For all that I’m horror-phobic, Halloween is my favorite holiday. This is saying something, because after all, Easter has to do with a lot of chocolate and black jelly beans (both!), Thanksgiving is family and feast extraodinaire, and Christmas… Have you ever gotten your kid a horse for Christmas? It’s one of those perfect moments in parenting that can’t be adequately described.
But Halloween had kid-appeal like no other holiday, for all kinds of reasons:
1) It’s one night when it’s safe and even encouraged to run around the neighborhood after dark, ringing doorbells and yelling.
2) You are rewarded for the foregoing behaviors with sugar and lots of it.
3) The longer you stay out running around with your siblings or buds, the greater your reward.
4) There is nothing quite like comparing your loot with everybody else’s afterward, and trading your Snickers for their Milky Way Dark. Win-win economics made easy.
5) This is when dressing up doesn’t mean wearing what your mom wants you to wear (and not getting it dirty).
6) You get to put on make up the way a kid should be allowed to put on make-up, complete with fake blood and bite marks.
7) There’s a comforting feeling about having a whole grocery bag of chocolate under your bed—until your mom finds it and confiscates it or your brother raids your stash.
8) It’s fun when nobody recognizes you because your costume is so cool.
9) If your brother doesn’t steal your idea, you can be anything you want to be, for just a few hours.
10) No matter how sick you get from overindulging in your own loot, when next year comes around, it’s all going to be fun again.
What’s your favorite Halloween memory?
I think the worst Halloween ever was when on year in Florida, the powers to be decided to change Halloween to the day before or after, can't remember. So some people wouldn't put out candy on the real Halloween day, and others wouldn't put it out on the fake Halloween day. It was an attempt to haven Halloween on not a school night. Anyway, it was a mess, and we didn't know when to trick or treat!
ReplyDeleteCute list! My favorite Halloween memory was when i was about 13. I dressed as a vampire killer and ran around the neighborhood scaring all the little kids!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Grace. A lot of kid-ish behavior that would ordinarily be reproved is not only allowed, it's prescribed.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine ringing someone's doorbell and shouting, "Give me candy--or else!" on any day but Halloween?
I also liked that for whatever reason our parents took a hands off approach to the holiday (other than stocking up on candy). The big kids were expected to keep an eye on the little kids, and the oldest kids were supposed to help put the costumes together and so on. Luckily for us, it worked out OK. Now I'm a mom, and ye gods, my perspective is different.
ReplyDeleteCute post!
ReplyDeleteNot sure about my favorite, but my most vivid is when both my sister and I were dressed in those cheap plastic costumes and dressed as Brides of Frankenstein (apparently he's a pologamist) and she got overheated and used her mask as a sick tray. Yeah, we didn't eat much candy that evening. Sorry. Kinda gross. But a true story!
Olivia--If Halloween doesn't teach a kid that truly, you WILL get a bellyache if you eat all that, then its value from a parental standpoint has to be questionable.
ReplyDeleteHi, late checking in. Loving the new look of the blog. My favortie Halloween memory...I don't think I have a favorite, but I just love Halloween. I think it's because the weather is usually nice here (Virginia), so Fall-ish, and I LOVE Fall. The moon, the trees, pumpkins, people walking in the dark, yet you know it's safe (hopefully). It's probably bacause I love Fall so much that the magic just spreads to Halloween.
ReplyDeleteI loved Halloween for the candy. Afterwards I would count and categorize and make it last until Christmas. Ok, it sounds a little OCD now, but as a kid it was really fun!
ReplyDeleteGreat list! My favorite Halloween memory is when my sister and I dressed up as Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie". Both of us insisted on being the 'real'genie...neither of us would be her evil twin who was the blue genie. We had about 75 sweaters on underneath our Jeannie costume but it was worth it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite costumes weren't mine but my kids ... and I loved it when my son, Lemar, was sixteen and rode on the Halloween float in tight gold pants and a billowing shirt doing a lip sinc of Elvis!
ReplyDeleteOur kids are grown and Halloween isn't quite the same. So, today my husband carved a pumpkin, complete with a giant candle inside. We live in an area that's hard for kids to walk the street at night- rural and curvy road. Well, we had more ghosts, witches and dancing girls than in any year. The candy is gone. The dogs have barked themselves silly and we loved every minute of it.
ReplyDeleteMy worst Halloween was before I had kids, and my niece chucked up all the candy she had gorged. Oh, ick. That's why I limited my own kids on how much they could indulge in. :}
ReplyDelete