You’ve Been Booed Printables! How to Boo Your Neighbors for Halloween

Today we have a brand new set of printable You’ve Been Booed signs so you can hand down the fun tradition of “you’ve been booed” to your kids with this fun way to surprise your neighbors that is way less trick than treat!

This is a fun way to tell your neighbors – You’ve Been BOOed!  and create smiles around your neighborhood.

You’ve Been BOOed

One of our favorite October traditions that really brings our neighborhood together is the advent of having your house Booed.  

Families sneak special treats onto neighbors’ or friends’ porches after dark with a note attached saying “You’ve Been Booed”. When a family gets “booed”, they have two days to “boo” two other families, spreading the fun.

–News Report from WXYZ

Print This We’Ve Been Boo’d Set To Boo Your Neighbors

History of Youve Been Boo’d

It is a little bit Halloween chain letter, a little bit Halloween treat! Often families who have already been booed signify it with a ghost in the window. This Halloween tradition dates back to the 1980s and has also been called:

• The Phantom
• Ghosting
• Hobgobling
• Ghosting
• Booing

It is a fun way to get the kids excited about Halloween and bring your neighbors together.

How to Boo

Essentially, you bring your neighbors a Fall/Halloween basket of treats anonymously. So, How can I Start the BOOing Tradition on my Street? Very Easily.  Boo your first family and watch it spread.

Use the printable Halloween booing letters and signs above or create your own with these simple steps on booing your neighbors.

1. Make a You’ve Been Booed Card

We made our own card with a boo poem to tie the basket together. There is nothing better than a homemade card to make a gift basket feel warm.

 You’ve Been BOOed Poem

The air is cool, the season fall,

Soon Halloween will come to all.

With ghosts and goblins, spooks galore,

Trick-or-Treaters at the door.

The spooks are after things to do.

In fact, a spook brought this to you!

The treats that come with this short note

Are yours to keep.  Enjoy them both!

Excitement grows when friends like you

Will copy it, and make it two.

Neighbors will have smiling faces;

None can guess who “BOOed”which places.

A day or two to work your spell,

But keep it hidden! Hide it well!

Join the fun; the season’s here.

So spread these “BOOs” – and share the cheer!  

2. Create a We’ve Been Booed Sign x 3

Once you have been booed, you will place a “We’ve been booed sign on your front door or in a front facing window so that everyone knows you have been BOOed.

Make two copies of the note and BOO sign because you will hang one on your house and give the two others in the two boo bags or baskets you are giving to your neighbors.

3. Make a Boo Bag or Boo Basket to Surprise 2 Neighbors

Make two treat bags/baskets and BOO other neighbors!

Some ideas for treats can be Halloween trinkets (stickers, cups, straws), Halloween candy, homemade fall treats or fall decor.

4. Drop the Boo Bags off at the Neighbors House, Ring the Doorbell & Run

Such a fun Halloween surprise!!  The best part is hearing the kids excitedly try to guess who BOOed who!!

On our street, we BOO everyone – even if they don’t have kiddos – because who wouldn’t like a Fall treat from their neighbors?  And from time to time, we may have people who do not want to participate. But because each house is BOOing two, the effect gets multiplied and before too long, everyone has been BOOed!

Just another neat way to bring your street together in a fun tradition!

More Halloween Ideas from Kids Activities Blog

Can you say that you’ve been BOOed yet this year?   What a fun Halloween surprise to share with your neighbors.  

Who did you boo this year? Have you ever been booed? Does your neighborhood regularly have Halloween surprises?