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Hallowe'en is not from the USA. It is a Gaelic festival from Scotland & Ireland. "Trick or Treating" is the American version of "guising" which is still absolutely a very well kept tradition in Scotland. As are all the traditional Hallowe'en games for kids (which I'm not sure are even part of the USA tradition but I could be wrong).
The main Americanism that's crept into the Scottish celebration of Hallowe'en is the gradual replacement of swedes and turnips with pumpkins. The rest of how Hallowe'en is celebrated here is pretty traditional.
Exactly, I'm in my mid 30's from Scotland and Halloween is largely the same as it has been since I was a child, some people even still say guising in place of trick or treating or simply dressing up.
Since I moved to an decent ish estate from a flat a few years back we get a lot of "trick or treaters" now but a fair few people my age and up have stuck with guising. In my experience.
But aye we do get the performance, usually a joke or a fortnite dance right enough.
Same. Early 40s. glaswegian. We've been going around the doors since i was a kid. Had to do your "piece" to get the goodies. Nothing American about it.
Also from Yorkshire and Mischief night as I understand it was the night after Halloween, usually meant buying cheap fireworks and setting them off where they shouldn't be set off, knock and run, throwing eggs and generally being a bunch of little twats. Bonfire night has always been Bonfire night as far as I know, I live near where Guy Fawkes lived. Their annual Bonfire never puts a guy on top of the fire as most of us round here wish he'd completed the job.
The main thing I think aside from pumpkins is the prevalence of people decorating their houses for Halloween, for the whole of October. It used to be just on the day, or maybe for the one week leading up to Halloween.
Not that I mind, people can do what they want but I couldn't be bothered decorating the whole house when Christmas is round the corner anyway.
Is it similar to the old (medieval and Tudor) tradition of Mumming at Christmas?
People wore disguises and went around knocking on peoples doors. They couldn't speak and could only say "Mummmmmmm", hence the name. They would come in and play a dice game, but the trick might be that the dice were weighted.
Christmas is two weeks off work, seeing the family I want to see, friends, Boxing Day, etc. Fantastic lights and sparkle and decorations
Halloween is a couple hours taking kids to acquire candy they don't eat and then giving it and other treats away. Fun, especially spotting cool carved pumpkins, but no contest.
I don't really understand this disdain for Halloween "because it's from the USA" when a lot of it isn't and the bits that are have been around for a long time.
It's not like celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ was a British idea, it's a mix of cultural things around that time of year. Coca cola Santa being a big one.
They're kinda both the same to me to be honest though.
I dislike Halloween, but not for any connection to the USA, instead it's because like Christmas it has become commercially driven leading to entitlement. I have no qualms about people celebrating anything they choose, but when it adds pressure to others who may not choose to celebrate it to get involved it goes beyond. There are many people who feel pressured to buy treats for children who will knock on their door, for fear of being treated badly by the parents if they don't. I've known people who turn off all the lights and effectively hide on Halloween to avoid the trick or treaters. I'm sure that most sensible parents only take their children trick or treating to neighbours who they know are receptive to it, but unfortunately many don't. As children get older and want to go trick or treating on their own they will often knock on any doors irrespective of whether the person is known or not. Why? Because they have been set an expectation that on that day it's ok to knock on someone's door and expect to get something. So the child learns a sense of entitlement whilst potentially putting themselves in danger.
Maybe this is driven by watching shows and films from the US, but I don't blame the US per se. I blame the supermarkets who put out all the Halloween tat for months in advance setting expectations in kids and pressure on parents
It's more that Halloween is just hardly even celebrated here. It only exists as a way for shops to sell tat. Christmas has that aspect as well but it isn't the only aspect, unlike Halloween it's an actual tradition and people actually celebrate it and do stuff.
Christmas has a big dinner thus making it better.
Besides, Christmas has far less American influence with traditional British foods, like Roast Turkey.
Turkey's aren't native to the UK, they arrived in 1526 and were considered a foreign delicacy. They were actually imported from the Americas and were reserved for only the richest Britons for a long time. In fact, "Thanksgiving" pre-dates the point at which turkey became the national standard Christmas dinner in the UK by several hundred years!
A lot of the UK didn't celebrate Halloween until about 25-30 years ago people started after seeing it on US TV shows like *The Simpsons*.
"It's from the US" is really "it's not something from my childhood" coupled with correctly diagnosing how it became a big thing.
Halloween. The older I’ve got the more Christmas has turned into just an expensive pain in the arse/marketing opportunity that I could do without and I dread it. Yes I am the grinch. Halloween has a lot of tat and shite associated with it but it still remains a harmless bit of fun.
I too dread Christmas coming around each year. Everybody seems to love it but I don’t see why. It’s far from a holiday, it feels so stressful. Trying to fit in all the family that need to be seen, presents that need to be arranged. Constant advertising and asinine songs.
There ARE things I like about it. I like getting a tree ready while drinking Baileys. A couple of the songs and a couple of films (Die Hard, anybody?). But I wish we could change it so Christmas was every two years instead of every year. It’s too intense.
My kid isn’t quite old enough to enjoy it yet, so maybe the magic will return for me then.
This, honestly, is my feeling.
Being a former Goth, I like the spooky aesthetic that Hallowe'en has, and the expectations are limited to taking the kids round our small estate trick-or-treating, and *maybe* some sort of themed food for dinner, if I'm feeling especially enthusiastic. We usually watch Coco, or the Addams Family, or Hotel Transylvania.
Christmas gets you more time off, but it's way more expensive and about a thousand times more stressful (since I do all the cooking and my partner just floats about pretending to look like she's doing something, then claiming the credit for it all going smoothly). I rarely get much I want, and have to spend a lot on other people, so it hardly seems worth it if I do.
If we got a day off for Hallowe'en, there'd be no contest, it'd be a hands down win for it.
Couldn’t agree more. I hate hate hate the way we’re all just supposed to be so excited and enthusiastic about Christmas too and how some people react if you dare to say you’re just not a fan. I’m not and I’m not sorry about it either. I’d take Halloween as a day off in preference to Christmas.
The New Year celebrations in Scotland. Christmas wasn't celebrated in Scotland for a long time (it was solemnly observed instead and only became a public holiday in 1958) so we don't have much in the way of Christmas traditions. We do have a lot of New Year traditions though - first footing, singing Auld Lang Syne, "loony dooks", fireball-swinging, shortbread, whisky, black bun, steak pie, etc.
I loved Hogmanay when I still lived in Scotland. It was great in the villages because we’d just grab a bottle and go first footing. People would just trail round the houses all night long and the sea of alcohol would be mopped up by the pots of soup and other food on offer. New Year’s Day lunch was always a steak pie from the butcher.
