Bonfire Night Nostalgia: How did you celebrate as a kid?

Hello everyone, Happy Bonfire Night!

Every passing year, Halloween becomes more and more popular in our country. This year, for the first time ever, I bought sweets in advance because I was warned by my new neighbors that dozens of kids would be knocking on my door.

To be completely honest, I had a lot of fun seeing the children’s fancy dress costumes and giving away mini Haribos like an exhausted suburban fairy. 🫩😆

But Bonfire Night will always have my heart. It takes me back to my uni days in Sheffield, wrapping myself in a coat way too thin -I looked fab, and looking fab was extremely important to me back then- heading to a nearby park with my friends to see the bonfire.

I remember the excitement, the cosy smells of hot chocolate and burning wood (one of my friends lived with her parents and they made us drinks)and the cold air hitting my face, making me feel alive. From the dark park, I could see the city lights twinkling over Sheffield’s hills.

These days there are fewer bonfires (if any), but I still like to check the fireworks.

How about you? Did you celebrate as a kid? Do you miss the bonfires, or are you more of a fireworks fan?

I always enjoyed bonfire night as a kid, and still today sometimes.

As a young child we used to have a small bonfire and pack of Standard fireworks in the back garden, then there was some wasteland near our second and third family home that used to have a huge community bonfire for locals (there's now a nursery on the site), one of our local Boys Brigade companies used to have a large one too that was always good fun with a big firework display. As I got older we would go to a local golf club, one of the big parks in Leeds - Roundhay Park, had an enormous fire and display that was always good fun - especially followed by going out for a curry afterwards with my parents, who my wife and I would go with (pre-children of our own). As we had children of our own we would venture out to local bonfires at some of the pubs around us, and the golf club still. These days things look a bit different as it gets a bit tougher - my eldest has football training tonight and it's raining here so there's a good chance we won't do anything. If anything, we might have a fire in our fire pit and pie and peas for tea...

NickEmmett thanks for sharing your lovely memories! 🔥🪵✨
Are there still community bonfires in Leeds? I need to Google my area, I only see fireworks displays.
Enjoy the fire pit and the pie! Sounds like a lovely evening.

There are yes, but mainly now held at pubs and sports clubs, we don't have any council run events anymore. There several local to me last night, and then we have some on Friday and some on Saturday night too. Weighing up here whether or not we're going to venture out to any.