do you BOO? | halloween traditions

For the past few years, the kids having taken great joy in BOOing some of our neighbors & friends. Never heard of it? Simply put, you make up a treat bag, stick a note on it (unsigned) and drop it on some unsuspecting folk’s doorstep. Then you teach your kid the fine art of ringing and running. What? Only the best childhood lessons are taught in our house.

In all honesty, it’s a great tradition we look forward to and one that’s rather selfless. We’ve been BOOed back once and we don’t even care if it doesn’t happen more often.  My kids have never once done it expecting to get treats in return. We just really enjoy driving all through the neighborhood leaving surprise treats for others.

This will be out 3rd year BOOing. I have all of the stuff here to make our bags so we may just do it this weekend. I thought I would Blog our old pictures first though because guess what? It’s not too late for you to join in the fun too! I promise your kids will get a kick out of this and really, how many Halloween traditions do you already have going aside from A) buy costume and B) eat lots of candy. This is a fun one to add!

We try to make our treat bags filled with stuff that’s not all geared at rotting your teeth out. I always include a cake mix of some sort because I think it’s fun and if we give all of the supplies (mix, liners and frosting), it’s fairly easy for the recipient to get an okay from Mom when they ask to make cupcakes or sugar cookies. Then we add a few pieces of candy and some other small novelties. Last year our bags included cupcake mix, liners and frosting (all Halloween-themed), a cute glass flask filled with hard candies (think mad scientist), cookies and a few chocolates. This year we’re putting the following inside: cupcake mix, really cute ghost foil baking cups & frosting, individual glow sticks (perfect for trick-or-treating in the dark), Halloween stickers, vampire fangs and a few pieces of assorted candy.

Here are some pictures from our first year practicing the fine art of leaving bags of goodies on the doorsteps of unsuspecting friends. The entire set of pictures just makes me laugh. Well, no. The top-left picture just makes me want to cry because the kids’ faces were so small. But the others are funny. I took the one on the right side before they dropped the bag off. Andrew looks nervous. Emily looks possessed. And speaking of Emily, her face in all of my ring & run pictures is the funniest. She is *so* determined to get away from the scene fast. Bottom-left picture you can see they left an orange treat bag on the doorstep. Bottom-middle they are running off in opposite directions. LOL! C’mon… these are the funniest memories. I am so glad I have them. : ) (I actually scrapbooked our first foray into BOOing back in the day).

Then these little rascals went and aged an entire year and we BOOed people again. This time we did black treat bags. I just buy solid colored gift bags at Target in black or orange and make a BOO sign to decorate them with. Simple. The middle picture shows Emily leaving the bag on a friend’s doorstep while the rest of us waited in the car (I had Grace with us, getting her into the mischief early). I had the right side picture framed in my living room for a bit last year. Always love how happy they are after a successful BOO outing!

Here are some handy links in case you want to BOO a friend before Halloween (and if you do, I would love to hear all about it. Leave me a comment here).

:: BOO poem and instruction sheet to include with your treat bags
:: a really cute ghost door hanger you can include with your treat bags for your recipients to display
:: another version of the BOO poem
:: a complete BOO kit you can print 1-2-3 from home & be on your way!

Have fun & happy BOOing!