It’s so much fun to secretly boo your neighbors. But, if you live somewhere where it’s hot year round, you have to be a little more creative. Our How To Boo Your Neighbors When It’s Hot Out post will help.
For more ways to make this the best holiday, check out all of our Halloween posts.
We live on the kind of block that TV shows are made of. Not a show like Desperate Housewives, but more of one with a Pleasantville feel. Everyone is so nice and really gets along. We live at the keystone of a cul de sac and the owners of the 12 houses surrounding us used to come over every weekend for Football Sundays.
It was the perfect neighborhood to boo your neighbors.
Which I used to do every single year. The thing is, for it to really catch on, people need to participate. And, even though our neighbors really are lovely, they just never caught on to how boo’ing worked.
Okay. Let’s stop here for a second. Have you heard of boo’ing your neighbors?
It’s such a fun idea to get everyone in the holiday spirit. Basically, you put together a “boo basket”, a Halloween treat bag, for two of your neighbors. You add a note telling them they’ve been boo’d, give them a note to hang on their door saying they’ve been boo’d, then explain they are supposed to boo two neighbors who haven’t already been boo’d. You do it completely anonymously, which doesn’t make your neighbors feel like they need to give you a thank you. Instead, they just pay it forward to the next person.
Sort of like a chain letter. But with candy. And who doesn’t like candy?
If everyone participates, everyone should be boo’d by the time Halloween rolls around. Since I’m me, and I hate anyone feeling left out, I always made sure to boo our entire cul de sac. That was a dozen houses. If those houses started boo’ing the neighbors a little further down, the whole neighborhood would be boo’d in no time.
The thing is, though, my block is in North Carolina. And, even on Halloween, it’s hot. So, you need to pick items that won’t melt because it’s hot out and there’s a very good chance the gift bags will be sitting out on your neighbor’s doorstep all night.
Booing the neighbors is one of my favorite holiday traditions. If you want to start it amongst your neighborhood, and you don’t have to worry about the restrictions of the heat, our You’ve Been Booed Kit And Free Printable post is for you.
How To Boo Your Neighbors When It’s Hot Out
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Quick note: The supplies in this list are just an example with the Halloween candy and small gifts that I added to boo my neighbors a couple years ago. Of course, you can add whatever you want to your own boo bag. This supply list is just to give you some ideas.
And, another quick note. These are just a fun way to get your friends and neighbors into the holiday spirit. So don’t feel pressure to spend a ton of money on them. You can pick up some fun Halloween goodies at the dollar store, in the Target dollar spot, at Dollar Tree, etc. It’s the thought that counts.
Boo Bucket Supplies:
- Halloween Trick Or Treat bags
- Ghost Poofs marshmallow treat packs
- Halloween cotton candy
- Halloween pretzel packets
- Halloween fruit snacks
- Halloween pencils
- Witch nose pencil sharpener
- You’ve Been Boo’d free printable (see more later in this post)
- Hole puncher
- Ribbon
- Halloween place cards or gift tags
- Marker
- Halloween plushes
- Tape
How To Make A Boo Bucket:
Fill the Trick or Treat bags with the Halloween treats. Non-chocolate treats work best if you’re booing your neighbors when it’s hot out because you don’t have to worry about those melting in the sun.
Print out the You’ve Been Boo’d printable (it’s in the next section of this post). Stick it into the bag along with the treats.
Fold a flap of the bag over.
Use the hole punch to punch two holes in the flap.
Thread a ribbon through the holes in the flap. Tie that through the hole in any treats that don’t fit in the bag, then loop it back through the holes in the bag.
Tie the ribbon around the neck of the Halloween plush and affix it to the bag.
Use a marker to write “You’ve been boo’d” on the gift tag. Tape it to the front of the trick or treat bag.
Leave the boo kit on your neighbor’s front door, using the arms of the stuffed plush to hold it in place above the ground (so no critters get it at night).
You’ve Been Boo’d Free Printable
When you put together a You’ve Been Boo’d kit, you want to include a sheet of instructions. On one side is the “We’ve Been Boo’d” image for your neighbor to put on their door. On the other side is the instructions about how to keep the chain going.
To make life so much easier for you, I made a free You’ve Been Boo’d printable.
Download it from the button below to your computer.
It’s a PDF that’s formatted to fit a standard 8.5- x 11-inch piece of printer paper so you can print it at home.
When you’re ready to put your boo kits together, print out one set of boo signs per bag.
Boo’ing Your Neighbor: Frequently Asked Questions
It’s so important that you boo your neighbor anonymously. You don’t want to give any indication that it was you because you don’t want anyone to thank you for it. You’re doing this for holiday cheer, not for credit.
The first time I did this for our neighbor’s houses, I was so anonymous that our entire neighborhood (including my mom!) gave credit to another neighbor for my Halloween gifts. And, I didn’t correct anyone. The only person who actually guessed it was me was my grandma.
If you know your neighbors really well, you can add some personal touches like their favorite snacks or some adult beverages.
If you don’t know your neighbors that well, allergy-friendly and non-edible treats (like glow sticks, temporary tattoos, etc.) are the great way to go. Skip the peanuts for sure. And gravitate towards hard candy since most hard candies and lollipops are vegan — and you might have a vegan on your block.
Also, use wrapped candy. As much as you might love to bake, stick with pre-wrapped, store bought treats. Remember, your neighbors have no idea who is boo’ing them. So if a basket of homemade treats shows up on the front porch, it will probably get tossed. Wrapped candy won’t.
Start to boo your neighbors a couple of weeks before Halloween. You want to start close enough to Halloween so everyone is already in the Halloween spirit, but you also want to give your neighbors enough time to put together a boo basket to hand out to other neighbors.
And, very literally, you should boo your neighbors at night. You want to sneak onto your neighbor’s porch when it’s dark out and they won’t catch you leaving the treat.
Have you boo’d your neighbors when it’s hot out? Let us know how it went in the comments.
Chanele
Friday 29th of September 2017
Very Cute! I wouldn't even think about the candy melting. I'm from Michigan so it's usually cold and rainy.