With all the fun and mischief happening around Halloween, we’re sure you have a great story to share about past Halloween adventures. Maybe it’s about a good costume gone wrong or a trick that was pulled to perfection (you can laugh about that now, right?). Help us all have a Hootin’ Howlin’ Halloween by leaving a comment below telling us your favorite Halloween story. Everyone who leaves a comment will be entered to win a prize package with a variety of goodies, including two adorable owls, a gorgeous hand-painted Russian artist pendant picturing a wolf, a hand-dyed silk ribbon and complementary Czech glass beads. Enter by October 30 at 11:59pm (PT). The winner will be announced on Halloween.
No purchase necessary, must be 18 or older to enter, one entry per person. Odds of winning depend on number of entries. Prize valued at $100, void where prohibited by law. Contest valid in the US and Canada only excluding Quebec.
-Marissa
I love Halloween!! My fav color is Purple so I’m happy to see all the purple and green Halloween decorations!!! 😀
When I was 13 my mom dressed up with this old scary man mask and one of my dads shirts and hid in a bush in our neighbors yard. When my best friend and I came walking by she jumped out at us breathing all hard and scared us so bad that my best friend peed her pants..lol We still talk about it every halloween to this day and it’s been 20 yrs.
Halloween is my mom’s birthday, so she never got a birthday party when we were little because she was always busy getting us ready to go trick or treating. (Dad would take us, Mom would stay home to pass out candy.) When I got older, I felt bad about it and told my dad I thought we should throw her a costume party or something… to which he replied, “Well, you know, that was pretty much the only night of the year mom had a quiet evening to herself, and she was surrounded by chocolate…”
At which point, I realized, she was actually getting a break from us, which was probably MUCH more needed than a birthday party!
My favorite Halloween memory is going to a party with my sister. She wore a brown felt sack. She wore halo and a cross and went as holy s***. It was hilarious!
My boyfriend ad I are going to Lambertville NJ to see the old victorian houses decorated for Halloween- then for a few beers in New Hope Pa.
When my daughter was in first grade, she wanted to be a “Gypsy.” Didn’t know how she had heard of Gypsies, but I had no problems coming up with colorful garb, a coin belt, scarves, etc. The next year, when in a store just when Halloween costumes were put out, she pointed and said “THAT’S what I wanted last year!” It was an Egyptian princess costume. Oops! White sleeveless dress with flat braid trim, a snake bracelet, headband and kohl eyes…Just a year late, LOL!
I am still trying to figure out where Trick or Treating came from. I grew up in the 40’s and we didn’t do it then. We ran around with our friends, chalking up houses and hitting people with socks filled with flour. This was in Brooklyn, NY.
My family was not big into the holiday so every year my parents and my best friends parents would take us out for dinner a pizza place and we would play vidoe games. It was great because we had most of the place to out selves
My experience is I went to a Halloween party when I was in my early 20’s and had a person walk up to me dressed like the Grim reaper, he pulled his hand out and introduced himself as “Hello I am the Reaper” I shook his hand and it was cold and clammy, I had been drinking so this totally freaked me out! but, before he left me he says “I will see you soon!” This totally freaked me out and haven’t been to a Halloween Party since.
I ran out of Halloween candy one year and wound up giving away packets of hot cocoa which the neighborhood kids reported was a great idea as it got really cold that night!!
I always remember the Halloween my family moved from the Eastern side of our state to the Western side, along the coast.
I was 8 years old and my sister was 6. I remember it was a BIG deal because we wanted to be able to go Trick or Treating before we left. So our parents waited until we did our treating and then we left. They drove all that way at night and each town we’d drive through there were all kinds of kids in costumes running down the streets and roads.
That was 40+ years ago now but every year it’s a big memory of mine.
BOO!!
My parents never let me trick or treat when I was a kid because they thought it was too dangerous! 🙁 But when our child was about 5 years old, and we were living in a townhouse in an apartment community, my husband opened up the windows and played spooky sounds on a keyboard he had upstairs! My son and I trick or treated and then we came back to hand out candy to all the neighborhood kids… that was a great Halloween!
I love Halloween!
