Halloween: a night of trick-or-treating, telling ghost stories, watching scary movies and, of course, dressing up. The most terrifying and mysterious holiday of them all. October 31st, a night of spooky excitement and fun.
When I was a kid, I absolutely loved Halloween. Every year, I would start planning “what I wanted to be” the minute September rolled around. After all, having a great costume was really important in my young life, though I can’t remember why. I suppose I liked playing dress-up.
I grew up in the generation of plastic dime-store masks and homemade get-ups. There was no Disney Store to buy your favorite character costume at, where every design looks professionally made. There were costume stores, but those were mostly for adult costumes and extremely costly scare gear.
Like most things, Halloween has become far more commercialized than ever.
Today, there is little thought and creativity put into a child’s costume. Most mothers work and don’t have time to prepare patterns and sew costumes. Children just point to what they want in the store the same way they’d pick out a new pair of jeans. Somehow I can’t help but think they are missing something.
I can remember being a ladybug one year when I was about 6 or 7 years old. I went with my mom to pick out felt, pipe cleaners and sequins. Everything had to be just so. We must have sat together every night for two weeks making this costume—together! I couldn’t sew very well, but I was great with glue and a scissor. Costume making was always a project for us. Sure, I was proud of my costume and enjoyed wearing it, but I realize now what I liked most was doing something creative with my mom. Who knows what ever happened to all the costumes? Eventually they weren’t important anyway, but the memories will always be there.
To this day though, I have to say my favorite part of Halloween is the trick-or-treating. Before I had my son, I always managed to escort one of the kids I know on their trick-or-treating rounds. I guess I’m just a big kid myself. I love walking around looking at all the cool costumes and making the kids go back twice to get more candy. Last year, I sent my then-5-year-old cousin trick-or-treating with my then-1-year-old son. I told her to hold out both bags and say, “one belongs to the baby.” As if my infant was really interested in the candy! Okay, I wanted the candy.
I have always loved swapping the “goody bag” candy with my friends. It was great—I got to get rid of all the stuff I didn’t like for things I preferred. Last year, I got to do this again—the first time since I was 12. I took my son’s goody bag and started swapping treats with all the little kids in my family. It was so juvenile but lots of fun. I had PMS-chocolate lying around the house for months!
I forgot how much fun trick-or-treating is. When I was a teenager, I still wanted to go but wouldn’t dare say that out loud. It was a very “uncool” thing to do, something only children did. After all, my peers moved on to more sophisticated things like shaving-cream fights and tossing eggs at each other as well as all passing vehicles.
I absolutely loathed the shaving-cream-and-egg deal. It was so messy, and when someone lobbed one of those eggs at you, it hurt like hell. I only participated in this activity for one year. I ended up with welts all over that made it look like I was beaten with rocks. By the time I was 14, I would make sure I had to work that day or would say my parents grounded me for something. When in doubt, blame your parents.
This year I was invited to a few Halloween parties. I was like, “Aren’t we too old for this stuff?” Apparently not. I would get the opportunity to dress up — which sounds like fun — bob for apples in a vat of beer (which doesn’t really sound all too thrilling), get drunk and watch horror movies. I briefly mentioned the idea to my other half who gave me a look like, “What, are you nuts?” He thinks all the crazy people are out late on Halloween, and we should stay home and act like grown ups. BORING!
Just because I will be home this Halloween doesn’t mean you have to be. This has to be one of the best nights of the year to go clubbing. Every club has something going on. If nothing else, just seeing all the costumes in the dark with all those neon lights and flashing strobes in the background is worth the trip.
Halloween is really fun for everyone. It doesn’t seem like a scary holiday anymore. It’s more festive nowadays. There haven’t even been any good scary movies in years. I think the last scary movies were Pet Semetary and Child’s Play and those were years ago. It looks like Scooby Doo Meets the Boo Brothers is about as frightening as it’s gonna get for me this year. My 2-year-old thinks this is the greatest movie of all time.
