Last year I read Melissa’s post about doing a Halloween Boo and I thought hey, what a great idea! Then I promptly forgot all about it, because my brain can only contain three or four useful pieces of information at any one time and I’m usually at capacity with things like basic motor skills and remembering where in the hell that sippy cup went.

This year I was inspired to start one in our own neighborhood, and while my Boo treats were nowhere near as awesome as Melissa’s (stupid creative crafty people making us all-thumbs mouthbreathers look bad), it was a lot of fun to put them together.

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The Boo supplies. I mostly filled the bags with candy, and a few other Halloween-themed items I thought kids would like.

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I printed three copies each of the pages from Melissa’s site—one is the instructions and Boo ghost for the recipient, the other two are for them to pass along to the next neighbor—and tied them up before dropping those in the bags too.

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Riley helped me tape up the bags, and I cut out some ghosty looking blob-things for the front. I’m not even sure what that meshlike stuff is, I found it in a kitchen drawer. Cheesecloth?

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The finished bags, with printed Boo signs. Also, a shitload of Scotch tape.

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Riley, ready to Boo. JB and Riley crept out under cover of darkness (easy, since it’s now pitch black at, what, 6 PM?) and dropped off the bags at two houses where we know they have kids. JB wasn’t too thrilled about the knock-and-run technique, but they pulled it off. Now to see if the ghost signs start going up, or if our neighbors are a bunch of Halloween grinches.

If you want to start one of your own, it’s not too late! Super easy to do, lots of fun, potential for spreading joy and happiness throughout the land.

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Melissa
14 years ago

What an awesome idea! I will have to try that in our neighborhood!

Lesley
Lesley
14 years ago

Lovely idea and a very nice thing for Riley to be learning to do, too.

I guess this could also be called “Booing it Forward”?

Lesley
Lesley
14 years ago

Btw, yes that is cheese cloth and what a great use for it!

Amy
Amy
14 years ago

That is completely awesome!! We just turned our upstairs window into a house o’ lantern. (no cracks…saw it in Family Fun magazine) Cut cardboard to size of window, cut out a pumpkin face, just like carving a pumpkin. Then put orange tissue paper over the holes on the back, put it in the window and put a light below/behind it or turn on a room light. It looks really neat…and I am too lame to know how to post a picture for you. I’ll send it to my shutterfly account and you can check it out if you want to. Now I’m going to go look into making some Boo kits!

By the way…next year I’m looking into the Thriller thing. Just saw on the local news that they are doing it at Land Park in Sactown….about a mile from my house!!! help me remember next year

Amy
Amy
14 years ago
Shannon
14 years ago

Our neighborhood does this and it is so fun to get a treat and to see all the ghosts go up in the windows up and down the street. I hadn’t seen anyone do it this year so I was just going to search to find the paper, so you saved me the trouble!

Eric's Mommy
Eric's Mommy
14 years ago

What a cute idea!

Cookie
14 years ago

This is really cute. I know a bunch of people who live in neighborhoods that do this. It would be fun to start in my neighborhood.

Amanda
14 years ago

I think this adorable BUT, our neighbors kids got one and Mom wouldn’t let them eat the candy because she didn’t know who it was from. You might have to include a little something that lets your neighbors know it was from you.

jonniker
14 years ago

AH! This is so cute. So, so cute. I want to do this, but alas, my neighborhood is full of old people and we’re the only kids in the building. I could deposit it on my friends’ doorsteps, but I think they’d know it was me, too. Heh.

Mel
Mel
14 years ago

I started a BOO Chain in my neighbourhood last year, but I did it for the mom’s. I included some nice little candle holders, chocolate (for grownups), and some other nice little items that I can’t remember anymore.

It was really fun to watch the signs spread down the street.

Amy M.
Amy M.
14 years ago

My neighborhood does this as well. Last year we got the creepiest looking rubber spider. My son loves it, but I can barely look at it without getting all grossed out. I was sure to include those in my boo bags this year to spread the creepiness. :)

patois
14 years ago

This is something even I could do. (And that is saying an awful lot.)