I have so many fun memories but I’ll share the year my twin daughters were old enough to walk around for trick or treating.
Since they were twins and identical (really you couldn’t tell who was who) we played that up and dressed them as Cinderella.
Only one of them was the “before” Cinderella dressed in rags, an apron, and carrying a metal bucket and rag to keep her treats in. We smeared makeup on her face to give the appearance of dirt on it.
The other one was dressed as the “after” Cinderella, dressed in a beautiful blue dress, complete with puffy organza sleeves, black choker and headband, white opera gloves and of course glass slippers.
They were so cute and it’s something I’ll never forget.
When I was in my first year at college, I went to see the movie The Night of the Living Dead with some friends on Halloween. We were all scared walking by the woods back to the dorms. The lighting along the path was not very good and we kept looking over our shoulders for zombies.
My favorite Halloween story happened in 1980 we were having a big party & invited all our friends to dress up. We all went all out and had spooky decorations with dry ice and a bon fire in the back yard.We all had a wonderful time my friends costumes were awsome.I took lots of pictures. And when I got them developed we all got a shock when in 1 of the pix around the bon fire there was a very realitic looking devil sitting in the circle with everyone. Funny thing was none of my friends knew who he was or had spoken a word to him or even remembered seeing him there @ all.Till this day it still gives me chills when I remember that picture of those scary eyes staring @ me ….. the ….uninvited devil.
my favorit memory is when i use to dress my 3 kids as hobo’s and put them in a carboard box to look like a volts wagon , they had yard hair red rubber balls for there nose and my husbands flannel shirts. carried a sack on the end of a stick with a change of clothes. those are the memories i save in my heart till the day i leave this world and at 63 years old they become more precious.
Halloween every year is the perfect holiday for me as my birthday is 2 days before! Growing up my parents always had a huge Halloween party for me as my birthday party. I still love to dress up every year!
My favorite, Halloween memory is that of my son at a place called Spooky World in NH. We had been going through the maze with him saying “this isn`t scary!” At every turn he would say it, well we come to the last bit of it and a guy with a chainsaw comes running up on him and he screamed like a girl and fell over backwards. We all laughed so hard. But he was not happy that we laughed at him so a personal picture with the original Mike Myers made him better, he still has it up on his facebook profile 5 years later!!
I was about 10 years old and was out trick-0r-treating with my best friends. We went up to one house that had a life-sized scarecrow on the porch and as we rang the doorbell, that scarecrow came to life and scared the crap out of us! Turns out, it was the teenage boy in the house dressed up to have some fun with the kids. Boo!
My favorite Halloween was when my girls were in grade school. They had a Halloween carnival and haunted house every year at the school. One year I was voted to play a dead person and lay in a coffin. I was suppose to sit up and scream when someone would approach the coffin. I got to the school the night of the event and quickly learned that the coffin was real. It was a fun night, but a little weird laying in a real coffin.
Where I live we trick or treat the day before Halloween because we have a huge Halloween Parade on Halloween! It is so much fun to see all of the entrants! We have tons of floats, marching bands and groups! People dance, sing and perform as the parade moves along!
Instead of trick-or-treating, we would stay home and have pizza for dinner and make caramel apples and popcorn balls all evening while giving out candy. It was such a special treat. I still miss those times.
I loved the Halloween’s when my kids were little. I made costumes and we went Trick or treating…. they would get tired after a while. but the school had a carnival to keep the kids safe and off the dark streets. Those were lots of fun too.
When I was 9 my sister, brother and I went trick or treating for the first time on our own. We ran from house to house collecting loot. We ran through yards wily nilly hitting as many houses as possible, even running through back yards as short cuts. I fell and in the dark scrambled to collect my loot which had flown out of my bag and into the grass. Once at home, as a rule we poored out our candy to look through it for anything that should not be there and found hard pieces of dog poop in my candy! Mom called the police who took all of my candy for “inspection”. I was so disappointed, my brother and sister did not have dog poop in their bags, why mine? Then it dawned on me that the poop came from that yard where I had spilled my loot. I explained this to mom hoping I would get my candy back from the police, she called, they had tossed it and my brother and sister would only share tootsie rolls, which I hate to this day.
