Halloween Observations

Hope you all had a great Halloween!  Me??  WELL. Saturday night I took my younger daughter Trick-or-Treating.  Being new to the neighborhood, I was on HIGH ALERT.  Paying extra special attention to everything.  Such as, Why do so many people here have curtains? And why do these be-curtained people not have their porch lights on?  Or answer their doorbells?  Even when we rang more than once.  I could see faint light through these window treatments, so they were obviously inside, watching TV or playing on the computer.  But they weren’t answering their doors.  Granted, I had to stick our candy out front in a bowl while we went trick-or-treating ourselves.  Long story short: my husband & our older daughter were out of town, so we didn’t have anyone to “tend” to the house like we usually would.  And our jack-o-lantern must have blown out (it was windy).  Our 250 yr old house doesn’t have a porch light, and we also don’t have a door bell.  And no one was home.  SO it may have LOOKED like we were not participating in Halloween, even though I spent $25 on candy that sat outside in a bowl, uneaten.  What I am saying here – is my new neighborhood is way quiet.

I have come up w/ 7 Levels of Halloween Participation.  I had lots of time between Trick-or-Treats to do this.

1) The Die-Hard.

Grown adults who retain the spirit of Halloween they had as children.  These folks go the full 9 yards.  They don costumes.  Their houses don costumes.  Put simply: Die Hards DO Halloween.  They spend months in advance preparing for the Big Night.  They assemble props.  They install theatrics.  They make constructions worthy of awards.  These are the houses all the children want to visit, though their spooky extravagance may leave little ones cringing in fear.

2) The Holiday Enthusiast.

These people like Halloween b/c they like holidays in general.  They do window displays.  They hang flags.  If they have a front yard, they own at least one large inflatable.  Often these inflatables cover multiple themes, such as Holiday + Local Sports Team (i.e., satan wearing an Eagles jersey).  The Holiday Enthusiast celebrates Halloween the same way they celebrate all holidays.  With eagerness and commercial support.

3) The Tepid Observer.

These people give out candy only b/c it’s expected.  They really do not want to, but are afraid if they don’t they will garner negative attention.  A few are secretly afraid of being egged. or T.P.’ed.  They never decorate for the holiday.  To do so would garner unwanted attention.  Mostly they just want to be left alone, but it’s hard to be left alone when people expect candy.  So on Halloween they answer the door and smile wanly as they drop a single KitKat into your bag.  Then they close the door and retreat into blessed solitude once more.

4) The Reveler.

This category covers those who like to PAR-TAY!  No need to elaborate.

5) The Non-Committal.

These Halloween participants are there in name only.  Not b.c they don’t want to celebrate Halloween, but b.c circumstance gets in the way.  These are the folks who leave a bowl of candy out on the front porch w/ the light on.  They may or may not decorate.  They may or may not have a lit jack-o-lantern.  Many parents fall into this category.  Also, older people.  Or the young.  Pretty much anyone who has a life and cannot stick around on a Saturday night to dole out candy.

6) The Hell Raiser.

This person believes October 31st belongs to the devil and trick-or-treating is akin to satan worship.  All who participate in Halloween ritual are pagans.  These people will not be home Halloween night b.c they are at church celebrating something not called Halloween but for which most of them are costumed and receiving candy.

7) The Unexcused.

This category encompasses the rest of the world.  Who say TO HELL! with Halloween – not for any religious reason, but for sheer (INSERT WHATEVER LAME-O EXCUSE YOU CAN COME UP W/ HERE).  These people cannot be bothered to buy a bag of candy.  They have more important things to do w. their time.  Like stay home on a Saturday night, watching TV or playing video games.  Behind their iron fortress of curtains. While the costumed stand outside ringing in the dark.  Treatless.

18 thoughts on “Halloween Observations

  1. Is there a combo of # 4 and #5 all in or all out??? I don’t think my category is listed 🙂
    Although I did go to the door in my jammies b/c I thought all children would be home in bed by a certain time…they were extremely cute and GRATEFUL!!!

