You’ve been booed! A family fall tradition, that you are sure to love. If you’re’ asking, “How do you boo your neighbor?” I’ve got you covered with these easy instructions and free printables on how to start the boo in your neighborhood.

Halloween is just around the corner! It is time to start preparing for this year’s neighborhood booing and counting down to CANDY!. Check out this free Halloween Countdown Calendar to help you get started.

booing-am-i-a-jack-or-a-cat-2.jpg

Why are you booing me?

You might ask why are you doing this? I truly hope you don’t find it annoying. We are only spreading good Halloween wishes.

Each fall, I look forward to creating special “BOO” treats while my kids look forward to the ‘ding and dash’.  As I watch them stealthily move across the front lawn only to hurriedly (and haphazardly) fling my creation at the front door—clearly  I realize we get different things from this activity., but we do all have a blast! My kids love this activity as much as they love trick or treating.

We hope our friends and neighbors love it too!

What is booed for Halloween?

A fun Halloween tradition where you secretly leave an anonymous basket filled with Halloween treats and boo instructions on the front porch of friends and neighbors. Most usually involve having to photocopy instructions.  We instead create a container that travels from door to door.

What do you do when you’ve been booed?

The only thing the recipient needs to do is enjoy the goodies, refill the container and place on another friend’s door. Some people refuse to pass the container along (you know who you are) so we make a few in hopes they start making the rounds.

What to put in a you’ve been booed basket?

You can put absolutely anything in your gift basket. Halloween crafts and candy are an easy way to fill a basket. We filled plastic pumpkins with supplies to make caramel apples .and then ‘dressed’ it to look like a cat. (I am showing you what we did last year—because this year’s is TOP SECRET!)

This is what we put in ourS:

  • Granny Smith Apples
  • Caramel Apple Making kit. (It included the caramels and the sticks)
  • Fun Halloween Sprinkles

how to Start the Boo in Your Neighborhood

Here are the supplies you need:

  • orange plastic pumpkin
  • black poster board
  • black glitter (optional)
  • glue (to adhere glitter)
  • hot glue gun
  • glue stick
  • gift tag
  • cat face template

5 Easy Steps to Make a Boo Basket

  1. Download and print the cat face template. Cut the cat face out of black poster board. TIP: Be sure to check the space between the eyes on the plastic pumpkin.  I noticed that not all of these pumpkins are the same so the placement of the eyes might need to be adjusted.
  2. Embellished cat face with glitter and glue if you like.
  3. Hot glue the center of the mask to the front of a plastic pumpkin.
  4. Make your own tag with the poem below or print the gift tag I made for you and attach it to the pumpkin.
  5. Get booing!

Halloween boo poem

Attached the following poem like a gift tag to the handle. You can also download and print the poem here. I made gift tags for you!

Am I a jack or a cat that has come to say “BOO”?
All dressed up with treats for you.

Please fill me up with treats galore,
and take me to your friend’s front door.

Sit me down then push the bell.
Run real quick so no one can tell.

As I move from friend to friend,
Good Halloween wishes never end.

you’ve been booed printables

Each year we think of something new. Take a minute to look through our ideas. I hope you will find something that will be perfect to help your family make some wonderful memories.

With all my Booed printables you’ll find more great ways for how to boo your neighbor, including a we’ve been booed sign, a poem printable tag and a variety of youve been booed printables including some in black and white in case you don’t have a color printer. Just click the links for more ideas. and free Been Booed printables

Halloween Ideas

Halloween is a fun season at our house. You might be interested in our ideas from previous years and some more crazy little projects for Halloween.

magic broom activitiy
The Magic Broom

As the years have passed and our children have gotten older my husband and I have had to boo by ourselves. So we changed it up and this is how we now BOO our adult friends.

you have been boozed
You’ve Been Boozed

what does booed mean to you?

What are your family’s Halloween traditions? Do you have a different style of booing? I would love to hear your ideas and traditions in the comments. And most importantly, have fun making memories this year!

I would love to keep you fully stocked with creative ideas, yummy recipes, fun crafts, and loads of free printables. Subscribe to Skip to my Lou to get new ideas delivered to your inbox. Follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram for all my latest updates.


About Cindy Hopper

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Comments

  1. This is by far the cutest idea I’ve seen for “boo-ing” neighbors! Thanks for such a wonderful idea!

  2. I had never seen this idea before and thought it would be a great one to add to our family tradidion! I bought some cute Jack o Lantern pails and we filled it with orange and yellow tissue paper. I made a batch of home made Pumpkin pie playdough and bought some really cute halloween cookie cutters. We filled the pail with halloween stickers and a Berenstein Bear Trick or Treat book. I bought some Martha Stewart craft sacks from Michaels Craft Store that look like little broom sticks and filled with Candy Corn and Hershey’s Kisses. Also some Marshmellow Halloween candys. My kids were delighted to put these together and even happier to deliver. Thanks for a great idea!

  3. This is our neighborhoods third (or fourth??) year booing and this is the first year I’ve seen the awesome link to online printables!!! YAY!!! I love having the choice and being able to print out new messages instead of having to scan and hope for a legible copy as it trickles down… copy by copy by faded copy. THANK YOU!!!! ~M

  4. I read that at Christmas it is called being elfed, is there one for Thanksgiving or New Years, or other holidays?

  5. WOW! WE’ve always done May baskets but this is even way cooler… Is that a word? Anyway, I bought about 30 pumpkins like that after halloween last year for 10 cents each. My husband’s nagging me to get rid of them – Thanks for the great idea, I’m goin’ booin’!

  6. We are doing this at work. We are booing our cubicle mates instead of neighbors! It is so much fun and everyone is really getting into it. We want to do something like this again for Christmas, but what would we call it?!?! Any ideas?

  7. Really good idea.

    For lazy people there are sites but I think it is great idea to create one basket and have it passed around from house to house.

  8. We totally did this yesterday! Saw you on Tip Junkie and fell in LOOOOOOVE with the disguised pumpkin. We filled our pumpkins with the Betty Crocker bagged sugar cookie mix – punched a hole in the top of the package and tied a halloween-themed cookie cutter and cello baggie of fall-themed sprinkles.

    We made 3 of them and my 7 and 9 year old had a BALL doing sneaky surprise deliveries. “This is so much fun!” Thanks for sharing!

  9. This idea is super cute! I would love to make these with my kids and see how far we could get it to go around our area. How fun!

    I would love to show this on my blog, too, if you don’t mind.

  10. What a great idea! I have been snooping in your sidebar and there are so many projects to add to my to-do list! You are very talented!

  11. What a great idea!! I think I’m going to try it this year. Thanks for letting me know.

    ~Heather

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