It’s Hallowe’en week!
As someone who grew up in Australia, celebrating Halloween was completely new to me until I moved to Canada. Being an elementary school teacher, of course, Halloween is not easily avoided — my students start thinking about their costumes weeks before the big day! The day itself at school – with haunted houses, a costume competition and parties – can definitely be a little on the chaotic side and I think all teachers will be looking forward to 2014 when Hallowe’en falls on a Friday night – no sugar hungover children to teach the next day!
Once the school day is over, I head home to hand out candy at my own house. In a neighbourhood with a large population of families with small children you’d be silly to not take part in the fun on Halloween evening — it’s a great way to get to know your neighbours and also it’s a lot of fun to see what all the kids are dressed up as. Our Hallowe’en evening tradition is to head out to the front porch and stay there, with dinner, drinks, candy, friends and neighbours. Yes, it’s the Halloween Porch Party!
Are you looking for a new Halloween tradition?
Don’t have kids of your own to go trick or treating with?
Want to enjoy the fun of Halloween night from the comfort of your own porch?
Head on over to the Real Women of Philadelphia website to read my three tips to help get you started planning your own Hallowe’en porch party!
but just before you do…..
Win a $50 Kraft gift basket (Canadian residents only)
That’s right, thanks to Kraft Canada/ Philly Canada, I have a $50 gift Kraft gift basket including an assortment of Kraft products and a Real Women of Philadelphia apron and spatula to give away to one lucky Canadian resident reader.
To enter, simply leave a comment on this post telling me your Hallowe’en night traditions.
For a bonus entry, tweet the following message: Enter to win a $50 @kraftcanada gift basket from @PhillyCanada and @eatlivtravwrite ! Details here http://bit.ly/1aMVZ45
then come back to leave me a comment on this post telling me you did.
Eligibility and contest rules
- Open to to Canadian residents only.
- No purchase of any product necessary for entry.
- Winner will be chosen using Random.org from all qualified entries on Monday, November 4th 2013 after 6pm EST.
- Winner will be contacted via email on Tuesday November 5th 2013.
Disclosure: I have received compensation for developing a series of posts for the Real Women of Philadelphia website in 2013.
For years, we would get all dressed up and go to a party or event. This year, however, we decided that the best way to celebrate would be to curl up on our couch and watch scary movies. We’re working so much these days that neither of us had time to plan a costume or figure out the best party and I’m excited to have some one-on-one time with my awesome hubby! Might be the start of a new tradition.
Since our children don’t do Halloween we do a “Open garage door sit down”. Well the husband does because I’m in side cooking!
He dims the lights and stays very still waiting for the little ones. Love seeing the little ones with the smiles and great costumes…..
So I’m sending a wish to Mother Nature that the weather isn’t as bad as forecasted.
I usually dress up with my kids and take them out trick or treating. We come home afterwards, sort the candy and have a cup of cocoa before bed.
https://twitter.com/saskmom/status/394855723571478528
tweet https://twitter.com/Emmaleewalpole/status/394858849443643392
our son is only 3 but we started the traditions of making pizza that look like ghosts, use olives for eyes and mouth or other creatures using peppers and then hubby takes him around to only a few houses in our neighborhood, just enough to see what it is all about
We give out candy at the door and decorate the front of the house 😀
We order Pizza, dress up and hand the candy out. Plus eat some of the candy ourselves…lol Happy Halloween!
Tweeted https://twitter.com/JudyCowan/status/394876260314136576
We always go all out when it comes to Halloween. I love it. Carving a pumpkin and then roasting the seeds is my favourite tradition and post-Halloween candy sales are a close second.
Don’t forget to taste-test the candies.
You wouldn’t want the kids to have anything stale, right? 😉
Carving pumpkins & decorating the house & lawn. Baking “scary” cookies (kids get creative) & giving meals a creative “horror twist” 🙂 …make Halloween as spooky as possible…
We carve pumpkins then go out trick or treating!
I tweeted https://twitter.com/mommaoftwoboyz/status/394973058387034112
SInce my son is a teenager now,he goes out with his friends,and me & hubby stay home and give out candy to the kiddies 🙂
Our traditions for Halloween include carving several large pumpkins and setting them up on our “zombie platforms” – zombie bodies with a platform where the head should go and that’s where we set our pumpkins. We’re also establishing a new tradition where we take turns each year taking our son trick-or-treating. He’s 2 and a half so it’s so much fun.
I tweeted:
https://twitter.com/LisaJLKHansen/status/394987115747880960
Welcome to Halloween!
Hailing from Dublin Ireland, halloween would not be complete without a pot of “caulcannon” for dinner. This is mashed potato, mixed with curly kale, onion and of course butter and salt! We put money in it.When I was growing up it was 1/2 pennies and pennies with the odd 5p coin tossed in (each coin wrapped in foil). Now of course nothing less than a toonie or loonie excites my girls!
