I was first introduced to the phrase “boo basket” in September, when I saw women I know sharing posts to their Instagram stories, lamenting, “I wish someone would make me a boo basket.” I find the over-commodification of fall extremely annoying and tend to begrudge anyone who wants to rush through the final weeks of summer to get to “sweater weather” and “cozy season” or whatever, so I instantly knew this was not going to be something I enjoyed. But it followed me everywhere. Boo baskets started appearing on TikTok and Reels—and sure enough, people I know in real life started to talk about receiving them.
If you have yet to be inundated by the “boo basket” craze, allow me to be your guide.
What is a boo basket?
According to my research, which I largely conducted against my own will as the trend repeatedly popped up on my phone, a boo basket means different things to different people, but all variations are the same at their cores: It’s a basket full of seasonal presents, like an Easter basket, but for Halloween. Now, the situations in which one might give or receive such a basket are varied. Parents on Reddit are complaining about being expected to create one for their kids after spending so much on trick-or-treating candy, hay rides, pumpkin patches, costumes, etc. Meanwhile, some people believe boo baskets should be exchanged between partners in a romantic relationship and should be full of seasonal offerings the other person likes, like certain candies, Halloween-themed blankets or candles, and things of that nature. Get it? “Boo” has a double meaning. And here I thought Halloween couldn’t get more saccharine.
I was raised an only child, one of those “miracle babies” who lived the first few months of life in an incubator, so my childhood was the kind where I got gifts for absolutely no reason all the time. I was absurdly spoiled. You would not believe what I got for Easter, Christmas, or my birthday—but even my parents never created a boo basket for me. The way people talk about boo baskets now, though, you’d think they’ve been a well-known tradition for decades. Gift-givers seek advice for what to include in theirs online, talking about them like they’re a totally normal part of Halloween everyone is familiar with. There are currently over 82,000 videos tagged #boobasket on TikTok. I was worried, at first, that I had some kind of cultural blind spot. Maybe these have been around forever and are standard parts of celebrating the holiday. But no. I checked Google Trends. This has only been a thing for two years.
Do you need to make a boo basket?
I want to say that no, you do not need to make a boo basket, but I don’t want to get you in trouble. I might be a hater of fantastic proportion, but I do know that the people who are proclaiming they want a gift for Halloween are sincere, so if your girlfriend is dropping hints or your kid is saying they need one to give to a friend, I don’t necessarily advocate doing any relationship damage based on anti-consumerist principles. I’m also seeing rumblings that boo baskets are shaping up to be another one of those suburban gift-circle institutions, the kind of thing where if you get one, there’s a note attached saying you have to give one to someone else. I remember my mom getting suckered into things like that when I was younger; the ladies at church would not have looked kindly on her breaking the chain. She always paid those forward and I don’t know if it’s because she enjoyed doing it or didn’t want to jeopardize the social order.
So if it’s easy for you to whip something up and you don’t want to find out what will happen if you don’t, go for it. Personally, I’m against it. Halloween is just straight-up not a gift-giving holiday and we are two months away from the actual gift-giving holidays, so save your money! I’ve reviewed dozens of videos about the creation of boo baskets. I’ve seen people including Stanley cups, Uggs, porcelain mugs, high-end candles, and even iPhones. For Halloween. Halloween! If you must make a boo basket or simply want to, don’t spend like that. What are you going to do at Christmas to top it? I shudder to imagine. Instead, opt for snacks the other person likes, maybe some cute seasonal decor from the dollar section at Target, and one nicer thing, within reason.
If you don’t want to look cheap or like you phoned it in, try a themed basket. Pumpkin-flavored coffee beans and syrup, a seasonal mug, and some cafe-style cookies aren’t super pricy and still make a cohesive gift.
On the other hand, you can totally ignore this. It’s a new thing. it’s not traditional, and it’s not as life-or-death as people online are making it seem. Prioritize something else, like taking your loved one to a fall fair or picking some apples. We don’t have to hop onto every trend just because the algorithms are shoving them in our faces.
