Does Halloween reflect the economy?
Yesterday we celebrated Halloween. If you know me well, you know that we enjoy decorating for the holiday. We put up a yard display and hand out candy. Last year we went through almost 16 bags of candy. This year I bought 18 in expectation of larger crowds, because every year we seem to get more trick-or-treaters.
I was swamped all this week, but we still put up the graveyard, set out birds, pumpkins and lights. (We didn't put out the fog machines because it had been really warm during the day and it would have taken more than 20 bags of ice to cool the lawn down enough to allow the fog to stick somewhat close to it.) I had a table in the middle of the graveyard with a bunch of body parts on it and cooler labeled "organs for sale" (sign cleverly done by Feed-nacho-man) that contained some dry ice (for fog), body parts and candy.
I'm the kind of person who believes you must be in costume to get candy. But I do buy lollipops and smarties for those who show up without a costume (because after I tell them the rules about costumes for candy, I do want to encourage them to come back next year to get a treat. :) )
This year we had very few trick-or-treaters. It was really sad. There were about 5 of them who didn't have costumes. Even with the increased costumed ToT'ers, I only went through about four and a half bags of candy. We tore down at 9, but we left the porch lights on until 9:30 before finally calling it done.
Looking around my little neighborhood, a lot of the houses didn't have their porch lights on. I heard from some of my friends in other parts of the subdivision that it was similar in their neighborhoods, but that cars were loaded up and doing their trick-or-treating in the gated and super expensive neighborhoods in the subdivision.
I can't believe that when the economy tanks, the first thing we do is take away the innocent celebration of Halloween. :( I hope next year is better, both in terms of the economy and the distraction of Halloween.
In other news, Calvinator was a really cute cow--he enjoyed going around and trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, stopping home once to drop off candy because his pumpkin was too heavy for him to carry. Feed-Nacho-Man was Master Chief, Domain-of-Death was a deathknight, and girl-of-science was Anakin's apprentice (whatever her name is.)
Calvin's best friend stopped by with her family. Since we missed his school's costume parade, it was nice to see them!! Since Halloween is on Saturday next year, I'm starting to think about how we can celebrate and maybe allow the boys to have a party, too, since FNM is "too old" to trick-or-treat.
I was swamped all this week, but we still put up the graveyard, set out birds, pumpkins and lights. (We didn't put out the fog machines because it had been really warm during the day and it would have taken more than 20 bags of ice to cool the lawn down enough to allow the fog to stick somewhat close to it.) I had a table in the middle of the graveyard with a bunch of body parts on it and cooler labeled "organs for sale" (sign cleverly done by Feed-nacho-man) that contained some dry ice (for fog), body parts and candy.
I'm the kind of person who believes you must be in costume to get candy. But I do buy lollipops and smarties for those who show up without a costume (because after I tell them the rules about costumes for candy, I do want to encourage them to come back next year to get a treat. :) )
This year we had very few trick-or-treaters. It was really sad. There were about 5 of them who didn't have costumes. Even with the increased costumed ToT'ers, I only went through about four and a half bags of candy. We tore down at 9, but we left the porch lights on until 9:30 before finally calling it done.
Looking around my little neighborhood, a lot of the houses didn't have their porch lights on. I heard from some of my friends in other parts of the subdivision that it was similar in their neighborhoods, but that cars were loaded up and doing their trick-or-treating in the gated and super expensive neighborhoods in the subdivision.
I can't believe that when the economy tanks, the first thing we do is take away the innocent celebration of Halloween. :( I hope next year is better, both in terms of the economy and the distraction of Halloween.
In other news, Calvinator was a really cute cow--he enjoyed going around and trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, stopping home once to drop off candy because his pumpkin was too heavy for him to carry. Feed-Nacho-Man was Master Chief, Domain-of-Death was a deathknight, and girl-of-science was Anakin's apprentice (whatever her name is.)
Calvin's best friend stopped by with her family. Since we missed his school's costume parade, it was nice to see them!! Since Halloween is on Saturday next year, I'm starting to think about how we can celebrate and maybe allow the boys to have a party, too, since FNM is "too old" to trick-or-treat.