Monday, October 25, 2010

$100 contest for your Halloween Traditions *contest closed*


This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Pop-Tarts.


So...Halloween is here. I've kind of been dreading it all month.

I mean, sometimes, it just gets so expensive, especially with 3 kids.

The search for the perfect costume and whatever is needed to accessorize it...the pressure of trying to come up with the perfect yet clever costume as an adult...the bags and bags of candy for our church's annual Trunk-or-Treat party and then bags and bags more for Halloween night itself....and the hubby always wants to add something to our Halloween decor. These things add up!

Then, there's the existence of all that yummy tempting caloric candy in the house (I can't turn down a peanut butter cup...I just can't!), and the constant begging by the kids, the wrappers all over the place, the hyperactivity, the cavities...

I mean it's fun, and I enjoy it always, but it's work.


As far as costumes go, we go alternate costume buying every other year. I try to recycle and make our own as much as possible, but sometimes, ya just gotta put some money into it. Sean wants to be a vampire ("not a Twilight vampire mom, a real one"), Cameron wants to be a mummy (I'm envisioning toilet paper strewn around the house for days) [*EDIT, he's since corrected me--he wants to be a zombie! huh? how am I gonna pull that one off?*], and Ethan wants to be Black Spiderman, which I was able to find for $8 since it's not a really popular character any more. This will be a buying year for all of them I'm afraid.

One thing we love to do every Halloween, and I'm not sure how or why this started, but I love it: after the trick-or-treating is done, we stay up late and watch "Goonies." Something so classic and quotable about that movie! "Heeeeey youuuuuu guuuuuyyyyyys!" Love it.

Do you have any special Halloween traditions? Share them in the comments for your chance at $100 Visa Gift card sponsored by Blogher.

Enter 9 times by visiting the other reviews on the BlogHer.com exclusive offers page. Official rules can be seen here.

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62 comments:

Mami2jcn said...

We just take a lot of pictures of the kids in costumes and do trick or treating as our tradition.

mami2jcn at gmail dot com

Stephanie said...

We always make pumpkin sugar cookies at our house!

Sandyhere said...

Our only tradition is toasting pumpkin seeds. Each year is a different flavor, so let's see what the kiddos come up with this year.

wigget said...

we go to my sister's house so the kids can hang out with their cousins

mmburdette22 said...

I take my kids to my uncle's neighboorhood to go trick or treating. There are always alot more kids in his neighboorhood than our own. And after the kids have passed out from sugar overload, there is always a Halloween Party with some yummy cocktails for the adults.

bdiane34 said...

We normally go trick or treating in the neighborhood but his year we are having a big party next door with Hidden candy and hints to find it. Afterwards a hay ride in the back fields!!
sweokgrl@gmail.com

Suburban prep said...

The thing that I do with my nieces and nephews is make pumpkin bread and I also make rice krispie treats and then cut them out in the shape of pumpkins.
msgb245 at gmail dot com

Anonymous said...

We eat pizza, candies, and watch scary movies.

MCantu1019@aol.com

CeCe said...

One of our Halloween traditions is that my oldest niece's birthday is on Halloween, so the kids all go to her birthday party first, then the group of kids all go trick or treating together.

cholden76 at yahoo dot com

Anonymous said...

I remember having to wait for the parents to check through all the candy we got before we could dive in and make ourselves ill eating as much as we could.

laurie said...

my husband and i move the cars out of the driveway and bring our fire-pit out. we sit by the fire and drink hot cider and eat chili while the trick-or-treaters come up. i love this holiday and our traditions!

Kelly Massman said...

Just passing out candy!

Thanks!
kmassman gmail

Tabathia B said...

We always go to Sonic for their .50 corn dogs and free kids drinks they have on Halloween
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

Tabathia B said...

tweet
http://twitter.com/ChelleB36/status/28747928973
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

Racingjourno said...

I still think Superman makes a great costume for boys and Supergirl for girls.

scoopster(nospam)at yahoo dot com

Liz said...

We usually now just go out to dinner cause everyone else is out.
We have a locked gate so kids can't come in but we give the two neighbor kids a treat.

Anonymous said...

Nothing really going on here after my girls take there girls out trick or treating they usually bring them by for candy from memaw

Henria O. said...

We have a fall festival at our church that's really fun each year. The kids play lots of games outside (a la Price Is Right style) and ride horses!
sazzyfrazz at gmail dot com

Diana said...

I miss trick or treating, since i'm 23 now, I'm more of a hanging out with friends and partying.


Do miss the candy though..

Christine said...

We usually start the day by carving our pumpkins. One year we carved 9! Then that night we order Chinese food, watch nightmare before Christmas & hocus pocus, hand out candy & I make my Carmel apple cider. That is unless we're in Disneyland. Absolutely the best place to be Halloween night, hands down!!!

Ami said...

We make pumpkin sugar cookies during the month of October and on Halloween carve the pumpkins--(the kids sometimes aren't so sure about getting out the pumpkin guts) and have some sort of Halloween theme dinner with Halloween jell-0 jigglers then go trick or treating.

anonymous said...

One Halloween tradition I have is watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on TV.

daveg0929 said...

we've been passing out ice cream sandwiches for 50 years

Haven said...

Watching all the scary movies on tv!!

redfuzzycow said...

we go to crazy parties and stay up all night!

Natalia said...

I bake special Bloody Ghosts cookies for Halloween.
natatheangel at yahoo dot com

John D said...

We decorate the scariest yard in our neighborhood.
jdrombo AT yahoo DOT com

JC said...

Costume pictures and watch scary movies.

Unknown said...

I dress my boys up and take them trick or treating.
dgoodridge84@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

We go camping at our local KOA..they celebrate Halloween every weekend in October..We are recruiting more & more friends to join us every year..Memories of a lifetime..

