Some parents are trying really hard to get their kids to understand and enjoy the spirit of Halloween, but are they taking things too far?
While pranks are meant to be in good fun, not everyone's a huge fan of it.
This year, there's a new Halloween tradition that's going viral and it's called "Doll in the Hall," inspired by the Christmas version, the Elf on the Shelf.
If you don't recall the Christmas tradition, here's how it works:
The idea is that an elf from the North Pole comes to your house before Christmas and reports back to Santa on who has been naughty and nice. Every night, the elf moves around the house, often doing something funny or sneaky.
Now, the Doll in the Hall is similar to the elf version, but it's much creepier. Of course it would be, it's Halloween!
The idea is that you find a creepy Annabelle-like doll and keep secretly moving it around the house until your kids think it's haunted.
If parents are seriously looking to scare the living daylights out of their children, they'll put the doll right in bed with them.
Krystah Wright, the person credited to starting the viral prank, told Today it all happened by accident.
When the Pennsylvania mom found her daughter's porcelain doll in the trash can, she thought it fell in there by accident, so she put the toy back in her seven-year-old's room.
When her daughter was confused as to how her doll moved from the garbage back to her bedroom, Wright got the idea for the Doll in the Hall.
The mother created a Facebook page posting how she scares her daughter with the doll, and most people think it's hilarious.
While Adele, Wright's daughter, isn't scared of the creepy doll anymore, she has become intrigued and "treats it like a Scooby Doo mystery."
As for her son, who is younger, he thinks the doll is "lonely and needs a home."
"It's so fascinating to watch their imaginations at work "” they're having just as much fun as me," the mother said.
Wright's children don't seem to be terrified by the Doll in the Hall, but other parents who have taken up the challenge with their own kids may not be having so much fun.
One mother posted to Instagram a picture of her children in her bed after the Doll in the Hall challenge terrified them.
"Elf on the Shelf might get you well behaved kids (who you kidding?), but my Doll in the Hall gets me cuddles for the night or the next year!" user reallycoolchic captioned her post.
While not every parent thinks this new Halloween challenge is a good idea, Wright says there's still a lot of people who want to participate.
"My kids told me that mysterious haunted dolls have also appeared at some of their classmates houses and I'd like to think we had something to do with that," she shared on Facebook.
[H/T: Today]
