Halloween Memories Back to Blog
Thanks to the uber fabulous Cynthia for inviting me to blog during this wickedly fun time of year! I love Halloween. Something about the cooler weather after such harsh temperatures and 100% humidity for several months.
I can still vividly recall walking down my street along with dozens of other kids as we went from house to house trick-or-treating. There were parents holding flashlights and making sure no one ran off, but not once did I think anything bad could – or would – happen. It was a night full of fun and scares, a night when things that go bump in the night are supposed to be out.
And every year my mother dressed me up in the same thing – a gypsy costume used with whatever we had around the house. I loved it at first, but by the third year I was so tired of it I refused to go out unless we could do something different. She gave in, but she wasn’t happy.
To her, costumes were meant to be something to put together from what was on hand, not store bought.
Fast forward to today…
Boy, how things have changed. I don’t like my kids going trick-or-treating to houses and people I don’t know. I’ve read the newspaper and seen the reports on TV. I know the freaks out there.
As much as I want my kids to have fun, I want them to be safe.
But I think it would be really neat if my kiddos could know what it was like for me during Halloween. Walking along the semi-darkened streets with my friends all dressed up, seeing if our neighbors could tell who was who beneath the costumes, and most of all seeing how much candy we could get.
What is your favorite Halloween memory?
I’ll be giving away a copy of the second book in my Dark Sword series, FORBIDDEN HIGHLANDER to a commenter.
To find out more about me, check www.DonnaGrant.com. To find out more about the Dark Sword series, see pics of the Warriors, take the quiz, search the characters, or see the book trailers, check www.donnagrant.com/darksword.
hugs,
D
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There’s not much of Halloween going on around here in Germany. But my American friends always put on a big Halloween party with all the traditions….scary costumes, pumpkin carving, lots of good food and a laberinth in the back yard for the kids to walk through and get scared…hehe!!
I look forward to that every year.
Valerie
in Germany
Hi, Donna! Thanks so much for stopping by! I’m with you–I’m not for the stranger trick or treat any longer. I like the safety of staying in my neighborhood.
There is no Halloween celebration in The Netherlands. That a shame. I wanna party too!
So I can only relate to Halloween through American Movies.
But I would love to read this book.
Please enter me.
lucybeugelingramos@gmail.com
When I was younger we always made my costume too. I was usually a cat or a cheerleader but one year my aunt and gransma made me a princess outfit. It was amazing!!! My mom even painted my face so it would be a little magical. 🙂 With my kids we usually go to my uncles neighborhood. He lives in a VERY nice sub division and there are police there to block off the streets so no one can drive up and down them and they patrol all over the place. We also try to make it to one of the zoos since they usually do something too.
When I was a kid my grandmother made all of my costumes. I loved them and would wear them around the house until Christmas. I did not get her creative gene so my boys had to do with store bought until the eldest started making them for his younger brothers.
I always loved trick or treating with my friends and family. The communities in our nerighborhood usually went all out and there were at least 3 haunted houses that we could go to. Our parents always cam with us, but there was always a group of 10 people who I would go trick or treating with.
sorry, but we have no Halloween celebrations too 🙁 and that’s really a shame – I would love to dress up and have fun with my friends at a party…
When I was little we lived in a very rurral area my mom would pile my sisters and I into the car and we would try to hit as many houses as we could I remember yelling to my sisters like a drill sargeant go go go lol we had a blast.
wanda f
flanagan@mebtel.net
One of the best Halloweens was when we had a costume party in our after school program. It was my first costume party ever.
Valerie – that Halloween party sounds fun!
Cynthia – thanks for inviting me. 🙂
Lucy – thank you!
Kelly – taking the kids to the zoo sounds really cool! I’ve not tried that
Viki – I buy my kids costumes as well. 🙂
Stephanie – Sounds neat! I miss those days.
Melanie – maybe you should start a Halloween tradition. 🙂
Wanda – lol. Sounds like a great memory
Jane – I remember dressing up for school. I loved it!
