{"id":420,"date":"2020-10-27T21:50:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T21:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/?p=420"},"modified":"2023-05-10T09:30:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T08:30:12","slug":"homemade-halloween-80s-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/homemade-halloween-80s-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Homemade Halloween – 80s Style"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gen X-ers know what I’m talking about<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So 2020 is still going strong, ruining things left, right and centre. And as just about everything is else has been different this year, then Halloween is going to be no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My kids are already disappointed that ongoing (and tightening) COVID restrictions mean there will be no neighbourhood trick-or-treating this year. Well, the kids call it trick-or-treating. I\u2019m old so I call it \u201cguising\u201d, because that\u2019s what we used to do in Scotland before Halloween got a bit more global.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that in mind, I cast my mind back to the sort of Halloween we used to have in the 20th century \u2013 you know, the good old times before commercial costumes, \u201cproper\u201d decorations, and when you couldn\u2019t even buy a pumpkin in most of the UK. This year, if for no other reason than to annoy your children, why not have a retro Homemade Halloween just like we did in the 80s?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how to go about it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Make Your Own Hallowe’en Costume<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t remember anyone having a shop-bought fancy dress costume when I was a kid. Most costumes consisted of either a ghost made of an old sheet with eye-holes cut out, or something indescribable made out of black bin bags. Lots of duct tape was involved. Although I think we called it gaffer tape back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witch hats were made out of black cardboard, or if you wanted to be really fancy, your mum might have been persuaded to make you a cat costume mainly involving face paint and a tail fashioned from the stuffed leg of a pair of tights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Carve a Turnip<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I wasn\u2019t joking about the pumpkins. I don\u2019t think I even saw a pumpkin in the flesh until I was well into my teens. In Scotland in the 80s, we had turnip lanterns. (That\u2019s swedes, or rutabaga, depending on where you\u2019re from.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the many downsides of this invention was the fact that it\u2019s practically impossible to cut a rock-hard turnip at the best of times, so hollowing one out and carving an actual face into it is quite the feat. The other main drawback was that they stank. They reeked even before the candle went in, they smelled weirdly charred with the candle in, and the earthy pong hung around until you threw them out a few days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the plus side \u2013 and this is where they win over pumpkins \u2013 they tended to look genuinely terrifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Sweets? Nope, have some monkey nuts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Halloween<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

We did get sweets at Halloween \u2013 it wasn\u2019t completely miserable. But these days, kids tend to come home with a bag exclusively filled with chocolate and sweeties (and possibly some impressive handmade items, depending how competitive your neighbours are\u2026although one year the children came home with surgical gloves full of jelly\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, back in the day there were altogether fewer sweets and really quite a lot of monkey nuts. (In case the phrase \u201cmonkey nuts\u201d is some weird Scottish-ism and I\u2019m not aware, then monkey nuts are raw peanuts still in their shells.) So, basically the worst possible food to give to small children to eat unsupervised. Hey ho, it was the eighties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Dook for Apples in a Freezing Bucket<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No Halloween party was complete without bobbing for apples, or \u201cdooking\u201d for apples. It was mandatory for this game to involve a large container (it was usually a baby bath) full of freezing cold water, and filled with lots of apples covered in the teeth-marks of other children. You queued up at the baby bath and then stuck your face right in and tried to get an apple out with your mouth. Fun, yes? In the era of COVID, this now seems unthinkable. Tbh, it wasn\u2019t really enjoyable then either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Play Donuts On a String<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Halloween<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Another Halloween party classic. Get a pack of sticky donuts and string them up from the ceiling. Then get everyone to put their hands behind their backs and try to eat a donut. In theory, this should be less gross than the apple dooking. In reality, it usually involves a scrum of hyperactive children with their tongues out, licking every single donut. The game ends when every participant\u2019s hair and eyes are stuck together with sugar, and everyone has shared their communicable diseases. It\u2019s still more fun than apple dooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So there you go \u2013 all you need for a Homemade Halloween, 80s style. Bin bags and baby baths at the ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

You might also like:<\/strong>
What to do in the garden in Autumn<\/strong><\/a>
10 ways to cope with a Winter Lockdown<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No trick-or-treating this year? No problem. Here’s your guide to a proper retro homemade Halloween, just like we had in the 80s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[40,28,39],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autumn","category-seasons","tag-40","tag-covid-19","tag-halloween"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":17,"label":"Autumn"},{"value":16,"label":"Seasons"}],"post_tag":[{"value":40,"label":"2020"},{"value":28,"label":"covid-19"},{"value":39,"label":"halloween"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/halloween-moon-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Almost The Weekend","author_link":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/author\/admin\/"},"comment_info":28,"category_info":[{"term_id":17,"name":"Autumn","slug":"autumn","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":17,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Autumn's here! Kick those leaves, grab a scarf and let's appreciate the very best of autumn this weekend.","parent":16,"count":10,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":17,"category_count":10,"category_description":"Autumn's here! Kick those leaves, grab a scarf and let's appreciate the very best of autumn this weekend.","cat_name":"Autumn","category_nicename":"autumn","category_parent":16},{"term_id":16,"name":"Seasons","slug":"seasons","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":16,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Appreciate the season, and get a bit more weekend feeling into your everyday. Come in, relax...it's almost the weekend.","parent":0,"count":33,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":16,"category_count":33,"category_description":"Appreciate the season, and get a bit more weekend feeling into your everyday. Come in, relax...it's almost the weekend.","cat_name":"Seasons","category_nicename":"seasons","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":40,"name":"2020","slug":"2020","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":40,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":28,"name":"covid-19","slug":"covid-19","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":28,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":39,"name":"halloween","slug":"halloween","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":39,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almosttheweekend.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}