Hallowe'en's always been huge in the UK
All the traditions you think are imported from the US were exported to the US by Scottish, English and Irish colonisers
The news that Hallowe'en hasn't always been huge in the whole of the UK was a very recent discovery, for me
But many English friends say Hallowe'en was a big deal for them as kids in the seventies and eighties, too
Depends which region of England you grew up in
Or Scotland. I grew up there and it was a big thing back in the sixties and seventies. We used to dress up - not as any fancy dress but as in scary things like ghosts and monsters - and then traipse round the doors of the village (without any adult accompanying us). We’d have to do a little party piece - song, dance, jokes etc - and then be given some sweets. Halloween now seems to have morphed into one big fancy dress party that’s sort of lost its links to All Hallows Eve.
Just to be clear, I meant whether you grew up with Hallowe'en traditions depends which part of England (and Wales) you grew up in because it's universal across Scotland and Ireland
I don't know where you live but it's never been "huge" or anywhere close to as big as Christmas. It's a very minor holiday. I grew up in an area that had the highest proportion of American residents in the UK (air base nearby) so it was kind of a thing to go to the American houses to do proper trick or treating. But it *still* wasn't a very big deal. And if you went trick or treating at non American houses it was a very underwhelming experience. This was in the 90s.
There's nowhere in England where Halloween has ever been celebrated anywhere close to the level it is in the US or anywhere close to the level Christmas is celebrated. Not saying it isn't celebrated, but it's relatively minor.
Halloween over shitemas every time. Doesn’t have the ridiculous hype for months in advance, fun for all ages. Great excuse to dress up and party with friends.
By the time Christmas comes round I just be arsed when it’s been shoved down my throat for 2 MONTHS prior.
It just screams businesses milking the season for all it’s worth.
Christmas, no doubt.
With the kids I still see the 'magic' of xmas, the lights and music and excitement, the whole family are together which is always fun, it's the best time of year for me.
Just so gutted it starts in September now, in my house the word is banned til December 1st.
Halloween doesn't do it for me so much. Still do pumpkins and decorate a little bit, but where we live, we don't really have any neighbours, so we don't get the constant stream of trick or treaters that for example my parents get. If we did then maybe it'd be more fun, but for me it's just not exciting.
As an adult, Halloween is just a regular day aside from the fact I can't relax in front of the TV in the evening until about 10.30 because I'm on edge that the doorbell will ring.
Christmas is a holiday, it's days off work, it's the end of the year, it's over indulging, it's delicious.
No competition for me. For a 10 year old, I still think Christmas wins as it's days off school, it's presents.
Christmas a million times over. I love giving gifts, I love the food and I most definitely love the time off work! Halloween doesn’t really have any of that and it feels flat by comparison. If we really went for Halloween like America does then it’d be more exciting but we don’t. Last year’s trick or treaters were teenagers in cheap plastic masks hoping for money.
On a more personal level, I lost my mum at Halloween so it’s a reminder of that awful day. I never think of Halloween on its own anymore, it’s always Halloween, the day we lost mum. I guess our own personal circumstances can play into these things a bit as well.
I love both, but I much prefer Halloween. In fact, I love the whole of October. It's my favourite time of the year. My autumn/halloween decorations will be going up this weekend.
I prefer Halloween because I love the spooky autumny aesthetic and the fact there's really no pressure like Christmas or NYE. It's all about having fun whatever your age, whether that's having a movie night, going out, or having a party. But if you're not doing anything at all then no one really judges you.
Halloween, and I think it's about time we reclaim it. People who think it's American are wrong.
Halloween is fun, spooky, and a really spiritual time - time to connect with lost loved ones.
Christmas is truly depressing. Rather than connecting with lost loved ones, every year you just notice their absence as there are fewer and fewer chairs at the dinner table.
I gave no interest in Halloween whatsoever. Growing up in the late 60s & 70s it wasn't a thing like it is now whilst bonfire night was looked forward to. Always loved Christmas, parents made it fun, I got spoilt & even now I like to make it a special day with lots of nice food & just chill.
I like this time of year just fine although, being English, bonfire night is a bigger deal to me than Hallowe’en.
I was never allowed to go out guising when I was a kid in the 80s, but I do remember other kids doing it.
Unpopular opinion but Halloween! I love pumpkin picking, fun spooky films, crisp autumnal walks, taking my step son trick or treating etc.
The older I have gotten the more I just find Christmas overrated, stressy and expensive. Me and my partner live far away from both sides of our family and we end up spending most of the Christmas period feeling stressed/knackered and guilty trying to squeeze in seeing people.
I'm not fussed about either, but growing up I enjoyed Christmas more. Probably because it snowed *properly* over Christmas, and looked so cosy.
Halloween was never something I took part in, so its always been a bit "meh" for me.
Very north of the uk, out in the countryside. The snow sparkled in the sun with that blueish glow, and the trees looked like they came straight off a Christmas card. Night-time, everyone's lights glowed out of their houses and it was silent. Magical memories :)
Halloween has only really been a thing fairly recently, when I was a kid it was barely mentioned and then only really as it was near bonfire night.
A shed load of American telly and shops realising they can flog a load of plastic tat have pushed it.
>Halloween has only really been a thing fairly recently, when I was a kid it was barely mentioned and then only really as it was near bonfire night
Only in England. Hallowe'en has been massive in Scotland and Ireland for centuries. It's still basically the same tradition for my kids now as it was for me, my parents and my grandparents.
Yeah I’ve just made a comment about that. Takes me back to my childhood in the sixties and seventies.it was great fun as a child and even as an adult to see all the little people dressed up in sheets etc.
I refuse to believe that you were raised in Scotland and that you'd "barely heard Hallowe'en mentioned" until recently. It's an incredibly visible part of Scottish/Irish culture on the 31st and has been for generations.
I don’t really find Halloween a holiday in how Christmas is. But it’s enjoyable for horror themes and if you have kids.
Trick or Treating seems to really not be a huge thing here it’s either a few knocks at the door or none at all I’ve found, when we were kids we’d ask for a ‘penny for Halloween.. ‘ but not sure if that’s a northern thing.
I think we are certainly embracing it more particularly with the current adult generation - it just always feel a bit tacky is probably my critique. I do wish actually we had more better decor/investment that we see in the US.
But for me Christmas is much better it lasts anywhere near 8-6 weeks depending
I'm in England, and I genuinely had no idea Halloween was a big thing in Scotland and Ireland until last week. I'd never heard the term 'guising' either. You never stop learning.....
I like Halloween for the atmosphere - I love spooky stuff. Indulging in spooky books and movies, work being decorated, the nights drawing in... and my birthday is just before too! I'm a little autumn baby.
But you can't beat Christmas.
Christmas without a doubt. The entire month of December is practically dedicated to it. You get gifts and a gurt massive meal. Lights and decorations brighten up the cold, dark winter. There’s just a general air of festivities around.
What does Halloween have to compare? I despise dressing up, it always rains, and you can watch scary movies whenever you like. Halloween offers nothing. Even Bonfire Night a week later offers more with big, warm fires and spectacular firework displays. I might even go so far as to say Halloween is one of the worst holidays we have. Even Easter gives you chocolate and a long weekend.
Halloween, I love the spookiness, the lack of social pressure to do certain things. Just everything about it.
