know that a more raucus 'devil's night' is celebrated with drunkenness and destruction elsewhere, but not in my hometown near Chicago. Now Halloween is advertised to death, the way Christmas has become a travesty of advertising and piled-on stuff. This is really a recent phenomenon. Incidently, it is now spreading more and more overseas. I started seeing some Halloween greeting cards and decorations while living in Italy in 2004.

Most definitely! I loved halloween as a child & teenager, just for the candy. But as I aged I found out its "Satans" Holiday and I DO NOT celebrate it. I hate horror, murder and all that sort of stuff anyway.

It seems that all holidays have evolved over the years.
Unfortunately, commercialism is a big part of how we view holidays now. Halloween to me is costumes, candy and parties. That's a modern viewpoint. The past is gone.

I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday, and I have a blast dressing up and going to costume parties every year. I plan for it for weeks usually.

Every holiday is commercialized in this country. There isn't one that isn't, even the once sacred, religious holidays. Any way people can find to make money, they will.

Although I share a dislike for a lot of things about Halloween, like training kids to be moochers, I won't follow you off the cliff.

Seems easy enough for me to understand how a day intended to scare people results in playing horror films and such. Seems almost logical to me.

You'll have to give me directions to your place for the drunkenness and debauchery! C'mon now, isn't that exaggerating quite a bit? How do you feel about other holidays? Many people think New Year's Eve is the worst for drunk driving fatalities but far from it. New Year's Eve runs a distant second to the holiday that statistically has the largest number of drunk driving fatalities and that's Thanksgiving. Now *there's* a day of drunkenness and debauchery! And gluttony gets tossed in there too.

I won't go into Christmas greed for all, 4th of July - how many people know what it's about other than a long weekend, more gluttony and a BBQ. Easter? More packing your face and filling kids with candy! Labor Day? Seems strange that people who don't work would celebrate it and why do non-veterans get a day off intended to honor veterans?

As a kid we got a lot of exercise on Halloween. But not anymore. Of course kids then would walk to school not ride a bus or SUV. But we'd have to work for the goodies we got. Nobody drove us around to load up, nor did the schools bus kids to the shopping malls to hit up the businesses as they do now. Sometimes you'd luck out and live near some apartments without security so you could get in there and hit a bunch in a short time but I wasn't that lucky.

There is one bit of equalization though for the video game couch potatoes on Halloween. Has anyone seen the size of the candy bars given away these days??? LOL They can probably work those off in a couple of burps.

People wonder why I'm not a big fan of holidays. To me they're pretty much just another day. People have lost their sense of humor about them too. Used to be able to put out your

Halloween Shopping List:
[]Apples
[]Razor blades
[]Pins
[]LSD...
(sigh) but not anymore. People have a need to go so crazy about Aunt Bertha who cut her tongue licking a razor blade clean or something.

But, a friend really likes Halloween and can't wait for the 75% off candy clearance the day after! Uh, but that might ring the greed bell again wouldn't it?

Time for a drink or two and some food. After all it *is* Sunday.

I love Halloween too. Going to a Renaissance/Medieval party this year. It's so much fun to dress up and be silly once in a while. I think that's what Halloween is all about. Not devil worship and such.

I once knew a guy who was extremely shy. One night we went to a Halloween party and someone came in dressed as a gorilla. The gorilla was acting all goofy, and funny and wouldn't speak to anyone for the longest time so we wouldn't know who it was. We finally found out it was the guy that was so shy but for a few hours that night he just let go and had fun. After that he started to come out of his shell and found a girl friend.

Linda

"Day of drunkenness and debauchery"? You must live in an interesting neighborhood/town. Most years, we don't even get Trick or Treaters, let alone drunken, debauched people. :o) Come to think of it, I haven't seen any "perversion of honor and sacredness" either.

Yup, this is America. We can commercialize anything ( including "Talk Like a Pirate Day", the birth of Jesus Christ, a day to celebrate our love, express our love for our Grandparents...) until it is un-recognizable.

Personally, I love Fall so as Oct 31 approaches I take special note of Nature's changing and the harvest being in; I just ignore others' ways of celebrating their fall. Nov. 1st I start celebrating family and counting my blessings, and ignoring others' ways of celebrating holidays.

Doesn't bother me any. I dont' even ALMOST see it as mooching - we always buy and give away a lot more than we collect - it's a great way to meet and greet neighbors as everyone is generally in a good mood and chatty, and it's fun to dress up and attend parties.

It's all what you make of it. ie - christmas in our home is a sacred event on christmas eve, followed by a family day the next day of gift giving. Commercialism is pathetic - but in the US, many of us are disgusting consumers on a daily basis anyway. Why point out just the holiday? It's a much bigger problem than that.