I grew up with a very difficult father who was barely around. I have very few fond childhood memories that include him except for a very lovely Halloween one. I was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at 6 years old and was in the hospital, in tears, on that Halloween. I didn’t understand why I was in the hospital and why my father had told me that I most likely wouldn’t go trick or treating in years to come due to my diabetes and not being able to eat the candy. However, the following year my father told me that I could go trick or treating with my siblings. I, of course, moped around the whole time. What was the point when I couldn’t touch the goodies? When I got home I was asked to sit at the kitchen table and to spread out all my loot. To my surprise my father started to barter with me! He had gone out and purchased all my favorite sugar free items, along with things I loved to eat that didn’t effect my blood sugar levels, like pickles and jello cups. He would trade me pickles for chocolate bars or sugar free candies for smarties. We would spend hours haggling with each other. As I got older I got smarter and was soon able to walk away with not only goodies, but money! We now live on opposite sides of the U.S. but I’ve haggled a deal with dad. My 4 year old son (who thankfully is not currently diabetic) sends him a ziplock bag full of grandpas favorite Halloween loot and grandpa mails back a couple of bucks for him. My son doesn’t have much of a relationship with my father but he does know that grandpa’s there with a couple bucks for him if he does the Halloween leg work! 🙂
I think my favorite Halloween memory was when I was 8 yrs. old after just moving to the big city of “rural “Fryeburg, Me.From a even more rural area of Maine! Three of my 6 older brothers and I went out Trick or Treating and my 2nd youngest brother Mike was very tall at just over 6ft. at 12 or 13 years old, so people were refusing to give this gentle giant of a kid , any candy, as thought he was much too old to be trick or treating! So he kept hanging out with us well it paid off for him finally when we happened upon a house with a big heavy wash tub out front filled with candy. Well Mike was big and strong enough to lift it up and fill his pillow caase full!! We loved it then and now we think of how selfish and wrong that was but as we were kids then we enjoy the memory and the lesson it taught today!!
Many come to mind but I’ll have to go with the Halloween Birthday party I did for our oldest daughter when she was 7. We had so many guests we had to have the party at the park. The kids still try to figure out who everyone is in the pictures from 1984.
I remember trick or treating as a child, 50 odd years ago, my own children when they went out 25 or more years ago, and now my grandchildren are going to go trick or treating with their dad, my son. It’s just not the same. I miss the freedoms we took for granted back then.
I have one fun memory of Halloween. (not my favorite holiday) but i remember when i was little and it was our first year living in Colorado. and it had snowed. so we had a snowy Halloween. now of course i live in Alaska and if it doesn’t snow on Halloween we are all bummed but anyway that is my story 🙂
I love fall & Halloween! The decorations, the smell and the family fun.
When I was about 19 some friends and I were going through a haunted house. We were creeping along when just to our left, a chain saw started up in an area that was totally dark but behind some bars. Suddenly, the chain saw came through the bars and the bars BENT! We darted ahead, laughing, with me in the lead and somebody REALLY TALL grabbed me around the middle and PICKED ME UP!!! I totally freaked out and started screaming and kicking his shins!! He put me down and, sort of worried, said, “It’s okay, it’s okay…” By then, of course, I was laughing. Good haunted house.
This is a great company with great give aways. I sure hop that I am lucky enough to win this one!
My favorite Halloweens were back in the early 1970s through the mid 1980s. We had one neighbor who would get out her grill and heat a huge pot of sloppy joe mix for everyone in the neighborhood – kids and adults who stopped by to “trick or treat.” Rain, snow or cold, she always had it ready at 6pm – what a wonderful memory of the time back before “trick or treat” meant no home made treats!!