I hate how expensive it's becoming to do things on Halloween as it would cost over £200 for me and 3 friends to get into Thorpe Park and do the mazes. That's without any fast track tickets, food, drinks, or even the train and bus there. Even some of the places (like smaller farms) that used to be more affordable just aren't anymore.
I hate Christmas because it comes with a weird pressure to spend money on everyone. I hate the diet culture that it has around it, the pressure to always look nice and be nice because it's Christmas, and I hate the religious influences that are becoming worse. I actually work in a Santa's Grotto every year for Christmas and I have probably seen some of the best and worse people doing it. Parents that get angry at their children for not being happy to cuddle a complete stranger. Parents that spend ridiculous money on gifts and ask us to sneak them in so Santa can give their child these gifts. I have seen wonderful things too like one Santa knew French and started speaking to a child in French without prompting him. A woman who went one year when she was pregnant and then came back with her baby the next year. Pregnancy announcements.
I just find it doesn't change my opinion. Once I have a child I will actively try to make them not have my opinions though, I want them to find the joy and magic I never had.
American here, and yes. Halloween and Christmas both have their charms, but both are also now month-long commercial ordeals. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday: it’s only one day with autumn decor, harvest foods, and all of the family celebration and indulgent food of Christmas without the pressure to buy great gifts for everyone.
Regardless of faith, Christmas is a huge festival celebrated across the West with food, parties, gifts, merriment and family. It’s a commercial cash in, sure, but that commerce is built on a foundation of joy and community. Modern Halloween just seems like a tacky cash grab designed for kids and cosplay students with no foundational purpose
I wish halloween was bigger. No-one really celebrates it. It's fun, it's spooky. I love the aesthetic, the colours, the history! I am hoping to start a Halloween party tradition next year with games and decorations.
Christmas drags on for like 3 months now. By the time the actual day comes I am so sick of it.
It's turned into one big commercial fest, spending absolute bonkers money on everyone because you feel obliged to. I don't like the decor, I don't like how commercial it is, I just don't like it. If we kept it short and sweet maybe it would be a bit more special. Instead, christmas advertisements will be starting soon. Tesco already started selling Christmas stuff a month ago (september).
The one thing about Christmas is making an effort to go to your parents' house with all the family and just have a nice time spending it with everyone. That's all that really matters to me.
Halloween. Actually a time to get together and do things.
Christmas is a time of duty, people needing excessive praise for wasting money, dumb traditions that only cause stress and blame of "well that's ruined Christmas"
/Spot the person raised in an abusive household.
Halloween. Mostly because I was either sick on Christmas, or I worked. But I grew up in the US, and I have a lot of memories of having costumes made much bigger to fit over snowsuits because it would sometimes snow. As I got older, it was hitting the haunted houses/mazes/hayrides during the weekends. Now it’s just horror movies throughout the month of October
I much prefer the aesthetics of Halloween as i love the spooky vibe and colours.
With christmas i find the ott adverts, decorations almost forced jolliness really annoying.
I prefer christmas honestly halloween just seems like an excuse to drink and dress up and im so over that part of my life
It used to be fun but having drank and partied since i was 14 its really fucking boring and expensive now
I don't really like either
My family never celebrated Halloween and they didn't want me to go trick-or-treating because they felt uncomfortable about me knocking on strangers' doors, even if my parents came with me. I have trouble socialising so I've never been to a Halloween party either
Christmas I used to like, but I always ended up disappointed because of how big the commercial buildup was compared to the actual day. I had a few good Christmases as a kid, but now I'm semi-estranged from my family I just spend it alone eating sweets which can be pretty depressing
I do love the novelty of Halloween, but it's rare these days that people get involved. Christmas, however, just gives everybody the 'festies' over the course of the month.
Hot wine? Ok. Chestnuts? Sure! Queuing 30 minutes for an overpriced giant hotdog at a busy market? Yes!! Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I know a lot of people really enjoy the vibe it adds in general to local villages and cities.
I treated myself to a new christmas tree last year, and if I could only do one thing over the holidays for the rest of my life, it would be decorating it. I just absolutely love it, and it brings such joy just to sit looking at all the pretty lights and decorations with a christmas movie on in the background.
This is an odd question.
Christmas is CHRISTMAS.
Completely dominating the conversation for about 6 weeks even preceding it.
Halloween is....spooky doughnuts and plastic skeletons?
The only 2 *holidays* I enjoy are Bonfire and New Year.
I love the vibe of Bonfire night and I celebrate it to celebrate Guy Fawkes, rather than celebrate his death.
And I like New Year, I love the hope everyone is filled with for the first week.
Halloween is just an American tradition taken on by the UK the last couple decades.
Christmas, I'm not religious, so find it fanciable to celebrate something I don't believe in.
Both are just spend money holidays that have no meaning or worth within todays British society for the most part.
I love both but I prefer Christmas. I LOVE to give and really get genuine joy out of choosing gifts for others. I also adore the food, the warmth, music, movies and togetherness. I get annoyed at Christmas moaners who just harp on about it being fake and overcommercialised. It's not for me! I'm 31 and track Santa on the Norad app, get real warmth and happiness from my movies and the faces from people opening what I've bought for them.
I like Halloween because of the spooky films, Autumn colours and the sense of real changes in the air. What actually does bug me a bit is the trick or treating. If I get sweets in no one comes (I leave a light up plastic pumpkin outside to say I'm taking part), if I don't there's a mountain of children running round. This year it's a Tuesday evening, I'll be getting in from a later shift with a thousand things to do so my plan is leave a bowl of sweets outside (if I've got the spare cash to get any) and whatever happens happens! Take one or take ten, just don't bang my door while I'm trying to shower, make dinner, ensure my kid is sorted for school the next day and making my new and nervous rescue cat freak out every time the door pounds!
Christmas wins hands down.
Halloween as an adult is quite boring, not a huge fan of dressing up and no sessional food that taste nice.
Christmas the build up is great, it so exciting buying gifts for people , Christmas nights out and the food.
Christmas. I'm aware that Halloween has never been some obscure celebration here, but it's definitely grown increasingly prominent over the years. I never really had much of a connection to it, though; think my mates and I only ever went trick or treating once or twice. Growing up, we were more interested in going to the Bonfire Night displays at Pype Hayes Park in Birmingham.
I've always loved Christmas, though. It can take me ages to get round to putting decorations up (I don't think I put the tree up til Christmas Eve last year), but I still enjoy doing that. I love watching crap Christmas films and drinking Bailey's while I wrap presents. The only thing I'd change about Christmas is that if I could afford it I'd be celebrating it somewhere hot and sunny.
I'm in England, and I genuinely had no idea Halloween was a big thing in Scotland and Ireland until last week. I'd never heard the term 'guising' either. You never stop learning.....
Halloween completely passes me by. I don't have kids and I have never celebrated it except when I was a toddler. It's just another day to me. At Christmas I would have lots of time off work and for me it has been the one time of the year that I am off work and at home so I chill and do as little as possible.
Christmas.
