Let's talk Halloween, shall we?
The Candy
As a kid, I really loved any gummy candies, extra points if they were sour. Give me all the sour patch kids, swedish fish, Nerds ropes, peach rings, gummy grapefruits and sour watermelons. My kids definitely take after me and love trying any new sweet and sour concoctions like Nerds Clusters, sour skittles and these gummy candies:
As an adult, my tastes have evolved a bit. I can't tolerate too many straight gummy candies anymore (my blood sugar skyrockets and I feel jittery) but Trader Joes makes these addicting Super Sour Scandinavian Swimmers that are delicious. I have tried some low sugar gummy candies that actually hit the spot but they are expensive. Currently I tend more towards a chocolate candy if I'm craving a sweet treat, with my favorites being KitKats, Snickers and Hershey Bars, oh my gosh this box is perfect!
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| Bone-appetit ;) |
I don't think we will ever be a house that gives out full size candy bars, although that is a good goal for when we have disposable income one day. Everybody loves those people! We have always just left out a bowl on our front steps and taken the kids trick or treating. The thought of being home and answering the doorbell all night sounds terrible to me since I typically avoid answering the phone or a door, but I'm thankful for those who do it!
The Songs
There are a surprising amount of Halloween songs! The kids ask Alexa to play Spooky Scary Skeletons, This is Halloween, Monster Mash, Thriller, Ghostbusters, The Purple People Eater, I Want Candy, We Got the Treats, and Love Potion Number Nine.
The Costumes
We've already had the kids dress up in Halloween costumes this year for the Halloween Dance at their school last weekend. Xander's class put on a haunted stage walk through with a prison theme so we bought him an inmate outfit.
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| That's a fake bruise on our favorite inmate |
Declan and Brendan went as Milk and Cookie because it was the best financial option from amazon, plus it was cute!
Because my kids go to a Catholic school, they also have to dress up as saints on November 1st for All Saints Day. Here's a few photos from the past:
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| 2010 |
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| 2018 |
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| 2019 |
Overall, Halloween is not my favorite holiday as a parent - too scary, too evil/weird, too late, and too much work when we have to have a whole other costume ready to go the next morning. I hate hate hate all the creepy decorations that focus on death and blood and violence. We only have a few pumpkins and one sign that says "Welcome to Our Haunted House" that's not spooky at all. But to nobody's surprise, the kids love it and so we power through the costume changes and late bedtimes and sugar highs for the lovely childhood memories :)
What are your favorite Halloween candies? Do you decorate? Any costumes planned yet?
Only one kid is going in costume- he made a minecraft mask and outfit. Everyone else is too old 😞.
ReplyDeleteI tend to give out 2 smaller candies, and anymore try to make sure we have nut free and gluten free options.
We carve a pumpkin or two, but I'm not feeling the decorating bug this year. Bit Halloween is nice - you can still hand out candy if you didn't decorate your yard with witches and gravestones. It's a low bar, which suits me!
That bruise looks real!
The low bar is a very good point :) Only one trick-or-treater left? What are your kid's ages?
Delete10-30. Remember, I'm old! My teens will hand out candy, and my 11 year old has some issues right now, so I won't force it. Halloween is for fun, not stress.
DeleteI don't love Halloween either. I didn't even bother getting the bin of a few decorations out this year. I always enjoyed making the kids' Halloween costumes when they were young, because I love to get my creative juices flowing. I hate the leftover candy. HATE. We are trying to steer the two little girls away from junk food. That's a constant battle and next week is gonna be rough. I love candy corn and I like Reece Peanut Butter Cups. Of course. I thought that bruise was real. Glad it's not!
ReplyDeleteLove the milk and cookies! This year, we're doing a Mario Brothers theme. Growing up as evangelical Protestants, we never participated in Halloween, and while I certainly don't like any occult/demonic overtones I actually really love the community aspect of the celebration. I read somewhere that Halloween is one of the last cultural "feasts" that we celebrate as an entire community rather than just individually with our families and I LOVE that part of it. Several of the streets in our neighborhood go all in with lots of decorations and creative things (one house always has these old wooden puzzles set up for the kids and if they solve the puzzle they get an entire bag of Twizzlers) and most people sit outside on their porches to hand out the candy so it just feels like one big street festival.
ReplyDeleteInevitably we're still getting kids ready when the trick or treating hours officially begin (it's always 6-8 PM on Halloween night) so we answer the doorbell for the people that are actually on time ;) and then leave the bowl out on the porch while we go around. I circle back a few times during the evening to refill the bowl. My hope is always that we run out of candy by the end of the night!
I used to like it when the first kids were young.....now with ten kids, I'm kind of over it. I'm trying to convince the teenagers to take the younger kids trick or treating so I can skip it. I think the Day of the Dead tradition of visiting the graveyards seems so much more beautiful. But I live in Baptist country and I don't think they'd appreciate me visiting their ancestors' cemeteries to pray for them.
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