Pumpkins and Witches and Goblins, Oh My! Halloween in My Hood

Sharing Saturday

What is it about Halloween? Kids love it. Adults love it. Each year, on the morning of November 1^st, after a delicious night of roaming the streets, neon spray paint in their hair and grease paint on their faces, after ingesting more than twice their annual allowance of Reeses, Nerds, Airheads and Milky Ways (the Hershey Special Darks are all handed over to me by fiat,) after a night of fast and furious candy trading, sitting at the dining room table as if they had visors on, looking for all the world like card sharks (I'll trade you two Tootsies for three Smarties and one gummy eyeball), my kids begin planning their costume for next year.

Witches! Hobos! Ghost phantoms! Harry Potter! We’re long past the age of Disney princesses and the Wiggles, although those kept us going for many years. We're now into darker, more magical, more mystical. My younger kids want to completely transform themselves into a new persona for the night, and they take great care in doing so.

When I was their age, more than anything else in the world I wanted a Woolworth's pre-packaged costume that came with a mask. But money was tight and my mother always seemed to find a way to make a hand-made costume (with the help of our babysitter, who could sew.) Although I look back at them now and recognize how beautiful those hand-sewn costumes were, nothing would have satisfied me more than a witch cape and mask from the five and dime.

My kids get a kick out of combining pre-fab costume accessories with things found in your everyday closet. Now that those Halloween stores rise up out of nowhere to take over empty storefronts and lure us with thousands of costume trinkets and doodads, it's easy to find just the right wig, just the right light-up pin, just the right belt to help make a costume come alive.

But the best part of Halloween is being in our neighborhood. My kids know all of our neighbors, and have gaggles of friends all around. The middle schooler is finally old enough to go trick or treating with a posse of friends and no adult. The nine-year-old is coming close (and, like with many things in his life as the third child, will undoubtedly get to do it earlier than his siblings.)

The houses are wonderfully decorated, not too spooky but just spooky enough. As my kids have gotten older I've moved away from smiling witches and dancing skeletons and now we are the proud owner of a fog machine (oooohhhh!) and a light-up spider web, among other enhancements. My next door neighbors have a sound machine, and so we vie for the title of who gets to scare the little kids more (but not too much.)

In fact, my neighbors and I, good friends for many years, see Halloween as the perfect night for a get together. Once we send the kids out, we gather in front of our houses with a glass of red wine and a bowl of lime-flavored tortilla chips. We then settle in to admire all the costumes and enjoy the usually-balmy weather. It's much more temperate here than in New York City at this time of year, which means that my kids are spared the you-have-to wear-a-winter-coat-over-your -costume fight that I had with my mother every year.

There is even a haunted house around the corner from us. Enterprising neighbors for many years transformed their garage into a veritable haunted house complete with a wizard telling ghost stories. In order to get to the haunted house and enjoy the chocolate fountain along with the really scary ghost stories, you have to walk past a boiling cauldron and spiders and webs and other icky things.  My kids were too young for this attraction for many years, and now that the neighbors have a baby, I'm not sure they're going to be able to pull it off any more. Bummer - my kids have been talking about it all year.

I have been watching the kids on my block grow up before my eyes. Each year, as they get older, their costumes change and become a little more adult, a little less fanciful. They are shape-shifters, trying on new skins and new ways of being in the world. Thankfully, there is a whole group of little ones bringing up the rear who are as adorable in their pumpkin and witch costumes as my kids were a decade ago. As long as there are trick or treaters at my door, I will love Halloween.

I am afraid I have nothing profound or provocative to add to the Halloween conversation. I have no need to debate the relative merits of one candy-gobbling night a year in an obese nation, or to worry about strangers abducting my little hobos, or to despair of adults taking advantage of a night where they too, can dress inappropriately and get a kick out of it. After all, I was the Horse of a Different Color when my college friends and I all decided to dress as the Wizard of Oz one year.

It's all good. Let the wild rumpus begin. And as the hand-made blackboard sign on my porch read one Halloween many years ago:

"Beware! Dont come in or else the spiters will bite you and the gosts will boo you."

Boo.  Happy Halloween.

 

 Photo by Stevechasmar via Flickr

 

 

 

Comments

[sfdsdf]

If I had kids I wouldn't let them get addicted to that candy poison. Why do people think that trash is ok in moderation? Would you smoke crack in moderation? Because that's all that garbage is.

[David Craik]

Oh, for Pete's sake sfdsdf. It's freaking candy, part of the fun of Halloween. Thank God you don't have kids, they would likely despise you.

[J]

"What is it about Halloween? Kids love it. Adults love it." -- Absolute generalized FAIL!

How this anti-All-Things-Christian holiday gained popularity in this supposed Christian majority population country, is terrible sadness.

[JenBeee]

Um..... so, anyway....

Karen, Halloween in your neighborhood sounds wonderful! In my neighborhood we get a lot of trick-or-treaters, but I've noticed that I have to have all the lights on and the door wide open, and in some cases I have to be standing in the doorway waving and yelling "helloooo, come on up!" for the parents to decide that our house is OK for the kids to approach. I don't *think* our house looks like serial killers live here, but who knows? We mowed the lawn this year just in case. :)

[kathleen]

Wow! People need to relax. One of the joys of childhood is trick or treating and getting to gorge yourself full of candy! Our neighborhood welcomes thousands of trick or treaters and the adults get into the spirit too. To me it is the one stress free holiday of the year. No family obligations, no presents, just fun! Have a great Halloween Karen!

[kayley]

It's interesting to read all the comments on Halloween in America. Here in Australia, Halloween is slowly gaining popularity. Kids here in Australia don't even seem to bother with the "trick" part and just go door-to-door asking for lollies (candy). I tried something different this year to get them to understand giving. They got all dressed up and we went to the local old folks home with 30 little bags of "ghost poo" (white marshmellows) and handed them out. The oldies absolutely loved it! Kids hated it but too bad. Cheers!
Kayley Harris