Kellie
Kellie
14 years ago

Just a friendly suggestion – families that don’t have kids love getting “boo’d” also. As a mother of three that are out of the house, and also a (young) widow of two years, I just wanted to mention that being included in this activity means more than you would think. My neighborhood does this every year and I think it is so much fun. Things to think about including are pumpkin spice candles, decorations, halloween cuptowels, etc. Candy doesn’t hurt, either!

On another note – love your website and your writing. Hang in there, as far as the mother thing goes. I have been in your shoes many times and all I can say is give yourself a break and just try to take a breath before yelling or losing your patience. I was a “yeller” myself, and it really took a lot of work to try and do something different/constructively than yelling when you get so frustrated. But hang in there.

Jennifer
Jennifer
14 years ago

LOVED the bags you put together – so adorable. I bet Riley had a blast.

We love Halloween Boo! We’ve been doing it for the last 4-5 years and the girls have a blast. I stand out by the car while they hang the ghost and put the candy/letter on the porch. Then they ring the door bell and RUN while I practically toss them into the back of the SUV and we drive away. They really feel like they’re getting away with something! My oldest (11) has decided that she’s too old to “Boo” this year :( I’m a little sad, but more worried she’ll eventually move on to more mischevious Halloween activities- like egging or TP-ing!

VirtualSprite
14 years ago

So cute! It almost makes me wish I had neighbors.

Nicole
14 years ago

What a great idea! We live in the (very steep) hills and though there are kids in our neighborhood, in the 7 years we’ve lived in our house, we’ve never once gotten a trick-or-treater. So this is the perfect way to spread the Halloween cheer! Thanks!

Kate
14 years ago

I love it! Great idea…

victoria
victoria
14 years ago

You’re adorable!!

Leah
14 years ago

If we did this, our neighborhood watch would call the cops for suspicious activity. This is the difference between Salt Lake City and Oakland.

Melissa
Melissa
14 years ago

Great idea! Followed the link to Melissa’s site about her Boos – whoa – I’d shit my pants if someone left cupcakes with doll hands sticking out on my front porch! But I’m a wuss and love it anyway!

Joy
Joy
14 years ago

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the reminder about this! We are going to Boo our neighbors tonight. The kids are so excited to do it.

debra
debra
14 years ago

Your Boo bags turned out great!!
We discovered our new neighborhood does this whe we got ‘booed’ this weekend. My son was so thrilled, he’s decided we should have a ‘snowball fight’ and do the same idea at christmas/chanukah/ramidan time (we love our multicultural neighborhood!!) I love the idea of including all the neighbors, not just the houses with kids!!

Mama Bee
14 years ago

Isn’t that so much fun! Our neighborhood started one this season and I had so much fun sneaking over to the neighbor’s house to ring and ditch! I felt like I was 12 again! :)

beach
beach
14 years ago

I feel so old…..my kids are teens and I don’t remember this “boo thing” when they were young….but what a fab idea. Was talking to a friend on the phone today who has a 7 year old and she mentioned that they got booed…..thanks to your blog I did not feel like I was totally out of the current Halloween fun concept….instead I responded” oh yea, you got booed, good for you”….but before your post I would have been a cluelass 40 something who had no idea what a boo was!!! thanks for keeping me up to speed….

Kirsty
14 years ago

This sounds like so much fun! And just about as arty and creative as I could probably manage.
The problem is that here in France everyone’s (at best) very half-hearted about Hallowe’en and (at worst) outright against it (either from a Catholic “it’s all Devil-worship” viewpoint or (more commonly) an anti-American viewpoint, both of which drive me batshit).
Also, there are very few kids around where we live, and most people live in flats, which would make the whole project almost un-doable.
I’m devastated as I would have loved to have tried this! *sniff*
Happy Hallowe’en to all you guys, anyway. We’ll be eating pumpkin soup on the Big Night and I’ll be decorating the flat a bit. But no candy, no trick-or-treat, no real fun.
Bah, humbug.

pilot_e
pilot_e
14 years ago

How awesome! I hate our entire nieghbourhood, so I’d be inclined to fill the bags wtih rotten eggs and fresh compost, but when we finally move to a better place, I’d love to start this kind of thing. Those ghosts on the outside were fantastic! thanks for the great idea!!

