do you celebrate Halloween? - if so, what do you do?

my2monkeyboys wrote: Just wondering if/how all of you celebrate halloween. We are having a party this year, for kids and adults to dress up and have fun.
So... what's on your schedule?

edit: left out a word!

luvbug00 replied: we do celebrate but we olnly trick or treat.

gr33n3y3z replied: I hate Halloween but I take Katie out but I give candy for the kids at the in-laws

mckayleesmom replied: Holloween is my favorite...so of course we do...We usually just make pumpkin seeds, carve pumpkins and go trick or treating....Decorate the house a little.

Its one of those days that you get to be a kid and use your imagination....not a serious day...

Momof3inMe replied: This will be the frist year we take Emily out. The boys go with thier dad most of the time.

We are not big on candy here most of the time I throw it away after a week or so. So if the boys go with dad the candy stays there and take a little at a time back to our house.

MoonMama replied: I personally love Halloween. This year nothing but giving out candy sence unless he comes early Braedin wont be here yet. But ether way its usually cold as heck here on Halloween (maybe sunny and warmish the day before and after but not on Halloween ) so ether way he'd be too young for the cold anyway. But next year we'll dress him up and take him trick or treating. Maybe have Halloween parties as he gets older.

C&K*s Mommie replied: We do not have any Halloween traditions. We should start to come up with traditions, I suppose.

Other than trick or treating, and going to local churches for the carnivals, we have not done much in the past.

Crystalina replied: Halloween is my all time favorite holiday. I think it's because of the season. I wish it were fall all year. It just doesn't last long enough. I still dress up evey year. I was a mean looking witch last year. We don't pass out candy because out here we get no trick or treaters. We have a huge bonfire, apple bobbing for the kids, a pumkin carving contest....the whole thing. I also always have great holloween music (Addams Family is our favorite). We take the kids "begging" as usual. It's so great!!!

1lilpeanut2love replied: We really don't have any traditions. Kaylee's 1st Halloween was last year. We decorate a little around the house. We also started a tradition of getting her pictures taken at some studio in her costume. We also go trick or treating. We took her around to several houses last year. She was young- 6 months to be exact, but we had fun!

I love Halloween!

mom2my2cuties replied: We have never really celebrated halloween. We do a harvest festival every year at church.

martzfam27 replied: Fall is my favorite season and Lucas loves halloween so we really celebrate. We go trick or treating, pass out candy, decorate the house a little, and carve pumpkins..

hawkshoe replied: I love Halloween. I make my kids costumes each year. We also make a trip to the pumpkin patch and buy at least 10 pumpkins that we carve up on Halloween morning. I roast the pumpkin seeds to have as a treat. I hand out candy, usually full size candy bars for the older kids and cookies or crackers to the preschoolers. I also decorate my house putting glowing eyeballs in all the windows. I only do it on Halloween day and take them down the next morning. I line my walkway with the carved pumpkins, put liminares down my driveway and put black lights in my light fixtures. I also dress up , usually coordinating my outfit with my kids.

mom21kid2dogs replied: We don't "celebrate" it as much as we "participate" in it. At school (private, Catholic) they dress up as their favorite saint. We do trick or treat, carve and light a pumpkin~we really love Fall as the season as a whole. We do mostly Fall decorations and not so much Halloween specific decorations.

PrairieMom replied: We have a thing at the zoo called the Zoo Boo where you dress up the kids and trick or treat as you go around to see the animals. We have done it every year so far with the boy. We will trick or treat the neighborhood this year too, but I don't think we will be handing out candy. It freaks out our dog to much!

CantWait replied: I love Halloween. It's probably my favourite occassion, Christmas comes a very close second. We don't go out of our way to do much. Just hang as many decorations as I can afford (I buy a bit every year, also have to throw a couple out almost every year), and take the kids trick or treating around the neighbourhood. I'll hand candy out for a bit or if Ron is home then he stays and hands it out. I'm looking forward to it this year, and hope it's nice as last year.

Omgosh I forgot to say that we carve pumpkins, usually one for each of the kids. And then we roast the seeds in the oven with some seasoning salt.

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
We have that at our church too - the kids do all dress up though and play games for candy. I used to love getting dressed up and getting tons of candy. I've never been trick or treating but we might end up taking our kids when they're bigger. I love giving out candy to trick-or-treaters but we're rarely home to do it.

my2monkeyboys replied: We've never cooked pumpkin seeds... how do you do that?

AlexsPajamaMama replied: We decorate for fall/halloween
Last year Alex was 1.5 and dressed as a puppy....we didnt do trick or treating though. He wore his costume when we went to visit my Dad on Halloween and that was fun for him. Halloween night we sat and read Cliffords first Halloween and a couple other Halloween books

This year we will take him trick or treating, but just to houses we know...thats what we always did as kids too.

CantWait replied:
Please don't take this the wrong way because I really don't mean to be rude, but how do you dress up as your favouite Saint?

CantWait replied:
Take all the seeds out, separate them from the gunk, rinse them off, put them on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt, or seasoning salt or whatever flavour you like, put in the oven on 350, and take out when golden brown and crispy.

my2monkeyboys replied: Thanks! We may have to try that this year!

mom21kid2dogs replied:
I don't take it as rude at all! How do you know lest you ask!
In the Catholic faith, each Saint has his own symbol~something that represents what they did in life. Saint Peter, for example, is always potrayed with keys because he was appointed by Christ to be the "keeper" of the faith. Saint Francis of Assisi is always portrayed with animals, Saint Paul always has a book, etc. The kids research a Saint and then replicate the symbols associated with that Saint. The other reason they do this is that the Catholic holyday, All Saints Day, falls on Halloween. (Oct 31st).