Dressing up is a weekly occurrence at our house, almost daily, actually. So when Halloween comes, we welcome it because others are also dressed up and Curious George and Daniel Tiger have special shows all in their cute little costumes and spooky pumpkins! When I was a kid, though, I don’t remember Halloween being a big thing. We did dress up in costume (although for YEARS I was a Korean princess wearing my hanbok nearly every year for my elementary school Halloweens) and did go trick or treating. I remember it much more when I was older and we were trick or treating for canned food or UNICEF. We didn’t carve a pumpkin and usually my parents turned off the lights so kids wouldn’t come by the house. They were NOT into it.
In addition to my parents not being into Halloween, growing up as a Christian, we didn’t celebrate such things, but instead did something called a Hallelujah Night. When I think about it, it was just a night to give kids candy at church in costumes. Hmmmm, not that different from Halloween – just a lot less spooky and dark, I guess. This continued on as a college student – no Halloween parties for me, but a lot of Hallelujah nights.
So, when Ninjette came around, I was a little excited. I thought about what she was going to be for her first Halloween at the age of 3 months (a little fuzzy kitty cat) and what Ninja & I would be to compliment her – Ninja was a full on rat and I was a mouse. We carved the pumpkin and had candy. It was so much fun! The next year, we went with a Curious George theme and well, the rest is history.
I don’t do the spider webs and go all out for Halloween, but we’ve been adding little bits here and there to someday ramp it up to a full on Halloween celebration. Maybe you don’t celebrate Halloween or think it’s a bad idea, but try something new – celebrate it! Get really into it. Do the costume, carve a pumpkin, and enjoy the one night a year, everyone gets to be something different and let their imaginations go wild!