The start of fall marks kids going back to school, cooler weather, football and most importantly Halloween. My girls love Halloween. They love going through all of the Halloween magazines and choosing which costumes they want to wear and they also enjoy decorating the house with spider webs and skeletons. So a few years ago when a cut out of a ghost along with 3 bags of treats (one for each child) landed on our front porch with a note that read ‘You’ve Been Boo-ed’, my girls and I got excited. Not only were we excited and happy that someone in our neighborhood thought of us, but I was excited that we were about to begin a new Halloween tradition.
To be ‘Boo-ed’ is an exciting thing to have happen to you and your family because it is an unexpected surprise and often times a mystery as to who ‘Boo-ed’ you. It is easy and fun to ‘Boo’ someone and keep in mind you don’t have to follow how I do it; feel free to get creative.
- White Poster Board
- Black Marker
- Scissors
- Small Gift Bag
- Treat (this can vary depending on who you are ‘Boo-ing’) A treat can vary from a small bag of candy and treats to a fall candle.
- ‘Boo’ letter that explains what being ‘Boo-ed’ is all about
- With your black marker, draw a white ghost that fills up the white poster board. Make sure to include the eyes and mouth.
- Write ‘BOO’ in big black letters across the ghost
- Cut the ghost out
- Prepare the treat bag(s)
- When you are ready to ‘Boo’ someone- sneak up to their porch and leave the ghost and treat bag on their porch- possibly put it under their mat so it does not try and get away. Make sure to include the ‘Boo’ letter so they know what it is all about.
Here are a few tips that I have thought of over the years of ‘Boo-ing’ my neighbors:
- If you are going to have your kids ‘Boo’ a friend of theirs, secretly call the parents and let them know that it is from you, but not to let her/his kids know. This way the parent knows that the treats are safe and it is still a surprise for the kid.
- If you are going to ‘Boo’ your child’s friends, make sure they are home so the ghost does not fly away.
- If you are ‘Boo-ing’ a house with multiple kids, try and provide enough treats for all of the kids.
- You don’t have to ‘Boo’ a house with kids. Think of ‘Boo-ing’ a single neighbor or a neighbor that could use some happiness.
- You can make being ‘Boo-ed’ a fun thing to do among coworkers. Instead of making a large ghost out of poster board, simply make a much smaller ghost; preferable one that can fit nicely on the side of someone’s desk.
- Have fun with it and consider ‘Boo-ing’ 1-2 neighbors/ friends to get the game started.
Written by: Aimee Fauci
This is completely adorable and I can’t wait to do this! How fun!!!
that is such a great idea, I will definitely be considering it for this year.
I think my son would love doing this! We may have to do it!
Great tradition and a great way to create community among your neighbors…thanks for sharing!
We do this. the kids love it! It is fun and simple!
I have seen this done before, and it is such a cute tradition! My kids love secret santa style activities.
My kiddos love Halloween too! My youngest seems to even like it better than Christmas? Go figure? 🙂 I love this idea of being “Boo-ed”! What a fun way to get everyone into the spirit!
I love Halloween! & this sounds like a great tradition that I just may have to start with my kids.
Stopped doing Halloween when we got older but it’s cute for young kids if you have children. Neat post
What a cute tradition and so fun for the kids. Thanks for sharing!
Oh my goodness, how cute. I can’t wait for Halloween to get here. Thank you so much for sharing.
This is a super cute tradition! Love it!
That looks like so much fun! Your kids are too cute by the way.
Kinda made me think to do the ‘boo-ing’ to the people in the office. Hehe.
Thank you! You should do it in the office.
I just ADORE this idea. I think it is SO fun!
Oh wow!! I’m loving this!!
What a great idea! I will totally start a tradition this year, thanks!
Love fall and love traditions. What a cute idea!
We play this with our neighbors.. it becomes a fun game when the entire block gets in on it..
LOVE getting BOO’ed. We have don’t this in a few years so maybe this is the year to bring it back! Thanks for the inspiration!
This is so cute and fun! I’m going to do this this year for sure.
We don’t do Halloween, but this would be fun to do any time of year! Such a fun idea!
