Aaron's not going trick or treating this year. He's two, for crying out loud. He doesn't eat a lot of sweets, and hasn't ever had candy. I can only imagine what that would do to his veggie eating ways. Not to mention, I had a huge problem when I was growing up with uh, hugeness. AND I want to keep those baby teeth healthy!Michael used to trade his sweets for chips at school. And so we all know who would end up with the bulk of the candy. (please notice the double meaning of that) The "I-just-had-a-baby-and-the-last-thing-I-need-is-candy" lady. Me.
But doesn't this adorable little outfit remind you of the McDonald's uniforms of our childhood? All he would need is a red visor and a nametag with the golden arches stamped on it. And of course, we'd have to teach him to ask about wanting fries with that.
So, this year we are staying home. We will probably tell Aaron about Martin Luther (a simplified version) and hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. Maybe they will actually come to our house this year since it won't look so scary. We will probably give them little booklets from church, too, that give the plan of salvation.
We have some friends who have some pretty interesting stories about growing up in a family that avoided any celebration at all on October 31 - and others who look back with fond memories on costumed days of candy collection.
So I'm curious. I know there are a lot of opinions out there, and I'd like to hear them! (of course, I'd love it if we could all discuss this in a civil tone) What does your family do on October 31?
13 comments:
I used to go trick-or-treating when I was a kid and I had a ball. We have chosen not to take our guys out though. We do not make a big deal about why we don't or judge others if they choose to do so. It's just what we have chosen for our family. I am not opposed to doing some alternative to trick-or-treating. We had a carnival called a Fun Fair at our former church and it was a blast. The teens would come up with and man a carnival type game of their choosing and hand out candy to the young kids. The kids walked away with tons more candy than they would have had they gone out. :)
I have some costumes that I picked up at garage sales, unfortunately everyone wants to be the pumpkin. Oh well. We go up and down our little street, then we travel around town to stop at a few friends homes.
We used to go trick or treating when I was a kid & our elementary school even had a costume parade that day. I used to love dressing up. Now, that I'm a grown up I hand out treats to the kids that come to my house. A while back I worked in a mall & they would sponsor a contest among the mall employees. That was a lot of fun & the year the other girls & I decided to dress up like 1920's flappers, we won!
I have to admit that I love sitting outside or looking out my window at all the cuties!! I mean those little toddlers all dressed up are tooo cute to miss!! my husband buys like king sized candy so he popular with the kids.. maybe not so the parents!! ahahaha
I always wanted to attend some Luther/95 Thesis party :)
We didn't trick or treat as kids, but instead handed out bags of candy and tracts to the kids who came to our door (usually less than 10, as we lived in the country!). Now we are even more in the sticks, and while we would be happy to hand out goodies, we never get any trick-or-treaters here. We've chosen not to have our kids go out, but we have plenty of friends who do differently, and that is fine. :) I do think the whole costume thing is fun, though--there were some GREAT costumes in the newest Family Fun, almost enough to make me wish that I had an excuse to dress the kids up! :)
Growing up we went trick or treating, but knew the difference between the fun dressing up time & the evilness. Since we live in the sticks too, we're taking Maleia dressed up to the mall (1 1/4 hour away). It's mainly an excuse to get out of the fields & woods to civilization. :)
We have taken Levi trick-or-treating on our stretched out country mile as a way to meet and get to know our neighbors. Who can refuse a toddler in a fuzzy lion suit? :^) And we take him to Grandma's. (Of, course!) We take a treat to give our neighbors (homemade caramel corn or pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies) and say "Happy Harvest!" He probably goes to about 6 houses including grandma's.
We've been talking about the yucky, weird decorations in the stores (skulls, etc.). I'm sure he makes no connection. Our "costumes" are from the yard sale dress-up trunk we are growing. Always wholesome and non-fantasy/freaky.
Seriously, this is the way we have met most of our busy, gone-all-the-time neighbors! And with Levi's allergies to nuts, peanuts, and wheat most of the stuff is traded away to Mommy or Daddy. They (little sis' this year) have a ball and we visit and bring a gift. Right now, it is simple enough.
Cindy
I never went growing up as my parents chose for us to stay home and pass out candy and tracts. I really wanted to take Kayla last year since she was 2 and I knew she would love it... but Krista was 3 days old and while I felt up to it physically, there was a lot going on so we all stayed home. Now that we're in Cameroon, I'm feeling a little sad that I didn't make the extra effort to take her last year so I could at least show her pictures this year of U.S. traditions we were involved in. :-)
I never went trick-or-treating until we took Luke - because we lived in the country; so his first time was mine too! Luke is finally loving the costume thing - he wasn't too crazy about it at first. Since we live in a condo, we don't even hand candy out. There's no way for people to come to us - other than those who live in our building, and none of them are children. We lived in a cute and nice neighborhood in Louisville - that was my first trick-or-treat experience, and I am a pretty firm believer in at least handing out candy - whether you want to do the rest or not. In a culture where it might take months and even over a year just to MEET your neighbors, it's a GREAT time to hang out and feel "neighborly."
Luke's got a killer baman costume this year. Simon will be Tigger. :)
"Trick or Treat" was one of our kids' favorite activities. They would pile in a car with their dad, uncle and cousins and 'make the rounds' to all the grandparents, aunts/uncles/, friends from work (who would always say, 'make sure you bring the kids around...'). The weeks before were a flurry of 'this year I want to be...' and me sewing costumes like crazy! They had so much fun and have nice memories of this special time with their extended family. Somehow they all have good teeth (even today) and survived their annual treats of Grandma Beyersdorf's pumpkin shaped frosted cookies and Grandma Willsie's caramel apples (YUM!!!)
I'd like to say that I do not judge anyone in what they choose to do.
That being said, we grew up in the not celebrating the day in any way fashion. My dad would always go out and buy a bunch of candy and fun stuff. We would then proceed to shut off all the exterior lights so that no one would come interupt the evening. Then we all gathered around the table and played family games all night long and had the candy he bought for us.
It was a fun family night that we all looked forward to and since we got candy any way, I never really felt gyped out of trick or treating.
Since we don't have kids yet, I can't say what we would do with kiddies, but that was what I grew up with and I enjoyed looking forward to the special fun night every year.
We didn't take our kids trick or treating. But we would dress them up and take them to the nursing home where Eric's grandmother was and we played candy land with her.
Sometimes our church would have a party.
When they were in college I guess they went trick or treating they felt like they missed something.
Eric and I live in the country so no one come up our scary driveway.
We usually go to dinner.
Our down town has trick or treat for kids in the day light hours.
At the fairgrounds there's a church that puts on a safe games and activities for kids.
I went trick or treating when I was a kid but we were never aloud to dress up as something crazy or scary. We never had to worry about the candy when we were little but know you do. My home town you have to take your candy to the hospital to get check out crazy. Know with my nephews we just take them to the places we only know. Also when we were little we had a Bible coustum party on oct 31 at my church and that was fun.
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