Won’t You Boo Your Neighbor!

I am so excited about today’s post. The only thing that makes me kind of sad is that I’m nowhere near Amanda to be on the receiving end of her amazing Halloween fun!

My first house as a grown up was an adorable cottage in Salt Lake City. It was in a perfectly dreamy little neighborhood, and we had the best neighbors that you could ever ask for. In fact, if you’ve ever read Snowmen at Night, take a look at the illustrations, and you will see exactly where I lived, because the author and illustrator used to be my neighbors!

Fall was the most amazing time in Sugarhouse. Crunchy leaves lined the sidewalk, and the days got short enough to take advantage of all the lamp posts. The other great thing was the neighborhood tradition of Boo-ing your neighbors. I had never heard of this until we answered our door one night and found a basket of Halloween goodies. Along with the treats was a guide which explained the tradition and then instructed us to “Boo it Forward” to two of our neighbors. People who had already been Boo-d taped their guide so that it could be seen from the front of the house. This way nobody gets boo-d twice. When each recipient gives to two neighbors it makes it easy to cover a whole neighborhood by Halloween. It also makes up for anyone who might not be feeling festive!

You don’t have to keep this to your neighborhood either. How fun would this be in a school setting? What teacher wouldn’t love to receive a goody basket, and how great would it be to see who had received baskets on classroom doors? Do you work in an office setting? Tell me this wouldn’t boost morale. Instead of a whole basket, you could create a small pocket and slip a small gift card – for a coffee place, the closest ice cream store, etc – and encourage a family “date”.

Amanda created two little 5×7 pockets – one for a starbuck card and one for a booklet of Bean and Cheese tacos (yes, thats a thing in San Antonio. A local restaurant sells them to raise funds for all sorts of things. They’re the best gift EVER.). Since she didn’t have a template, she unfolded a treat bag and traced it.

Then cut it out and score the lines to fold on. Not required, but provides a much cleaner fold.

You can see where the envelope will fold – along the bottom and to make a “barn door” enclosure.

A quick swipe of double stick adhesive means no waiting for glue to dry!

And finally, some cute Halloween embellishments (these are all from My Mind’s Eye). The finished pocked is just large enough for a few sheets of 5×7 paper and a gift card.

Since this will be our first Halloween in Alaska, I’m thinking this will be a perfect way to get to know our neighbors (or not really since this is anonymous, but it will be neighborly).

If you decide to try boo-ing your neighbors, leave a comment and let us know, or tag #HandMadeBoo on your Instagram pics. We want to see how you do this! Also, feel free to let us know what you put in the basket so that we can add it to our list!

Here are some ideas for your Boo Basket: