Monday, October 6, 2008

Halloween is coming!

Ahhhh. October. Don't you just love this time of year? Fall is setting in and the cool air is blowing. Not too hot, not too cold, just right. But, that is not the only thing I love about October. Nope, I know that Halloween is just around the corner and I start to get excited. What a great holiday. It's so much fun. Everyone gets to dress up as ghosts or witches or vampires. You can be anything you want to be. How often do you get to do that? Not very, at least in my life. That's one reason I love reading so much. It takes me out of this world and puts me in another one. It's an escape from reality. Well, guess what? So is Halloween. It's a night when anything can happen. When thoughts about the supernatural become foremost in everyone's minds. It's the one day a year when it's cool to be different.

Not that I'd want everyday to be Halloween. If that was the case, I'm sure I wouldn't love it so much. It would be normal and boring, no longer special. Teens would try to rebel by being good. Could you even imagine that? Of course, that would be a unique story idea, wouldn't it? Hmmm. Anyway. I'm sitting in the computer room at my apartment complex in the middle of the night and looking out the giant window at the dark, wet streets and getting excited for what is to come in just a few short weeks. No one ever said I was normal. LOL.

One of my favorite things about the costumes, is when people take the initiative to make their own. I love to see a costume that hasn't been bought at some shop where every tenth person has bought the same thing. I hate watching the night pass and knowing I've seen at least fifty kids in the same getup. It probably stems from my own childhood. I never had a store bought costume. I can remember my mom trying to figure out what to put together to make me a costume for the night. It was really a lot of fun going through the stages of costume building. If we put this shirt with that skirt, we could get a cowgirl. Or, if we put these two together, you could be a princess. I'll never forget my favorite costume ever. My mom tied strips of cloth in my hair and I looked like that woman from HeeHaw. It was a lot of fun. And I have to say, I was the only one dressed like that. Of course, I understand that scary is the way to go, but sometimes, I like the unique just as much.

So, tell me about your favorite holiday traditions or your favorite costume. I'd love to hear about them. I'm getting excited now. Hmmm. What could I be this year?

5 deadly screams:

J.K. Coi said...

Nice blog. I love halloween and I love making my own costumes, but sometimes for my son it's just as good to buy the costume. He's at the age where he's in love with the superheroes, and for 14.00 I can get him a pretty good looking spiderman costume that would have cost me over 50.00 to make, so I buy it. Hopefully, next year he'll be into something that we can be a little more creative with.

Molly Daniels said...

I have four costumes that came to mind while reading:

Age 10: I was supposed to be a beauty queen; mom dressed me in a black sweatshirt and jeans (it was COLD outside!) with one of her pretty nightgowns; a dark curly wig, and bright red lips.

Age 15: My sis and I wore our red-and-white striped PJ's. Mom had made us silver wings and gold beaks, and we wore signs saying 'Love a Jailbird Today'.

In HS: Wore TWO sleeveless formals (mother's), layered on top of each other for length. Had to wear a sweatshirt again (cold weather!), and draped a purple shawl across my shoulders, for Aphrodite.

In college: Wore one of my formals, lacy gloves, and my idiot boyfriend rented the wrong uniform. He was supposed to be in Union Blue, but instead wore Confederate Gray. I told everyone I was Glenda the Good Witch, instead of Brett or Scarlett O'Hara, as I'd planned!

Judith Leger said...

Halloween has to be my favorite holiday. Mainly because it's the start of string of holidays that come back to back. It's also the time of year when the spooks come out and quite frankly, I love to read a spooky story. Also, love to sit outside before a fire, hot tea, cocoa, cider in my hands and visiting with friends. When the boys (I have three sons) were little, we'd all dress up and head out to trick or treat. All these fond memories adds up to looking forward to this time of year!

Gracen Miller said...

I'm in agreement, I love Halloween. My husband decorates for Christmas and I decorate for Halloween. It's so much fun being able to go dark side without people thinking I'm a freak...like usual. ;-)

Growing up, all my costumes were handmade because my mother couldn't afford to purchase a costume. She made me a Raggedy Anne costume one time and, like you said, no one else looked like me.

But, with my youngest son, as J.K. Coi said, it's easier to buy the superhero costume than to create it. My oldest has had more than one homemade costume because he tends to want to be different, unique, or something he's currently into. One year, he was Davy Crockett (everyone thought he was Daniel Boone though, but he didn't care) and the only thing I purchased for that outfit was his coonskin hat. I used a homemade fringed vest that my mother-in-law made for my husband many, many years ago and then finished out the costume. This year, my oldest plans to be Dean Winchester off Supernatural...easy, but no one will know who he is. And my youngest is going to be Batman, which is just as well because he runs around town in his batman mask all the time anyway. I've been calling him "Batman" a lot lately. He was screaming "Roll Tide" at a vehicle parked next to us at the traffic light the other day with his Batman mask on. I just shook my head and laughed.

Anonymous said...

Halloween is a highly celebrated holiday in our household. Halloween is one of our favorite time of year too.