Thank you, Oakley! I am so glad to know I'm not the only Halloween loather out there. I hate everything about it. I don't know why, though I hated the costume thing, too. Still do. Maybe that's why I hate Disney World so much - all those giant characters wandering around!

One year my sister and I trick-or-treated around the same block twice. (There must have been some really great goodies!) Somehow Mom found out and made us go and give back the treats.

Donna

Our favorite memory occurred about 30 years ago when our kids were young.Part of our fall decor included a scarecrow sitting on a chair on the front porch....right by the door. I used a pair of old bib overalls, flannel shirt, straw hat, mask, etc.. I stuffed it with newspapers with straw sticking out. On Halloween night DH traded places with the scarecrow.....putting on the same outfit. Soooo, right when the trick-or-treaters were ready to ring the doorbell, DH would growl and lunge! There were many mothers accompanying their kids. You never heard so many screams! Everyone could not stop laughing. Many of those mothers remind us of that many years later.

Grapefruit, we did the same thing here when my kids were in their teens. I always went overboard decorating, even to the point that the kids would have to come in the house and walk through it to get their treat, lots of screaming and laughing. It was great. Now I just bag up some special yummies for the few children that come and then turn out the light.

I've never liked Halloween. I willingly stopped dressing up for it in third grade and that included the event at school. I don't like scary things and don't understand liking fear and treating it as fun. I know not everything is 'scary' but the holiday revolves around 'spooky' and 'spoooooky fun'. Our kids dress up for the thing at school but that's it. We're also out in the country and don't always get trick or treaters though we do keep some candy bars on hand.

Donna, I feel your humiliation! This reminds me of the utter humiliation I felt one year, and I think I was about 12.

Too old to trick or treat, and again my parents went to a party and I did not want to hand out candy. Not sure where my brother was. I turned off the lights in the house and went upstairs to watch tv. Suddenly I started craving candy so I put something on at the last minute and I'm sure it looked stupid, and went trick or treating a couple of blocks away so no one would know me.

The very first house I went to had a bunch of high school cheerleaders there passing out candy. At my age they were royalty. lol. They all looked at me and said, "Aren't you too old to trick or treat?"

I made up some excuse then died of embarrassment and went home.

Awww, I've always loved Halloween, as a kid and as an adult, although never the scary costumes, decorations or movies. As a matter of fact, DH proposed to me on Halloween after we'd returned to his place from a costume party. My mom, who was an excellent seamstress, and I had designed and sewn our costumes (and they were so wonderful, that I've kept them all these years). DH went as Merlin and I went as Morgan le Fay from the movie "Excalibur". For me, Halloween has nothing but happy and romantic memories, so I'm adding my romantic one to the list (LOL).

My last year trick-or-treating, my friend's and my favorite TV show was Alias Smith and Jones. Swoon. So, living in a horse-friendly community, we dressed as the guys and trick-or-treated on her horses. Fun! Except, they didnt have saddles, and I have a hard time mounting without one. And, every time we went to a door, the horses tried to walk in! So one of us had to stay in the driveway holding both horses firmly, while the other rang the doorbell. Kind of a bother, in the end lol. Then there was the car of boys who tossed a cherry bomb as they drove by, spooking the horses. That was definitely NOT fun.

My son's early Halloweens were scary for him. We went to a hayride, and one of the parents on the ride wore a slasher costume, OMG it was gory. We had to get off the ride after not too long, DS was practically clawing his way inside my coat while sneaking frightened looks at the guy. And answering the door one year, the dad accompanying the child had on a "scream" mask. Scared the bejeebers out of DS. We had plenty of talks about real and not-real. So, when he was 3 and going trick-or-treating for the first time, I'd made him a scarecrow costume. He freaked out, "I don't WANT to be a scarecrow! I want to be DS!" So I dressed him in his red puddle-jumper overall and rain boots, threw on a firefighter's helmet (it was, in fact, sprinkling every now and then that day), and went out. At every house, folks would say "what have we here? Oh, a firefighter!" And DS would correct them "No, I'm only DRESSED like a firefighter." After 5 houses he said "Mommy, I have enough candy now."