    We did Trunk or Treat at Church with the granddarlings 🙂

  2. OH MY GOOODNESSS a.Studio! Cannot believe the wonder of your house. It will take me some time to read the posts — but incredible comes to mind just from the pictures…WOWZA! Keep up the amazing work.

    There must be Connie – I am a 4/5 combo myself! I was thinking the same thing about this place too — but as Curly can attest, we have TOO MUCH WORK & waaay too much STUUUUUFFFF. hahhahahah! Glad you had fun at the trunk or treat – sounds fun!! xoxo

  3. PAR-TAY!!!!

    Ok, so about the curtain thing. I’m from Miami and it DEEPLY CONCERNED me that so many people in Raleigh, NC had no curtains. Like multi-million dollar homes that could be cased from the street!

    As you can imagine, WE DO NOT EVER OPEN OUR CURTAINS. (At least for the window facing the street.)

    Also, you forgot to add 8) GOTHS because their thrilled that the world is finally AS IT SHOULD BE (a wonderland of awesome) although this is not necessarily indicative of anything PERSONAL ON MY BEHALF, I’m JUST SAYING.

  4. Steph – the house is totally jealous now.. PS: I caught the rancher a few down checking out the next door neighbor’s shed. I just pretended i didn’t notice, but now I’m wondering – should I say something?

    Hayden, have you ever heard of a GOTHess>??

  5. Sorry it didn’t go better. I guess I was a “mummy” last night – my son and new daughter in law were in town and we had a party for them, so all my kids were here (happy sigh!). Plus we all kept going in the den to check on the game. There were some great plays. (Like the DOUBLE STEAL! But, oops, wrong team).

  6. hmmm…how do we measure up? each year, we go to husban-dito’s childhood victorian home where his mom lives…and we have the following:
    a. smoke machine
    b. LOTS of props–heads, arms, weapons, grotesque stuff
    c. music…’halloween’ soundtrack
    d. a ton of 30-somethings (this year there were 10 of us) dressed up as zombies making small children (and their parents) cry.
    it’s SO MUCH FUN. we’re the “SCARY HOUSE” or monster house in town.
    e. ant dresses as michael myers and has his own fan club of neighborhood kids.

    tres fun, no?

  7. Well Trace. We now have $25 worth of chocolate to consume.. it could be worse! PS: Georgia asked to be a mummy – but I was afraid it would rain (which it did) – sooo glad I wasn’t stuck cleaning all the TP off her!

    PPS: GOOOOOO PHILSS@@@!!!

    Boy Curls that sounds like a blast. didn’t you severely traumatize one child last year?? kisses!

  8. I’m No 7….
    I know, I’m sorry!
    I never ever close my iron gates on the driveway… except for on Halloween! (Shut up tight and tied with string to stop people knocking on my door.)
    The thing is, it hasn’t really taken off here yet… it’s changing, I mean the shops are full of stuff now but at one time it was just an American celebration….
    My kids are too old now too… one of them isn’t even a kid anymore. He has a beard.
    :o)

  9. Sorry that G didn’t get more candy. We handed out candy to many a neighborhood child, and a few 60 year old men slightly inebriated with a bag saying “its for the children”…I am not sure what category other than naive that puts me into.

  10. Christy, if you encountered No. Sevens, you know what you need to do… there is a reason it is called “TRICK or TREAT”!! Did you get your treat???? NOOOOOO, then it is time for some TRICKS! I hope you took note of their addresses… you can get them next year on Mischief Night!

  11. Sue – you are too funny!! How bout you join me in blogdom as a sidekick?? I promise not to make you look like Ed McMann. Or Andy Richter. Robin. Tonto. Daryl Daryl or Daryl.

    Oh Laura, you know I couldn’t do that. I would just THINK TRICKS and smile smile smile..

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