Halloween: A Month Long Celebration

Kim @ Kids Matter

At this time of year, my mind leaps to a simpler time when I was about eight years of age.  It was the most exciting and fun holiday, rated right up there with Easter and Christmas.  I am talking, of course, about Halloween. 

Halloween starts way before its calendar date with almost every porch displaying the crazy, fun, scary, and sometimes gruesome decorations appeared. The big decision arrives. What would I be for Halloween?  Then the shopping began, the hunt for the most exciting and trendy costume that I could get my mother to purchase. Soon there were parties and local city Carnivals! You know the Halloween Carnival that’s held on the same corner year after year? It’s complete with bobbing for apples and a most fabulous cake walk. I won a cake one year. My fondest memory is the paint booth with the flying paint making wonderful designs. Do you remember the silly mirror exhibit; where we are tall, small, skinny, and fat?   Oh, and the rides!  Yes, the magnificent rides!  The ones that made me squeal with pure terror then beg and beg for more tickets to ride.

Then Halloween night finally arrived.  It was always more fun if you trick or treated with a friend who was also sleeping over.  Our laughter joined all the other children’s laughter as we raced up and down the streets of the neighborhood getting a thrill as we knocked on EVERY door.  The over the top costumes of adults answering the door and, if you were really lucky, someone in the neighborhood made a haunted house in their garage.  We would be duly scared to death and shrieking loudly as we bailed out the garage back door laughing and feeling that giddy childhood happiness.

Then, the moment of truth!  We sat on my bedroom floor sorting and stacking our mounds of each different, delicious candy we had received.  You remember bubble gum, suckers, the wonderful big thick Cherry Charms suckers (that we can’t find anymore), Pixie Stix, Now & Laters, SweetTarts, Mary Janes, and best of all… BIG candy bars!  We would eat and eat and eat and finally fall asleep exhausted by the greatest Halloween ever!

Now here we are as parents and grandparents watching our own little ones faces light up just the same way. The candy may be different. Popcorn balls may be extinct due to safety factors. But… one thing is for sure; Halloween is one short day within a month long celebration of fun, hauntings, and last but not least… CANDY!! Think back, what was that one special candy you just beamed over when sorting your haul?