Hello and Happy Halloween from the Wannaskan Almanac! Today is October 31st.
Today is Halloween. If there’s anything worse than a graduation during a pandemic, it would be Halloween during a pandemic.
Our family tradition is to trick-or-treat through our little subdivision. We have lived here for almost fifteen years and I’m pretty sure the neighbors know to count on our family to make our rounds. And they are so sweet because our kids might be their only trick-or-treaters and they still turn on their porch light and have a bowl of candy at the ready.
I love our neighborhood. I really do. Once my kids asked me how many people live in our neighborhood. I was delighted that I could visualize each household and its respective family members and tally most of them.
Halloween is the one time of year we stop by and say hello to our neighbors, and every year it makes me feel so happy. When the kids shout, “Trick or treat!” and the neighbors pull out generous fistfuls of chocolate bars and place them into my eager children's bags, I say to myself, “Thank you. Thank you for loving my children enough to be prepared for Halloween tonight and for all the snowy Halloweens from Halloweens past when the kids insisted on making the rounds even if it meant wearing snowsuits, winter boots, and mittens under their costumes. (In fact, experienced, weather-wise Wannaskan kids always add that snow factor "X" to their costume calculations.)
I know times have changed. I grew up in an age when the only Halloween option was to tramp through the neighborhood, faithfully ringing every doorbell or knocking on every door of every neighbor who displayed the universal sign of welcome – that beacon of light – the porch light. (And even some darkened houses regardless, for the most daring.)
Today, I know that more and more folks have shied away from the neighborhood trick-or-treat trawl, opting for arguably safer venues like church-sponsored parties, trick-or-treating through the school, community center activities. But, trick-or-treating “old school” (as the Third Grader calls it) through the neighborhood is an experience from my childhood that I really want my own kids to experience. Because the secret in the sauce isn’t the candy – it’s the community.
So, it broke my heart to have to decide as a family not to go door-to-door this year. But, you know, kids are resilient and when I told the crew, the littles bounced back in three seconds flat and devised an on-the-spot Plan B to host our own indoors, at-home, trick-or-treating experience.
Here’s the plan: First, we’re all going to get dressed up. And that means I can’t pass off as a British “mummy” this year, but an actual mummy. You know, wrapped in toilet paper and stuff. I argued this was a waste of resources. That the world was experiencing a toilet paper shortage, so either I would have to be something else or we would have to save all the costume-purposed toilet paper. The Oldest Son scoffed and said, "There’s no shortage and you’re going to wear the toilet paper."
Then the kids are going to go trick-or-treating, moving from room to room in the house. Hubby and I are supposed to be the grown-ups who pass out the candy at each “house.” (We haven’t figured out the logistics around how only two people are going to occupy each room in the house. But we will!)
After visiting the “neighborhood,” we’re going to do a Halloween version of an Easter egg hunt. Again, I haven’t decided where this is going to happen, or how many rooms to include, but I know this: I’m going to set it up spooky. I even bought glow-in-the-dark candy for the occasion.
Once the kids have bagged all their sweet-tooth loot, we’re going to watch a movie. My library request for the original Jumanji starring Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst as a kid came through this week. Perfect.
The kids have been preparing for the festivities all week. The Third Grader set up the rules:
We got the pumpkin carved early in the week. A somewhat unfortunate thing, as I noticed mid-week that ‘Ole Pumpy was rotting. I scraped him clean twice like gangrene off an infected limb and have him stored in a cooler place, fingers crossed, hoping he’ll make it ‘til tonight. (I just checked him. The prognosis isn’t good.)
Thankfully, the kids didn’t boo when I said we didn’t own any Halloween decorations. The littles drew pictures of candy corn, pumpkins, spiders, bats, and ghosts instead. They invited me to draw too, and I did!
Their cheerfulness has even inspired me to plan for this fun, yet very creepy-looking, Halloween spider pizza.
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| Photo credit here |
Costumes are still a work in progress, but here’s a secret I’m going to share with you. I think the teenagers are thrilled to sneak in another season of trick-or-treating – especially the WAKWIR. This 14-year-old is right in the crevice between childhood and adulthood. That sticky spot where you still love to play but can see how being a young adult brings its own set of benefits.
For now, I’m happy to hold the space for all – be it goblins or ghouls, or, from what I hear – cats, Franken-draculas, and Rubik’s cubes.
On This Day
Remembering You
Kim
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| Photo credit here |
Sounds like a super fun way to spend Halloween! Happy Halloween!
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed with your talent for creating joy out of darkness - as in lemonade out of lemons. You go,mummy!
ReplyDelete