I never knew what a Boo Basket was until we moved into our new neighborhood and one of our neighbor’s left one on our porch. A Boo Basket is just a surprise Halloween bucket full of treats. You leave it on a couple different neighbor’s porches along with a little note that they put in their window to show all the other neighbors on the street that they’ve already “been boo’d.” Then, they too put a boo basket on two more people’s doorsteps, and then those people put it on two more people’s doorsteps….anyhow you get the point. It ends up being that by the time Halloween hits, you’ll see everyone on your street has been gifted with a bucket of goodies.

Here’s the Boo Basket I made this year! The only thing missing is the “We’ve Been Boo’d” note

What to put in a boo basket:

The basket itself is usually one of those typical orange jack-o-lantern buckets kids use for trick-or-treating. You can get them for a buck at any Target, Walmart, Dollar Store, or grocery store.

The printable: Inside each basket you deliver, print out a couple copies of this free printable. I got this one from Happinessishomemade.net! It’s just the sign you tape in your front window that says “We’ve been boo’d” so that the same neighbors don’t reap all the benefits of getting treat baskets while some neighbors get neglected. We’re fair fuckers if we’re anything. It also includes directions on how the neighbor that receives it needs to pass it forward to two more people. Don’t be that jerk and let it stop at you as that’s just bad manners!

Halloween toys and trinkets: I RAID the dollar spot (also known as Bullseye’s Playground) at Target. I texted a few of my girlfriends to show them how I had already stocked up and they were slightly disgusted since it wasn’t even September at that point. I live to plan though. This year for the Boo Baskets I got: sticker boxes, plastic spider rings, rubber witch fingers, Halloween shaped erasers, bubble wands with festive Halloween prints on them, glow-in-the-dark necklaces, (I find these to be pretty awesome when the kids are trick-or-treating because it makes them easy to see in the dark), Halloween shape cookie-cutters, necklaces, stamps, and Halloween tattoos. Every item was at Bullseye’s Playground and I split up each thing amongst a few baskets.

Pro tip: You can also buy the “dollar spot”/Bullseye’s Playground items on Target.com. The catch is, you can’t just buy one item. They sell things in multiples. So instead of buying one bag of 12 “witch fingers”, you’d have to buy four bags of them, thus making it less cost-effective.

If you don’t have a Target near you and want to just order Boo Basket items online, then Orientaltrading.com will be your best friend. Here are some of my favorite items they have up for Halloween 2021 for kids: Plastic jumping spiders, vampire teeth, stretchy skeletons, temporary tattoos, glow-in-the-dark necklaces, pumpkin eraser pencil toppers, eye ball bouncy balls, and Halloween stampers.

Halloween candy: No shit, right? Just buy a bulk bag of mixed candy or you can be a real bad ass and buy a couple boxes of the movie theater sized candy for .99 apiece from Target and toss those in.

I also added some play-doh containers I turned into spiders and threw in some festive Blue Moon Pumpkin beer alongside the candy.

To make the boo basket more of an adult treat: For neighbors you want to “boo” that don’t have kids, I love to give booze. I’m a big fan of pumpkin beer so I buy a six pack and put a couple bottles in each bucket. Then, simply swap out the plastic toys and crap for Halloween paper plates, skull shot glasses, pumpkin beer, and candy! Voila! A basket fit for adults!

Now, I went a little nuts this year on stuff for the basket because some of my closest girlfriends are my neighbors. If I were giving this to some random person, it would probably not be as elaborate. For anyone keeping track, the cost of everything you see was $16 for the non-edible items for 2 baskets. The beer cost $8.99 for a 6 pack and I spent another couple bucks in candy. I did keep two of the beers and gave the other four away so that makes each basket cost around $11-12ish. And they’re stocked up!! Also, I bought all the non-edible treats on sale the day after Halloween last year which drops the price down even more. Always a fucking Girl Scout! Hope you enjoyed and Happy Halloween!! For more holiday tips and basket ideas check out my other holiday blogs as well: Decorating for Christmas and Easter Basket ideas.

This article has been featured on goodhousekeeping.com!