We’ve kept the porch light dark for several years now, sipping vino in front of the fire. BUT! This year is special, as my 1st grandbaby 👶 was born about 1:30 this morning so I’ll have reason to love the holiday now
We too have kept it dark for the past several years after decades of celebrating it, mainly because two of my kids’ birthdays were the week of Halloween so there’s no escaping that theme for their toddler/grade school parties.
But because I was so much into the cute side of the holiday, I felt like a Scrooge. So I place a large sign every year in front of our walkway that says, “No treats this year, have fun but please be safe!” Then I hide in the darkness of my house with all the lights off. We still get 2-3 doorbell rings by the older kids anyway and we look at each other with a “Wtf?” expression. 🙄😆
I don’t like what it has become. Give me jack-o-lanterns and cute ghosts and fall corn laced with leaves, (no spiders tho….,) but when the Freddy Kruegerish gore becomes everyone’s lawn decor lit up like a Christmas wonderland massacre, I’m out. And I’m staying out for good.
Edit: even if I wanted to join in the fun these days I just can’t bring myself to hand out candy to children knowing what I now know about it and only see as the poison that it is.
"I just can't bring myself to hand out candy to children knowing what I now know about it..." THAT IS ME. Even when I'd like to send a thank you batch of cookies...I think about the recipient and whether it would really be kind!!! It's the worst knowing the worst...
Congrats! Halloween is back for me for the same reason. Five grandkids all under 30 months. Can’t wait to observe them as they try to figure out what Halloween is all about.
It’s their first Trick or Treat, so I’m interested in that brief time, when they go door to door, collecting candy, seeing scary costumes with their parents making a fuss. Once they get home and discover they collected candy, it’s over.
when my son with autism was little, he used to think that every time he went to someone's door, he was supposed to go into their house and would try to, at the first 4 or 5 houses, until he remembered what the deal was. he only did 'trick or treating' for about 5 yrs, then refused. he would rather sit on our front porch and watch the other kids come up to our door. ;)
Until my sons met their partners and married at 37 and 34, and after most of their high school friends had gotten married, I was becoming more and more sure that it might never happen. One daughter-in-law’s mother likewise told me that her daughter had sat her down a few months before she met my son, and asked her to accept the fact that she was very happy and was never going to get married. I remember being very surprised, like a minor miracle had happened, when my sons each found the right woman for them and fell deeply in love. And now I feel grateful that they’re each thrilled with their budding families. Whew! Hang in there. I see that many young people deeply want to get married and raise a family, but also that it takes time for some to build the confidence and the know how to succeed in that goal in these chaotic times that we’re all learning to navigate.
What a perfect way to start what I also have been dreading… the parade of trampy pre-teens and horror celebrated. We at least have some adorable little toddlers with responsible parents in the neighborhood so I will be passing out candy… but also saying a few spiritual warfare prayers. Every year the yard decorations get darker and creepier and this year it’s out of control. Horror movie villains that move and talk (scaring our pups to death as we walk by), bloody body parts hanging from trees, entire crime scenes acted out. 😩
Maybe I’m just getting old but I miss the days of my sweaty plastic Snow White mask and receiving homemade popcorn balls and wax teeth.
Agreed, the amount of money and time people spend constructing gory displays of evil on their front lawns is growing, and it’s disturbing - and hello, causing children nightmares! We skip those houses and cross to the opposite side of the street. I despise all the candy too. (The “switch witch” refuses to stop here.) After the requisite trick-or-treating with my elementary-aged kids, I’m a lights-out introvert. If I could, I’d skip right over Oct 31. At least my son has decided to wear the same Darth Vader costume for the 3rd year in a row! 😅
I saw no trampoline costumes tonight. Now go to a high school football game and that parade is trampy. The girls don’t care about the game. They come to be seen.
This is worst year I’ve seen so far for yard decorations!
I can’t believe the money people spend on yard decor and for what? Big and bigger blow up Creatures that look like octopus arms waving from windows? Gazillions of skulls all over?
Walgreens had an entire wall of huge skeletons hanging beside the candy bags! One household actually dug up their front yard to create a grave for one of these to lay half in and out of.?
It was unnerving ?
The neighborhood looks like the gates of hell opened up?