Christine said...

We actually had to watch halloween movies for the last 2 years because last year the kids were getting over the flu during swine flu season and the year before someone was sick as well. I rent scary movies for the older ones and have a supply of goosebumps movies for the younger ones(although my oldest was gazing longingly at the goosebumps movies this year).

Christine
dazed1821@AOL.COM

Henria O. said...

We have a wonderful Fall Festival carnival at our church. Our kids look forward to it every year because they even get to ride a horse (with supervision of course)!
sazzyfrazz at gmail dot com

Leah @ A Butterfly In My Stomach said...

We watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", we eat tons of candy corn, and we visit all of our church family. It is so much fun!

leahforlove(at)aol(dot)com

BrendaLea, the Prpldy said...

Unfortunately we don't have any Halloween traditions. And now the boys are almost too big for it.

prpldy (at) comcast dot net

Kaizen Fashion Project said...

We visit the pumpkin patch every year! We carve pumpkins, bake the seeds, then make sugar cookies, and apple cider!


heatheranne99 at gmail dot com

Unknown said...

After trick or treating the kids dump all the candy on the floor and trade it all around
bepoia(at)hotmail(dot)com

Angel Jacklyn said...

ONE TRADITION WE USED TO USE ALL THE TIME (WHEN I WAS A KID) WAS WE'D USED "PILLOW SACKS" AS OUR "CANDY BAGS" kytah00@yahoo.com

Angel Jacklyn said...

SECOND ENTRY TWEET http://twitter.com/#!/kytah00/status/28968615447 kytah00@yahoo.com

sunnymum said...

We have no real traditions in our family...yet! When I was a kid, we always made sure our trick-or-treat route went by the local donut shop!
cbeargie at yahoo dot com

Sasha said...

Our church has a neat fall/Halloween festival so we'll be going to that like we usually do.

barelytogether at yahoo dot com

sodahoney said...

I always loved halloween party with costume contest.

sodahoney said...

http://twitter.com/sodahoney/status/29109705406

April Yedinak said...

Post trick or treat orgy of gluttony until we are stuffed and drooling, then we settle down to watch kid-friendly Halloween movies. My fav is the old Disney version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow!
ape2016(at)aol(dot)com

bargaingirl said...

Our family friend has an annual Halloween party for the whole family that we go to every year the day before Halloween. We look forward to it. Thanks for the giveaway!

pink and green mama MaryLea said...

We always have mac and cheese and hot dogs for dinner then meet up with our neighbors and their kids and go around the block in a big group together. All of the moms and dads go out with the kids so most of the houses are just bowls of candy sitting on the front step with lots of halloween decorations in the yards!

In my friend's neighborhood the dads fill the kid wagons with coolers of beer and take the kids out while the moms stay home on the front steps and wave and socialize.

We mix it up between store-bought and homemade costumes and always with some embellishment/add-ons : )

thanks for the opportunity!
pink(dot)green(dot)98@verizon(dot)net

Deb K said...

We go to my daughter's and walk with the kids every year!


deb55106{at}gmail{dot}com

susan1215 said...

We always visit relatives before going trick or treating in the neighborhood

s2s2 at comcast dot net

susan1215 said...

http://twitter.com/susan1215/status/29189014826

Betty N said...

Our church sponsors a neighborhood block party at a couple of the members houses; one of them being my son and daughter in laws....my husband likes hanging out there with the grandkids

Betty N said...

tweet
http://twitter.com/#!/Grandma3710/status/29230251599

Anonymous said...

no big traditions except always movie night and pizza
tattgiff at centurytel dot net

Liz said...

Dinner with hubby but this year we are not going out just staying home.

jolene's spot said...

we usually go trick or treating in my parents neighborhood for the first hour and then go to our church for the second.

when we get home we dump out all of the candy on the dining room table and go through it.. (we usually video tape that part and it is so fun to watch it each year:)

jolene
toeringgrl@aol.com

Lexiquin said...

I always make "Great" pumpkin cookies and buy pomegranates this time of year. We usually go to the school carnival or the a harvest party at church (because the kids can't really go trick-or-treating where we live).
Thanks for the giveaway.
aleq13@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Our Halloween tradition is to always have a big spaghetti dinner with garlic toast (to ward off the vampires) and green beans before we go out trick or treating to keep our tummies full until we get home to eat candy!

Unknown said...

Tweeted

http://twitter.com/jillyrh/status/29263184823

thanks so much

JessAnn said...

My family has some odd traditions. We all get the kids ready and take pictures. My older brother usually stays at home to hand out candy. The one thing we make a point to do is hand out King sized candy bars to anyone dressed up as a politician. It makes kids' days to know that their efforts weren't wasted.

Anonymous said...

We watch scary movies and go trick or treating.

pauleyd68 (at) yahoo (dot) com

MamawDebbie said...

Every year me and my daughter make her childrens (3) costumes. Me and my husband always sit outside and pass out candy together and watch all the little and sometimes not so little ghost and goblins. Lots of hippies this year.

Anne said...

My kids favorite part is after trick or treating they dump all the candy on the living room floor and sort it and make trades.
ajolly1456 at gmail dot com

Lorie said...

When family is around we have a big scary dinner with bat wings and mummy pizzas, and dead mans dip!

Since it was just the 5 of us this year we went back to the old school tomato soup and pumpkin grilled cheese sandwiches ala my husbands childhood!

Michelle said...

Our traditions are just the typical ones... we carve pumpkins and roast the seeds. We usually do a couple of crafts and sometimes bake treats. I like to make the costumes for my kids and then we go trick or treating in our neighborhood!