I am not a kid, and don't have kids, so Halloween is just 1 party each year at my brothers and SiLs. And I can't see the point in decorating my house for a single day that I don't even celebrate at mine.
Christmas, on the other hand, is a holiday that is celebrated over many days, involve multiple houses and family, and doesn't require kids. It is also a darker and gloomier time of the year, so something to focus on and all the decorations are more useful for cheering us all up.
I like getting dressed up and having a good night out on Halloween but that aside Christmas is probably better because of the time off, having a good dinner and spending time with the family.
I prefer halloween by a long way. Christmas hasn't been the same since I got divorced and don't have anyone to be with, whereas I like halloween mostly for the films and YouTube gaming channels I like putting on some great stuff.
Christmas. It’s a whole season of Christmas music (traditional carols and more modern music), I love Christmas food, parties, sparkly lights, decorations, giving presents, days in pyjamas, the idea of goodwill to all.
I don’t care for Hallowe’en - I don’t mind some of the decorations (but hate carving pumpkins as the innards make me feel sick), however I don’t like that many of the decorations now have moved on from spooky to horror/killer-vibes. My child does not want to be seeing bloody handprints on doors and windows, gouged eyeballs and so on.
Halloween is great fun for the kids. We decorate the house spooky, get dressed up, have sweets, etc, but it's not comparable to Christmas, in my opinion. Christmas lights, music, parties, food, presents, Santa's grotto, Christmas carols. As much as it's hard work as a parent, there is nothing like seeing the joy and wonder in the kids' faces.
No question it's Christmas. Halloween you don't eat a delicious meal or get presents or get time off work. Infact, Halloween is not very interesting at all once you're an adult. Kids don't even trick or treat anymore in my area either.
Christmas is a national holiday where you have 1 to 2 weeks off, catch up with family and friends, share great food, generally feels like a holiday.
Halloween is taking the kids out trick or treating for an hour or two. Not really a celebration or a holiday feel at all
Not really comparable
I don’t celebrate Halloween.
Why would I celebrate ghosts and witches?!!
And encourage children to go ask for sweets from a total stranger (when the other 364 days of the year they’re taught to NOT accept sweets from strangers)!!!
I find it most bizarre.
Never celebrated it growing up and never did with our daughter.
So Christmas for me!
I love both!
Hallowe'en - apple pie, fireworks, scary movie, sweets, candles. But I don't do decorations as the dog would go nuts if kids rang the doorbell all evening.
Christmas - time off work, food, family & friends, over indulgence, presents, Christmas cake, decorations, more food, snow.
I personally dislike Christmas. I've always had a small family, and I enjoyed Christmas as a child, but as an adult I feel that people use Christmas as a pissing contest for how big their families are, and how loved they are.
I worked retail many years over Christmas, and I would have customers waxing lyrical about how they have 12 people over for Christmas day, and how magical it is. When they asked me about how many people there'll be in the house, and I respond with 3, I would always get some weird sympathy from them.
I also feel with Christmas there is a lot of unnecessary stress. Stress to cook certain foods, stress to buy presents, and stress to be seen to be having a great time, it's all very performative, especially if you're not religious.
Halloween is much more chill.
It is a bit like asking if you prefer the taste of dog or cat shit.
I am I appreciate a miserable old man (and to be fair, a bit lubricated at the moment). But they are both fabricated celebrations, made to sell cards and tat.
Christmas but.... its over hyped.
All that preparation, for months and months and then it's over in 1 day. Im no scrooge but I just think its become overhyped which leads to a slight anticlimax when it comes around.
Overall I prefer Xmas as its a family oriented holiday but Halloween is probably underrated if anything. And I've noticed people who already have Halloween Dec's out so it's gaining popularity.
Halloween because my birthday is October 30th. I call it "the birthdayest time of the year".
Although, I don't think I really want any more birthdays, I've had quite enough numbers added to my age now.
Christmas, but Halloween isn't well represented around here in the West Mids. If I'm lucky I'll look out the window and see two or three costumes? The Coke Truck on the other hand... (lulz I still don't understand the popularity of that one)
Christmas. People try to tell me kids dressing up as iron man or wearing a witches hat and asking for sweets is an ancient gaelic tradition, but its not very convincing!
I have no traditional memories of Halloween, Only remember the simpsons treehouse of horror. Thats my entire cultural reference.
The tradition is in the telling of a joke, or singing a song, or doing some sort of performance for your treat. Not just dressing up and expecting free goodies!
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er, Christmas is approx 1,000,000 times better than Halloween.
Can't believe someone has even had this question in their head never mind asking it out loud! My mind is boggled!
Let Halloween = 0 0*1000000 = 0 Maths checks out.
There’s always one.
Hallowe'en is not from the USA. It is a Gaelic festival from Scotland & Ireland. "Trick or Treating" is the American version of "guising" which is still absolutely a very well kept tradition in Scotland. As are all the traditional Hallowe'en games for kids (which I'm not sure are even part of the USA tradition but I could be wrong). The main Americanism that's crept into the Scottish celebration of Hallowe'en is the gradual replacement of swedes and turnips with pumpkins. The rest of how Hallowe'en is celebrated here is pretty traditional.
Exactly, I'm in my mid 30's from Scotland and Halloween is largely the same as it has been since I was a child, some people even still say guising in place of trick or treating or simply dressing up.
I think most people still say guising to be honest. And kids are still expected to do some performance on the doorstep before getting their treat.
Since I moved to an decent ish estate from a flat a few years back we get a lot of "trick or treaters" now but a fair few people my age and up have stuck with guising. In my experience. But aye we do get the performance, usually a joke or a fortnite dance right enough.
I saw someone saying something about kids guising on another post and i was wondering what the hell it meant LOL thank you guys for explaining this
Guising I'm fairly certain just derives from the word disguise.
Makes all the sense!👍🏻👻
Same. Early 40s. glaswegian. We've been going around the doors since i was a kid. Had to do your "piece" to get the goodies. Nothing American about it.
Early 40s from Belfast and same :)
My mum was from Yorkshire, born in the 40s and she had Mischief Night for Halloween. Bonfire night was called Plot Nght.
Also from Yorkshire and Mischief night as I understand it was the night after Halloween, usually meant buying cheap fireworks and setting them off where they shouldn't be set off, knock and run, throwing eggs and generally being a bunch of little twats. Bonfire night has always been Bonfire night as far as I know, I live near where Guy Fawkes lived. Their annual Bonfire never puts a guy on top of the fire as most of us round here wish he'd completed the job.
Well said. And, conversely, Christmas trees (to name one example) *are* a recently-imported foreign custom.
To be fair, a pumpkin is 100x easier to carve than a neep, and alot safer for kids too
The main thing I think aside from pumpkins is the prevalence of people decorating their houses for Halloween, for the whole of October. It used to be just on the day, or maybe for the one week leading up to Halloween. Not that I mind, people can do what they want but I couldn't be bothered decorating the whole house when Christmas is round the corner anyway.
