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Is Halloween the New Christmas?

Well . . . probably not. And before we get troll-smacked, let me clarify. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that the pagan ritual of Halloween could ever replace the sweet Jesus-y goodness of Christmas. I was just pondering the two holidays from a secular perspective. Really.

It’s just that I don’t ever remember Halloween being such a huge deal when I was a kid. Sure, we had trick-or-treating, a school Halloween parade, and “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” It was fun, but simple.

This year, it’s not even Halloween night yet and my kids have been wriggling in and out of those costumes all week. Two school parties. Trick-or-treating at the zoo’s annual Pumpkin Bash. “Halloween Hoopla” at the local Boys and Girls Club. And on Sunday, daytime trick-or-treating from the stores on our neighborhood’s main street. Oh, and actual door-to-door trick-or-treating that night (if the kids aren’t too exhausted and their costumes aren’t completely trashed by then).

Not to mention all the non-costumed fun earlier in the month – pumpkin patch field trips, a family outing to Remlinger Farms harvest festival, and multiple window-shopping pilgrimages to our favorite local Halloween stores. There’s a whole Halloween season now. Just like Christmas. All that’s missing is the pumpkin carols.

And the shopping. And the cross-country flight to visit the east coast relatives. And the winter weather. Could it be . . . do I like Halloween better than Christmas? It’s never been my favorite. I hate being scared. I’m not a big fan of dressing up. I’ll take “Jingle Bell Rock” over “Monster Mash” any day of the week. And candy’s okay, but it’s got nothing on pumpkin pie or Friendly’s Jubilee Roll.

But Halloween is the only one of the Big Three holidays that we spend in our own home. It’s the only major holiday that’s completely open for us to establish our own little nuclear family rituals and traditions. Is that why I’ve been dragging my costumed young ’uns to every event with “Boo” or “Pumpkin” in the title this week? Is that why I spent my summer lovingly tending my very first backyard pumpkin patch? Is that why Mr. Black and I broke into the bag of mini-Snickers tonight? (Okay, scratch that last one.)

I don’t think Halloween could ever replace that “Christmas morning” anticipation, or the incomparable joy of seeing my parents, my sisters, my kids, and their cousins gathered around the tree all Norman-Rockwell-like. But I love the idea of reclaiming Halloween as our holiday – the holiday we celebrate right here in our little community of choice.

Tags: Halloween, holidays, traditions

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Comment by Teacher Tom on October 31, 2010 at 8:27am: I'm totally with you. The other big holidays have all kinds of ceremonial or familial obligations attached to them, adding layers of aggravation that suck a lot of the joy out of them. On Halloween you can go big, go small, or not at all. Christmas and Thanksgiving aren't even in my top 5 holidays any more -- my family gets a lot more out of celebrating the solstices, May Day, and Halloween than any of the big "traditional" holidays.

And it's not just kids who've been getting in and out of their costumes all week either. Have you spent any time on Capital Hill (Seattle)? Half the adults seem to have been wearing their costumes all week.

Comment by Boring User Name on October 31, 2010 at 12:18pm: Thanksgiving used to be our "family of choice" holiday. My husband used to have to work, so we stayed put and celebrated with friends. Then, everyone had babies and the extended family wants to see the babies and it's gone. Alas.

But I was actually thinking thought expressed in the title of the post yesterday, but I admit it was more in the negative sense, "why must everything be so over-the-top?" "Can't we put the Satan back in Halloween?" I was not seeing the option of "going small." I'm not crafty, I don't sew, I suck at puns. And then there's the fact that I didn't grow up celebrating Halloween. Satan was the devil's holiday. It was Bible characters or nothing. I trick-or-treated once in my life.

So, at times Halloween strikes me as yet occasion that I have to keep with the Jones (or FB friends). And it forces me to be something I'm not so good at and something completely out of my comfort zone. Nor, I guess, something I can rely on nostalgia for. Fortunately, the kid picked out, and loves, his Target costume, so I didn't have to make anything this year. But, I'm already a little stressed for next.

My church today had a nice Day of the Dead service, though. And we talked to the Kid about loved ones who had died, so that actually helped me calm down a bit. Maybe thinking about the real reason for the season or something?

Comment by Floor Pie on October 31, 2010 at 12:24pm: Daria, I don't do "crafty " either. I'm all about the store-bought costume! (Store-bought valentines, too.)

Comment by Boring User Name on October 31, 2010 at 12:53pm: Wait, people make their own valentines? I'm doomed!

Comment by Mamawho on October 31, 2010 at 1:40pm: I do store bought dressed-up with handmade. I made GW a pretty cool mask this year, with feathers and stuff on it. And the garden gnome costumes two years ago couldn't have been much easier.

When DW was in the Army, we couldn't know for sure if he'd be able to spend the holidays with us - even if he wasn't deployed, he could have duty. So we decided early on that we weren't going to break our necks to spend holidays out of town with family, and it is also important to us that GW spend a good number of her holidays at home (she's a homebody). Our Christmases are small, but they're still nice.

Halloween was always a big stinking fuss in my neighborhood and school growing up - probably because so many of those people had more money than sense and liked to spend it on holiday decorations. Dunno. My grandmother used to insist that I have an elaborate, handmade costume, but I finally won in 2nd grade and got a She-Ra costume. But no wig, so with my curly brown hair, I looked a little more like Harry Hamlin as Perseus than I did She-Ra.

Comment by mcglory13 on October 31, 2010 at 2:26pm: We don't make a big deal of any holiday. We are not those people. Spouse and I loathe decorating (the putting up and taking down in short order annoys us). We don't like big parties. We are minimal effort on every single holiday. Oh, and the really religious ones like Easter we ignore. Hopefully we're not scarring our child for life.

Comment by Kiwi on October 31, 2010 at 7:21pm: 1st Kid's costume parts were home-made by the people I bought them off of on Etsy and Ebay.

I enjoy Halloween because it doesn't involve me having to gather with any family nor does it require me to do a bunch of cooking.

When we dwelled in the 'burbs we would trick or treat on the 31st and attend maybe one Halloween event in the city. Now that we dwell inside the city we literally had several free or low cost events with-in ten minutes of our front door every day this weekend. We have festivaled, partied, and carnivaled pretty much non-stop since the kids came home from school on Friday. I am an out and about type and the kids have taken after me. Fortunately for us the three of us The Companion is a flexible homebody.

Comment by GreenLantern on October 31, 2010 at 8:51pm: I was going to say yes, but we just got back after trick or treating and maybe 1 in 15 houses were actually lit up and giving out candy. Of course 1 in 5 houses were sitting empty with foreclosure signs on them, so...

Comment by wookie on November 1, 2010 at 6:18am: My kids love Halloween and I do as well. It's the high candy per stress ratio. Christmas has more baggage.

Comment by Piebrothersmomma on November 3, 2010 at 10:14am: What Lady Grey said. I like making a big deal of the holidays and I wish I had even more family to have at gatherings. I like to celebrate whenever I can because there are far too many ordinary days and far too few celebrations in life.

Is Halloween the New Christmas?

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