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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Accidental Halloweeners




We don’t do Halloween. 

As in, we don’t decorate our house, we don’t get outfits ready for the big day, I don’t encourage my children to knock on the doors of strangers and request lollies and food. I don’t allow my children to eat bags of lollies and chocolates and chips and junk food just because of the traditions of others.

Except for this year when it happened.

Mr H took the dog for a walk and came home telling the girls and I to come and take a look at a house in our street, it was all decorated for Halloween. We stood out the front, just like we do at Christmas when we drive around to see the Christmas lights. Mr H told me he had said hello to the owners a few weeks ago and that she was American.

I felt sorry for her, the effort was wonderful and yet, in our area, there were no little trick or treaters walking the street. We have witches outfits in the dress up box from Popps’ Witches Ball party two years ago, so I told the girls to run inside and get them on and they could come back across the road and ring the bell.

Mr H introduced himself again and the American lady was apparently bouncing with excitement saying “YOU ARE MY FIRST CHILDREN”. 

Not sure if she realised that she was the first Halloween Trick or Treating experience for our entire family.

Before they got the three houses back to ours, the girls ran into a group of kids walking the streets who told them which houses in our area are joining in. They then spent the next two hours walking the streets, because it is quite a trek to get to the few houses taking part. They met others in their travels and they saw kids from school, Mr H met some people in our street that we have never chatted with before. Doors opened as the girls walked past, with people wanting to be friendly and all Halloweeny.

They walked in the door at 8.30pm, thrilled with their loot and bitterly sad when I told them to choose one item that they can have tomorrow and the rest is going away.

All up, they regarded going for a two hour walk in a witches costume one of the best things to ever happen.

Maybe we were already in the mood for some Halloween embracing after I spent last week on a freelance project thinking about Halloween foods. (You can see my little video over here if you feel like it). But today, I think we accidentally embraced Halloween and all its shonky commercialism and its bags of sugar and we came out of it with a new way of thinking. One where walking the streets of your neighbourhood, having some fun, being social and getting a pretty big walk in were all part of the process.

And I think we will have some streamers hanging from our letterbox next year. 

16 comments:

  1. Snap! My two have nagged me for the last three or four years and I've always said "no" but this year, they ganged up with two of their mates. I ended up taking the four of them (and the dog) for a walk around our streets for an hour. They had a ball. I had fun watching them have fun and racked up heaps of Good Mother points, lol. (I blogged about it, too)

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  2. My daughter came home from preschool asking to go trick or treating this year. But no houses in our street were participating so we couldn't do it. Maybe next year?

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    1. Hi Sam, I think once you get to school they work it out a little more. They talk about it with some friends etc, the houses that we had to walk to were mainly of families who had kids out walking, pretty much just walking to each others houses - and I bet they usually get driven to the exact same houses!

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  3. We just moved to our area and it's a great way to get to know your neighbours. Love how the people participating put up pumpkins or spiders near their post box so you know whose door you can knock on.

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    1. Same Alex, none of the children went into any random house, they only went to homes that clearly indicated that they were joining in. No one got bothered who didn't want to be.

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  4. What a wonderful day.
    We did our house up, and the girls dressed up but we got no trick or treaters, our country town barely celebrates Christmas so I guess I was reaching with halloween, but I just thought just in case there are a couple of kids doing it and we had fun carving our pumpkins anyway :)

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    1. Yes, Rebecca you have to pick the way you join some festivities, carving pumpkins is an entirely new concept again!

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  5. What great exercise..will help work off all the lollies :)
    It's great when things can happen spontaneously like that.

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    1. Totally and you know if the weather wasn't cooperating it just would not have been the same.

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  6. LOL I blogged today and my post was called An Accidental Halloween ! We didn't plan it, it just , kind of, happened .. it was also LOTS of fun. So nice to see the neighbours and to watch our kids just being friendly happy kids. xxx

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  7. My best friend is also American, living here in Australia, and she does tend to get quite sad this time of year ~ Halloween, Thanksgiving, all those traditions that we don't technically celebrate here...But Halloween does seem to be getting alot more popular in the last few years; my kids really enjoyed dressing up and trick or treating! How nice of you to have your kids participate and bring some joy to your neighbour too :)

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  8. Its big in our area, and this year, there was a noticeable increase in amount of children visiting. Over 100 at our door, and 98% of them were lovely!!! Fun and smiles by all and some good memories made.

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  9. I think you've discovered the good parts of Halloween.

    Cheers,
    Lynda.

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  10. We dress up and have a party at home generally (okay, by generally, I mean we did once) but this year the Day Care held a disco so we went along to that. There were lots of kids out trick or treating - this is our first Halloween here and I was quite surprised as it's a small town and somehow I equate small town to not being into Halloween.
    I'm not sold on trick or treating but I am sure it will be something they will want to do next year.
    I hope that lady had more kids visit and what a lovely first experience for your girls. I love that you accidentally did Halloween.

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  11. Oh I use to be so anti it until the kids started school and got sucked into all the hype. Living in an estate that goes Halloween nuts doesnt help either. I officially hung my white flag on the matter about 3 years ago and have to admit,, I do get into it AND enjoy it now :) x

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