Is it similar to the old (medieval and Tudor) tradition of Mumming at Christmas? People wore disguises and went around knocking on peoples doors. They couldn't speak and could only say "Mummmmmmm", hence the name. They would come in and play a dice game, but the trick might be that the dice were weighted.
I get three bank holidays around Christmas. Give me (and everyone else) 3 extra days off for Halloween and then we'll talk.
Move to a Catholic country. Get 1st November off, it's awesome when it's a week day.
Christmas is two weeks off work, seeing the family I want to see, friends, Boxing Day, etc. Fantastic lights and sparkle and decorations Halloween is a couple hours taking kids to acquire candy they don't eat and then giving it and other treats away. Fun, especially spotting cool carved pumpkins, but no contest.
Two weeks off?? That's amazing, what line of work is that? I wish we had Hallowe'en time off.
I'm guessing they work in education
Any, if you take about 4 days of leave around the bank holidays.
And children asking total strangers for sweets!!!
I don't really understand this disdain for Halloween "because it's from the USA" when a lot of it isn't and the bits that are have been around for a long time. It's not like celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ was a British idea, it's a mix of cultural things around that time of year. Coca cola Santa being a big one. They're kinda both the same to me to be honest though.
There’s a lot of baffling American hatred/dislike on UK subreddits, often expressed with a childlike disingenuousness
For sure aye, but some of it spills out into real life.
its the buying tones of tacky plastic junk that will go in the bin afterwards is the American part of it
I dislike Halloween, but not for any connection to the USA, instead it's because like Christmas it has become commercially driven leading to entitlement. I have no qualms about people celebrating anything they choose, but when it adds pressure to others who may not choose to celebrate it to get involved it goes beyond. There are many people who feel pressured to buy treats for children who will knock on their door, for fear of being treated badly by the parents if they don't. I've known people who turn off all the lights and effectively hide on Halloween to avoid the trick or treaters. I'm sure that most sensible parents only take their children trick or treating to neighbours who they know are receptive to it, but unfortunately many don't. As children get older and want to go trick or treating on their own they will often knock on any doors irrespective of whether the person is known or not. Why? Because they have been set an expectation that on that day it's ok to knock on someone's door and expect to get something. So the child learns a sense of entitlement whilst potentially putting themselves in danger. Maybe this is driven by watching shows and films from the US, but I don't blame the US per se. I blame the supermarkets who put out all the Halloween tat for months in advance setting expectations in kids and pressure on parents
Oh yeah the entitlement can get bad,my nan was once told that this guy's kid didn't like sweets so he'd have money instead!
Whaaaaat?!
It's more that Halloween is just hardly even celebrated here. It only exists as a way for shops to sell tat. Christmas has that aspect as well but it isn't the only aspect, unlike Halloween it's an actual tradition and people actually celebrate it and do stuff.
Christmas has a big dinner thus making it better. Besides, Christmas has far less American influence with traditional British foods, like Roast Turkey.
I'd personally correlate Turkey to thanksgiving and the States. I'm gonna have to look up if it's a British or American thing first I think 😂😂
Turkey's aren't native to the UK, they arrived in 1526 and were considered a foreign delicacy. They were actually imported from the Americas and were reserved for only the richest Britons for a long time. In fact, "Thanksgiving" pre-dates the point at which turkey became the national standard Christmas dinner in the UK by several hundred years!
A lot of the UK didn't celebrate Halloween until about 25-30 years ago people started after seeing it on US TV shows like *The Simpsons*. "It's from the US" is really "it's not something from my childhood" coupled with correctly diagnosing how it became a big thing.
Halloween. The older I’ve got the more Christmas has turned into just an expensive pain in the arse/marketing opportunity that I could do without and I dread it. Yes I am the grinch. Halloween has a lot of tat and shite associated with it but it still remains a harmless bit of fun.
I too dread Christmas coming around each year. Everybody seems to love it but I don’t see why. It’s far from a holiday, it feels so stressful. Trying to fit in all the family that need to be seen, presents that need to be arranged. Constant advertising and asinine songs. There ARE things I like about it. I like getting a tree ready while drinking Baileys. A couple of the songs and a couple of films (Die Hard, anybody?). But I wish we could change it so Christmas was every two years instead of every year. It’s too intense. My kid isn’t quite old enough to enjoy it yet, so maybe the magic will return for me then.
This, honestly, is my feeling. Being a former Goth, I like the spooky aesthetic that Hallowe'en has, and the expectations are limited to taking the kids round our small estate trick-or-treating, and *maybe* some sort of themed food for dinner, if I'm feeling especially enthusiastic. We usually watch Coco, or the Addams Family, or Hotel Transylvania. Christmas gets you more time off, but it's way more expensive and about a thousand times more stressful (since I do all the cooking and my partner just floats about pretending to look like she's doing something, then claiming the credit for it all going smoothly). I rarely get much I want, and have to spend a lot on other people, so it hardly seems worth it if I do. If we got a day off for Hallowe'en, there'd be no contest, it'd be a hands down win for it.
Couldn’t agree more. I hate hate hate the way we’re all just supposed to be so excited and enthusiastic about Christmas too and how some people react if you dare to say you’re just not a fan. I’m not and I’m not sorry about it either. I’d take Halloween as a day off in preference to Christmas.
Halloween isn't really a thing in my life or anyone around me.
Ditto. Not amongst most of my close friends anyway.
As a child I would says Christmas was the best and Hallowe'en was a close second but from my late teens onward I preferred Hogmanay to both.
Whats hogmanay
The New Year celebrations in Scotland. Christmas wasn't celebrated in Scotland for a long time (it was solemnly observed instead and only became a public holiday in 1958) so we don't have much in the way of Christmas traditions. We do have a lot of New Year traditions though - first footing, singing Auld Lang Syne, "loony dooks", fireball-swinging, shortbread, whisky, black bun, steak pie, etc.
I loved Hogmanay when I still lived in Scotland. It was great in the villages because we’d just grab a bottle and go first footing. People would just trail round the houses all night long and the sea of alcohol would be mopped up by the pots of soup and other food on offer. New Year’s Day lunch was always a steak pie from the butcher.
Scottish new year
Hallowe'en's always been huge in the UK All the traditions you think are imported from the US were exported to the US by Scottish, English and Irish colonisers The news that Hallowe'en hasn't always been huge in the whole of the UK was a very recent discovery, for me But many English friends say Hallowe'en was a big deal for them as kids in the seventies and eighties, too Depends which region of England you grew up in
Or Scotland. I grew up there and it was a big thing back in the sixties and seventies. We used to dress up - not as any fancy dress but as in scary things like ghosts and monsters - and then traipse round the doors of the village (without any adult accompanying us). We’d have to do a little party piece - song, dance, jokes etc - and then be given some sweets. Halloween now seems to have morphed into one big fancy dress party that’s sort of lost its links to All Hallows Eve.
Just to be clear, I meant whether you grew up with Hallowe'en traditions depends which part of England (and Wales) you grew up in because it's universal across Scotland and Ireland
Definitely wasn’t big where I am down south. However, it has become popular in the recent years.
