Friday, October 29, 2010

Flashback Friday


I'm joining Linda @ Mocha with Linda for Flashback Friday today!

What  was Halloween like when you were growing up? Did your family participate? If not, was there a substitute activity? Did your school or church have a fall festival or carnival? Were there stipulations regarding costumes? What sorts of activities did they have? What about Halloween parties? Have you ever bobbed for apples or been on a hayride? What are your memories of "haunted houses"? (I'm not referring to the ultra-scary, secular ones, just the fun kid ones, with bowls of grapes and cold spaghetti!) If you went trick-or-treating, what were the rules, both for trick-or-treating and for candy consumption? What types of costumes did you wear? Were they store-bought or homemade? Did you carve a jack-o-lantern? How are your children's experiences similar or different to yours? And the most important question: Do you like candy corn? What is your favorite (and least favorite!) Halloween candy?

 Halloween was a much anticipated event in our home growing up.  We would spend weeks deciding what costume we would wear and then making it!  I think in my younger years, my mom bought all my costumes but as I got older, I made my own.  My favorite memory of Halloween was trick or treating with my big brother.  We used a pillow case as a bag and usually came home with it filled to the brim!!  Sometimes my brother had to carry my bag for me!!!  lots of candy!

As soon as we got home, my brother and I would sit on the floor and separate out our candy.....and then the trading deals would begin!!!  

Once all the deals were done, the candy was placed in bags with your name on them.....the chocolate bags went into the freezer to keep longer.  We ate candy for a LONG time and I suspect that mom snagged a few pieces when we weren't looking!!!

 

With my kids, I made all their costumes and we would trick or treat just around our immediate neighborhood.  By the time I had my own kids, I had decided that eating that much candy (until Christmas) was not a great idea.  So my kids were allowed to eat on their candy for 3 days and then the Candy Fairy would come overnight, take the candy to give to someone who needed it (does anyone "need" candy?), and leave a small prize in it's place.  Worked great for us!!!  

Once we moved to Indiana, we started a new tradition we still do today.  We put our fire pit in the driveway and offer the kids a choice.....candy or a s'more.  It was always fun to sit out by the fire and visit with everyone as they came by and stopped to get warm!!  Now that we are in the south...it is sometimes too hot for the fire, but we still do it!!!  It is one of the best ways we have found to get to know new neighbors!!  This year it will be iffy.  There has been a strict burn ban in place for a while.  It has been rainy a bit this week, so I am hopeful the ban will be lifted so we can continue our tradition!!


By the way, I really dislike candy corn!!!


12 comments:

LuAnn said...

fun memories. my brothers and i would dump our candy and do the trading thing too. I like the smore idea too.

SusanD said...

Ha! What a great idea....Candy Fairy. Thanks for sharing. Have a fabulous weekend. Blessings, SusanD

Mocha with Linda said...

What a fun tradition with the fire pit!

I had forgotten but I did the candy swap when my kids were little - I think I gave them a book.

Mocha with Linda said...

BTW, I deleted your link and re-linked you. Somehow the first one linked to a P365 from June!

Nel said...

What fun memories. I loved your kids cosutmes, cute! And the firepit idea, how cool is that! What a wonderful idea.
until next time... nel

Michelle said...

Such fun memories. I can remember hiding my candy so my older siblings wouldn't steal any of my candy. :)

As for my camera. I just bought a Canon 50D. I had a Canon Rebel XT before that. I am a Canon fan, but Nikon and Canon are both on a pretty even playing field.

Email me if you want any advice! Michelleocm@aol.com

Mimi said...

Great memories!

I hate candy corn too!

Mimi

Rach@In His Hands said...

No candy corn?! Then pass it over here! :-)

Your fire pit tradition is a very fun idea. I love traditions like that!

Jewel said...

I ONLY like candy corn with peanuts... on it's own, it's too sweet. Those are good traditions! I can't imagine it being too warm for a fire on Halloween.. it's going to be a coold Halloween here! So, did your kids pig out for the three days you let them have the candy??

StephieAnne said...

I love the smores idea....I'll have to keep that in mind once the kiddos bypass the trick or treating.

We have an annual chili feed with our family and friends - first the kids hit the neighborhood, then we come back and eat and the kids sort the candy.

My kids do enjoy candy, but are rather picky...so they tend to just naturally leave a lot left over that gets eventually dumped.

I love this holiday as it is kind of the kick-off point for the rest of the season. Happy days!!!

Debra said...

Ok, disliking candy corn, is just unheard of! LOL Have you tried mixing the candy corn with peanuts? It tastes like a payday candybar and looks nice in the candy dish too! :)

My brother and sister and I did the candy trading too and we also made a pile on the floor, for my mother and daddy, of course it was the smallest pile. haha

In response to your comment on my blog....I have a Canon EOS Rebel XSi and I love it! Mine is a couple of years old....the newer model is the Canon EOS Rebel T2i. If you check out costco.com they usually have cameras on sale before christmas. My husband bought mine at costco and it was originally $1000 but he got it for $800.00 and it came with 2 lenses, so it was a really good deal. :) Of course you might be able to find it cheaper somewhere else and now that I think about it...y'all prob don't have costco where you live. What about Sam's club? You could try there or there's always amazon.com too. Oh I do hope you get a nice DSLR for your birthday...you will love it!!! If you have any questions, let me know. ~ Debra

Cathy said...

Sounds like fun traditions you have! I love candy corn!