Most people who know me know that Halloween is my favorite holiday. As long as I can remember, I have awaited its arrival even more eagerly than Christmas or my own birthday. I guess I’ve just always been a little strange.
But once I reached a certain age – somewhere in my teens, as I recall – Halloween started to lose its luster. I still love it… but something had changed. Is it possible that Halloween is lost to me?
A Kid’s Halloween
As a kid, I was bouncing on my heels as soon as my birthday passed in September. I couldn’t wait for Halloween! I loved dressing up, especially as something supremely creepy, because even when I was probably too young for it, I loved horror movies, loved scary stories, and loved being the spooky girl in school.
I once had several people in my class convinced I was a vampire. This was before vampires were the “it” thing, before they sparkled and asked you out on dates, before we even had a zombified and blonde Tom Cruise playing piano for his crying lover, Brad Pitt.
I wore my jacket – one of those stylish satin baseball numbers – buttoned at the neck and flying behind me like a cape. I was Dracula. I was Nosferatu. I even carried the “handbook”, which was likely something I ordered from Scholastic during book fair week.
I thought I would always get the same thrill out of dressing up and begging my mother to take me trick or treating. She never did let me go door-to-door, but she did occasionally bring me to the home of a friend of the family, an old woman who loved Halloween arguably as much as I did, and decorated her house in realistic, life-sized statues of movie monsters (and randomly placed people in costume).
Not a picture from the actual house; her decorations were legend.
Teen Halloween
As a teenager, I was way too cool for trick or treating. From the ages of 13 – 17, I don’t believe I dressed up more than once. I went to Halloween parties my parents didn’t know about and brought my nephew trick or treating once or twice, but my main celebration of Halloween came in the form of horror movie marathons.
It was a bummer, and while I won’t throw shade at movie watching or being an introvert, I don’t recommend it for the sake of seeming cool.
Halloween as a Parent
Halloween has been all about the kids since I had them. I started taking them trick or treating as soon as they could mumble the words, and while the first few years were filled with more tricks (like how to change a diaper when the kid is in a full-body costume) than treats, things these days are a lot more fun.
They’re bigger. They can walk! They can talk! And they’re starting to finally come up with cool ideas for costumes. No more are we relegated to tame, cookie-cutter costumes, and this year, I think we’ll finally be able to break out the fake blood and pour it on.
And, let’s be honest, what would Halloween be without the decorations? I haven’t done too much in quite a few years – decorations are hard to baby-proof – but things are about to change.
This year, the decorations are going to start going back out again. Next year? Well, I’m actually thinking costumes for the whole family, even if the wife isn’t keen on the idea. I’ll get her warmed up to the idea somehow or another.
Have a happy Halloween, creeps!
Next week I’ll give you a book review. Let’s say…. hmm, something in a collection?
CXN
Coda X. Napeland 