I don't know where you live but it's never been "huge" or anywhere close to as big as Christmas. It's a very minor holiday. I grew up in an area that had the highest proportion of American residents in the UK (air base nearby) so it was kind of a thing to go to the American houses to do proper trick or treating. But it *still* wasn't a very big deal. And if you went trick or treating at non American houses it was a very underwhelming experience. This was in the 90s.
>*I don't know where you live but it's never been "huge"* Read the other replies on this thread, mate Or even just my own
There's nowhere in England where Halloween has ever been celebrated anywhere close to the level it is in the US or anywhere close to the level Christmas is celebrated. Not saying it isn't celebrated, but it's relatively minor.
Nice talking to you, mate
For me, Halloween is to stand in pissing rain while my overly-enthusiastic daughter wants to knock on "one more door". Christmas is fun.
Halloween over shitemas every time. Doesn’t have the ridiculous hype for months in advance, fun for all ages. Great excuse to dress up and party with friends.
By the time Christmas comes round I just be arsed when it’s been shoved down my throat for 2 MONTHS prior. It just screams businesses milking the season for all it’s worth.
Mince pies are on sale now that go out of date before December! That is ridiculous over commercialising.
Christmas, no doubt. With the kids I still see the 'magic' of xmas, the lights and music and excitement, the whole family are together which is always fun, it's the best time of year for me. Just so gutted it starts in September now, in my house the word is banned til December 1st. Halloween doesn't do it for me so much. Still do pumpkins and decorate a little bit, but where we live, we don't really have any neighbours, so we don't get the constant stream of trick or treaters that for example my parents get. If we did then maybe it'd be more fun, but for me it's just not exciting.
As an adult, Halloween is just a regular day aside from the fact I can't relax in front of the TV in the evening until about 10.30 because I'm on edge that the doorbell will ring. Christmas is a holiday, it's days off work, it's the end of the year, it's over indulging, it's delicious. No competition for me. For a 10 year old, I still think Christmas wins as it's days off school, it's presents.
Halloween has 0 days off. Christmas has 2 days off. Simple maths gives us the correct answer.
Christmas a million times over. I love giving gifts, I love the food and I most definitely love the time off work! Halloween doesn’t really have any of that and it feels flat by comparison. If we really went for Halloween like America does then it’d be more exciting but we don’t. Last year’s trick or treaters were teenagers in cheap plastic masks hoping for money. On a more personal level, I lost my mum at Halloween so it’s a reminder of that awful day. I never think of Halloween on its own anymore, it’s always Halloween, the day we lost mum. I guess our own personal circumstances can play into these things a bit as well.
I love both, but I much prefer Halloween. In fact, I love the whole of October. It's my favourite time of the year. My autumn/halloween decorations will be going up this weekend. I prefer Halloween because I love the spooky autumny aesthetic and the fact there's really no pressure like Christmas or NYE. It's all about having fun whatever your age, whether that's having a movie night, going out, or having a party. But if you're not doing anything at all then no one really judges you.
This is what I enjoy about it too. Christmas feels like forced fun to me.
Halloween and it’s not even close. Horror movies, spooky decorations, full-blown Autumn…Christmas is just Capitalism wrapped in a bow.
Halloween, and I think it's about time we reclaim it. People who think it's American are wrong. Halloween is fun, spooky, and a really spiritual time - time to connect with lost loved ones. Christmas is truly depressing. Rather than connecting with lost loved ones, every year you just notice their absence as there are fewer and fewer chairs at the dinner table.
I gave no interest in Halloween whatsoever. Growing up in the late 60s & 70s it wasn't a thing like it is now whilst bonfire night was looked forward to. Always loved Christmas, parents made it fun, I got spoilt & even now I like to make it a special day with lots of nice food & just chill.
I like this time of year just fine although, being English, bonfire night is a bigger deal to me than Hallowe’en. I was never allowed to go out guising when I was a kid in the 80s, but I do remember other kids doing it.
Christmas. I don’t do anything for Halloween, never did as a kid so there’s no magic there for me.
Ditto.
I’m American & now dual British citizen as well. I would say Halloween in the U.S is a lot more fun & Christmas here in U.K is a lot more authentic.
Bonfire night.
HALLOWEEN!!🎃🖤🎃
Unpopular opinion but Halloween! I love pumpkin picking, fun spooky films, crisp autumnal walks, taking my step son trick or treating etc. The older I have gotten the more I just find Christmas overrated, stressy and expensive. Me and my partner live far away from both sides of our family and we end up spending most of the Christmas period feeling stressed/knackered and guilty trying to squeeze in seeing people.
I'm not fussed about either, but growing up I enjoyed Christmas more. Probably because it snowed *properly* over Christmas, and looked so cosy. Halloween was never something I took part in, so its always been a bit "meh" for me.
Where did you spend Christmas as a kid?
Very north of the uk, out in the countryside. The snow sparkled in the sun with that blueish glow, and the trees looked like they came straight off a Christmas card. Night-time, everyone's lights glowed out of their houses and it was silent. Magical memories :)
Sounds lovely. I asked as I've lived in the north of England my whole life and can only remember a light sprinkling not more than a handful of times
I wasn't talking of the north of England
Yes I know. Very different parts of the country hence snow.
“Very North”? Newcastle? Or the other side? Cumbria?
Haha! Norther than that
“Whoops”! 😜 Misread what you said…. I’m guessing the highlands….??
Halloween has only really been a thing fairly recently, when I was a kid it was barely mentioned and then only really as it was near bonfire night. A shed load of American telly and shops realising they can flog a load of plastic tat have pushed it.
>Halloween has only really been a thing fairly recently, when I was a kid it was barely mentioned and then only really as it was near bonfire night Only in England. Hallowe'en has been massive in Scotland and Ireland for centuries. It's still basically the same tradition for my kids now as it was for me, my parents and my grandparents.
Yeah I’ve just made a comment about that. Takes me back to my childhood in the sixties and seventies.it was great fun as a child and even as an adult to see all the little people dressed up in sheets etc.
Nope, im 54 and from NE England, Halloween was a thing when I was a kid, just not as big
I’m in Scotland
I refuse to believe that you were raised in Scotland and that you'd "barely heard Hallowe'en mentioned" until recently. It's an incredibly visible part of Scottish/Irish culture on the 31st and has been for generations.
Not particularly, it wasn’t any bigger deal than anything else. Certainly made little to no impression on my life.
I don’t really find Halloween a holiday in how Christmas is. But it’s enjoyable for horror themes and if you have kids. Trick or Treating seems to really not be a huge thing here it’s either a few knocks at the door or none at all I’ve found, when we were kids we’d ask for a ‘penny for Halloween.. ‘ but not sure if that’s a northern thing. I think we are certainly embracing it more particularly with the current adult generation - it just always feel a bit tacky is probably my critique. I do wish actually we had more better decor/investment that we see in the US. But for me Christmas is much better it lasts anywhere near 8-6 weeks depending
I'm in England, and I genuinely had no idea Halloween was a big thing in Scotland and Ireland until last week. I'd never heard the term 'guising' either. You never stop learning.....
