This post brought to you by Dollar General. All opinions are 100% mine.
One of my favorite Halloween traditions is “Booing” our neighbors. Have you ever been “Booed” – do you have any idea what I am talking about?
My oldest was six months old when we were first Booed. Now it is as much a part of Halloween in our house as trick-or-treating. Here’s what happens.
Some time in October, the doorbell rings. When you go to answer it, there is no one there — except a small basket of treats and a note. The note tells of a phantom ghost that has come to town to spread Halloween fun. Once you are Booed, you are challenged to spread the fun within two days by delivering a Boo gift to two neighbors. To ensure everyone gets to be part of the fun, you are also instructed to hang a Boo sign on your door for the rest of the season to let other ghosts know you have already been visited.
Sounds like fun, right? It is.
It is also fun to drive around the neighborhood and see all of the paper ghosts hanging on the doors, more and more appear throughout the month as the Boo is spread.
Plus it is as much fun to deliver the treats as it is to receive them because it is always a challenge to not be seen!
Last week, my daughter and I headed out to look for Halloween supplies at Dollar General. We found tons of great Boo basket treats. Everything was so reasonably priced that I was able to load up our baskets.
What goes into a Boo basket? You can fill your Boo basket with anything. When my daughter was six months old, our thoughtful neighbor included toddler snacks and a plastic pumpkin bowl. I try to tailor our baskets to the family a little bit (making sure there are enough treats for all of the kids in the house). Ideas include:
- Spider rings
- Halloween pencils
- Halloween cups, bowls, etc.
- Halloween note pads
- Glow in the dark stuff
- Halloween jewelry
- Halloween stickers
- Halloween coloring/activity books
- Halloween trinkets/decorations
- Candy
After spending way too much time considering our selections, we finally settled on a basket full of fun treats. Our overflowing baskets cost $7 each, and were so much fun to put together.
Part of the Boo tradition is to include the Boo poem and a ghost to be hung on the door. To make Booing a little more fun, I decided to design a cute Boo sign and poem.
To download your free Boo poem and Boo sign, click on the image below. That will bring up a PDF that you can print. Both images are 8×10.
To learn more about spooky treats available at Dollar General, follow Dollar General on Facebook and Dollar General on Twitter.
Happy Booing!
alicia k (Petite Pilates Pixie) says
October 9, 2013 at 8:14 amoh i like this sign! thanks!
Lisa K says
October 9, 2013 at 12:41 pmI love this! I have never heard about it before. I do have 3 young children and this would be really fun to do. I am going to print this up. I think we can have a great time doing this, Thank you for sharing.
Mya Murphy says
October 9, 2013 at 5:57 pmI love everything there is to love about Halloween!! These signs are the cutest!!
sarah hirsch says
October 10, 2013 at 8:31 amwe got boo’d one year, very fun for the kids
Sharon Rooney says
October 10, 2013 at 1:40 pmThis is such a cute idea. Thank you for sharing.
carla bonesteel says
October 11, 2013 at 10:16 amDollar General is one of the only stores in my small town, and I love it! I buy all of my Halloween stuff there.
Susan Smith says
October 12, 2013 at 6:41 pmThis sounds fun, I had never heard of this before. I can buy a lot of fun Halloween stuff at Dollar General for a little bit of money.
Kamla L. says
October 12, 2013 at 8:58 pmI’ve never heard of this before but is like a great fun way to foster neighborhood togetherness.
Michele P says
October 12, 2013 at 10:27 pmgreat ideas! we love Halloween here, and decorating-its just as much fun as going out trick or treating!
Betty Baez says
October 13, 2013 at 9:33 amWhat a great idea! Sadly i have very few neighbors with children otherwise i would love to do this!
Kimberly Hilbert says
October 13, 2013 at 9:56 amThis is such a cute idea! Its nice to get something like this mid-october to start off the fun. That way by the end of the month all of the Halloween stuff is “old” giving Thanksgiving a chance to be fun.
tim says
October 13, 2013 at 1:45 pmThat is a great idea. We have never been booed.
Kristi says
October 13, 2013 at 5:21 pmWhat an awesome idea! I love how it lengthens the celebration. My sister and I have tried to figure out ways to do this with our Christmas celebrations, but this is the first idea for Halloween – I love it!
Heidi says
October 13, 2013 at 7:48 pmThis is adorable! I haven’t heard of booing anyone, but I think that it would be a great tradition to start with my girls. They love Halloween, and I think it is wonderful to teach them that it is just as much about giving as it is about getting treats. 🙂
Richard Hicks says
October 13, 2013 at 8:00 pmSUch fun! Great way to get kids involved and for all to have a fun bonding time together
Patty White says
October 13, 2013 at 8:27 pmI love making these!!! I do every year. Usually I put pencils, erasers, note pads, spider and skull rings, and some kind of candy in mine.
judy gardner says
October 13, 2013 at 9:33 pmi have never heard of this before but love it! sounds a little like playing secret santa, which i love to do. half of the fun is picking out items that are personalized for the family! i am going to suggest this for next year at our neighborhhood meeting!
Tanya White says
October 14, 2013 at 8:30 pmWhat a great idea, I have never heard of it before!
Rebecca says
October 24, 2013 at 9:46 pmThank you so much for making this available on your site. We were “Boo-ed” but the sign was pretty lame, so I’m sending along some much cuter signs. Thank you!