I used to like seeing the kids come in their costumes. Now we live where there aren't any kids and no trick or treaters.

I have never liked Halloween....even as a child.

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday... but DH and I dress up in costumes and go to a party or two every year. We always have fun.

I think the fourth of July is the worst holiday. The firecracker noise drives me (and the neighborhood dogs) nuts! It doesn't end in my neighborhood until school starts back up late August.

Ditto what Petra said. Around here, St. Patrick's Day is the holiday for drinking. And New Year's Eve, too, I guess--although for the past few years we've had First Night, which is more of a family celebration.

My mother was wonderfully creative, and made some terrific costumes for me on Halloween. Where I live now, we have no trick-or-treaters, which I have to admit is fine with me. I'm not big on candy. But if I'm invited to a party I view Halloween as an opportunity to get creative with a costume. I did the same for my kids when they were little.

We're definitely not into horror. The last time I got dressed up for Halloween I was a cat. The time before that I was my dog Wolfy. :-)

I liked the excitement of Halloween as a child and so did my children and grandchild. I do not think children think of it as being evil, but teens sometimes are a little mischeiveous.

bobbing for apples, going to church for their halloween parties, long long long gone :o(

I like Halloween and we decorate the yard ad such, but I don't like the ghoulish blood oozing, violent slant it has taken on.

When I was a kid it was called "going begging" The
trick or treat thing came later on. I used to love Halloween and still like the colors and fun.
I think more and more churches and communities are having safe parties for kids now. We didn't have any but the closest neighbor kids
last year but the mall had lots of thing to do.
I think it was originally a religious holiday

It's a fun holiday for the kids...that's all.

I personally hate Halloween. People in my neighborhood go overboard decorating. Down the street there's a merry go round with ghost riding it. Must have cost 1,000 s . Then the kids come. Little ones, okay. But the teens who thrust an open pillowcase in your face-they shouldn't be out at all. Grow up! And the pranks-one year they broke side view mirrors off parked cars. The police were called. No arrests.

I miss sitting on my front porch, at my house and greeting the little hobgoblins and admiring their costumes and giving them a treat. When we lived in Montana, I was surprised when a couple kids came to our door, held out their bags and said Mum-mum-mun. I still don't know the background but some were mummers there. I guess I don't think of Halloween as a gory holiday, but a fun one.

This is Flamey speaking....

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I like the creativity of it, the colors, the costumes, the fun food, the parties, the pumpkins and mums and corn stalks, the apples, the cooler temps, it just all comes together and makes me happy. I don't mind some gore and have never looked at this as anything evil or deadly, my goodness.

I would love to have trick-or-treaters again, but we live too far out in the woods for anyone to come by.

Oh brother. Maybe I should have the post removed, I'm offended and I believe this post belongs in Hot Topics.

Maybe we should get rid of the Easter Bunny, that's animal abuse.

I'm joining the ranks of those who hate Halloween. Used to love it as a child. We made our own costumes... we'd be witches, hobos, ghosts, etc. But it seems to me that Halloween has, in the past 10-15 years, made a transition in this country, imo. Instead of just grinning jack-o-lanterns, witches, black cats, and ghosts made of sheets now we have masks of demonic, crazed killers with blood dripping from their lips. If any of you have one of those seasonal Halloween costume/decor stores near you, you know what I mean. It is unbelievable the lengths they go to make these costumes and "decorations" seem as revolting and nightmarish as they can.

Interesting how different areas can differ so greatly. Where I live it's wonderfully "traditional", with the kids in great costumes - some purchased and some home made - and having fun. No roudiness that I've ever seen, and the kids are polite and say thank you, usually with a level of glee that I'm pleased to see. It's fun for them and it's fun for me to interact with them.

I don't even mind when the teenagers come. Heck - they're doing no harm and, in a big way, still having some of their childhood fun. If they're not quite ready to let go of the Halloween fun they had as children, and are doing it with one another and staying out of trouble, then I say go for it! I interact and have fun with them, too. And they appreciate it and joke back with me.

I can't imagine that my area is all that unique or "Mayberry-ish" , so perhaps it's very much according to attitude?

I never understand the grumpiness of some adults who turn off the lights, say the teenagers shouldn't come, etc. Can't we all have some fun? To completely butcher a Forrest Gump quote - "fun is as fun does".

I love Halloween. Our neighborhood sets up in our drives on treat night with our firepits a blaze and some dress up. It is a fun night for young and old. It is so much fun. Halloween, like, any other holiday is just what a person makes it. Lighten up and enjoy...

I love Halloween too. Dh and I started dressing up again a few years back. The kids love it. We have a blast. I don't mind the teenagers if they dress up.

" Halloween, like, any other holiday is just what a person makes it. Lighten up and enjoy..." I couldn't agree more with Susie53's statement!

