I don't like Halloween.
Before you Halloween lovers rise up in alarm, please let me clarify.
Growing up, I thought Halloween was fun. As a lover of all things candy, the thought of going door-to-door and getting it for free was pure heaven. But that was where my fondness for Halloween ended. I am not a hugely creative person, unless you count writing. I don't come up with elaborate Halloween costumes for myself. We will probably never be the family that dresses up together in a theme. As one of five daughters in my family, we had several costumes we just rotated between us every year. A cat. A rabbit. A baby. (I can't remember the rest.) We picked what we were going to be, pulled out an old pillowcase to hold all our loot, and off we went.
To add to this, I hate being scared. I hate watching scary movies. I hate haunted houses. I even hate mildly frightening music that might hint of something scary to come. So a holiday that delights in all things scary was probably never going to fly with me. (Now, lest you think I hate all holidays, I adore Christmas and Thanksgiving. Favorite time of year, hands down.)
Of course, I married into a family of Halloween lovers. Every year, my poor husband will want to think up a cool costume for Halloween, and maybe even something we can be together. We always head off to the local Halloween store, and while he peruses the aisles in search of the perfect costume, I walk behind him, aghast at how much costumes cost. This year, he saw a Bigfoot costume for $100. For one night?!! Thankfully, he didn't get it. I even talked my kids into mostly recycling costumes from years before. We only had to purchase a Hannah Montana wig for S and a Captain America costume for H. I wore my Japanese kimono from six years ago.
This past Halloween, I generally grumbled under my breath about the annoyance of this so-called holiday. Then, that evening, I went trick-or-treating with the kids while A stayed at home to hand out candy with the babies. As I watched the kids sprint from house to house, exclaiming over all the loot they got (including a can of Root Beer!), I got a little of the love back that I used to have for Halloween. I may never wear the awesome costumes or even have Halloween decorations up at my house (I prefer a Harvest wreath and a few pumpkins), but it's still a holiday with free candy involved. And anything with candy can't be all bad.
My husband, getting ready for his night bike ride on October 30. (No, I'm not sure what gorillas have to do with mumus. And there are also glow sticks all over the mumu that you can't see.) The next day, he dressed up again as a gorilla, went to a cyclocross race and handed out bananas.
A ladybug, a SWAT team guy, a cow, Captain America, and Hannah Montana. Sorry about the bottles, but there was no way these babies would hold still otherwise. Also, notice A2's new shoes. 
6 comments:
I think I find joy in doing the absolute minimum for Halloween. We dressed up the boys, but didn't even attempt to dress up ourselves this year and it was perfect. No stress, a trunk or treat and we were done. However I realize that it will get harder the older our kids get.
Oh and love A's shoes... our boys can be triplets with their matching shoes.
I'm not a Halloween lover, either. I hate creepy stuff.
I'm pretty meh at best about all things halloween. I hate it when people get really creepy at the trunk or treat because it freaks my kids out. Z is wholly in favor of CANCELING halloween completely so there is no possibility of going to the Halloween store ever again. That place freaked him out for days (as do the plethora of Halloweentown Disney shows that C insists on DVR'ing). The older I get, the closer I get to GranBo's distaste for Halloween's celebration of evil, paganism, godlessness etc. But the wonder of imagination in my kids' eyes and their love of free sugar really can't be beat, so we'll keep Z from canceling for the time being eve though the most creative I get on my own is putting red index dots all over my skin and being a disease.
We have some friends that don't celebrate Halloween at all. Her husband said Christmas or Halloween..pick it. You can't have it both ways. I thought that was interesting.
We haven't gone that far and I do love a really good costume like your husbands but the fact that we all matched this year is a total fluke! We basically borrowed most of it from my friend who happened to have 3 boys and a baby girl last year so it worked. K and I were in our costumes for the whole 3 minutes it took to take the pictures. As for the candy this year...I am usually much more opposed to it but for some reason this year it's not bothering me.
Here's my issue with Halloween now that I'm an "adult." I spend WAY MORE $$$ on candy than the amount that my kids get!! What is up with that!?! Can't I just buy my kids candy? Then they won't end up with those nasty Mary Janes and other such nastiness people call candy.
I myself have never understood the hubbub around Halloween. Sure, I'm all for dressing up and trick-or-treating, but I don't get the going all out with decorations and obsession. Just don't get it. I'll save all that energy for the next holidays.
Post a Comment