Me a grinch ?
Rather a refugee from depravity?
I applaud Hobby Lobby for bypassing this bloody gory non holiday !
Lowes had a horror display up 2 months early and Xmas stuff across the aisle 4 months early?
There is no season anymore? It’s a run on mix with valentine hearts , bunnies ,eggs all year? It’s just one big $$$ ?
If you are, so am I. After seeing all the giant skeletons and spiders, I asked my husband the other day - "Where do they store all that crap the rest of the year? How exhausting!"
I especially hate the blow-up decorations. They must think if one is cute, ten are even better. And, it's cheating. Just go to the store and buy and electric blow-up Frankenstein and stick it in the yard, how banal.
omg, my UK fella couldn't believe all the Halloween decorations and he was here during the first week of October! people are decorating their cars now too!! I used to like Halloween but its it so over the top now.
Perhaps I was unusually fortunate to have grown up with a mother that loved sewing and would spend months creating custom, high quality costumes for my brother and I. (Damn, I wish I had any photos of them!)
Once again, a great holiday has been corrupted into a commercial disaster.
Being a health advocate, I've given up giving out candy. So the little monsters that show up at my door actually get something healthy (or at least close to healthy). They probably get home and mutter "What idiot gave me a nutrition bar?". It's more expensive but at least I don't feel guilty about poisoning the neighborhood kids with sugar laden candy.
My guess is that for the kids part of it is getting "anything". They are just happy that an adult is giving them attention and they get to run around playing "pretend".
I'm not sure what the excuse is for the late teen "kids".
I, too, was fortunate to have several years of home made costumes and then in turn created them for my own kids. Also, spend many a year going to an adult costume party before the tramp and commercial themes took hold. I agree with Jenna though. We have lost something innocent about Halloween.
The last few years that I handed out treats, I had switched to various packaged snacks instead of candy. I found that a lot of the kids appreciated them and told me so.
Full size candy bars (the only kinds when I was a kid) were the preferred booty. Apples were at the bottom of the sugar list. Kids today are cheated by a couple of mini snack sized bonbons. We would empty our bags on the bed and sort everything into categories of sweets. My brother locked his loot into a large toy SEARS semi truck.
When I was a kid, a neighbor used to invite us into her home for homemade cookies and hot chocolate on Halloween. As a young adult I had a friend who gave out nickels to the kids instead of candy. Why? Because she said she could use the leftovers.
One year I had my wife sew little "treasure pouches" and I filled them with coins to give out. I wish I could buy little treasure pouches in quantity so I could do that again.
Yes they do (and I use those for tea) but I was looking for something more substantial and seem to have found it on Amazon. So $10 to $15 would get a two year supply.
OMG I was that mom to my girls. I made handmade satin Sleeping Beauty (making the standing collar was a real bitch but it turned out great), Tinkerbell, and Belle costumes for my girls plus tulle skirts and fairy wings and got them wigs and did make up (Cleopatra), made togas, you name it. I had so much fun but that was 20 years ago now. Times have changed.
lol what a grump! I would be in the same grumpy funky halloween boat as you if it weren't for the littles. We've totally embraced this time of the year with all the cute freaking outfits, fall festivals, and farm outings.
Buuuut.... we do shut off our lights and hide inside after the kids go to bed, so we are somewhere in the middle.
Congrats on the VSRF shout out! You guys are killing it!
Happy Halloween everyone and a very happy diabetes day to all Americans! 🤪😘🤗🤠🥳👻
12 years in the sticks up here in Vermont and not one trick or treater in all that time. Doesn't stop me from buying 4 bags of candy (the good stuff) just in case.
I am sort of ambivalent towards Halloween. I usually have too much candy left over because the first Halloween after we moved into our house, I ran out of candy. !Que Horror! When my sister's kids were little, they would come to our house to go trick or treating because they live out in the country, on a dirt road, with 3 other houses on it (one of which you definitely do not want to go up to the door)! One year, I helped her make crayon costumes for them, so they could go as a box of Crayolas - they were so adorable! Now, they are young adults and that era has passed.
We like to support the wholesome activities of the kids in our neighborhood, i.e. Boy Scouts, school trips, church fundraisers, etc., so if they come to our house for some harmless trick or treating, I am okay with that.
