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Jennifer is sick of Halloween...
Last week, I suggested to the Heroines with Hearts ladies
that we all write about Halloween. Each one of them has already posted something
about the holiday, so now it’s my turn.
Unfortunately for me, I’m not a big fan of the holiday. It’s
not that I dislike the holiday itself—I love the weather and the season, I love
decorating for fall and carving pumpkins. I even like the occasional ghost
story. But the holiday has been so overdone for me that I’m completely sick of
it.
When my kids were in elementary school, the entire month of
October became one long Halloween celebration. Everything that month had to do
with the holiday. Class parties required the parents to dress up as well as the
kids and plan games and activities related to the holiday. Talk about costumes
began in August; candy in October. No matter how cute everyone looked, it
seemed to drag on forever.
In middle school, the peer pressure of having to find
exactly the right costume, or the need to plan the costume for the entire group
of friends, only to change it three times (usually after at least some of the
supplies or costumes were bought) before the holiday.
And as the mother of girls, don’t even get me started on the
sexiness of Every. Single. Costume.
So, at the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, I really am
sick of Halloween.
That’s why this year I was so glad to be skipping it.
Friends of ours invited us to Florida for the weekend to
celebrate their twins’ B’Nai Mitzvah (that’s what it’s called when there is
more than one child, and one is a girl and one is a boy), and it required us to
fly on Halloween. I asked my kids if they were okay with skipping, and although
my younger one was disappointed, the thought of going to the beach made
everything okay.
It was weird being in the South for a fall holiday.
Decorated palm trees don’t exactly give me the same Halloween feeling as golden
leaves and pumpkins. But the break was nice and I even got some inspiration to
write, which has been a long time coming.
And who knows, maybe a year off from the holiday will make
me want to celebrate it next year!
Commercialization spoils many holidays, IMO.
ReplyDeleteI've seen Christmas-themed advertising already on TV.
Thanksgiving seems to be spared a bit.
Thank goodness.
I haven't noticed much about Christmas around here, yet, thank goodness. It's not so much the commercialization as the length of time everyone does things for it.
DeleteIt seems excess has become the American way on so many levels. Most of the time, more is just more. I'm glad you had fun in the sun...I miss the beach and the sun! :)
ReplyDeleteThe vitamin D was wonderful!
DeleteIn the UK, Hallowe'en used to be overshadowed by our Bonfire Night (more about that tomorrow!), but gradually we seem to be 'copying' the USA in making it a much bigger (and more commercialised) event. The whole 'costume' thing has only happened in the last 10 years or so, though. Prior to that, the shops tended only to have witch, devil, or ghost masks, and witches' hats etc.
ReplyDeleteI always preferred homemade costumes to store-bought ones.
DeleteP.S. Forgot to say - glad you enjoyed your 'escape' to Florida!
ReplyDeleteI'm okay with Halloween. What I'm not okay with is all of the Christmas trees already out....Poor Thanksgiving always gets neglected in the middle of the candy-craziness of Halloween and the gift giving of Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI was in Florida and Arizona a couple of times around Christmas. Palm trees with lights took some getting used to.
Yeah, it was really weird. I kept expecting to see multi-colored leaves and everything was so green! Although the sunshine was really, really nice.
Delete