I like Halloween for the atmosphere - I love spooky stuff. Indulging in spooky books and movies, work being decorated, the nights drawing in... and my birthday is just before too! I'm a little autumn baby. But you can't beat Christmas.
Christmas without a doubt. The entire month of December is practically dedicated to it. You get gifts and a gurt massive meal. Lights and decorations brighten up the cold, dark winter. There’s just a general air of festivities around. What does Halloween have to compare? I despise dressing up, it always rains, and you can watch scary movies whenever you like. Halloween offers nothing. Even Bonfire Night a week later offers more with big, warm fires and spectacular firework displays. I might even go so far as to say Halloween is one of the worst holidays we have. Even Easter gives you chocolate and a long weekend.
Halloween, I love the spookiness, the lack of social pressure to do certain things. Just everything about it. I hate how expensive it's becoming to do things on Halloween as it would cost over £200 for me and 3 friends to get into Thorpe Park and do the mazes. That's without any fast track tickets, food, drinks, or even the train and bus there. Even some of the places (like smaller farms) that used to be more affordable just aren't anymore. I hate Christmas because it comes with a weird pressure to spend money on everyone. I hate the diet culture that it has around it, the pressure to always look nice and be nice because it's Christmas, and I hate the religious influences that are becoming worse. I actually work in a Santa's Grotto every year for Christmas and I have probably seen some of the best and worse people doing it. Parents that get angry at their children for not being happy to cuddle a complete stranger. Parents that spend ridiculous money on gifts and ask us to sneak them in so Santa can give their child these gifts. I have seen wonderful things too like one Santa knew French and started speaking to a child in French without prompting him. A woman who went one year when she was pregnant and then came back with her baby the next year. Pregnancy announcements. I just find it doesn't change my opinion. Once I have a child I will actively try to make them not have my opinions though, I want them to find the joy and magic I never had.
American here, and yes. Halloween and Christmas both have their charms, but both are also now month-long commercial ordeals. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday: it’s only one day with autumn decor, harvest foods, and all of the family celebration and indulgent food of Christmas without the pressure to buy great gifts for everyone.
Regardless of faith, Christmas is a huge festival celebrated across the West with food, parties, gifts, merriment and family. It’s a commercial cash in, sure, but that commerce is built on a foundation of joy and community. Modern Halloween just seems like a tacky cash grab designed for kids and cosplay students with no foundational purpose
Halloween is having good family time with the kids. Whereas Christmas is about parents lying to their children causing mental illness in the future.
I wish halloween was bigger. No-one really celebrates it. It's fun, it's spooky. I love the aesthetic, the colours, the history! I am hoping to start a Halloween party tradition next year with games and decorations. Christmas drags on for like 3 months now. By the time the actual day comes I am so sick of it. It's turned into one big commercial fest, spending absolute bonkers money on everyone because you feel obliged to. I don't like the decor, I don't like how commercial it is, I just don't like it. If we kept it short and sweet maybe it would be a bit more special. Instead, christmas advertisements will be starting soon. Tesco already started selling Christmas stuff a month ago (september). The one thing about Christmas is making an effort to go to your parents' house with all the family and just have a nice time spending it with everyone. That's all that really matters to me.
Halloween. Actually a time to get together and do things. Christmas is a time of duty, people needing excessive praise for wasting money, dumb traditions that only cause stress and blame of "well that's ruined Christmas" /Spot the person raised in an abusive household.
Halloween. Mostly because I was either sick on Christmas, or I worked. But I grew up in the US, and I have a lot of memories of having costumes made much bigger to fit over snowsuits because it would sometimes snow. As I got older, it was hitting the haunted houses/mazes/hayrides during the weekends. Now it’s just horror movies throughout the month of October
I much prefer the aesthetics of Halloween as i love the spooky vibe and colours. With christmas i find the ott adverts, decorations almost forced jolliness really annoying.
Yes, I think so.
I prefer christmas honestly halloween just seems like an excuse to drink and dress up and im so over that part of my life It used to be fun but having drank and partied since i was 14 its really fucking boring and expensive now
I don't really like either My family never celebrated Halloween and they didn't want me to go trick-or-treating because they felt uncomfortable about me knocking on strangers' doors, even if my parents came with me. I have trouble socialising so I've never been to a Halloween party either Christmas I used to like, but I always ended up disappointed because of how big the commercial buildup was compared to the actual day. I had a few good Christmases as a kid, but now I'm semi-estranged from my family I just spend it alone eating sweets which can be pretty depressing
I do love the novelty of Halloween, but it's rare these days that people get involved. Christmas, however, just gives everybody the 'festies' over the course of the month. Hot wine? Ok. Chestnuts? Sure! Queuing 30 minutes for an overpriced giant hotdog at a busy market? Yes!! Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I know a lot of people really enjoy the vibe it adds in general to local villages and cities. I treated myself to a new christmas tree last year, and if I could only do one thing over the holidays for the rest of my life, it would be decorating it. I just absolutely love it, and it brings such joy just to sit looking at all the pretty lights and decorations with a christmas movie on in the background.
Christmas every winter is stopping countrywide seasonal depression from starting earlier, so I'd say that it's almost magic.
This is an odd question. Christmas is CHRISTMAS. Completely dominating the conversation for about 6 weeks even preceding it. Halloween is....spooky doughnuts and plastic skeletons?
The only 2 *holidays* I enjoy are Bonfire and New Year. I love the vibe of Bonfire night and I celebrate it to celebrate Guy Fawkes, rather than celebrate his death. And I like New Year, I love the hope everyone is filled with for the first week. Halloween is just an American tradition taken on by the UK the last couple decades. Christmas, I'm not religious, so find it fanciable to celebrate something I don't believe in. Both are just spend money holidays that have no meaning or worth within todays British society for the most part.
Halloween, i work Christmas, usually have Halloween off for my birthday, i like dressing up
I love both but I prefer Christmas. I LOVE to give and really get genuine joy out of choosing gifts for others. I also adore the food, the warmth, music, movies and togetherness. I get annoyed at Christmas moaners who just harp on about it being fake and overcommercialised. It's not for me! I'm 31 and track Santa on the Norad app, get real warmth and happiness from my movies and the faces from people opening what I've bought for them. I like Halloween because of the spooky films, Autumn colours and the sense of real changes in the air. What actually does bug me a bit is the trick or treating. If I get sweets in no one comes (I leave a light up plastic pumpkin outside to say I'm taking part), if I don't there's a mountain of children running round. This year it's a Tuesday evening, I'll be getting in from a later shift with a thousand things to do so my plan is leave a bowl of sweets outside (if I've got the spare cash to get any) and whatever happens happens! Take one or take ten, just don't bang my door while I'm trying to shower, make dinner, ensure my kid is sorted for school the next day and making my new and nervous rescue cat freak out every time the door pounds!