I guess in the whole scheme of it, I could take it or leave it. To me, Halloween is the point at which the clock starts ticking for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. And so, here we go for this year's holiday season!
We went into town to grandmas that night. We got to run and roam relatively freely back then. We’d get reconnaissance reports from other passing kids where the best candy was. Not many bloody ghouls or trampy rock stars around during those years.
I honestly can only remember a couple of Halloweens as a kid: when I was 4 or 5 and my "costume" was an old bedsheet my mama cut 2 holes for my eyes, and when I was around eleven and wanted to ride a horse and go as a cowgirl (on which the adults put the kibosh, right quick!). Other than that, I only have vague memories of trick or treating with my siblings and friends.
Always wierd to see the parents of little girls dressed up in the slutty costumes that come through. Takes all kinds, but who are these parents? Creepy step dad's and boyfriendz?
I realize I'll be bucking the crowd here (according to the survey results so far), but Halloween is my favorite day of the year.
It started out when I was a kid - in addition to the thrill of risking my life canvassing my neighborhood with my friends for sweet handouts in some sort of silly costume, we tried to entertain the kids who came to our door. My Dad liked to create a "presentation" to thrill the young ones, a pursuit in which I was actively involved as well. Since then, I always loved seeing people decorate their yards to create a spooky atmosphere for trick-or-treaters. And Disney's Haunted Mansion was my FAVE ride in the park, followed closely by Pirates of the Caribbean. The ambiences created on those rides were something I aspired to create.
It was many years later, as a 35-year-old adult with two kids in the house, that I took up the mantle exemplified by my Dad and did my first "haunted yard" presentation. Improvised, not planned in advance and with crappy gear, I nonetheless created a thrilling payoff for kids with enough grit to navigate my spooky maze through the side yard (with sound effects, of course) to the back deck, where a couple of obvious dummies sat in chairs with a candy bowl on a small table between them. Nervous kids would reach toward the bowl to grab a candy, when one of those ape-hands on a dummy would reach out to touch theirs, sending them screaming - it was precious! A hidden mike caught their screams and processed them through several of my guitar effects pedals and that signal was sent to speakers near the front of the maze - foreshadowing the terror lying ahead for the next group!
That was it for me - Halloween was my holiday, the one which employed all my skills as a scenic designer, architect, sound designer, special effects guy, lighting designer and storyteller in one endeavor. For the next 24 years, I sought the company of other creative weirdos who had similar skills and a passion for the macabre to create haunts for the season. It helped that 16 years ago I moved into an old neighborhood in my town that had a 50-year Halloween tradition of elaborate yard decorations. My first year there, they had shut down the entire street to car traffic for four blocks for the festivities - it was like Burning Man had invaded our quiet, conservative neighborhood for one night only! The next day, we cleaned up all the stray candy wrappers and bits of costume and returned to peaceful serenity.
In 2018 and 2019, my band played out of the garage door to hundreds of people dancing in the driveway and the street on Halloween. I was known for my yearly party, and my house was always known to be a festive location in the hood.
In March of 2020, when I was sent home from work with nearly everyone else in the country for the Psy-Op of Covid, I suddenly found myself with loads of free time, so of course I began to plan for my Halloween display seven months hence. When "fourteen days to flatten the curve" came and went, I had some concerns but still plodded onward, sure that the nationwide shutdown would be lifted before my favorite day arrived. In the days leading up to Halloween, I noticed very few neighbors setting up any decorations at all, let alone the normal frenzy of activity.
I was undaunted. I was 7 months in and had invested $3500 in a project that challenged all my design and technical skills. On Halloween night, the few intrepid souls who dared to venture into my neighborhood to see what was out were subjected to a scene on the south lawn of my house in which a ghost dog (Fifi) exited her dog house at high speed, running through the brush straight at the hedge, the only barrier protecting the observers from this invisible but extremely aggressive animal, who was now barking and snarling at them ferociously behind the hedge.
I was sitting on a patio partying with a few friends and family members, ready to press the button when the next group of gawkers arrived in position. We "got" maybe a hundred people all night, a fraction of the crowds we normally see. But it was great to see my invention having the desired effect, and we got a lot of "thank you's" from the dark sidewalk after the screams stopped.
