Halloween Purists

I've always considered myself to be a Halloween purist, but I think that I have met my match in my son.

Like me, Halloween is his absolute favorite "holiday." It is sacred above all other holidays, one that is planned well in advance, and with great care and detail. Shel has always been like this. Up until he was 3 we had to convince him to go see what was under the Christmas tree (this has long been cured), but Halloween was always a different story. The scarier the better.

He nods in sympathy every time I recount my sad story of going out one Halloween when I was a child wearing the most glorious witch costume. My face was covered with green Vasaline, my mother had made a gorgeous costume with many layers, but the piece de resistance was the hat. Three feet tall with a wide brim and a point so sharp you could prick your finger. However, it was very cold that year and my mother insisted that I wear a cap under my witch hat. I reluctantly gave in and the only cap I could find was a little pink knitted number that was more Little Bo Beep than Wicked Witch of the West (or East in my case).

I had been out trick or treating for about an hour when I started getting comments on my "cute" costume. My spider sense was tingling. Witches aren't cute. What had changed? Oh no. I slowly put my hand on my head. MY WITCH HAT WAS GONE!!! Some how in all the excitement of getting more candy than my sister I had lost my fabulous witch hat. I immediately wanted to return home, but my father refused to take me home as my sister wanted to get more candy. I was humiliated.

So being that it is a couple of weeks from Halloween, and considering that Shel has started begging to decorate, yesterday we were at the Atwater Market where I saw the cutest bunches of corn husks that I thought would look great on the side of the house with little, sparkly orange lights to decorate for Halloween.

It is with pride that I can report that Shel would have nothing to do with this. He is emphatic that Halloween has to be scary, not cute.

Even though we will have skeletons coming up through the front lawn, and headstones, and a big scary ball with a talking head, I may still try to sneak in some corn husks with little orange, sparkly lights.