Halloween and Celebration Inflation

When did celebration inflation raise Halloween up from being a rinky-dink deal for kids to a national holiday for adults? And why?

Maybe it fills the void left by the end of the World Series, encouraging fans to get off the couch and change out of their sweatpants.

Another thought: Thanksgiving and Christmas will arrive all too soon (my local CVS is already stocked with wrapping paper). But those holidays invariably involve copious amounts of family tension, whereas Halloween is all about that community of friends we've chosen to be our family. It offers the tantalizing possibility of mingling with strangers dressed as say, Sarah Palin or a character from The Office. And unlike the other holidays where you have to dress the turkey, you simply dress yourself and then eat candy and chips washed down with beer or an alcoholic concoction masquerading as witch's brew.

But despite its popularity, Halloween has always made me uncomfortable. And as its status has grown, I've come to approach it with much the same dread that most people reserve for New Year's Eve. The expectations for both are so heightened, they can't possibly be met.

It's not so much the potential for let down that makes me wary as the fact that I was born without the crafts gene. I, who haven't progressed beyond stick-figure drawings, feel inadequate in the face of undo creativity. I recently ran into a woman who rhapsodized about the hours she'd spent papier-mache-ing her kid's costume, whereas I wouldn't recognize papier-mache if it was stuck to the bottom of my shoe. As a child I enjoyed being a hobo. It was an outmoded concept even then, but it offered an easy out: tie a bandanna on a stick and off you go.

I also find masks unnerving. Most people who saw Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, that awful late '90s movie that presaged Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's divorce, forgot it promptly upon leaving the theater. But I remember it because I was so creeped out by a scene when Cruise goes to a orgy where everyone is wearing a mask. To me, a costume doesn't even have to be sinister to be off-putting. I remember not being able to get a refill of witch's brew fast enough at a college fraternity party where every third guy I talked to had hidden his identity inside a pumpkin suit.

Halloween is like a roller coaster. It scares people within the boundaries of safety. But I don't like to be frightened. I was always the kid at slumber parties who would find an excuse to call my mom just as the ghost stories started heating up.

For now, though, I'm lucky. My kids are still young enough that the cheesier the store-bought costume, the better, as long as it comes with a weapon. And when people ask me what I'm going dressed up as, I tell them, a haggard mom. There's no elaborate makeup application, no sewing, no hot-glue gun required. Plus, I get to help myself to the stash of Snickers after my knight and cowgirl have gone to sleep.

Comments

[soshea51]

Hello, old friend. What a delight to find you here at residing at my daily addiction. Good work, and keep it coming.

Sharon

[RRonin]

My wife and I love Hallowee'n. My mother-in-law used to comment, "I've never seen two adults who love Hallowee'n more than you and Jackie!" True enough. I love putting up the decorations. We have decorations we've accumulated over the years, and people always comment on how much they like them. I love carving the pumpkins (although I'm not very creative) and I use real candles in them, not these clever little electric lights they have now. I love seeing the kids come to the door, the variety of costumes, the obligatory "trick or treat!", the parents shivering on the sidewalk, or our dog yapping her fool head off, banished to the family room. It's a blast, and best of all, it's all over in a matter of hours.

[racje]

Hallowe'en has always been my favorite holiday. One of the things I like best about it is that it's entirely optional: you can spend months helping your kids make elaborate bat costumes, beautiful fairies, headless monsters-- or you can decide to go to a movie, or you can just leave the porch light off and read a book. Nobody cares.

Just think of how alarmed your family and friends could get if you decided to skip Thanksgiving! Or even worse, Winter Holiday Season--as a widow, I can tell everyone I'm going somewhere else and just take a long walk, but eventually folks will catch on. And they will care.

The Fourth of July is optional, too, but it's too loud and there are too many sneaky political arguments lurking behind the Declaration of Independence. Stick with Hallowe'en.

[jugganaut]

I'm an adult and Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year because it's the only holiday that is bounded only by the limits of your imagination. All the rest of the holidays have a set routine that, quite frankly, just gets old after awhile.

For one day out of the year, you get to slip into another "incarnation" and have fun with it.

To me, Halloween is a celebration of human imagination. But of course you're going to find it overrated if you only view it in the conventional "ghosts and goblins" sense.

[radnip]

Over here, we love Halloween. We noticed the whole-fami­ly-dressin­g-up theme about 2-3 years ago and enjoyed it this year when an entire family dressed as pirates and another came as Batman, Batgirl, Joker, and Robin. Very cute.

Halloween is really in our neighborhood as many of the neighbors decorate and several will hold dinners/parties about the same time as the trick-or-treating. There are lots of lights, neighbors strolling, and porch events. It's like our annual street party.

We were expecting a very busy Halloween - we average a little over 2000 trick-or-treaters each year. This year though we only had about 1800 pieces of candy and that was about right. It felt a bit slow getting started and seemed more disjointed than usual. Usually the stream of costumes on the sidewalk is continuous. This year there were noticeable gaps. We thought everyone would love the free candy because it's a recession. You could feed your kids candy for the next month and save on the food bill.

Just kidding. It just seemed a bit more down this year than the last. And it was a beautifully warm evening.

[annieelliott]

Sing it, sister. My kids will be a "fairy princess" (rummage sale dress, wings from toy store) and a "fairy ballerina" (what she looks like every Wednesday for her little dance class). And I, like you, will be a cocktail-toting working mother trailing behind.

[sardonic z]

"Halloween is like a roller coaster. It scares people within the boundaries of safety. But I don't like to be frightened. I was always the kid at slumber parties who would find an excuse to call my mom just as the ghost stories started heating up."

haha, too funny. I always thought the best roller coasters were the ones that felt like they were about to fall apart at any moment. This helped me realize why I also don't really care for halloween.. I think fright is much more interesting well outside the boundaries of safety.