Halloween (guest) - part 1
Halloween is the best time of the year if, like me, you like to dress up in costumes and decorate your house. Beginning of September, once kids are back in school, you can find everything you need for celebrate Halloween properly - candies, costumes, lights, decorations - in all the regular stores but also in Halloween-dedicated stores. Yes there are specific pop up stores for Halloween.
Let's dig a bit
The decoration
First things first : start with a house well decorated. Last year, we pulled a stroboscope with orange, purple and green lights, inflatable monsters, fake tombs, laughing skeletons, spiders and so much more. And of course the carved pumpkins. By buying one or two new items a year, people end up with a well decorated place without spending too much.
Tip : we always try to buy our new decorations AFTER the holiday. There are always a couple of days right after where the stores would rather clear their inventory by offering 50% or 70% discounts rather than putting it all back into their warehouse for another 10 months.
Why not decorating your office if this is safe and accepted by your company ? I already brought at work an inflatable witch (my size), fake spiders, pumpkins and other cats with hats. So fun to see their faces when top executives come to visit, especially from foreign countries.
Candies and Trick or Treat
In the grocery shops, you can find huge packages, mix of everything, 10 pounds (5 kilos) for 10 dollars, with very good brands. . One year, we had purchased 17 kilos (37 pounds), and all was gone. How ? When the kids come to knock at your door to “trick or treat” you on Halloween night, you’d better have what it takes to feed them all.
A few more word about the ‘trick or treat’. First, at daylight, the very young kids come with their parents who stand at the end of your driveway while the kids knock on your door. Then, as the night becomes darker, teenagers show up. If you leave your lights on, they keep on coming. Once your light is off, they stop. It’s like an unspoken code to invite them for candies or to tell them you are sorry but already have given everything.
The costumes
I kept the best for last : the costume. There are all types of events and costumes that are good reason to put your best costume on. As an adult, I get to dress up at work ! How awesome is that ? We even have a competition at lunch time to choose the best costume. So, in the morning of Halloween day, instead of my usual work dress, I can wear my costume and make up, drive to and from work and spend my day at work dressed up. You do not believe it ? True story : I went to work dressed as
the bad witch from Snow White, with apples in a basket
the green witch from Wicked, my face painted all green
the Death, with a tomb stuck on my belly and the scythe with a heart covered with blood in my hand
Chewbacca, with a mask and a fake orange toy machine gun
A lady vampire, with fake blood, fake canines and a red dress like a princess (twice)
I have seen colleagues dressed up as the Seven dwarfs, Gru and his Minions, serial killers, monkeys, Arabian princes, and everything you can imagine.
So based on that
Halloween is, you guessed it, my favorite holiday. True, it can drain your bank account if you get caught in the marketing side of it. True as well, you can be completely ridiculous in a costume.
But it also reminds you of your inner child and travelling back to childhood every year is AWESOME !