It’s beginning to look a lot like . . . Halloween

by Charity Tahmaseb

Ah, Halloween, when visions of bite-sized Snicker bars dance in children’s (and possibly their parents’) heads. To get you in the Halloween spirit (no pun intended) Kiki Clark has a great craft idea for the trick-or-treaters headed your way in a few weeks.

The year my son was five, we walked the neighborhood, our way lit by a full moon. It was nearly sixty degrees. Considering it can (and does) snow on Halloween in Minnesota, this was an incredibly balmy night. Andrew wanted to know about trick-or-treating when I was a kid.

I told him about the time I was nine and some teenagers jumped me and my best friend and made off with my plastic pumpkin stuffed with candy. I put up a fight, but he had the pumpkin. I had the strap—which broke.

This is not the story to tell your gallant, five-year-old son. He was beside himself with the idea that someone might steal his mommy’s candy. He wanted to build a time machine and go back in time to rescue me. And not a year passes when he doesn’t mention it.

Halloween is big at our house. And it’s not the candy. It’s the costumes. That same year, Andrew went as a pirate. He fell asleep on the couch that night, not eating candy, but clutching his pirate sword. Since then, he has graduated from cute to scary.


There’s a complicated system of what’s acceptable and what isn’t in costumes when you’re ten. He is, technically, Skullzor, according to the package label. Fortunately, there’s his sister to supply the cute factor.

I’m indulgent when it comes to the costumes (as you can see). But in our house, a costume is like a diamond—it’s forever. Long after our pumpkins are dusted with snow, the kids will be wearing their costumes, inventing stories to go along with them. As far as I’m concerned, that sort of creative play is worth every penny, even when spent on “gothic skulls” and Snow White’s princess wig and wand.

posted by Charity Tahmaseb @ 10:15 AM