One of my favorite Halloween traditions growing up was my older sister and I making our younger sister’s costume. She must have been a willing participant because I don’t remember her complaining or saying she wasn’t interested in the ideas we {really our older sister} had for her.
Some of the costumes we created included a dice, a six-pack of Pepsi and an Ace of Hearts. This tradition has lived on with me, as I thoroughly enjoy coming up with and making my own costumes.
We also loved to carve pumpkins the night before Halloween. As I got older, I would carve pumpkins while watching Michael Myers skulk around the neighborhood in his creepy mask in “Halloween.” I’m not one for horror, but I do love the first two “Halloween” movies and if you haven’t seen them, you should. They’re good old-fashioned creepy without too much gore.
On Halloween night, we would all go trick-or-treating in a group with all of the neighborhood kids and parents going together. One of my favorite Halloween’s was when I was in fifth grade. After trick-or-treating with the neighbors, my older sister took a few of us out with her.
We flung our net wide in the neighborhood and filled an entire pillowcase with candy. No wonder I had so many cavities as a kid.
I now love to share these traditions with my daughter. She likes to go the store bought costume route, but I love dressing up with her in a DIY costume. I think I’m finally getting to her as she told me next year she’d like to be Mary Poppins, which was a costume I put together a few years ago.
It’s definitely one of my favorites and was originally intended for her, but she changed her mind at the last minute and decided to be a spider, which she had been the year before.
We also carve our pumpkins the night before Halloween, although I haven’t been brave enough to watch the movie “Halloween” in years. We keep our designs simple and traditional, typically going for triangle eyes and nose, and a toothy grin. When my daughter was a toddler we did a simple Muno pumpkin as her favorite show then was “Yo Gabba Gabba.”
We also go trick-or-treating with our neighbors, all of the kids and the adults together. We always leave our candy bowl on our doorstep and hope that the kids who come to our house while we’re out trick-or-treating use the honor system.
It seems to work as every year, with the exception of one, we have come back to a bowl that still has some candy in it. This year my husband has volunteered to stay home and pass out the candy. It just happens to be a coincidence that his Cincinnati Bengals are playing Thursday Night Football {wink, wink.}
Last Saturday we hosted our first Halloween party with some of our neighbors. I was a little concerned that the dads would not want to participate in costume, but everyone showed up with their A game. The most popular costumes were superheroes and princesses.
We had Batman, Superman, three Batmoms, two batgirls, and a spidergirl. Representing the princesses we had Aurora, Pocahontas, Snow White and Ariel. It was a lot of fun, and it may become a new tradition!
Another new tradition our family has that we didn’t have growing up, is a trip to a local farm. My daughter loves this tradition! She loves riding the rides, hitting the hay maze {hopefully one day we’ll graduate to the corn maze, but right now – too scary!} and eating special treats.
I’ve enjoyed sharing my family’s traditions with you. What are some traditions you had as a kid that you now share with your own children? What are some new traditions you have developed with your family?
Happy Halloween!
[…] and adults are encouraged to dress up – Ella went as Alice in Wonderland and I was Mary Poppins; practically perfect in every way. There are different Trick-or-Treating stations around the […]