Although I always end up doing SOMETHING for Halloween, 2020 may have been the apex of my yard display activities - that was a special year, a middle finger to the forces proclaiming the "new normal" of lockdowns and isolation, masks and "social distancing". The Covid debacle stole a lot from me and the Biden presidency had me fearing for my future - it was hard to make any medium or long-term plans. Trump's presidency has alleviated that somewhat, and my creative juices have begun to flow once again.
I get that a lot of people experience this day differently than I do, and more power to you. Some people are gaga about Christmas in the same way, and I get that too. I just love having one night a year to bring my creative skills into focus, and Halloween does that for me.
Doug, I could NOT possibly love this comment more! How sweet that you found your holiday purpose (and carried on the tradition)!!! Damn you, you just made me even hate Halloween a tiny bit less. :) I hope you enjoy Dougoween in all its gory glory tonight! :)
When my kids were little my hubs took them to a church event after traipsing the neighborhood. I stayed at home with our baby to answer the door. The last knock I answered was a single adult-size male in a full face mask costume who grunted at me. I gave him candy, shut the door, turned off the light, and pondered what could have happened.
For years I gave out no candy items like fun pencils, stickers, glow in the dark bracelets and the neighborhood kids loved it! They are all grown now and so it’s lights out for us! I could never bring myself to give out candy because it felt like I’d be handing out poison.
I might hate Halloween more than you, Jenna, and have not participated since around 1994 or so. I hate orange and black, children begging as well as the tooth decay all that candy surely causes, the ugly giant skeletons in yards, and the $24 it now costs for a bag of assorted toxic miniature candy. Kids in costumes scare my dogs. And the Halloween season begins immediately after the Back -to-School sales end.
One year our small local hospital actually x-rayed candy looking for hidden razor blades, but never did it again because it cost so much.
We’ve kept the porch light dark for several years now, sipping vino in front of the fire. BUT! This year is special, as my 1st grandbaby 👶 was born about 1:30 this morning so I’ll have reason to love the holiday now
Aweeee congrats!!! 🩷👶🎉
Thanks so very much, friends!
❤️🙏💥❤️Cindi
We too have kept it dark for the past several years after decades of celebrating it, mainly because two of my kids’ birthdays were the week of Halloween so there’s no escaping that theme for their toddler/grade school parties.
But because I was so much into the cute side of the holiday, I felt like a Scrooge. So I place a large sign every year in front of our walkway that says, “No treats this year, have fun but please be safe!” Then I hide in the darkness of my house with all the lights off. We still get 2-3 doorbell rings by the older kids anyway and we look at each other with a “Wtf?” expression. 🙄😆
I don’t like what it has become. Give me jack-o-lanterns and cute ghosts and fall corn laced with leaves, (no spiders tho….,) but when the Freddy Kruegerish gore becomes everyone’s lawn decor lit up like a Christmas wonderland massacre, I’m out. And I’m staying out for good.
Edit: even if I wanted to join in the fun these days I just can’t bring myself to hand out candy to children knowing what I now know about it and only see as the poison that it is.
Edit 2: 🤣 Boy I AM the token Bah Humbug! Lol
"I just can't bring myself to hand out candy to children knowing what I now know about it..." THAT IS ME. Even when I'd like to send a thank you batch of cookies...I think about the recipient and whether it would really be kind!!! It's the worst knowing the worst...
Congrats! Halloween is back for me for the same reason. Five grandkids all under 30 months. Can’t wait to observe them as they try to figure out what Halloween is all about.
Spoiler: it’s about candy.😆
It’s their first Trick or Treat, so I’m interested in that brief time, when they go door to door, collecting candy, seeing scary costumes with their parents making a fuss. Once they get home and discover they collected candy, it’s over.
when my son with autism was little, he used to think that every time he went to someone's door, he was supposed to go into their house and would try to, at the first 4 or 5 houses, until he remembered what the deal was. he only did 'trick or treating' for about 5 yrs, then refused. he would rather sit on our front porch and watch the other kids come up to our door. ;)
I found “first timers “ to be pretty bewildered or down right frightened by it all…. Understandable.