This is so cute. I’d love to do something like this with my class. 🙂
This is such a cute idea! I want to try these with our neighbors this year!
Hahah that is so adorable. I can’t wait to Boo someone.
What a great idea and what a great way to get to know your neighbors or promote goodwill through out your neighborhood. I love this and I can see where it would work in an office setting too.
Oh how fun. My hubby and I don’t have kids yet but we have begun to put some traditions in place. Halloween is one of my fave holidays 🙂
Now this is a very cute idea! I wish I got boo’ed!!! I need to share this idea to my girls!
This is a fantastic idea and super-duper fun. I’m going to share this with the youth director at church, she is always looking for ways to “add some excitement” to the youth group with other church-goers. Our pumpkin patch opens soon and the youth can even gift small pumpkins with their BOO letters. Love this idea, thanks for sharing. 🙂
Love the idea of pumpkins
Love this tradition! My 3 would get such a kick out of Boo’ing our neighbors. 🙂
~ Ashley
Oh I love this idea!! I’m definitely going to get the kids to do this, this year. How fun!!
Such a fun idea! Can’t believe it’s fall already!
That’s a really cute tradition! I am planning on jingling in December!
This is so cute! I bet your kids had a lot of fun!
What a fun tradition! Love this idea!
OH this is great! We don’t have any Halloween traditions, we stick more with Christmas Traditions around here because we just LOVE Christmas lights 😉 I love this idea for a start of a family tradition with Halloween though! Thanks for sharing the idea!
What a fun idea. I may have to do this with my family.
This is a cute Idea. We always drop goodies off at the neighbors.
This is such a fun idea, I’m going to have to do this with the kids this season!
How cute! I love this idea and wish I’d heard of it when my son was younger! And I want to be Boo’d, too!
This is really cute – Davey and Isa will have fun making these.
That looks so easy and simple. I would just be happy with that as a door hanging on my apartment front door!
This is such a fun tradition. I’m sure your kids love it. 🙂 Thanks for the suggestion.
I love this idea. I’ve been rounding up fun Halloween ideas for this year since it falls on a Friday and I’m excited about being able to stay out later.
This is a fantastic way to celebrate halloween. I’m going to have do this to a few people I know…especially at work 🙂 I love sharing candy. Fantastic fun!!!
A friend of mine moved into a neighborhood where they did this and I can tell you she was very upset by the people knocking on her door when her husband wasn’t home and leaving the note behind. I think that if anyone does this they should definitely have a close relationship with the people they do this too.
That’s such a fun idea! We could do this to so many people!
That a fun thing to do. I bet the kids like it and they’ll remember it too. 🙂
I had never heard of this tradition. It sounds really fun to do.
This is perfect!! We just moved into a new neighborhood and haven’t really met anyone. Might be time to start Booing some people!
Fun tradition! I want to Boo people now
I love this! We did this once with our neighbors and it was a win/fail. Some participated and some were spoil sports. It was fun for all the kids though.
Ya.. that’s why when I did it last time .. we lived in an apartment complex and I hit up 5 neighbors! Certainly one of them did it.
That is so cute, I love family traditions, new and old. We do not normally do anything for Halloween, even that cute little ghost you made would stress my youngest out.
It has been years since we have been boo’ed. It was at our old house where there were more kids. 🙁
We live in the country no, so not many people to BOO here but it would be a fun thing to do to incorporate in an office environment.
what a great tradition to have! totally stealing your tradition, I love it!
😉
I’ve been wanting to do this for a few years now, but haven’t gotten around to it. I may just go Boo my mom this year. She’d love it!
Aw how fun. I bet the neighbors love getting boo.
That is such a cute idea – and can become a great tradition. It’s kind of like a Secret Santa.
Very MUCH like a Secret Santa.. Great and fun office idea..
What a great little way to start a tradition – I might have to start this on myself 🙂 x
Very cute. I love that it is a tradition. That’s what kids remember when they grow up
I think this sounds like fun! I think we are going to do it this year!
It IS fun… it is fun to get but more fun to give.
This is super cute. We might just do this to our neighbors this year 🙂
What a cute tradition. I wish someone would Boo me 🙂