Last year, or a whopping 9 blog posts ago, we had our typical Halloween. I collected a list of about 25 participating apartments and kids in the complex got dressed up and went trick-or-treating. It was all great except for the fact that my daughter absolutely hated it. She particularly hates scary costumes and in a tearful outburst asked "WHY? Why do we dress like DEATH and go house to house? I don't understand!!!!" I looked at my Egyptian mummy and her sister, the skeleton, and said, "umm.....for candy?"
I never questioned Halloween and its creepy elements as a child. To me, it was my big chance for sweets in a nearly sugar-free household. My costumes were planned specifically to not hinder my ability to RUN house to house and gather as much candy, preferably chocolate, as possible. I remember one Halloween where my friends and I did a quick costume change and bolted out for another round. That was epic.
Annice asked that I not plan Halloween this year so we decided to have our own UnHalloween, which involved fruit carving, a living room candy hunt, and watching a non-scary movie.
Leena was still able to trick-or-treat with the neighbors and we left out candy on the front step. I've tried explaining to Annice that Halloween is a holiday where we take what scares us and make it into a party, thereby taking some of the scare out of it. She is skeptical of this explanation and truth-be-told, it does seem like a nice but BS post-hoc explanation for something that is messed up. Sort of like Humanae Vita, in my opinion, but, I digress.....
UnHalloween turned out to be a raging success. A sugar high without the frightening nightmares and melt downs of years past. The best part, though, was the thank you note I received:
I never questioned Halloween and its creepy elements as a child. To me, it was my big chance for sweets in a nearly sugar-free household. My costumes were planned specifically to not hinder my ability to RUN house to house and gather as much candy, preferably chocolate, as possible. I remember one Halloween where my friends and I did a quick costume change and bolted out for another round. That was epic.
Annice asked that I not plan Halloween this year so we decided to have our own UnHalloween, which involved fruit carving, a living room candy hunt, and watching a non-scary movie.
Leena was still able to trick-or-treat with the neighbors and we left out candy on the front step. I've tried explaining to Annice that Halloween is a holiday where we take what scares us and make it into a party, thereby taking some of the scare out of it. She is skeptical of this explanation and truth-be-told, it does seem like a nice but BS post-hoc explanation for something that is messed up. Sort of like Humanae Vita, in my opinion, but, I digress.....
UnHalloween turned out to be a raging success. A sugar high without the frightening nightmares and melt downs of years past. The best part, though, was the thank you note I received:
