Halloween Gifts

Halloween festivities have a long tradition in Celtic society and are widely celebrated in Ireland and Scotland. Traditionally, the Halloween festival came around Harvest time and involved preparing for winter by harvesting crops and slaughtering animals. Because in the old days they used to believe that the boundary between the dead and the living was at its weakest on 31st October (`All Hallows Eve` – which immediately precedes `All Saints day), the people used to ward off evil spirits, ghosts and ghouls, which they believed could come and cause disease and death to themselves and their crops, by `mimicking` the spirits – dressing up in costumes and putting out skulls, etc., to scare them off!

Thanks to the mass emigration of Irish people during the great famine of the 1800`s, Halloween is a major festival in America and has become a huge commercial event. People decorate their houses, children dress up, throw parties, go trick or treating, give gifts and make jack O` lanterns (carved pumpkins with candles inside to illuminate them). In the UK, Halloween has experienced a commercial make-over in recent years. No longer thought of as a `pagan` festival, Halloween stocks normally hit the supermarkets by late September and more people than ever have `bought` into the festival. This means buying decorations, stocking up on sweets for the Trick or Treaters and even making Halloween cards and giving Halloween gifts.

Browse any parenting board (Mumsnet, Bounty or Netmums) and you will see that giving cash to Trick or Treaters is generally seen as a faux pas, so if you are going to embrace Halloween and enjoy the celebrations then the ideal solution is to prepare goody bags. This can actually be great fun and can work out a lot cheaper than some alternatives, especially if you are going to have hoards of Trick or Treater`s at your door! A good place to start is to buy small or medium sandwich bags (supermarket own brand is fine). You can them get your kids to help you make up the Trick or Treater Bags.

You can buy an assortment of candy, chocolate, crisps and sweets to fill the bags. You can even branch out into things like novelty balloons, erasers, stickers, etc. Once you have the goody bags made up, you can simply grab the relevant number of bags to hand out when the trick or Treaters land at your door. This process helps enormously, especially if you have little ones who are terrified of the Trick or Treaters and scream themselves silly when the doorbell rings!

You can also use this method to make up party bags and if you intend to hand out party favours. Although you can spice things up a bit with Halloween paraphernalia, such as Halloween party bags, witches fingers, chocolate eyeballs and any spooky candy that is available!

If you are going to send Halloween gifts to friends and family then there are loads to choose from. Because so many shops have embraced Halloween you will find yourself spoilt for choice! Spooky skeletons that scream `boo`, clawing hands, dressing up outfits, cobwebs and witches heads, are just some of the items available!

If you are looking for a more refined Halloween gift, then why not consider a hampers delivery. Fruit is very Autumnal and is also a very traditional Harvest gift. This makes a fruit hamper gift basket an ideal Halloween present. Plus of course, ordering a hampers online saves time and often money, allowing you to dedicate more time to intricate pumpkin carving and cash to decorating your house in fake cobwebs, orange and black paper chains and skeletons!

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