Five? Holy procreation!!!
I’m thinking there’s more than one kid producing these spawn😂
Congrats!!!
Congratulations Cindi!
congrats!!!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Again, thanks to every one of you 🥰
Congratulations!
Being a grandparent is the best! Enjoy😊
Congrats! I’m green with envy. Our three kids, ages 24-34 are in no hurry. 🤔
Until my sons met their partners and married at 37 and 34, and after most of their high school friends had gotten married, I was becoming more and more sure that it might never happen. One daughter-in-law’s mother likewise told me that her daughter had sat her down a few months before she met my son, and asked her to accept the fact that she was very happy and was never going to get married. I remember being very surprised, like a minor miracle had happened, when my sons each found the right woman for them and fell deeply in love. And now I feel grateful that they’re each thrilled with their budding families. Whew! Hang in there. I see that many young people deeply want to get married and raise a family, but also that it takes time for some to build the confidence and the know how to succeed in that goal in these chaotic times that we’re all learning to navigate.
Don’t despair, KC. My son, the new dad, is 30. My other is 27 & not yet married
From your lips (fingertips?) to their… um… to their… loins? 😬😉🍼🍼🍼👶
😂😅
What a perfect way to start what I also have been dreading… the parade of trampy pre-teens and horror celebrated. We at least have some adorable little toddlers with responsible parents in the neighborhood so I will be passing out candy… but also saying a few spiritual warfare prayers. Every year the yard decorations get darker and creepier and this year it’s out of control. Horror movie villains that move and talk (scaring our pups to death as we walk by), bloody body parts hanging from trees, entire crime scenes acted out. 😩
Maybe I’m just getting old but I miss the days of my sweaty plastic Snow White mask and receiving homemade popcorn balls and wax teeth.
Thanks as always for your wit and sarcasm!
Wax 🦷 and lips!! Loved them. 👄 👄👄👄🦷🦷🦷🦷🦷🦷
Agreed, the amount of money and time people spend constructing gory displays of evil on their front lawns is growing, and it’s disturbing - and hello, causing children nightmares! We skip those houses and cross to the opposite side of the street. I despise all the candy too. (The “switch witch” refuses to stop here.) After the requisite trick-or-treating with my elementary-aged kids, I’m a lights-out introvert. If I could, I’d skip right over Oct 31. At least my son has decided to wear the same Darth Vader costume for the 3rd year in a row! 😅
I saw no trampoline costumes tonight. Now go to a high school football game and that parade is trampy. The girls don’t care about the game. They come to be seen.
This is worst year I’ve seen so far for yard decorations!
I can’t believe the money people spend on yard decor and for what? Big and bigger blow up Creatures that look like octopus arms waving from windows? Gazillions of skulls all over?
Walgreens had an entire wall of huge skeletons hanging beside the candy bags! One household actually dug up their front yard to create a grave for one of these to lay half in and out of.?
It was unnerving ?
The neighborhood looks like the gates of hell opened up?
Me a grinch ?
Rather a refugee from depravity?
I applaud Hobby Lobby for bypassing this bloody gory non holiday !
Lowes had a horror display up 2 months early and Xmas stuff across the aisle 4 months early?
There is no season anymore? It’s a run on mix with valentine hearts , bunnies ,eggs all year? It’s just one big $$$ ?
Instead of baby Jesus birthday we
now have a Grinch?
I guess I’m just getting too old ?
If you are, so am I. After seeing all the giant skeletons and spiders, I asked my husband the other day - "Where do they store all that crap the rest of the year? How exhausting!"
I especially hate the blow-up decorations. They must think if one is cute, ten are even better. And, it's cheating. Just go to the store and buy and electric blow-up Frankenstein and stick it in the yard, how banal.
omg, my UK fella couldn't believe all the Halloween decorations and he was here during the first week of October! people are decorating their cars now too!! I used to like Halloween but its it so over the top now.
So true!
Glad I have company regarding the gross expressions of horror that used to be a harmless day back 50 years ago!
Dress up was in a sheet or home made pirate outfit
Or raggedy Ann doll . Very few costumes were purchased. Maybe a mask?