We give out treats then go trick-or-treating ourselves then give out some more treats and then, after the kids are in bed, I sneak a few treats from their bags.
We always take our dogs out for walks in their costumes. (They are very small dogs)
We dress up in hopes of trick or treaters but since we live in an older neighbourhood, we are lucky to get one child. So I “unfortunately” end up eating more than my share of treats while we watch a movie. 🙂
I tweeted about your giveaway. 🙂
Typical Halloween things. My daughter is old enough to trick or treat with a friend now. So I stay home and hand out treats to all the little ghouls and goblins. We have a carved jack o lantern, with a candle within, on our front step.
https://twitter.com/Jemrah1/status/395320685905469442 I tweeted!
tweeted, tradition includes special dinner followed by costume make up and out with a pillow case candy brought back so I can check it and eat it
Take the kids out for a little bit trick or treating. Stay up and watch a Halloween flick with the hubby!
Buying cheap candy on Nov 1 😉
All of our friends and their kids meet at our house and we have a big pot luck dinner before trick or treating.. and the best part… All the adults dress up and whoever does not dress up has to carry all the bags (and purses) for the night haha. We have so much fun, Halloween is one of my favorites. Happy Halloween everyone 🙂
I do not celebrate Halloween so I make some tea and watch Christmas movies! I am too anxious for Christmas already!
Our Halloween tradition includes handing out candy, then making some popcorn, putting on a scary movie and eating any of the leftover candy. 🙂
As kids we of course dressed up and went trick-or-treating in our neighbourhood as soon as it was dark. Our costumes were always home-made, never store bought and made from odds and ends we found around the house. Mom always made hot-dogs and french fries for dinner on Halloween as she knew it was a quick meal that all us kids would eat before going out to get our candy. Once home, we would go through our bags of loot with my parents and we had to throw out any unwrapped candy. We were allowed to choose one treat before going to bed but as we kept our stash in our bedroom closet you can bet that we snuck out of bed and ate a few more before going to sleep.
The house was decorated with ghosts, bats and witches made by us kids and we always had a carved pumpkin with a lit candle in it on the front porch.
We get a big bucket of candy (always too much) to give out to the kids who come to the door. We also try to watch a different old black and white horror movie every year. The extra candy goes to my partner’s clients, who are happy I keep over-buying every year.
tweeted
https://twitter.com/JonnieBH/status/395953038134743040
Our Halloween night tradition is to put out our candy on a pumpkin shaped tray and hand the candy out to the 2 or so children that come to our house! (we live in the country).
Tweet~ http://twitter.com/glogirl3/status/395982274208219136
Aside from going out for candy of course, we always spend halloween toasting up pumpkin seeds and watching halloween specials!
tweeted https://twitter.com/missplewes/status/396015506009759744
When I was young, my parents and I would listen to the same Halloween songs mixtape my mom made in 1990, volume cranked way up. This got me super pumped to go trick-or-treating!
We love to carve our pumpkins, roast the pumpkins seeds . Order pizza for dinner and then go trick or treating
thanks
flower_child_23(at)hotmail(dot)com
tweet
https://twitter.com/flower_child_23/status/396282385588686849
flower_child_23(at)hotmail(dot)com
Dress up the yard like a graveyard.
Buy lots of candies and give out on Halloween’s night
I tweeted: https://twitter.com/bonchance2010/status/397102636953907200
Don’t really do much in terms of decorations (though carved my very first pumpkin this Halloween) and hand out candy…only had 6 kids show up this year!
Tweet – https://twitter.com/apham17/status/397109844013899776
The tradition of late is trick-or-treating with friends and everyone comes back to our place for pizza and dessert. A trick is to be expected as well.
For Halloween, my boyfriend and I dress up, carve a pumpkin, turn on the strobe lights and watch all the little trick or treaters who come to our door! Once that’s done we watch a scary movie 🙂
I tweeted https://twitter.com/RebTheCatSitter/status/397220501497450498
My kids like to dress up and all the chocolate of course. Nothing scary though, just fun.
Taking my kids out to explore the neighbourhood. I also tweeted.
We always carve a pumpkin and display the Jack-o-Lantern outside on the porch. I also decorate the outside with purple and orange fairy lights.
Thanks!
Bonus entry Tweet:
https://twitter.com/Alexandrina_M/status/397470920828129280
Tweeted – @wherejessate !
eat lots of chocolates on halloween.
https://twitter.com/buttagal/status/397550549089779712
Each Halloween my mom makes shortbread cookies that look like witches fingers – she uses sliced almonds and red gel to make it especially realistic. On Halloween night we eat these delish cookies while trick-or-treaters ring the doorbell interrupting our scary movies. As I re-position my cat-ears to answer the door I usually think to myself, “I wouldn’t have it any other way!”
Tweeted – @local_lux – fingers crossed!