Halloween in the U.K.

Many Brits told us that Halloween is not be a big deal in the U.K., at least nothing like it is in the U.S. That may be changing, as retailers have figured out that they may be able to push Halloween products and candy and the like on youngsters. In the final days before the 31st I did see more and more plastic jack o’lanterns and costumes hanging in shop windows. (Although they’re called fancy dress, not costumes, here). Waitrose even had Halloween crackers for sale. (Crackers, as you may know, are not food but a Christmastime toy in the U.K. A cracker is a sort of cardboard tube wrapped in fancy paper. Two people pull on it from each end and then it splits open with a crack. A toy and paper crown are usually inside.)

As for trick or treat, a local Mum told me that it’s not practiced very frequently here. A few neighborhoods may do it, but it’s not widespread. That was okay with us. Last year Sam was a bit intimidated going door to door in our very own neighborhood. This year she was excited simply to wear her costume (er, fancy dress I mean). I was rather hoping that she would rewear her bear costume from last year, but no. This year she wanted to be… a race car. How American, right?

So before we left California, we made a race car costume. Here is Sam getting ready to put the finishing touches on it:

Can you believe we hauled that thing across a continent and an ocean? Sam’s father is an expert packer. It survived the trip and made its debut in Brighton on Halloween:

There was to be a children’s Halloween party with fancy dress competition that I had been planning to take Sam to that afternoon, but then our Cambridge trip came up and took priority. Nevertheless, Sam wore her costume right up until we left for Cambridge. Our version of trick or treat was to take a walk to the bakery at Waitrose and get Halloween gingerbread cookies (er, biscuits, I mean) to take to the beach playground. Sam was quite a hit on the street and at the shop. There were no other costumed children out and about. At the playground, there were only two other children in fancy dress. This is quite different from Halloween in the U.S. when little children tend to wear their costumes all day. When we left the beach playground we walked past a stall selling beach toys and sundries. The man running the shop complimented Sam’s costume: “I wish I had a car like tha!” He then later ran after us to offer Sam a little plastic steering wheel with a horn. “Foun this in the broken toys box. Look– it has a honker!” (Honker means horn apparently– the things we learn in the playgrounds…) Sam was THRILLED with her steering wheel and honker. Her Halloween costume complete, she zoomed back to the flat and then we packed up to go to Cambridge.

Halloween Addendum:

I thought that was going to be it for our Halloween in England. We arrived in Cambridge around 5PM, got ourselves sorted at the house, then walked to the nearest neighborhood pub for dinner. To our astonishment, we saw lit jack o’lanterns on many of the houses, trick-or-treaters everywhere, and while we were dining at the pub, someone floated a lit jack o’lantern past our window. It was spooky! Eerie! Fun! And very startling. Apparently folks in Cambridge do celebrate Halloween. There were even some rowdy teens making a ruckus on the street corner near our house. It was a picture perfect Halloween. Perhaps because Cambridge is home to so many visiting students and scholars, they have been quicker to adopt foreign traditions?

Back at the house after our pub dinner, we were getting ourselves settled, when the doorbell rang. Trick or treaters! We had left the vestibule light on and so of course they thought we were open for business. AC apologized. We had no treats to give them. How un-American. “Sorry,” I wanted to say. “We thought were in England.”