If I had to pick my least favorite holiday, it would be Halloween, hands down! I don't remember ever really liking it. I grew up in a small UT town with a high elevation (= cold at Halloween so snowsuit worn over costume while trick or treating) and Halloween was just not a whole lot of fun. Our little elementary school would hold a carnival for Halloween and there was always a costume parade.....you know the drill, witches, princesses, pirates, ghouls, etc. all parading around the cafeteria/gym so the parents could take pictures.
I was a very shy little girl and what I wanted most was to have a really pretty princess or genie costume like all the other little girls. I probably didn't tell my mom that because she had her own idea. Taking a costume I had worn in the 24th of July parade, she had me wear green tights, a leafy green costume and a leafy green hat and I got to go to the costume parade dressed as Niblet. Who? Oh, yes, the Jolly Green Giant's little helper.
I'm sure that other years I had lovely costumes, I just don't remember them. I only remember the trauma of being a little green plant for Halloween.
Since then, I've harbored much distaste for this holiday and I have not done much in the way of fun for my own kids. We've carved pumpkins every so often, we've never done a corn maze, I don't buy costumes, we don't decorate much for it. In short, I've done all I can to make it boring. My husband, bless his heart, is trying to make it fun for them this year. Yesterday he took them all the Punkinland and let them each pick out whatever pumpkin they wanted. Then he helped each of them carve them and light them to decorate our porch. I watched and took pictures.
I'm trying to have a better attitude about it. I let the girls pull out all the decorations we have (that's what you get for presents when you have an Oct birthday like me. Yay!! Not!) and dress up our house a bit. I found WAY cheap costume makings at the dollar store and today I got those ready to go. Just need to get a bit of candy and we're set, I guess. Maybe next year, I'll even spring for the corn maze................
Here's a few pictures of the kids artwork(excuse the shaky photography, my camera is not good with night pictures). Hope you have a safe and
fun(?) Halloween.
I dressed up as a table one year. Yes a table! Ugh! What were my parents thinking? My favorite part of Halloween was my mom cooking Jack-o-Lantern Hamburgers and getting popcorn balls when we went trick or treating. Maybe you can start some new traditions to make the holiday more tolerable for you.
ReplyDeleteI hear ya. I hated the parade at school.... I was probably the only one in my class with a plastic costume with those plastic masks, you remember those ugly things? well that's what I had. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteBut here's your chance to make your kids halloweens better than yours....
I've always been a Halloween scrooge too. I don't decorate in the slightest but every few years I do make costumes. No one ever made or bought me a costume. EVER! I'm thinking my kids are very lucky and most kids are spoiled to death! Can you tell I'm still bitter about the costume thing? I'm thinking my kids will be bitter about growing up without Halloween decorations. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteI have taken them to a corn maze the last two years though and I let them carve pumpkins. My main problem with Halloween is the door to door begging for candy. All the other stuff is fine.
great job on the pumpkins, they look fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThanks for popping by my blog! Hope you'll visit soon...
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