Have any of you been Booed yet? I would be surprised if you haven’t heard of the “You’ve Been Booed” Halloween neighborhood game. I am not sure when or where it all started, but I do know it is one of my kid’s favorite Halloween traditions. They remind me every year, especially if we have NOT been booed.
First off, did you know that “booed” is actually a word? LOL! When I was working on my “You’ve Been Booed” signs, I figured I’d better look up how to spell it. I’ve seen so many combinations: You’ve Been Boo’d, You’ve Been BOOed, You’ve Been Boo-ed. I wasn’t sure how it was meant to be spelled, but when I looked it up turns out both “booed” and “booing” are real words… just something to keep in mind next time you’re playing Scrabble LOL!
How Does Neighborhood Booing Work?
Okay, so booing the neighbors… for those of you who aren’t familiar, this game is part doorbell ditching and part chain letter. Also called Boo Bagging or Ghosting, one neighbor secretly leaves a goody bag or treat for another, along with a note giving instructions. The premise is that there is a phantom spirit going around the neighborhood booing people and leaving behind treats. The phantom also leaves a “You’ve Been Booed” sign, and the instructions tell you to hang the sign near your door so other neighbors can see you’ve already been booed. Then you are supposed to continue the chain and boo two more people within two days.
Also you’ll want to be quick to get that “We’ve Been Booed” sign up on your door, or you might get booed TWICE… yup, that happened to me too.
I think originally there was even some cute poem that told the story, but I’ve seen so many variations I have no idea which would be the original. In typical chain-letter fashion, I’ve even seen some “You’ve Been Booed” instructions threatening a curse will fall upon your home if you don’t comply by booing it forward. Of course since it’s just neighbors and friends secretly leaving treats for one another, I doubt there would be any real curses, but hey it might not be worth the risk? LOL!
I’m all about keeping things simple, so I’ve created my own “You’ve Been Booed” neighborhood booing kit — I left out any curses, condensed the instructions, and hopefully made it really easy for you to pull off this fun Halloween tradition with your little ghouls. Fill out the form at the end of this post to download my free Halloween Boo Kit!
You might be wondering… if there are SO MANY “You’ve Been Booed” kits out there, why in the world did you create one, Bettijo? The first and simplest answer is that several of my friends have asked me for “You’ve Been Booed” signs.
Second: I’ve hunted for THE PERFECT “We’ve Been Booed” sign, and I’ve always come up wanting something different, less cute, more classy. A sign that won’t detract from the Halloween Porch setup I worked so hard to do. Now I don’t have time to deck my porch out every year, but I know there are a lot of people out there that do, and I promise, deep down, they DO NOT want to put up some colorful, cutesy “You’ve Been Booed” sign that doesn’t match the masterpiece front porch they’ve created. I understand these porch gurus might be a minority, but I promise they do exist, and so I made this “You’ve Been Booed” kit with them in mind!
Of course there were a few Booed signs out there that were cute enough to use, but then most didn’t include ghosts in their designs, and, call me crazy, but I REALLY think a ghost is essential for the whole booing thing.
Third, and probably the most compelling reason why I finally got around to making this Halloween Booing Kit… my kids really wanted me to make our own neighbor booing kit, but I explained to them that if I made our own special kit then everyone would know it was us that booed them, which would totally defeat the purpose. BUT if I made a “You’ve Been Booed” kit and published it on the blog available to all, then our identity would be shielded.
I know you think I’m making this up, but I promise I actually had that discussion with my daughters. In fact, the kids are the reason I’ve managed to even get this post up in a timely fashion. This October has been the craziest month ever, but they helped me design the kit, take the photos and have been regularly asking me several times a day if I’ve shared the kit on the blog yet so we can get booing. LOL!
Be sure to pin this post so you’ll be able to find it every Halloween!
