A Big Ole Boo Fest
I was doom scrolling on TikTok last month and came across such a cute Halloween tradition – Boo buckets! Safe to say, they were added to our fall bucket list pretty much immediately. If you’re not familiar with the concept, boo buckets are a cute bucket of Halloween goodies that you gift to friends or neighbors with the idea that they would then create a few boo buckets and continue the gifting trend. Kamden and I had the best time doing this together – he seems to have inherited by love for gift giving so its always fun when we’re able to jump into something like this together!
I don’t live in a neighborhood that is particularly active, we have a few neighbors that we have bonded with over the years, but overall, everyone keeps to themselves, and I thought it would be nice to use this fun seasonal treat as a forcing function to harbor a sense of community. This year I made 11 buckets, some for our closest friends, some for family and some for neighbors!
Each bucket cost me about 9 bucks to make using items from Target, Dollar Tree and Amazon but could easily be done from one store or another depending on your vibe. If you want to simply shop at one store and don’t mind spending a bit more, go for Target as they usually have a dedicated “boo’ing” section, if you’re on a budget and want something quick and simple, the Dollar tree has so many options for Halloween as well.
I wanted each bucket to have something that the recipients could do as a family, so I included a spooky themed Funfetti cake mix, some matching frosting and some fun baking tools, treats and the “You’ve been boo’d” printable that I made on Canva!
Here's how I set mine up and where I found my supplies!
Find a bucket: We went for these smaller jack o lantern buckets from Target – at $1 a pop, they were slightly cheaper than the dollar (twenty-five) tree and come in a few colors.
Pick your fillers: I chose a few bigger items including these Funfetti cake mixes and frosting sets with sprinkles along with a bigger box of candy.
Find your small fillers: I found some great deals on amazon for seasonal spatulas, cupcake wrappers and toppers, cookie cutters and crafts for kiddos. Pair those with some random dollar tree finds like orange and purple tulle, spiderweb glasses and spider rings and you’ve got yourself a cute and spooky basket.
Print your sign and instructions: I made mine on Canva and then sent it to a local Office Depot to print (you can print from home if you have a printer AND don’t forget that it’s out of ink)
Put it all together and deliver: Try and be sneaky and deliver during a time when you won’t get caught and they can come home to find a fun porch surprise! I’ll be honest, in the age of Ring cameras it’s harder to make it a surprise but it’s still so fun nonetheless!
I can only hope that my neighbors will continue to pay it forward and deliver some fun holiday cheer with our other neighbors and friends but even if they don’t, we had so much fun putting these together and loved seeing pics of people getting boo’d and enjoying their treats! What do you think? Will you be boo’ing your neighbors this year?