Tessa
Tessa
14 years ago

We do this at work. It’s fun to see adults sneaking around trying not to get caught. Last year I was super broke when I got boo’d but found a bucketfull of fun things at the dollar store. This year I feel a little more flush but still might go back to the dollar store for Halloween socks and other random crap.

Sarah
14 years ago

“found in my kitchen drawer” LOL

I absolutely love that you have something in your kitchen drawer that you are making a good guess at identifying.

And the BOO idea!? It’s great. We did it a couple of years ago in our old neighborhood. Spreading the holiday cheer. Whoopie!

Jenny
14 years ago

This is really cute and neighborly . . . but surely I can’t be the only cynic who would suspect an un-flaming bag of poo?

Crystal
14 years ago

Ok, so last year we went trick or treating in my grandma’s neighborhood. Much more kid friendly than ours.

And more than 3/4 of the houses had these BOO things on their front doors. We were all puzzled as to what it was about.

NOW, a YEAR later. Its all very clear. And I’m thanking you. Mystery solved.

TJ
TJ
14 years ago

That sounds ridiculously adorable, and I would love to do it here, but unfortunately I live in one of those neighborhoods where everyone gives everyone else the hairy eyeball and stops talking or switches to another language when someone walks by, and I am pretty sure I do not have the pluck to be the one to attempt to bring us all together.

Maybe next year when we live on base, though. That would be fun.

Lucy
Lucy
14 years ago

This is such a fantastic idea! In the UK it is commonplace to get intimidating teenagers trick or treating, who you’ve never seen before and you are genuinely frightened into loading them up with goodies. This is just so lovely, a much better idea. Thanks Linda! Happy Halloween!

Brandi
14 years ago

Our neighborhood really gets into booing. We got boo’d last week, and when I went to boo a couple neighbors (a few days later bc I’m lazy), everyone on my street had already been boo’d. I found a great 6-pack holder in Target’s Halloween section and filled it with beer for one of my empty-nester neighbors. They loved it!

KC
KC
14 years ago

Will need update on how many BOO signs you see up in your neighborhood.:-) Fun idea!

Pam
Pam
14 years ago

This is awesome. You did such a great job! I’m such an introvert at times but I really want to have the total suburban neighborhood experience. This is a great idea – so, thanks!

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[…] Boo you too! Jump to Comments Booing – I read about this cute fun Halloween tradition on Sundry.com who got it from someone else but she gets credit for me because I read it there first. Anyway, the […]

MizzM
MizzM
14 years ago

What a fun idea, except I can’t do it in my neighborhood because, as my 10-year-old daughter observed, “it’s full of Old Republicans with Golf Carts.” She drew this conclusion after noticing that this was the ONLY neighborhood in our town without a “mix” of campaign signs on the lawns last fall–we live in a neighborhood that borders a Golf Course and is full of retirees (and John McCain supporters.) There are only 5 families with children under the age of 25. We also don’t get any Trick-or-Treaters, which is also a bummer. Maybe we’ll “go slumming” in the Old Neighborhood…

Azot
14 years ago

Вот что-то похожее у меня уже несколько дней из головы не выходит!

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Wow, that post called Booyah : All & Sundry was really insightful

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[…] no matter if everyone says it’s a crappy idea, I will be boo-ing my neighbours.  So […]

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[…] Halloween “boo bags” several bloggers have written about for the past few years (see Linda Sharps’s versions on All & Sundry, based on Melissa Summers’s version on Suburban Bliss), start a round of giving in your […]

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