I love the day! Love to see the kids come dressed up in their costumes.

When our kids were small, we told them it was a day of 'make believe'...they could be who they wanted to be. A special day that kids could just play dress up!! We did NOT allow them to goulish! They still dress up..and they always make it fun, not scarey.

It is a fantastic holiday in my neighborhood. Sometimes the neighbors get together early for a potluck.
We love to sit out front and pass out candy and see who is dressed as what.
We really look forward to it.

I love Halloween also. We have very few trick or treaters in the neighborhood now, so I just turn off the porch light.

But I love to decorate inside with my little Halloween Village and a few fiber optic decorations. I don't do goulish, but I love Haunted Houses and wee witches and ghosties...

I remember how scared my kids were at some of the "decorations" when they were little, so try to put out only cheerful stuff. We get loads of trick-or-treaters and many of them are very young. Of course, they're usually focused on what they're going to get, but I really just don't want to scare them.

Well, I am known among the kids as the lady who gives the best treat bags in the neighborhood and the little kids get such a kick out of proudly showing off their costumes. I always put a little tag on the bags so the parents know where it came from and I enjoy it as much as the children do. I always decorate with pumpkins, black cats, etc. but never anything ghouliish and scary. I'll keep doing it as long as they keep coming and I don't feel that it is harmful to them or to me.

I also love Halloween. We decorate conservatively, just enough for the kids(of all ages) to know it's okay to knock/ring the doorbell.

Love the little ones, whose parents take them around...the older ones, who are followed (discretely) by a parent in a car parked at the curb. And the teens loving the excuse to get free junk food off the neighbors.
Frankly, I think it's great to see the teenage boys(and some girls) in barely token "costumes" holding out a bag for candy. We spend so much time talking about kids growing up too fast, how can you complain when they spend one night returning to "kid" stuff?

I hate Halloween.... that said, I help DD get a costume every year (and have made quite a few, last year was the first store-bought costume ever), take her walking around the neighborhood and then we sit in the driveway and hand out candy once it gets really dark. It's fun. She has fun. But I really don't like Halloween other than the candy ;) And I like seeing the 'big kids' walking around being 'young again' too.

I love Dia de los Muertos. Now that is a great tradition we have, we do every year. Which reminds me, I need to get started on our stuff for this year's celebration!

tally, I like your decorations ! I have always liked stuff that goes along with pumpkins, ghosts, anything whimsical, like what you have pictured. Love the candy bowls you can find this time of year, too. Always looked forward to the kids coming to the door, never cared how old they were. For me, it was fun.
Now we live to far out for the children to come and I really miss it....

ditto to Monica's comments

WHIMSEY! Yes Lavon, that is exactly the description for how I view Halloween. I have never viewed it as evil, or bloody ghoulish, although I know some do. But not for me.

To me it is whimsical, and reminds me of the 50's when I was growing up. The excitment of choosing a costume, the anticipation of being out at night to visit all neighborhood grownups, stopping on the sidewalk with friends to compare who was giving out the best treats, the houses all decorated and being scared out of my wits when someone answered the door dressed as Frankenstein, and the anticipation of coming home to sift through the treats deciding which to eat, and which to savor for another day.

Halloween for me is a memory of happier, innocent times, a smell of MacIntosh apples and that sweet yellow and orange candy corn, carving pumpkins, running through the fall leaves on the ground, the crisp evenings with winter and Christmas just a breath away.

Wonderful childhood memories I still relive when I set out my decorations.

I guess Halloween evokes different feelings to different people. To me it was always magical.

I popped into a party store to look for a few more decorations this afternoon and 90% of the stuff was what I would consider frightening to a young child. Sigh.

When I was first married , I would buy one pumpkin and carve it and put Indian corn on the door. That was it. Today around here some people spend more and decorate more for Halloween than Xmas. The set up some of these houses have is amazing. I am never home. I have dogs and a picket fence all around the yard and people were not coming so after the first few years, I packed up and left. I go to my GS's house and go with him and his friends and parents. Grandpa stays at their house handing out the candy. There is also a parade too where GS won first prize when he was 3.

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I say it's just a fun holiday; mostly for kids. Gotta have some fun once in a while!!!

I like Halloween, it's a fun holiday for kids to dress up and have fun.

I love it. It's my favorite holiday. I love the creativity and the childishness that comes along with it. I love the teenagers who get to be children again in a world that expects them to grow up way too fast. I think calling it "Satan's holiday" is a little over the top.

Halloween is not my favourite holiday, but I agree with Monica. I do enjoy the young children who come over dressed up, and I welcome the teenagers too. They're all having fun, and it's hard for me to find a complaint in that. I guess I've just always wished I could get into the spirit of it more.