Happy Halloween! |
I’m kind of a Halloween Scrooge. I don’t have any deep rooted opinions about
Halloween. I don’t care that it teaches
children to get something for nothing. Hey, it’s only one night a year. It’s
been my experience that they need more repetition than that to change
behavior. I don’t mind sharing my candy
or answering the door. In fact, I love
to see the creative costumes that show up on my door step and the happy faces
of my little friends. I even like to
bake ghost sugar cookies and decorate them with chocolate chip eyes. I’m a Halloween
Scrooge because I’m just not very good at it!
When my children were small and Halloween could have been
fun for them I was intimidated by the elaborate costumes my friends were sewing
for their children. Really? I remembered as a child decorating brown
grocery bags and cutting eye slits in them for weeks before Halloween. I tried to make a scary mask, but it always
just looked silly. One year my little
sister and I decided to be gypsies. We
asked our brother-in-law to do our makeup because he was an artist. His vision of a gypsy and mine were quite different. I bawled at the old hag that looked back from
a mirror. I thought gypsies were
supposed to be gorgeous! My daughter was a witch for 5 years running only
because we had a hat. One time I fashioned a cape out of a garbage bag and
painted my son’s face white to make him an instant Dracula.
Perhaps I would have been better at Halloween if it didn’t
always creep up on me. I always find myself unprepared. The big night is two days away and I just
pulled a jack-o-lantern, a witch, and a cat out of the holiday decorations this
morning. I place them on the front
doorstep and called it good. My husband
had to remind me for several days to purchase candy for the Trick-or-treaters.
It could be more than that.
It could be possible that I don’t like to invite scary things into my
life. My five year-old granddaughter
feels the same way. She wants to opt out this year. Too bad she isn’t here. We could hide from the goblins together!
Nevertheless, I am prepared. Maybe I
will bake up some sweet ghosts on Friday so I can embrace the holiday more
fully.
Happy Halloween and Happy Reading!