Funnily enough, he grew up to be an actor and portraying characters other than himself is what he does.

Bpath, your story reminds me of another embarrassing moment. I've had a lot of those. :)

We were relatively new to this small town and it was normal for parents to dress up when they took the kids trick or treating. A friend gave DH and I identical costumes.

Friends were out doing the same and I wasn't familiar with many residents and who lived where.

We walked to the porch of a large house and a Nun stood up. I thought it was a costume. More nuns came outside around the same time, and I realized it was their house.

First nun said to us, "I don't think we know you, what is your name?"

Second nun not looking all happy, "What are you dressed as?"

Me: The angel of death. LOL!!! They didn't like it.

We neighborhood kids, and usually moms, went together house to house. One year neighbor Ronnie dressed as a guy with a big round belly. He tripped and fell, and rolled right down an embankment in front of a house. We all howled, adults included. He wasn't hurt, in fact he enjoyed the attention!

Love Halloween!

One year, as an adult, I dressed as some kind of funky bird. It started out as one of those bobbing red birds grandma's have on their window sills-- and then it evolved to some kind of large colorful bird with lots and lots of feathers/boas sewn into my costume. I went to a number of bars and parties that night-- and left a tell-tale trail of feathers. When I ran into other party hoppers later that night, they knew where I had been based on whether they had seen yellow, pink and blue feathers!

Favorite costume ever- also as an adult (somewhere in the early 90s) I was an AWESOME boy George.

I helped a Mom come up with costumes for their two little girls whom I babysat for when I was a teen. They wore burlap bags which were stuffed with wads of newspaper to make them look like bags of potatoes, had holes cut out for the eyes. After the contest, which they placed I forget how 1st. or 2nd, their Mom said the kids were almost suffocated from the heat of the newspaper and burlap! I can still see their red faces, poor little things.

I'm also a non-lover of Halloween. My Mom was a gifted seamstress & I had some great costumes, but usually ended up sick for Halloween....psychosomatic maybe??!! Our kids enjoyed Halloween & both have a great sense of humor, so usually came up with something pretty funny. I always made them eat a good dinner before they went trick or treating...made me feel better about things....crazy lady....

Lar's topic about Halloween candy made me realize there is one great thing about the holiday. Large groceries stores set out their chocolate covered cherries immediately. I hoard and hide them from my family.

During our poor college days DH would buy me a box of the cherries and a large tin of cashews for Christmas. Heaven!

I have always loved Halloween. Coming up with costume ideas was always my favorite part-even more than the candy we'd get as kids!

As an adult I have dressed up, but not in recent years. Once, when I was a very young woman, about 20, I worked at a Savings & Loan. I dressed up as a little old lady-complete with a gray wig. I went to work that morning and knocked on the door to be let in but my coworkers didn't recognize me-they thought I was a customer!

I have had a lot of fun doing costumes for my kids, too. My favorite year was when the boys were a cat & a mouse-we put pillows in their costumes so they were both so fat they couldn't walk without waddling, everyone loved it. DD2 was Miss America, but she had on a witches crooked nose, and DD1 was Maid Marian-she looked so beautiful with her cone hat.

One year, however, my own personal best costume was 'Cousin Eddy'. I was a used car salesman, complete with beard and a hairy chest. I wore an obnoxious polyester suit, stuffed a pillow to make a big beer belly, slicked back my hair and glued fake fur to my upper chest and neck and a goatee/mustache combo. I got an old, clunky cell phone and put on a chunky link bracelet, gold chain and a pinkie ring. I stuck a toothpick in my mouth-I wanted a cigar, but couldn't have one at work.

DH was still sleeping when I was leaving for work so I climbed onto the bed and started to kiss him. He opened his eyes halfway, shut them, then they popped open wide and he screamed! He was totally freaked out. I had so much fun that day-people were so uncomfortable at how I'd gone from a woman to a really greasy looking man.