Hard Pass on Halloween
Oct 31, 2020
This may be the most controversial blog post I’ve written.
More controversial than even my views about politics or the upcoming election.
Here it is: I don’t like Halloween. At all. Not even a little bit. And I haven’t liked it for as long as I can remember.
What I do remember was Halloween when I was five years old. My brother and I dressed as Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy for Halloween. I can still see the photo of us standing on the fireplace hearth. I wish I could’ve found that photo for this post. Red crepe paper wigs. Rosy red cheeks painted on with lipstick and freckles dotted on with dark eye liner. Matching red gingham shirts and denim coveralls and striped knee-high socks. We were smiling for the camera.
We had dinner at my grandparents’ home, which was also the only stop where we were trick-or-treating. After dinner, the telephone rang. My brother and I were sent to the living room to watch TV. It was the first time I saw my Dad cry.
Turns out, his mom, my Granny Margaret, had died.
She and Poppy Bill were at a convention in Colorado Springs. Walking into the convention center for dinner, she felt dizzy. Then, she collapsed.
Of course, I didn’t understand what was going on at the time. All I knew was that it was Halloween and my Dad was crying.
Flash forward through many subsequent years of trick-or-treating in the pouring rain. Costumes thrown together at the last minute. Going door-to-door asking for crappy candy I would never eat. A couple trips through terrifying haunted houses.
Don’t get me wrong: I love the parade of trick-or-treaters at work. Little kids dressed up as pumpkins and princesses and dinosaurs and baby sharks and astronauts and Harry Potter. I love seeing the photos of your kiddos so excited about Halloween. I love my friends who love Halloween so much that they spend the entire year planning their costume.
But it’s just that Halloween isn’t my jam.
It turns out I might be one of only a handful of people who isn't a fan. In the US alone, Americans are projected to spend over $8 billion on Halloween this year...down from nearly $9 billion last year. Because, you know, COVID.
If our new neighborhood is any testament, Halloween is still very much alive and well. It’s possible we moved to one of the most Halloween-loving neighborhoods in town. Decorations started going up in early September. Orange and purple lights. Blow-up decorations of the headless horseman and dragons. Headstones littering front yards, skeletons, witches and bats in windows and sitting on front porches, cobwebs strung in the doorways and in the trees, and pumpkins everywhere. Halloween everywhere…but not at our house.
So, instead of staying home and trying to calm our barking dogs each time the doorbell rang, we packed up the pups and headed to Sun Valley for Halloween With no costumes and no candy. Just another Saturday in the mountains. It was a perfect Saturday night for us.
I hope you had a fantastically festive Halloween! If that’s your thing.
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