It's All about the Costumes

When the kids were little we would dress them up in costumes and take them to a few friend’s homes for some trick-or-treating. They didn’t need much candy and the fun was the costumesand showing off our babies. Things changed a little when we moved to Red River. The town does not exactly have neighborhoods so kids do not really do the old fashioned ToTing. Instead, the PTA would organize a fall festival/carnival for the kids at the Community House. Just about everyone in town would turn out, most dressed in costumes. Most of the costumes were homemade and great. We set up booths with games and such for the kids. They won prizes, but not usually candy. We gave out cheap toys and school supplies (rulers, pencils, erasers, etc). The cake auction was a big part of the evening and a real money maker for the PTA. After the carnival, parents would take their kids home, tuck them in bed, and head to the Bull of the Woods (local bar) for the real costume contest. Halloween was great fun.

After moving to Questa, the kids were older, we were home schooling, and due to some religious thoughts, we quit making Halloween such a big to-do. Maybe dressing up as witches and devils and such is probably not great. Maybe it is celebrating things that are basically evil. Maybe Halloween is a heathen holiday. I don’t think I really care. It is the costumes that are so much fun. Everyone loves to dress up. The fun is in coming up with crazy costumes that will have everyone laughing. The fun is in seeing what everyone else came up with and maybe finding others who had similar costumes as you. Costume parties are just the cat’s pajamas. Unfortunately, Halloween is the only time of the year that people tend to have such parties. Why is that?

Because everyone loves to wear costumes, our youth group at church started having a costume party usually on New Year’s Eve. Sometimes there was a theme; sometimes not. One thing is for sure, the young people loved planning and dressing up for the party. In fact, Jesse and her friends will use any excuse to dress in costume - like Valentine’s Day.

Last year, Jesse and her friends went to a coworker’ Halloween party dressed as past Presidents. They had more fun getting ready for the party and taking silly pictures than they actually had at the party. This year, no one had a party. Jesse was down last night. She wanted to pass herself off as a teen-ager and go trick-or-treating. She wanted to dress up her nieces and take them around to a few houses. I party pooped on her plans saying she was too old to TOT. So she started telling me Halloween jokes and laughing like they were really funny. What did Dracula’s girlfriend say after they kissed? Ouch! Why didn’t the skeleton go to the dance? He did not have any body to dance with. Why didn’t the skeleton cross the road? He didn’t have the guts. And so on…
Okay, maybe I should have let her go TOTing. Maybe she is still just a kid at heart.