My small town held a party on the square and merchants donated prizes for best homemade costumes ?? Treats were donuts and cider..,, apples and
Pennies?
Candy corn made me gag… and still does!
But car trunks full of candy? Oh no! That came later . Razor blade in apples? That’s when sick followed Hollywood
and axe murders etc. I never liked horror films and detested mummy films ? I wish I could “un-see those “???
In the 60s I ranted at my kids wanting to watch vampire tv
Shows ? I guess it bothered me more than them?
But the recent exposers of trafficked children
had made me even more opposed to glorifying gruesome death cults out in the front yard? I just can’t find the fun in that these days?
Jenna - Yeah. I’m a grinch too. I was relieved to learn our neighborhood was not doing truck or treat. Evidently, the kids aged out.
That pic of you and Joe. Love it!
So glad that I watched VSRF last night and heard the shout out for your new book - so happy to know that made your night.
I truly appreciate your shout out and link to my stack. Love you friend. 😘❤️
Perhaps I was unusually fortunate to have grown up with a mother that loved sewing and would spend months creating custom, high quality costumes for my brother and I. (Damn, I wish I had any photos of them!)
Once again, a great holiday has been corrupted into a commercial disaster.
Being a health advocate, I've given up giving out candy. So the little monsters that show up at my door actually get something healthy (or at least close to healthy). They probably get home and mutter "What idiot gave me a nutrition bar?". It's more expensive but at least I don't feel guilty about poisoning the neighborhood kids with sugar laden candy.
The one year that we participated in a cul-de-sac Halloween pre-party, I gave out spider rings. The kids seemed to like them!
My guess is that for the kids part of it is getting "anything". They are just happy that an adult is giving them attention and they get to run around playing "pretend".
I'm not sure what the excuse is for the late teen "kids".
>late teen "kids"<
At least they're not out destroying stuff
Good point. It’s almost wholesome.
I, too, was fortunate to have several years of home made costumes and then in turn created them for my own kids. Also, spend many a year going to an adult costume party before the tramp and commercial themes took hold. I agree with Jenna though. We have lost something innocent about Halloween.
The last few years that I handed out treats, I had switched to various packaged snacks instead of candy. I found that a lot of the kids appreciated them and told me so.
That's really good to hear that the kids do appreciate the packaged snacks and not just candy!
Full size candy bars (the only kinds when I was a kid) were the preferred booty. Apples were at the bottom of the sugar list. Kids today are cheated by a couple of mini snack sized bonbons. We would empty our bags on the bed and sort everything into categories of sweets. My brother locked his loot into a large toy SEARS semi truck.
When I was a kid, a neighbor used to invite us into her home for homemade cookies and hot chocolate on Halloween. As a young adult I had a friend who gave out nickels to the kids instead of candy. Why? Because she said she could use the leftovers.
One year I had my wife sew little "treasure pouches" and I filled them with coins to give out. I wish I could buy little treasure pouches in quantity so I could do that again.
You can buy them! Try the Dollar store, or craft store, or befriend a jeweler, they can order them for you.
Thanks! I really should have looked! I did a quick search and Amazon actually has some that might do. Too late for tonight, but good for next year!
Great idea, amazon has everything. I love the little treasure idea. Best loot ever.
It plays in nicely with a pirate or fantasy theme. A little "money pouch" for the little adventurer.
Hmm... I wonder if we will still be able to get pennies next year? Coins are going out of style!
I think Amazon sells little sachet bags/tea bags made from cloth.
Yes they do (and I use those for tea) but I was looking for something more substantial and seem to have found it on Amazon. So $10 to $15 would get a two year supply.
OMG I was that mom to my girls. I made handmade satin Sleeping Beauty (making the standing collar was a real bitch but it turned out great), Tinkerbell, and Belle costumes for my girls plus tulle skirts and fairy wings and got them wigs and did make up (Cleopatra), made togas, you name it. I had so much fun but that was 20 years ago now. Times have changed.
Love it! To me, that was Halloween! Fun with "real" costumes!
lol what a grump! I would be in the same grumpy funky halloween boat as you if it weren't for the littles. We've totally embraced this time of the year with all the cute freaking outfits, fall festivals, and farm outings.
