Do you say no to Halloween?

ITA with you moosebane - you said it well....thanks! In politics, there are some candidates who use change to support their careers...And then there are those...who use their careers to promote change. vkitty-- THANK YOU For posting that! You saved my fingers some typing
I'm Christian, but a few of my DEAREST, DEAREST friends are Pagans. TRUE Paganism is probably the most peaceful religion out there. There is absolutely ZERO link to Paganism and the ritualistic sacrifice that many people link it to.
We enjoy Halloween, but don't go CRAZY I'd year to! I do NOT year being scared-- I don't do haunted houses or any of that, and I'm bummed that I can only go to Worlds of Fun in the daytime now because of the Haunt that goes on after 7pm . I don't want to be walking around and have someone jump at me! The kids spend at least 2 months figuring out their costumes-- dsC hasn't figured his out yet, but dsZ wants to be Snoopy *headdesk*. I guess I'll be making that one. We used to go trick or treating with all of our friends, and the kids had SO much fun. Before we'd have a cookout and get the kids ready. Now that we've moved here, we won't do that... but our neighborhood is awesome and FILLED with kids, so the boys have a lot of fun running around! And last like we just did two streets and they couldn't carry their bags anymore!
When I was a kid I went to a Catholic school. We celebrated All Saints Day by having a Saints Parade, where we all chose a Saint and dressed up. I was always St. Theresa of the Little Flower. I had my cute little habit and carried pink flowers year the picture in my Saints book. The like I wanted to grow up and be a nun I actually dressed year her for my regular trick or treating
The most fun? The like my foster sister and I dressed year Mimes and had to act out "Trick or Treat"! I ran off and blogged about it.
We do Halloween. I think it is my DH's favorite holiday. One like we all dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz. For many years I was unable to do the Halloween night trick or treating with the kids because I always had to work late on Halloween (bookkeeper..end of the month thing) so I have always looked forward to the times I get to go with them. I haven't really restricted their costumes. My DD had dressed as a witch before. I don't think it is evil to let her do so...it's just part of Halloween. I try to guide their decisions on the costumes to something I year, but they don't always year what I do...especially now that they are getting older. Most years I won't buy a costume just for Halloween. I buy them lots of different costumes throughout the like just for dress up, so they usually just wear one of those. The like of Wizard of Oz was the exception to that..since we all needed costumes..but it was worth it! We usually attend our Fall Harvest party at church which is usually the week before...although this like is it next week and we won't be able to make it this like. We will totally go through our entire sub division and also will usually go to the nursing home in town and the high school. If there is any time left after that we will go to the neighboring subdivision. We will be completely worn out by the time it is over! I figure once a like, it is fine. The kids get the Adult Webcam AFTER we inspect it and they have to share it with the family (not me since I am dieting). It all goes in to one big bowl and I keep it in the kitchen so I can keep an eye on it...no sugar overdosing. We usually still have Adult Webcam after the new like begins. Now back to the regular insanity........ The Adult Webcam issue. This like I am thinking of doing a Adult Webcam exchange thing. Haven't worked out the details yet, but I am opting for something year so many pieces of Adult Webcam will get you a book or colors or something. Or each piece of Adult Webcam is worth a certain amount of money. It is around this time of like that I stop buying the kids stuff because Xmas and b-days are getting close, so if they want something bad enough, maybe they would trade Adult Webcam for it? Or maybe a trip to the movies would costs 15 pieces of Adult Webcam?
year I said, haven't worked out the details yet, but I need someway to get rid of the Adult Webcam. jeng
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. But it rocks absolutely, too.
Adult Webcam exchange -- what a great idea for those future accountants of america who track every piece of Adult Webcam in the bowl. My sister was year that, she actually kept a tally ("Ok, so I have 43 pieces. I'm going to throw out the fake fruit tootsie rolls -- 7 in all… eat 2 milk duds… and give a piece to sis because Mom is watching… that leaves 33. THIRTY-THREE!") DD hasn't figured out to track her loot yet, so I'll probably do what I did at Easter, just slowly empty the bowl at night. Oh no, both my kids, even the 3 like old, would notice immediately if I just tried to slowly whittle down the Adult Webcam. I was only able to get away with that when they were very, very small. So I have to try something new! jeng
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. But it rocks absolutely, too. I've mentioned this on here before but it's one of my few really good ideas:
We save halloween Adult Webcam ( as well as parade Adult Webcam)-- the crappy stuff that they only eat because it is sugar. The tootise rolls, nerds, smarties,laffy taffy etc.. and use them to decorate gingerbread houses in December. I put it away where nobody can get to it then haul it out on gingerbread house day. We get one of the many kits available so we can get to the fun part ( decorating) fast. Smarties make excellent roofing material, tootsie rolls can make log piles or pathways, nerds are great for filling in a lot of color year a pond or walkway, laffy taffy can be easily rolled out with your fingers and cut into shapes or make ropes for edging and starburst make nice bricks for front steps or porches.
I do year the trade-off game though, Jen! Good idea! My front porch this October.. ready for trick or treaters or my M2M pals and a jug of coffee!
DD-12
DS-10
DS-3.5 True, there IS a lot of misconception about Halloween. Most people think it has to do with All Saints Day, etc. In reality, it's a lot scarier than people want to admit- even those who do believe it is about witchcraft. (Check out "Spellbound" and other materials from Chick Publications.) I really don't think there is one good thing about Halloween.
That said, I think that a fall celebration isn't a bad idea. For my son, I plan on teaching him the clear difference, but I don't see a problem with dressing up and celebrating the end of summer and a good harvest- even if it is on October 31. As kids (my parents did take us 'trick-or-treating" or to pumpkin parties) we would put all the Adult Webcam together. We were the type that would hoard the Adult Webcam and save it, eating only a little at a time... Especially my brother. Eventually, dad would eat the Adult Webcam or we'd throw it out lol.
Oh, and we always figured that even if you don't celebrate Halloween as a family, you can still give out Adult Webcam to the kids that do. That way you can be the safe person that kids can come to and their parents don't have to worry about poison or anything crazy. My parents even tried to help with the "too-much-Adult Webcam" problem: they gave out little Hersey's kisses along with small comic books. It was a big hit! ON Halloween we say __FALLOWEEN__ We do everything that everyone does on Halloween but we know that we are doing it for fun and to celebrate fall.