Halloween State of Mind
I love Halloween... like a lot! It’s always been my favorite holiday. This could be because I am a child of divorce and this was the one holiday they didn’t make me rush and split between the families or just that I’ve always been fascinated by graveyards, the night sky, things that go bump in the night and werewolves- I love it all! As an adult, I see it more as a way of life instead of one day of the year! So I’m going to explain what that means and why I think you should also live in a Halloween state of mind!
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about Halloween is candy! I love candy and sweets, but on Halloween, the excitement is getting the candy, not necessarily the candy itself (except for the three musketeers those are always exciting!)If you really think about it though, trick or treating is a beautiful thing! A whole community/ neighborhood comes together to celebrate, decorate and/or GIVE!! They give candy and prizes but they also give the kids the Halloween experience! I don’t mean just scaring them telling them they are cute; in the times we live in, going up to a strangers door is SUPER scary, but at Halloween, they get to do it, even with lots of encouragement! Though, their fear maybe there but its lined more with anticipation and excitement! This is a skill and experience a lot of adults take for granted now, but is super important to let kids know it’s okay to walk up and knock even though they don’t know what’s on the other side! Halloween is a great time to learn fear doesn’t have to stop you! Even if what you find on the other side of the door is SUPER TERRIFYING, you can face it and keep going on to the next door. The adventure doesn’t ever have to end!
Then there’s the trick or treating itself. You’ve knocked on the door you say trick or treat, they give you a prize, and you say thank you- those are the instructions. Simple concept, but important life lessons! I have a two-year-old. She has very little experience with celebrating Halloween but she knows the instructions on how it works… kind of. She wants to say please instead of trick or treat and she also believes it has to be dark outside or it’s not really trick or treating, but she gets the idea. She knows that we are going on a long walk with our family together; her sisters will go with her and it’s going to be big awesome fun! Yes, every house will be a little different than the next and every interaction will be different as well but she knows what to expect. She also knows the candy goes in the bag and stays in the bag until we get home. We have been talking about trick or treating all month. She is learning to create an expectation for what she is preparing to do. She is learning cause and effect. She’s learning interaction with strangers (the healthy kind- not stranger danger)! It may be just trick or treating to some, but her and other young ones they are learning so much about the world around them!
The next thing I think about is the costumes! The possibilities are endless! You can literally be anything you can imagine! You have complete permission to be something that is out of your comfort zone, but, “it’s Halloween so it’s okay!” The best thing about dressing up is that you allow yourself to think of yourself completely different or you can push your already amazing characteristic to the extreme! Can you imagine if you gave yourself this permission every day? Let your work uniform be your superman cape! Wear that dress just because it’s fun and it makes you feel good- who cares if you are 30 and it has the hundred acre woods on it? Let yourself imagine who you really want to be and be that person every time you walk out the door! Even if you have to fake it till you make it!
Also with the topic of costumes and decorating, I love that you can take the most ordinary things and make them into an extraordinary idea! A stick can quickly become a magic wand, a plastic crown can make you a princess, and eye patch can make you a pirate…the list is endless! In our house, we make a lot of our costumes. This year, my 10-year-old is being the villain Poison Ivy. She didn’t buy a costume, she bought leggings with flowers on it and a long sleeve green shirt. She also got vines to wrap down her arms and in her hair. I love how she made Poison Ivy fit into her style and all the thought and effort she put into it! She thought through how to make what she would be comfortable in, but also would make it very obvious who she was being. I feel like this is an important skill to build as well! She didn’t compromise her needs just to be Poison Ivy! She creatively found a way to do it all! I couldn’t be prouder!!
Lastly, being from Georgia, I feel like I have to at least mention the fact that I do on occasion hear things like “ I don’t celebrate Halloween because it’s the devils holiday” or “you shouldn’t let your kids dress up as magical creatures, the devil, monsters, ungodly creations etc…” I not really going to “teach” on this today, (because it would be a book instead of a blog!!) but I strongly disagree with all of it! I teach my kids that they are magical creatures daily! They hold the power inside them to be anything and to do anything they want. I also teach them that devil was once a beautiful angel and monsters can look like your friend’s mom or dad. I do my very best to not label them or put them in a box and I encourage them to not do that to themselves or others. Then again I’ve also told them ghosts are just people that aren’t in a body, no scarier than the people at the store, that vampires don’t bite sassy girls, so they are safe, and I married their daddy because he’s a werewolf so… you may not want to take advice from me!
Leaving you with all that, I hope everyone has a safe, but spooky Halloween! Don’t forget to take the time to find the magic and adventure in everything you do today and every single day! Life is more fun when you live in a Halloween state of mind.