I used to LOVE trick or treating in the dark 🙂 but now its 3-5pm. Not the same. My gma made most of my outfits. I was I dream Of Jeannie once, a clown, a Indian, a 50’s girl, a leopard…I could go on and on. I have two kids and we go out every year. They wont ever go on their own, but neither did I as a kid until I was probably to old to be trick or treating in the first place lol. I will not fear it…just be safe about it.
My favorite Halloween memory is the year I went to my sister’s house, took her grandkids trick or treating, visited a neighbor’s haunted house, and came back and had pumpkin pie for my birthday (which is the next day). I always asked for pumpkin pie instead of cake, I love it.
I have a lot of good Halloween memories. It’s hard to pick just one out. We would go for blocks trick or treating. I think one year we came back home because our bags were full and got new bags. That was probably my best one.
I have several. I only went trick or treating once with my friends all the other years it was a family event. Which is very nice. It was our tradition to load up as many garbage bags as possible that night. my dad always encouraged us and drove next to us in the car at the end of the street we always hopped in the car and unloaded the bags into the garbage bags. Everyone always thought we never got candy so they would give us handfuls of candy instead of just one. It was great. Of course my dad benefited from this too my mom was not nearly as happy about it.
Hi Donna 🙂
Love your Dark Sword series, looking forward to Quinn’s book in a couple weeks 😀
Love Halloween, hard to pick just one memory, but if I had to pick one it would be my daughter’s first year trick-or-treating. She was just so excited and thought it was so cool to get candy by just saying trick- or-treat 🙂
Halloween memories… trick or treating to see how much candy we could get… loving the colors, the cooler weather & loved loved when there was a full moon out!!!
My favorite Halloween memories are going all over town trick or treating with my brother. That was back when you could go everywhere and people would give you homemade things and you could eat them. Those were the days.
Hi Donna. MY favorite would be when I could go with my friends by ourselves and not worry about getting hurt. We used to get carmel apples and homemade popcorn balls. Yummy.
katsrus(at)gmail(dot)com
My favorite Halloween momery is of going trick r treating with my sister 🙂
I was never a big fan of Trick or Treating; I preferred to stay home and give the candy out and see the great costumes everyone came up with.
Nikki – I’m the same way. Better safe than not.
Barbara – oh, I love pumpkin pie! And happy birthday early. 🙂
Edie – lol! I love it.
Desiree – that’s too funny! Thx for sharing. 🙂
Michele -ah, thank you, sweetie! I remember my kids first Halloween. That is certainly a special memory.
Colleen – a full moon certainly does bring the atmosphere.
Linda – yes, those days are long gone, I’m afraid.
Sue – sounds delightful!
Chelsea – always fun to go with family. 🙂
Diana – lol. It is fun to see the different costumes. Some people are so creative!
My favorite Halloween memory is the night some friends and I went into a Halloween cornfield maze and got the bejeezus scared out of us by people who popped out randomly to scare us, it was so much fun!
My last year trick-or-treating was with my younger sister and her best friend. We were too old by then, really, and, dressed in our normal clothes, when people asked us what we were dressed as, we said, “teenagers” which we were at the time (the other two girls just barely were) – not that that many people opened their doors to a trio of teen girls and a dog.
Don’t know if I’m too late for this, but my favorite Halloween memory was from last year. My daughter was finally old enough to run after her brothers and I enjoyed watching my kids run to and from every house with giant smiles pasted on their face. We live in a small town and they have different activities located around town with parades, bounce house and mostly family oriented. Fun stuff to do, but not a lot of kids going door to door. Last year we decided to skip out on the town stuff and let the kids do old school trick or treating and they had a blast. Thinking we need to do it again this year
Curious about Donna Grant’s post winner!?!
me too lol who won ?
I’ll check with Donna and see if she notified her winner. Thanks for following up, Wanda and Colleen!
Sorry all! There was a bit of a mix up on who was picking. 🙂
Thanks for all the comments. Now, its time to pick a winner (picked using random.org)!
Congrats to…Desiree! Desiree, please email me at donna@donnagrant.com with your snail mail address. 🙂
The mix up is all my fault! My apologies to Donna and all the commenters!