I’m looking forward to Halloween. I’m really a kid at heart. I may not be doing anything exciting, but just watching my son have a good time enjoying the holiday makes it a really great day. I grew up in the generation of plastic dime-store masks and homemade get-ups. There was no Disney Store to buy your favorite character costume at, where every design looks professionally made. There were costume stores, but those were mostly for adult costumes and extremely costly scare gear.
Like most things, Halloween has become far more commercialized than ever.
Today, there is little thought and creativity put into a child’s costume. Most mothers work and don’t have time to prepare patterns and sew costumes. Children just point to what they want in the store the same way they’d pick out a new pair of jeans. Somehow I can’t help but think they are missing something.
I can remember being a ladybug one year when I was about 6 or 7 years old. I went with my mom to pick out felt, pipe cleaners and sequins. Everything had to be just so. We must have sat together every night for two weeks making this costume—together! I couldn’t sew very well, but I was great with glue and a scissor. Costume making was always a project for us. Sure, I was proud of my costume and enjoyed wearing it, but I realize now what I liked most was doing something creative with my mom. Who knows what ever happened to all the costumes? Eventually they weren’t important anyway, but the memories will always be there.
To this day though, I have to say my favorite part of Halloween is the trick-or-treating. Before I had my son, I always managed to escort one of the kids I know on their trick-or-treating rounds. I guess I’m just a big kid myself. I love walking around looking at all the cool costumes and making the kids go back twice to get more candy. Last year, I sent my then-5-year-old cousin trick-or-treating with my then-1-year-old son. I told her to hold out both bags and say, “one belongs to the baby.” As if my infant was really interested in the candy! Okay, I wanted the candy.
I have always loved swapping the “goody bag” candy with my friends. It was great—I got to get rid of all the stuff I didn’t like for things I preferred. Last year, I got to do this again—the first time since I was 12. I took my son’s goody bag and started swapping treats with all the little kids in my family. It was so juvenile but lots of fun. I had PMS-chocolate lying around the house for months!
I forgot how much fun trick-or-treating is. When I was a teenager, I still wanted to go but wouldn’t dare say that out loud. It was a very “uncool” thing to do, something only children did. After all, my peers moved on to more sophisticated things like shaving-cream fights and tossing eggs at each other as well as all passing vehicles.
I absolutely loathed the shaving-cream-and-egg deal. It was so messy, and when someone lobbed one of those eggs at you, it hurt like hell. I only participated in this activity for one year. I ended up with welts all over that made it look like I was beaten with rocks. By the time I was 14, I would make sure I had to work that day or would say my parents grounded me for something. When in doubt, blame your parents.
This year I was invited to a few Halloween parties. I was like, “Aren’t we too old for this stuff?” Apparently not. I would get the opportunity to dress up — which sounds like fun — bob for apples in a vat of beer (which doesn’t really sound all too thrilling), get drunk and watch horror movies. I briefly mentioned the idea to my other half who gave me a look like, “What, are you nuts?” He thinks all the crazy people are out late on Halloween, and we should stay home and act like grown ups. BORING!
Just because I will be home this Halloween doesn’t mean you have to be. This has to be one of the best nights of the year to go clubbing. Every club has something going on. If nothing else, just seeing all the costumes in the dark with all those neon lights and flashing strobes in the background is worth the trip.
Halloween is really fun for everyone. It doesn’t seem like a scary holiday anymore. It’s more festive nowadays. There haven’t even been any good scary movies in years. I think the last scary movies were Pet Semetary and Child’s Play and those were years ago. It looks like Scooby Doo Meets the Boo Brothers is about as frightening as it’s gonna get for me this year. My 2-year-old thinks this is the greatest movie of all time.
I’m looking forward to Halloween. I’m really a kid at heart. I may not be doing anything exciting, but just watching my son have a good time enjoying the holiday makes it a really great day.
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