I’m so excited to be in a house for Halloween this year! That means that I can decorate the outside, get visits from trick or treaters, and “boo” my neighbors. I put together a little treat for two of them in these perfectly spooky DIY Halloween gift bags and included some adorable printables to start our neighborhood booing tradition. Today I’ll be sharing the “You’ve been booed” free printables with you!
What’s a “Boo”?
You may be wondering what I’m talking about, what’s a boo? Booing your neighbors or coworkers is a tradition that began a few years back. It’s so much fun, and everyone who participates loves it and looks forward to it every year.
During the Halloween season neighbors and coworkers deliver small gifts or treats to one another in what I would call a chain reaction. Someone in the neighborhood will make little treat bags for two others. In the treat bag they will include a “you’ve been booed” sign with a little poem or explanation of the Halloween tradition.
Once those two neighbors get their gift, they will display their “you’ve been booed” sign on their door or in a front window. That will tell others that they have already gotten a treat for this holiday season. Then they will repeat the process until the entire neighborhood or workplace has been booed or Halloween arrives. Hopefully it’s the former and everyone gets involved.
What do you place in a “Boo” bag?
There’s no perfect way to create a boo bag and no “right” items to place in one. You can do something as small as grabbing a Ziploc bag and filling it with some candy or as big as a giving an indoor or outdoor Halloween decoration. Most people just give a gift bag with some candy inside.
This year I found some adorable Halloween utensils in the Target Dollar Spot. I grabbed two “You’ve been BOO’d” spatulas and picked up two packages of cookie mix to go with them.
For personal use only. All of my free printables & cut files are copyrighted material. Feel free to download these free designs and print them or use on your Cricut projects for your own use at home. They are not for commercial use, not to be placed on items for sale. That helps me keep these printables, SVGs, and PNGs coming to you for free! Another note: you will not my logo overlay on your downloaded design. It is there to keep people from downloading the images straight from Google, or others from stealing them to use on their site. Thanks for understanding! Feel free to share this post for your friends and family to make their own projects with this design!
“You’ve been booed” Free Printables
I created three different designs that you can choose from to go in your Halloween boo bags. Each design also comes in two different sets of instructions that you can print. One is a poem and the other is simple instructions. I wrote the poem (I didn’t want to steal anyone’s work), so I wanted to give you another option if you thought it was too cheesy. All of the “you’ve been booed” poems that I found were cheesy, so I thought mine couldn’t be too horrible lol.
Cutesy Printable
The first set of designs that I made are a fun design. When you print the design of your choosing, be sure to change the print setting to landscape mode. Also make sure that your printer does not blow the image up. Select the “shrink to fit” option if it looks like it will cut the image off in any way.
This is the poem version.
This is the version with the simple instructions.
Classic Printable
This “you’ve been booed” printable is a more classic style. You can use this one for people who have a specific Halloween decoration theme going. I know how much work goes into decorating your home, so I understand how someone might not want a booed printable that will mess up their design.
Here’s the same design without the poem.
Scary Printable
Finally, I created scary “you’ve been booed” free printables. I figured a “you’ve been booed” printable had to have a ghost, because, well, duh. What else says, “boo?” So, I made the scariest design possible with a ghost that could still go with most decorations. Our neighbor across the street, who also bought their home over the past year, has put up some simple scary decor, like clowns (EEK!) and caution tape, in their windows. I made something that could easily go with their decor, thus can go with most homes that have gone for the creepiest looks.
And here’s the version with the poem.
Gift Tags
These free printable gift tags can be cut apart and added on each bag, and you can include two extra in both bags if you’d like. That way your neighbors already have two tags to go on each of their bags.
How to put your bags together
Now that you have decided which “you’ve been booed” free printables that you want to use, it’s time to assemble the treat bags. I will be giving you instructions for making two bags, but you can choose to make only one if you’d like.
Cut the “you’ve been booed” printables apart
Print four copies of the free printables. You will cut two along the dotted lines and leave two whole.
If you chose one of the printables with the oval shaped “we’ve been booed” section, cut the oval out. I placed a ribbon with a bow to hang the printable from on them so that my neighbors can hang them right away. I added the bow so that it would be a little cuter and they can hang it like wreath if they choose, hang it from their doorknob, or hang it in their window. You can choose to do that or not.
If you have one, use a hole punch to put a hole in the top center of the oval. Place ribbon through the hole and tie a knot, creating a loop large enough to hang over a doorknob. I used black 1/8″ ribbon. Next make a bow with another ribbon (optional). I used a white 1.5″ ribbon. Hot glue the bow over the punched hole.
Assemble the Boo Bags
Place these items in each gift bag: treats, along with the instructions and the “we’ve been booed” sign you cut apart, and a copy of the “you’ve been booed” free printable.
Here’s what I placed in each of my bags: a package of cookie mix, an adorable spatula, a copy of the printable, and the cut apart instructions and the “we’ve been booed” bow sign.
I couldn’t loop the ribbon through my lunch bag gift bags that I made the way that I wanted initially because the cookie mix bag and the spatula was too tall. That’s alright, the kids will rip them open right way anyway lol!
Now head out & make your neighbors’ day!
I hope that your neighbors and coworkers are happy with their Halloween treats! Here’s what my neighbors are getting. My son is dashing from his friend’s house that he left one of our “you’ve been booed” bags. It’s kinda blurry because I was pretty far away, trying not to be seen and also trying not to get their house in the picture.
By the way that’s my son’s jack-o-lantern in the picture in the middle. It’s Michael Myers, and it’s great in the dark (and from the right angle). He’s 11, so he did an amazing job!
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