(Yes, that was sung with the tune from The Nightmare Before Christmas' "This is Halloween")
I know a lot of Christmas people.
And I'm not one of them.
I live for Halloween.
There are the standard reasons: horror movies, candy, the crisp fall air, and costumes. But then we dig a little deeper into my twisted psyche and see my enjoyment really comes down to one simple fact. I've never had a bad Halloween. Never.
I cannot say the same for any other Holiday. Crazy, right?
Instead of exploring the more dysfunctional side of my childhood, let's navigate towards the good memories. The ones I reflect on happily. The ones that made my family seem normal, in that not so normal way.
Growing up, I don't remember having store-bought costumes. My mother always made them. Whether it was sewing patches on a pair of pants for a hobo costume or making fairy wings out of coat hangers and nylons, my mom put time and effort into what we wanted to go as for Halloween. And she never balked at any ideas, either. Ninja turtles, check. Gypsy, check. Elvira Mistress of the Dark, check. She even made me the giant boobs. In that moment, when I went to my grade five class, I was proud of my mom, my family, and that we were a little off from centre. I am also thrilled to announce that I make my own costumes now, as an adult. No sexy nurses or kittens for me. No way. Halloween isn't about getting dudes. It's about scaring the evil spirits. Which is why one must dress like this:
Every year, without fail, we carved pumpkins. I don't remember going to the pumpkin patch, though, but that didn't matter, because the weekend before Halloween, we'd all sit down and carve a pumpkin. And, even though none of us like them except my dad, we roasted the pumpkin seeds in the oven and ate them. I was terrible at carving pumpkins. Actually, I still am. It's embarrassing what I come up with. Except the year I carved Jack Skellington...he turned out pretty good:
One of my favourite parts of Halloween is actually handing out candy to children. Now that I'm too old to go get candy myself, not that I need it. Have you seen these thighs? I'm not sure what it is about opening the door I like. Probably seeing all the little kids in their costumes. Some of them barely able to speak. Their parents standing out on the side walk. In the day and age where people don't trust anyone, I'm happy this tradition of knocking on strangers doors and asking for candy still exists. I'm glad it hasn't died out.
The other thing I enjoy doing, and which has turned into one of own traditions, is watching Halloween every Halloween. I know it's a cliché for this to be my favourite horror movie, but it is. The soundtrack can't be beat. Every moment, shot for shot, is perfection. There isn't much to complain about. And then Rob Zombie came along and destroyed it. Yeah, that's right, I didn't like the remake. A couple nights ago, I was telling my sidekick that I used to have the Halloween theme song as my ringtone on my phone but that I had to change it. Just between you and I, whenever it rang in the middle of the night it freaked me out.
To this day, the music sends a chill up my spine.
So, this year, I am looking forward to watching Halloween and handing out candy. What are you going to be up to?
1 comment:
:)
When I grew up we celebrated Hallowe'en every year which, in England at that time, was considered SERIOUSLY weird, and tended to mean our neighbours crossed themselves when they passed us in the street.
Now, not so much. Did the whole dressing up thing to hand out sweets (candy) at the door and four children passed out, so have knocked that one on the head.
I do it low key now - y'know, candles, incense, altar to the ancestors...try and have a chat with my dead parents. The usual. :)
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