We've never been the people who hid in the back of the house with just the flicker of a TV for light on Halloween night, but before our daughter came along, my husband and I weren't the biggest fans. Even now, it's up to me to take our daughter trick-or-treating, while Dad stays home to hand out treats.
In our house, it just isn't that big a deal. I mean, sure, we do the costume and the trick or treating. We make the rounds of the community kid parties - two this year packed into one sugar-filled day. But there's no real desire to find a sitter and head out to a costume party ourselves or do up the path to our front door with faux cemetery markers and skulls. Nor is there ever a kumbaya, "one big happy family" kind of vibe to Halloween.
In all fairness to my husband, he attended both community parties this year. While I snapped pictures for the local paper at the first, he walked our daughter to each booth and helped her chuck rubber spiders, paint pumpkins and toss beanbags. We were co-parenting the party with the best of them. But come Friday night, he'll be more than happy to stay home with a black cat full of Play-Doh, plastic teeth and rubber bangle bracelets while I walk the walk with a bunch of girlfriends and their costume-clad tots. I wouldn't expect him to come along even if I plied him with Lemonheads and Sweetarts (so I know his weakness, we're still not going to hold hands and frolick together).
I felt a tad guilty reading Sports Illustrated writer Joe Posnanski's column this week about the strain an elongated world series puts on a dad who really wants to be home with his kids on Halloween, but I'm holding firm. Halloween is for the kids. Christmas for us is for the family.
How about you? Do you do it up family style for Halloween? Or is All Hallow's Eve the red-headed stepchild in your holiday hoe downs?
Image: FrugalLawStudent
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