Buuuut.... we do shut off our lights and hide inside after the kids go to bed, so we are somewhere in the middle.
Congrats on the VSRF shout out! You guys are killing it!
Happy Halloween everyone and a very happy diabetes day to all Americans! 🤪😘🤗🤠🥳👻
Yes, it should be "National Diabetes Day"!
12 years in the sticks up here in Vermont and not one trick or treater in all that time. Doesn't stop me from buying 4 bags of candy (the good stuff) just in case.
Yup. Open one bag and soon it all disappears anyway. 😉🤔. “ Nope. No razor blades in this one”.
Good call! 🍁🍂
Extra candy 🍫🍭🍬 goes great with flapjacks, coffee and maple syrup! 🥞☕🎃
Just in case! 😇
I am sort of ambivalent towards Halloween. I usually have too much candy left over because the first Halloween after we moved into our house, I ran out of candy. !Que Horror! When my sister's kids were little, they would come to our house to go trick or treating because they live out in the country, on a dirt road, with 3 other houses on it (one of which you definitely do not want to go up to the door)! One year, I helped her make crayon costumes for them, so they could go as a box of Crayolas - they were so adorable! Now, they are young adults and that era has passed.
We like to support the wholesome activities of the kids in our neighborhood, i.e. Boy Scouts, school trips, church fundraisers, etc., so if they come to our house for some harmless trick or treating, I am okay with that.
I guess in the whole scheme of it, I could take it or leave it. To me, Halloween is the point at which the clock starts ticking for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. And so, here we go for this year's holiday season!
May you have a quiet, peaceful evening, Jenna.
Mrs. "the Knife"
We went into town to grandmas that night. We got to run and roam relatively freely back then. We’d get reconnaissance reports from other passing kids where the best candy was. Not many bloody ghouls or trampy rock stars around during those years.
Yes, I remember those days too.
I honestly can only remember a couple of Halloweens as a kid: when I was 4 or 5 and my "costume" was an old bedsheet my mama cut 2 holes for my eyes, and when I was around eleven and wanted to ride a horse and go as a cowgirl (on which the adults put the kibosh, right quick!). Other than that, I only have vague memories of trick or treating with my siblings and friends.
Mrs. "the Knife"
Oh, thank God I am not the only one who feels this way.
The Holderness Family NAILED Gen X Halloween the other day with this hilarious reel (song) - cracked me up! https://www.instagram.com/p/DQB94TkjQDz/
Perfection!🤣
When they & their teens went "all in" on the jab, years ago: I unsubbed.
I.Just.Couldn't. 😭
(right? :( :( )
Yep.
That's fantastic!
Bridget, thanks for posting that link! I love the Holderness Family song videos but that was a new one to me.
Always wierd to see the parents of little girls dressed up in the slutty costumes that come through. Takes all kinds, but who are these parents? Creepy step dad's and boyfriendz?
My Dear Jenna,
I realize I'll be bucking the crowd here (according to the survey results so far), but Halloween is my favorite day of the year.
It started out when I was a kid - in addition to the thrill of risking my life canvassing my neighborhood with my friends for sweet handouts in some sort of silly costume, we tried to entertain the kids who came to our door. My Dad liked to create a "presentation" to thrill the young ones, a pursuit in which I was actively involved as well. Since then, I always loved seeing people decorate their yards to create a spooky atmosphere for trick-or-treaters. And Disney's Haunted Mansion was my FAVE ride in the park, followed closely by Pirates of the Caribbean. The ambiences created on those rides were something I aspired to create.
It was many years later, as a 35-year-old adult with two kids in the house, that I took up the mantle exemplified by my Dad and did my first "haunted yard" presentation. Improvised, not planned in advance and with crappy gear, I nonetheless created a thrilling payoff for kids with enough grit to navigate my spooky maze through the side yard (with sound effects, of course) to the back deck, where a couple of obvious dummies sat in chairs with a candy bowl on a small table between them. Nervous kids would reach toward the bowl to grab a candy, when one of those ape-hands on a dummy would reach out to touch theirs, sending them screaming - it was precious! A hidden mike caught their screams and processed them through several of my guitar effects pedals and that signal was sent to speakers near the front of the maze - foreshadowing the terror lying ahead for the next group!
