Monday, October 27, 2014

Forgotten Holidays: Halloween (Part 1)

Christmas trees, holiday lights, winter yard decorations, wreaths, poinsettias, and ornaments are all over stores. Christmas hits stores at the same time as Halloween. But there is a limited amount of space. That means only a small section is set aside for Halloween. As for Thanksgiving, most places only offer generic fall decorations. There are hardly any Turkeys around! Halloween and Thanksgiving are ignored by manufacturers!

This is a pet peeve of mine. I like being able to focus on each holiday separately. I have always been like this. I have always been obsessed with Monthly and Seasonal things. Halloween and Thanksgivings are fantastic holidays! They should take center stage in their respective months!

But that's hard to do when you are surrounded by Christmas while looking at Halloween costumes. No wonder winter seems to last forever! Manufactures have robbed us of FALL! It's easy to see why. Christmas is a big money making time of  year. The sooner it starts, the more opportunities they have to make money!

Greed really does rob you of common sense! It makes you selfish enough to make your employees work on Thanksgiving while you enjoy dinner with your family! When I was a kid, I thought it was illegal for stores to be open on Thanksgiving. Just like it is for Christmas Day. After the last few years, I am convinced that it SHOULD be illegal! There shouldn't have to be a law about it, but apparently the only way to make greedy people reasonable is by making it illegal to be unreasonable!

I have been wondering how Jewish people must feel about this aggressive assault! December must be an annoying month for those who don't celebrate Christmas. It's outright harassment to make them suffer for as long as they have to now! Actually, it's harassing to all of us to have to look at Christmas before Halloween!

No surprise here, I like to walk around the neighborhood and look at the decorations. Zach and I both have Jack-o-Lanterns in our gardens now. Even just a few years ago there used to be a lot of people who decorated their yards for Halloween. I see a lot of Mums and Pumpkins, but I hardly see any Halloween decorations. I always understood the lack of decorations for Thanksgiving. That adorable blow up turkey won't be up for long. I still get child-like excited when I see them though!

Zach's Garden

My Garden



I think a lot of people are as annoyed by all of this as I am. It's hard to wrap yourself in a holiday if it's being drowned out by a very different holiday. This is the first of five posts. This post, will focus on Halloween. Later, I will do something for Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa. I hope to get us all in the CURRENT holiday spirit!

It's time. The day is finally here! He takes his costume out of the closet, and puts in on. Then, he grabs his trick or treat bucket. It's green with a Jack-o-Lantern face. As he walks through the house, he notices all of the Halloween decorations. Mommy's dresser has a witch on it. There is a spider theme for the kitchen table. But clearly Mommy's favorite Halloween thing is Jack-o-Lanterns. She has one on the kitchen shelf, hand towels in the bathroom, and five on the coffee table!

While Mommy locks the door, he goes into the gardens. He sees the fading Mums and Cabbage but can't take his eyes off of the decorations! They make him smile. So do all of the pumpkins scattered around. He has collected them. At least one a week since they arrived in the nursery! But now that it's Halloween, he won't get any more this year. Instead, he appreciates what he has.

As he goes door to door trick or treating, he sees neighbors and friends he likes. They all comment on his adorable costume! Next, Mommy drives him to Grandma and Grandpa's house. They have nice decorations in the yard too! He rings the bell and they are happy to see him. He's happy to see them and shows off his costume! After visiting, Mommy takes him trick or treating in their neighborhood. He notices the costumes the other kids are wearing. Some are homemade, others were bought in the store like his. But they look great!

On the drive to Grandma and Pop's house, he talks with Mommy about Halloween things. Witches, Ghosts, Goblins, Black Cats, Spiders, Skeletons, Zombies, Vampires, Mummies, Ware Wolves, Frankenstein, and Jack-o-Lanterns. When he gets there, he sees the Jack-o-Lantern he and Pop made earlier in the week. Remembering how much fun it was to make it makes him smile He loves Jack-o-Lanterns too.

After he trick or treats in Grandma and Pop's neighborhood, he thinks about what Mommy says. She says there are two types of Halloweens. There is the scary Halloween and the cute Halloween. He looks at how different people have decorated and realizes that Mommy is right! Mommy likes the cute Halloween things. Daddy likes the scary Halloween things. But, he likes both!

Later, he goes through his green Jack-o-Lantern. He has a lot of candy! But he also likes the stickers, pencils, and toys some people gave out. He helps Mommy and Grandma hand out candy, stickers, and toys to the trick or treaters that come to Grandma and Pop's house. He LOVES doing that! Halloween is a special holiday!

First Halloween

Second Halloween

Last Year

In 2011, he was a leaf pile again. In 2012, he was a squirrel and wasn't cooperative for pictures. This year he's going to be the Flash. When we were in the store buying the Superman costume last year, he said "This year I'm Superman. Next year, I'm going to be the Flash, and the year after that I'm going to be Batman". As October got closer, I asked what he wanted to be. He still wanted to be the Flash. After trying it on, he said "Next year I'm going to be Batman"!


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