It is almost Halloween which means the kids will be wanting some fang~tastic costumes so they can wear them for 3 hours and then never see the light of day again. This year that is not happening! We are being more strict when it comes to re-using, the planet could do with more people reusing the items they already have so this is exactly what we will be doing.
Halloween has gradually been getting more and more expensive as the years have gone by, from plastic vampire teeth that were so painful to wear for 20p, bin bag capes and those awful plastic witch fingers that never fit anyone. Now it’s all about fancy costumes with expensive accessories and contact lenses that cost a small fortune (or possibly a kidney) I find that these days its all about who looks the best. Just stick a costume on and go and enjoy what its all about.
We have seen a huge change from kids wanting sweets to teenagers knocking on the door all night wanting money. We even had a teen not in a costume knock on the door and refuse the sweets because he wanted money instead. Safe to say he was sent packing. What ever happened to just wanting to get as many sweet treats as insanely possible and then at the end of the night empty your bag out and see what you got.
Don’t worry though there are ways you can cut back the cost of Halloween if you follow these tips
🎃Pull out all of your old costumes, decorations and accessories, if you are like us, you will have enough costumes to clothe a small army. See what you can put together with what you already have. Re use those items that are just collecting dust.
🎃Have costumes that are complete but too small now? Pop them on a local selling group for a few £ or if you are not bothered about getting money back for them give them to someone who will make use out of them.
🎃Use your own makeup instead of face paint. I am a pretty good with the SFX make up, I very rarely use face paint. It is so unrealistic the best thing to use is the makeup you already have. Or use pound shop make up. It is awesome! Top Tip - Purple and Brown eyeshadow with a bit of green make the perfect bruise.
🎃Buy Halloween décor & costumes in the sale and put them away for the following year. Saves you an absolute fortune doing it this way. Asda sometimes have costumes from 10p
🎃Visit your local charity store. You never know what bargains you will find.
🎃If you are handy with sewing/stitching you could make a costume with old stuff you have lying around.
🎃If the kids want to be zombies, rip up some old jeans and a t-shirt instead of buying a zombie costume, this looks more realistic. Same for a werewolf too just add in a bit of fluff and your set to go.
🎃Check out any local events near you, lots of events are free to attend and if you have younger kids who are too young for a scare, places like the local library always have mini events on full of crafting fun.
🎃Bake cookies instead of buying sweets. Make sure if you do this you print off mini stickers with allergy details though. Or you could just hand out fruit. My kids would rather eat an apple than a sweet. We are having a dedicated cookery day and will be creating some spooky treats.
🎃Make your own decorations, the boys have made a few things this year including a life sized Dracula for the wall and a pom pom spider each. We are busy making a pom pom garland to put along the fireplace ready for our carved pumpkins for movie night. Have some milk cartons? Wash them out, paint, pop a face on and stick a glow stick inside.
Think, do you really need it?
We put together three treat bags for the boys for our movie night which usually includes some Halloween based treats and popcorn. We attend as many local events as we can and choose one special scary event to go to each year.
Top Tip pop your carved pumpkins outside, take them to the park when you are finished with them, foxes LOVE them and so do the birds and small rodents. May as well get as much use out of them as you can.
How we do Halloween
We usually go all out and decorate the house, buy tons of sweets and wait for the endless trick or treaters to knock on the door. Last year we had 0 people at the door, maybe because of Covid... It was really weird! This year I will pick up a few treats but not loads and wont be answering the door after 9pm.
This year though as we have not long moved home we are just putting up a few decorations and enjoying the season we do have a few events we are attending but we wont be going to the Beamish Halloween Nights as there not back yet so we just want to support local and see what happens. We were going to book York Maze, but we have been and done that so decided not to go and we did look at Lightwater Valley but as they are now catering to the younger child audience thought it might be a bit rubbish for the older boys.
We would go to a really great Halloween event the night before and do a scare walk through the forest. But these things cost a small fortune as the industry recovers, which I totally get but families are also struggling and can't afford the extortionate prices especially when they have 4/5 or more kids. I really wish this was taking into consideration more. We only have three kids and it gets pricey.
Costumes have been a big topic in our house this year, I am so sick and tired of the throw away industry. I hold my hands up, years ago when the kids went to school they would get a new costume every year wear it for the disco and then that would be it. Now though we like to re use what we can and create our own costumes which work out so much cheaper and we are not adding to the waste.
It all adds up in the end and I just think it is all unnecessary spending and adding the waste issues the planet already has.
These days the boys are slightly older at 9, 13 & 15 they do like Halloween but there not bothered if they go Trick or Treating or not. Elliot doesn’t really like anything too spooky anyway and has only just come to like our medusa ornament which he is still not 100% keen on. We do have a few special things planned for the boys this year. We will be taking them trick or treating but only around a few streets.
We still go to a few events and we host our very own spooky movie night full of treats and maybe a few tricks too. They seem to enjoy doing this more. They get to choose a selection of Halloween themed movies, have some snacks and popcorn, nice warm blankets surrounded by freshly carved pumpkins. PERFECT!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
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