That was it for me - Halloween was my holiday, the one which employed all my skills as a scenic designer, architect, sound designer, special effects guy, lighting designer and storyteller in one endeavor. For the next 24 years, I sought the company of other creative weirdos who had similar skills and a passion for the macabre to create haunts for the season. It helped that 16 years ago I moved into an old neighborhood in my town that had a 50-year Halloween tradition of elaborate yard decorations. My first year there, they had shut down the entire street to car traffic for four blocks for the festivities - it was like Burning Man had invaded our quiet, conservative neighborhood for one night only! The next day, we cleaned up all the stray candy wrappers and bits of costume and returned to peaceful serenity.
In 2018 and 2019, my band played out of the garage door to hundreds of people dancing in the driveway and the street on Halloween. I was known for my yearly party, and my house was always known to be a festive location in the hood.
In March of 2020, when I was sent home from work with nearly everyone else in the country for the Psy-Op of Covid, I suddenly found myself with loads of free time, so of course I began to plan for my Halloween display seven months hence. When "fourteen days to flatten the curve" came and went, I had some concerns but still plodded onward, sure that the nationwide shutdown would be lifted before my favorite day arrived. In the days leading up to Halloween, I noticed very few neighbors setting up any decorations at all, let alone the normal frenzy of activity.
I was undaunted. I was 7 months in and had invested $3500 in a project that challenged all my design and technical skills. On Halloween night, the few intrepid souls who dared to venture into my neighborhood to see what was out were subjected to a scene on the south lawn of my house in which a ghost dog (Fifi) exited her dog house at high speed, running through the brush straight at the hedge, the only barrier protecting the observers from this invisible but extremely aggressive animal, who was now barking and snarling at them ferociously behind the hedge.
I was sitting on a patio partying with a few friends and family members, ready to press the button when the next group of gawkers arrived in position. We "got" maybe a hundred people all night, a fraction of the crowds we normally see. But it was great to see my invention having the desired effect, and we got a lot of "thank you's" from the dark sidewalk after the screams stopped.
Although I always end up doing SOMETHING for Halloween, 2020 may have been the apex of my yard display activities - that was a special year, a middle finger to the forces proclaiming the "new normal" of lockdowns and isolation, masks and "social distancing". The Covid debacle stole a lot from me and the Biden presidency had me fearing for my future - it was hard to make any medium or long-term plans. Trump's presidency has alleviated that somewhat, and my creative juices have begun to flow once again.
I get that a lot of people experience this day differently than I do, and more power to you. Some people are gaga about Christmas in the same way, and I get that too. I just love having one night a year to bring my creative skills into focus, and Halloween does that for me.
Doug, I could NOT possibly love this comment more! How sweet that you found your holiday purpose (and carried on the tradition)!!! Damn you, you just made me even hate Halloween a tiny bit less. :) I hope you enjoy Dougoween in all its gory glory tonight! :)
Wow, that sounds awesome. It would have been great to see "The making of" documentary of Doug's Halloween!!
I don’t even watch TV and I would tune into that!😍
Doug, totally enjoyed reading your post describing your Halloween adventures. And you were spot on about the nightmare of Covid and O’Biden too.
When my kids were little my hubs took them to a church event after traipsing the neighborhood. I stayed at home with our baby to answer the door. The last knock I answered was a single adult-size male in a full face mask costume who grunted at me. I gave him candy, shut the door, turned off the light, and pondered what could have happened.
For years I gave out no candy items like fun pencils, stickers, glow in the dark bracelets and the neighborhood kids loved it! They are all grown now and so it’s lights out for us! I could never bring myself to give out candy because it felt like I’d be handing out poison.
Too many Ghouls the last 5 years , Halloween ugghhh, no thanks.
I might hate Halloween more than you, Jenna, and have not participated since around 1994 or so. I hate orange and black, children begging as well as the tooth decay all that candy surely causes, the ugly giant skeletons in yards, and the $24 it now costs for a bag of assorted toxic miniature candy. Kids in costumes scare my dogs. And the Halloween season begins immediately after the Back -to-School sales end.
One year our small local hospital actually x-rayed candy looking for hidden razor blades, but never did it again because it cost so much.