I had a really hard time narrowing down which “We’ve Been Booed” sign to include in my free printable kit. See Reason No. 2 above, but I felt a lot of pressure to create a sign that was classy, charming and fairly universal. I created at least a dozen variations, and finally fell in love with the sweet ghost in the oval. Yet I still couldn’t seem to cut several of the other designs, so I’ve also included three alternate “We’ve Been Booed” signs in the kit, and then you can decide which is your favorite. Just enter your email address at the end of this post to get the BOO! Kit.
The oval sign looks cute as is, but I envisioned how lovely it would look cut out and hung by wide black or orange satin ribbon. Though when I went to my ribbon box, I couldn’t resist this black and white stripe ribbon.
TO MAKE: Just cut the oval out and then attach with hot glue a loop of ribbon to the top back and a bow to the front. It’s so cute that if you’re not one of those porch decor aficionados (see No.2 above), you could totally use it as the “wreath” for your front door, right?? Come to think of it, this is actually really similar to my Easter Bunny Door Decor.
You’ve Been Booed! Now What?
I think these “You’ve Been Booed” instructions are my favorite part of the kit. Since the point is for neighbors to pass the Boo! along, the booing instructions are an important part of the delivery. Yet it’s always a bit awkward trying to figure out where to include the instruction page… that full sheet is always just an after thought… Do you tape it to the plate or good bay? Do you just stick it underneath?? Did one of the kids drop and lose it on the way up to deliver??
So I wanted to create a little “You’ve Been Booed” instructions card of sort. It is a half sheet that gets accordion folded up into a little card that can easily be tucked into your goody basket, or tied on with ribbon.
I even did my best to simplify the instructions so it sounds really easy. Call me a Humbug, but there have been a time or two when we’ve gotten booed, and my true inside reaction was actually, “Oh no! Really? I’m not in the mood for that.” Of course, I didn’t rain on the kids parade and did my best to grin and be excited with them… but seriously, let’s be real… Fall is a busy time of year for moms, so let’s keep things simple, right?!
Now no Neighborhood Booing Kit would be complete without coordinating gift tags, because that’s just the kind of anal crazy person I am. LOL! I included my favorite fold-over gift tags that create cute, little treat packages with mini 3×5 zip-top bags or glassine bags. You could also fold these cards like a tent and put in the basket. If the foldover tag won’t work for you, I also made a hang tag that can be tie onto anything!
TO MAKE FOLDOVER TAGS: With the foldover tags I like to use double-sided tape to give them a really finished, professional appearance. Scotch double-sided tape is my favorite because it’s super strong.
TO MAKE THE HANGING TAGS: To create the hanging tags, just cut the tag out and use a standard hole punch in the center of the white circle. Loop through string, baking twine, ribbon or raffia, and you’re ready to go!
Be sure to pin this post so you’ll be able to find it every Halloween! Just fill out the form below to get my free “You’ve Been Booed” Kit.
Halloween Neighbor Gift Ideas
Here are some fun gift ideas that you can use for Booing! Just click the images to see the project details:
Bettijo Bridges
Administrator at Paging Supermom
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super cute and fun!
How do i get the printable?
There is a gray form at the end of the box that you fill out and can download the pack instantly!
classy and crafty
very cute idea
How do we get this kit? its SO cute!
I am assuming I must leave a comment to recieve the download?
There is a gray box at the end of the post — just fill out the form and download the kit
wHERE DO YOU GET THE PRINTABLES DOWNLOAD FOR THIS?
THERE IS A GRAY BOX AT THE END OF THE POST — JUST FILL OUT THE FORM AND DOWNLOAD THE KIT
super CUTE!
We were booed and it said to come to this site for the boo kit. Where are the kits?
This is a super cute idea, but how do i print the kit to boo up my 2 picks?
Thanks for sharing this.
so cute can’t wait to do this!
we were booed and told to come to this website to get the kit, how do we get it?
We received a boo and a link to this page instructed us to collect basketball stars our boo kit. When will we get the kits?
These are the cutest You’ve Been Booed drift hunters printables EVER! Does your neighborhood boo each other at Halloween time?