Eeeeeek! It’s almost Halloween!
This final week of October we, here at The Midnight Society, are celebrating Halloween traditions.
There are five traditions that make Halloween… Halloween. At least for me.
First… costumes.
Halloween was always a special day when I was a kid. My mom made us our costumes every year and did her best to make our dressing-up dreams come true.
Second…pumpkin carving.
Every year Dad carved a pumpkin, and each Halloween night it would shine from our front window. When we got old enough, my sisters and I got to carve our own. Mine ended up smashed in the road every year. Mine. Every. Year. I’m cursed.
Third…It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Dude. Every year we watched poor Charlie Brown get a bag of rocks.
And horror movies!
Fourth…trick-or-treating.
The excitement of Halloween night had us in our costumes with our orange plastic pumpkins in hand as soon as we got home from school. And then we would wait, not patiently I might add. Because Dad took us trick-or-treating…but he had to get home from work… and we had to eat supper.
Pure torture.
Eventually, Dad led us through the dark streets of suburbia. All the neighbor kids would race across the yards from door to door, filling our pumpkins with SUGAR!
The cold. The rain. Nothing could stop us. When our pumpkins were full, we’d go home to dump them, then head out again.
The leaves crunching underfoot. The chill fall air. The laughing of kids as they ring door bells and call those famous words… trick-or-treat!
But eventually the sad day comes when you hear the words… you’re too old to trick-or-treat.
When we moved, we ended up in this big, old Victorian house. And my dad saw the possibilities the front porch offered for the scariest night of the year. The first Halloween there, he had lights and creepy music, and the kids were hesitant to approach. I LOVED it! And a new tradition was discovered.
Fifth…Decorating.
When my hubs and I bought our first house… with a front porch. I made it a scary house. I lingered on my porch with a cauldron full of candy, soaking in the fall air, the sounds of kids running across the street, the rhythmic sing-song of trick-or-treat.
Well, we moved out to the country where there is no trick-or-treating. Who wants to walk four miles for five pieces of candy? No one. Then we had kids. And the wonderful tradition of trick-or-treating returned! We had to drive into town, but HALLOWEEN IS IMPORTANT!
Now my kids are too old for the yearly romp through the streets filling plastic pumpkins with candy. This year, we are going to my parents’ house. We will be helping my dad set out all his creepy decorations. We will get to marvel as he dons his cloak and monster mask and steps out into the man-made fog to scare all the children. EEEEEEEKK! Can’t wait!
I love traditions, especially on Halloween. Costumes. Carving pumpkins. I still watch Charlie Brown and have added a long list of must –watch horror movies. Trick-or-treating (at least the memories). And I love decorating my house.
For this is Halloween, one of my very favorite holidays.
All gifs (from some of our favorite shows and movies) found on Google Images