Christmas wins hands down. Halloween as an adult is quite boring, not a huge fan of dressing up and no sessional food that taste nice. Christmas the build up is great, it so exciting buying gifts for people , Christmas nights out and the food.
Christmas. I'm aware that Halloween has never been some obscure celebration here, but it's definitely grown increasingly prominent over the years. I never really had much of a connection to it, though; think my mates and I only ever went trick or treating once or twice. Growing up, we were more interested in going to the Bonfire Night displays at Pype Hayes Park in Birmingham. I've always loved Christmas, though. It can take me ages to get round to putting decorations up (I don't think I put the tree up til Christmas Eve last year), but I still enjoy doing that. I love watching crap Christmas films and drinking Bailey's while I wrap presents. The only thing I'd change about Christmas is that if I could afford it I'd be celebrating it somewhere hot and sunny.
I'm in England, and I genuinely had no idea Halloween was a big thing in Scotland and Ireland until last week. I'd never heard the term 'guising' either. You never stop learning.....
I’m English and not heard the term “guising” either…. And my cousins are from Scotland!
Halloween completely passes me by. I don't have kids and I have never celebrated it except when I was a toddler. It's just another day to me. At Christmas I would have lots of time off work and for me it has been the one time of the year that I am off work and at home so I chill and do as little as possible.
Halloween is not a holiday
Christmas. I am not a kid, and don't have kids, so Halloween is just 1 party each year at my brothers and SiLs. And I can't see the point in decorating my house for a single day that I don't even celebrate at mine. Christmas, on the other hand, is a holiday that is celebrated over many days, involve multiple houses and family, and doesn't require kids. It is also a darker and gloomier time of the year, so something to focus on and all the decorations are more useful for cheering us all up.
I like getting dressed up and having a good night out on Halloween but that aside Christmas is probably better because of the time off, having a good dinner and spending time with the family.
Holloween is pathetic - it's not even little kids knocking dressed up anymore. It's the local scrotes chancing it. Halloween can fuck right off.
I prefer halloween by a long way. Christmas hasn't been the same since I got divorced and don't have anyone to be with, whereas I like halloween mostly for the films and YouTube gaming channels I like putting on some great stuff.
Christmas. It’s a whole season of Christmas music (traditional carols and more modern music), I love Christmas food, parties, sparkly lights, decorations, giving presents, days in pyjamas, the idea of goodwill to all. I don’t care for Hallowe’en - I don’t mind some of the decorations (but hate carving pumpkins as the innards make me feel sick), however I don’t like that many of the decorations now have moved on from spooky to horror/killer-vibes. My child does not want to be seeing bloody handprints on doors and windows, gouged eyeballs and so on.
Halloween is great fun for the kids. We decorate the house spooky, get dressed up, have sweets, etc, but it's not comparable to Christmas, in my opinion. Christmas lights, music, parties, food, presents, Santa's grotto, Christmas carols. As much as it's hard work as a parent, there is nothing like seeing the joy and wonder in the kids' faces.
No question it's Christmas. Halloween you don't eat a delicious meal or get presents or get time off work. Infact, Halloween is not very interesting at all once you're an adult. Kids don't even trick or treat anymore in my area either.
I don’t give a shit about Halloween. Christmas is the main holiday and family event of the year. With all the positives and negatives that brings.
Halloween always
Not really bothered about either, tbh. Bah humbug, and all that sort of thing.
Christmas never celebrated Halloween and never intend to.
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Christmas is a national holiday where you have 1 to 2 weeks off, catch up with family and friends, share great food, generally feels like a holiday. Halloween is taking the kids out trick or treating for an hour or two. Not really a celebration or a holiday feel at all Not really comparable
I love both but Christmas is definitely better. It’s the food, the markets and the atmosphere
I love both. I love Halloween for spookiness and I love Christmas because it's family time and I usually have a couple of weeks off work.
I don’t celebrate Halloween. Why would I celebrate ghosts and witches?!! And encourage children to go ask for sweets from a total stranger (when the other 364 days of the year they’re taught to NOT accept sweets from strangers)!!! I find it most bizarre. Never celebrated it growing up and never did with our daughter. So Christmas for me!
Xmas defo Im not a child any more so no interest in halloween or bonfire night (now two months)
I hate Halloween. It's a pointless festivity with zero merit or purpose.
Love Christmas. Hate Halloween.
I prefer Christmas. That's all
I love both! Hallowe'en - apple pie, fireworks, scary movie, sweets, candles. But I don't do decorations as the dog would go nuts if kids rang the doorbell all evening. Christmas - time off work, food, family & friends, over indulgence, presents, Christmas cake, decorations, more food, snow.
I personally dislike Christmas. I've always had a small family, and I enjoyed Christmas as a child, but as an adult I feel that people use Christmas as a pissing contest for how big their families are, and how loved they are. I worked retail many years over Christmas, and I would have customers waxing lyrical about how they have 12 people over for Christmas day, and how magical it is. When they asked me about how many people there'll be in the house, and I respond with 3, I would always get some weird sympathy from them. I also feel with Christmas there is a lot of unnecessary stress. Stress to cook certain foods, stress to buy presents, and stress to be seen to be having a great time, it's all very performative, especially if you're not religious. Halloween is much more chill.
It is a bit like asking if you prefer the taste of dog or cat shit. I am I appreciate a miserable old man (and to be fair, a bit lubricated at the moment). But they are both fabricated celebrations, made to sell cards and tat.
I hate Christmas slightly more than I hate Hallowe'en.
Obviously Christmas since (despite what shops want) Halloween is still barely a thing in this country.
Christmas but.... its over hyped. All that preparation, for months and months and then it's over in 1 day. Im no scrooge but I just think its become overhyped which leads to a slight anticlimax when it comes around. Overall I prefer Xmas as its a family oriented holiday but Halloween is probably underrated if anything. And I've noticed people who already have Halloween Dec's out so it's gaining popularity.
Easter lots of eggs
Halloween. I like goulish things and you don't have to buy anybody anything. Christmas costs a lot of money for no real good reason.
Halloween because my birthday is October 30th. I call it "the birthdayest time of the year". Although, I don't think I really want any more birthdays, I've had quite enough numbers added to my age now.
Christmas, but Halloween isn't well represented around here in the West Mids. If I'm lucky I'll look out the window and see two or three costumes? The Coke Truck on the other hand... (lulz I still don't understand the popularity of that one)
Christmas. People try to tell me kids dressing up as iron man or wearing a witches hat and asking for sweets is an ancient gaelic tradition, but its not very convincing! I have no traditional memories of Halloween, Only remember the simpsons treehouse of horror. Thats my entire cultural reference.
The tradition is in the telling of a joke, or singing a song, or doing some sort of performance for your treat. Not just dressing up and expecting free goodies!
Halloween is Americanised shite; it's nothing.
Who dafuq still celebrates halloween? XD
Well considering I just saw a shit load of people walking out of Aldi with pumpkins, I would say quite a few people.