I remember as a kid, how exciting Halloween was. Getting to dress up in costume all day and then get free candy. What wouldn’t a kid love about it? It was just kind of magical during childhood. A day of fun and whimsy where even school was somewhere you wanted to be for that day.
My dad would take my sisters and I trick-or-treating while my mom would stay home to pass out candy. We would walk for hours it seemed to fill our bags as full as possible. When our legs would get tired, my dad would have us take a break and sit while he told us stories. My sisters and I would listen intently until we felt rested enough to continue the quest for more candy.
After our bags were loaded down with all our loot, we would return home. We would excitedly dump all our treasure onto the living room floor to see what our bags contained. While we rifled through it all with glee, our mom would inform us that we could pick a few pieces of candy to have that night but the rest would be put into ziplocs and placed in the freezer with our name on the bag. Begrudgingly we would select a couple pieces and then watch morosely as the rest was packed away. Each day after Halloween, we were allowed two pieces of candy from our frozen stashes.
I was always amazed at how quickly that bag of candy would disappear. With only being allowed two pieces a day, to my child brain it seemed it would last forever. Inevitably, though, within a couple weeks all of it would be gone. My mom admitted years later that she would steal our candy while we were at school, mostly the chocolate. Oh the betrayal! It makes sense now because by the end of the candy bag, you only had the weird stuff and were left wondering where all the good candy had gone when you didn’t remember having eaten them.
Halloween as an adult just isn’t the same. If you dress up in costume and knock on people’s doors asking for candy, they are going to call the cops. People at work might bring in some treats but you can’t fill a pillow case up with it or you will get yelled at. Even carving pumpkins isn’t as fun. Of course, as a kid, your parents do most of the hard work but as an adult it’s you getting messy and dealing with the gross pumpkin guts.
None of the holidays seem as magical to me as they did when I was younger. It could be that with my job, you rarely get holidays off. Being at work tends to make everything less enjoyable. Or it could be that I have to spend my own money to get candy. Free always makes it better. Dressing in costume to hang out at home is also weird, so I have my dogs dress up instead. Steve hates that I dress the dogs in costumes. It was easier with our old dog Coco because she was smaller and with the Great Danes, it’s hard to find any costumes to fit them.
Maybe Halloween is meant to be just for kids. As adults, maybe it is just there as a nostalgic day for us, to look back at previous Halloweens in fond remembrance. It definitely is that for me and makes me glad to reminisce with my sisters about all the fun we used to have.