When my son was 5 years old we closed on our first house on Halloween Day. At the age of 5, it was the first Halloween that he REALLY understood what Halloween was all about and was looking forward to wearing his Yugioh costume and going trick or treating like the big kids. With all Halloween Day devoted to the last details of moving and the closing of the new house, Halloween got lost in the shuffle. We went to the new house with “Yugioh” in tow with no candy to give out, no kids to trick or treat with. As we were standing out in front of our first home, an elderly man from across the street came over and introduced himself. He saw my dejected little boy and said, “hold on, I’ll be right back”. A minute later he returned with a brown paper sack filled with candy. He’d even written my son’s name on the bag and drew a ghost and a pumpkin on it. He gave the treats to my son and said “the great pumpkin left this for you..he knew you’d come by to pick it up so I held onto it for you”. My son was thrilled and I was so greatful as it was the only Halloween treat he got that year. We all remember that night so fondly. The kindness of a new neighbor who made one little boy’s Halloween.
I remember going to homes for trick or treat and being able to pick from an assortment of handmade goodies.
how fun! happy halloween, all hallows eve… whatever you celebrate! 🙂
A few years ago my husband and a friend of ours volunteered to help with a local historical site’s “Haunted Trail” thingy. A group of teens came through and one boy was especially rude and heckled everyone in the house part of the tour, including being extremely rude to our friend who’s in a wheelchair. I was working out in the woods and we’d heard on our 2-way radio that we had a “bad” guest coming through, to just get through it as best we could because he was just going to be a pain. So instead of taking my usual position, I moved away from the feature and stepped into the shadows well away from everyone. I was wearing “widow’s weeds” and blended with the shadows even when the guide’s lantern was going by. When the kid came by, I could hear him being rude to the other two in my section and as he passed me, I slipped into the group and walked behind him. He thought it was one of his friends until I screamed right behind him. He turned, grabbed ME and screamed his head off and took off running away from the group and the light and plowed into a tree. There was a lot of heckling going on the rest of the walkthrough for his group… all of them laughing at HIM for getting so scared. It was pretty awesome.
Hate to admit it, but my now son-in-law brought over a broken chainsaw a couple of years ago, put on a really awful mask and came running out from behind our tree revving the chainsaw at high-school age kids— scared the stuffing out of them and I honestly laughed until I cried. I know– so very wrong, but at least I’m honest!
Love my group of friends. We all love to dress up and have a great time.
My favorite Halloween was when a local car dealership had a kid’s costume contest and my 5 yr old son Ben (now 28) won. He was dressed up as a Vietnam Vet complete with camaflogued face. This made his Dad, a real Vietnam Vet, very proud.
Every Halloween is filled with wonderful memories, it’s my birthday so it is always very special as I get to celebrate it with the ones I love…extra special and fun too!!!
My most memorable Halloween was the year I was about ten… I had broken my foot not long before, and had a lovely plaster cast on it. I wore my Mom’s old pro dress, and was “Cinderella.” We tromped all over the small town we lived in, which was not easy for me! We didn’t take into account that the leaves we were walking through were wet from recent rains, and by the time we got home, the bottom of my cast was falling off!!
My favorite Halloween was when I took my son trick or treating for the first time. The expression on his face the first time he got candy for merely saying “trick or treat” was priceless!
I think my favorite Halloween stories are when it snowed on that day. Trick or treating as a kid was the worst when it snowed! My mom insisted on making me wear my snowsuit UNDER my costume! You know how hard that is to do! LOL I felt like that poor kid in a Christmas Story where the mom wraps him up so tight he can’t put his arms down….hahaha That’s how it felt for me! A princess costume over a big old snowsuit and earmuffs under a tiara! Now there’s a memory that a kid will never forget…I haven’t!! 🙂
My favorite Halloween tradition is not a story but every year my husband and I dress up along with our children and as the kids trick or treat we hand out candy! I just love seeing all of the original costumes kids come up with 🙂
My 18 yr old daughter and I shared this Halloween and it’s pumpkin carving tradition with a friend that is from Thailand. She is a graduate student at a local university. She chose a simple ghost pattern. The pumpkins were hard and difficult to get the lids cut. My friend stuck with it till she had a very nice pumpkin carved and then decided that she needed to add some bats to each side of the ghost. I was so impressed at the job she did with very little instruction. I got tickled at her, she took pictures of it in all stages including what the inside looked like before cleaning. It was lots of fun to share the tradition with someone from another country that had never carved a pumpkin before.