Halloween has become more popular than ever over the past few years with people making more of an effort hosting Halloween parties, decorating their houses for trick-or-treaters and carving up pumpkins into spooky faces and other creative designs. However, the UK still does not compare to the all-out Halloween celebrations found in America.
Pumpkin Patches
Due to the seemingly permanent fixture of rain in the UK, it is hard to grow pumpkin patches outside, with Brits commonly depending on their local supermarkets to pick out the perfect pumpkin to carve. However, it has become a recent event for pumpkin farms to pop up around the UK to not only pick your pumpkin but to get that Instagram-worthy photo of your kid stood next to a load of pumpkins. This follows the trend set in America where a family-friendly event is made out of selecting their pumpkins by visiting vast pumpkin patches and taking the opportunity to get into the spirit of Halloween by sipping on a cup of hot apple or cinnamon cider – which a Brit may confuse for an alcoholic beverage – it’s not!
Scary Movie Nights & Parties
Halloween is best known for being the scariest night of the year so what better way to spend this fearsome evening than watching scary movie classics such as The Rocky Horror Show, The Shining and The Exorcist. In the past few years, Brits have put an increasing amount of effort into their Halloween fancy dress costumes with simple witches and vampires now turning into the latest horror film character, coupled with horrifying make up and fake blood to really add to the scare factor.
Halloween Decorations
In terms of outdoor decorations, the UK have improved from just sticking a skeleton in the window or a pumpkin in the front garden to adding lights, characters and web decorations. However, Americans are still the winners in this respect as they go all-out decorating their houses from top to bottom outdoing their neighbours in who can make their house look more haunted with over the top decorations.
Trick or Treat
Trick or Treating comes hand-in-hand with Halloween, however it is not as common in the UK as it is in America where the streets will be filled with kids dressed in costumes holding goodie bags to collect their sweets. America also hold massive Halloween parades, in most states, with one of the most famous being in New York, whereas in the UK, the events are on a much smaller scale and usually involve some form of fright night dungeon / haunting experience.
Wherever you are this Halloween, take the opportunity to add some fun and games to your working week by dressing up, decorating the office or just ordering some extra sweets and treats for you and your colleagues to really get into the spirit of Halloween.
