As Halloween approaches, the UK is preparing for some of its biggest celebrations yet. Consumer spending for the event is forecast to be £776m this year, says the price comparison site Finder, up from YouGov’s estimates of about £12m in 2001.
The UK has gradually warmed to modern Halloween customs over the years, with many preferring it to Guy Fawkes Night. A 2023 YouGov survey found 45% of 18- to 24-year-olds preferred Halloween, 40% favoured Guy Fawkes Night and 15% were undecided.
But Halloween, which derives from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, is seen by some as overly commercial. The Guardian asked people in the UK how they are planning to celebrate Halloween – or not – and what it means to them.
‘Around the 90s I noticed more kids dressing up for Halloween’
As a child in the 60s and 70s, Halloween was kind of there. But it was always overshadowed by its much more fun and explosive cousin five days later, on 5 November.
Ahead of Guy Fawkes Night, I remember around the age of about 12, I could go to a shop and buy bangers and all sorts of bombs and rocketry. A few of us would get together and load ourselves up with ammo. On the night itself, neighbours would gather, eat food, with the adults quaffing drinks and kids watching the bonfire, and smelling the cordite from the fireworks.
Halloween just didn’t figure. But around the 90s I noticed a lot more kids dressing up for Halloween. Perhaps it was the cost of insuring bonfires that caused Guy Fawkes Night to slip in popularity. Now, when I go to the supermarket I see racks and racks of costumes and plastic decorations. There’s no doubting the American influence. Like everything else imported from across the pond, it’s the retailers who profit, while dentists wait for sugared teeth to dissolve. Kevin Pearce, 63, Corbridge
‘It seems to get more popular every year’
Hanover in Brighton loves Halloween and it seems to get more and more popular every year. It helps foster a really strong sense of community – with big groups of children dressed up going house to house – and helps build that connection that people missed during the pandemic.
People really go for it in terms of dressing up houses to be spooktactular. It’s quite cute – candles and pumpkins and kids getting wired on sugar. My son’s 10 and my daughter’s six so they’re the perfect age.
They’ve been thinking about their costumes for months. My boy, who has quite a gothic imagination, is going as a Victorian chimney sweep, and my daughter as Wednesday Addams.
People really missed that collective feel of things during the pandemic – and Halloween helps give it a turbo charge. Pete Edmunds, 46, Brighton
‘I’ll answer the door in a cloak and mask’
I grew up in Canada where Halloween is a wonderful part of childhood, and I’m so happy to do my best to give other children those fabulous memories of an exciting night.
I’ll decorate my terrace house very exuberantly, with several lifesize skeletons climbing up it, weird lighting and jack-o’-lanterns. I’ll wait excitedly for the children to ring the huge eyeball doorbell, and I’ll answer the door in a cloak and mask, and give out abundant handfuls of the best sweets going.
I used to go trick or treating with my son. But he’s 13 now, and going to his first Halloween party.
I love it because it’s very much a neighbourhood event. British people can be mistrustful of Halloween, but it’s great for building community and making children happy and confident. Stephanie Meece, 54, Battersea
‘We give parents lucky dip shots’
We always join in with treats for the kids. Many of the village children head up our road with their folks. We normally hang out with our neighbours, eat and have a drink.
For the adults, we do lucky dip shots instead of sweets, and they are always popular. I like to make fruity surprise gins and vodkas or varying levels of niceness. The teenagers who come round might not like being refused a shot, but they always have a sweet anyway. Ed Bond, 48, Westbourne, West Sussex
‘It’s too consumerist’
The modern version of Halloween is copied from the commercialised American holiday: no one celebrating it today is thinking about pagan traditions or beliefs. For kids it’s just about the free sweets and chocolate, and copying what they see on American TV shows. I just think it’s too consumerist.
I would object to trick or treating less if children accepted the “no lights, no decorations, no treats” etiquette. But there is very little consideration. We’ve put up a sign and still get people banging on the door. There’s a sense of entitlement about it.
Not everyone wants to be a part of it, and we a bit more respect for our neighbours. On Thursday, we’ll probably go out – or hide at the back of the house. Alexander, 40, St Austell
