Halloween Party

For a good number of years now, we have hosted an Easter egg hunt.  I always loved doing it.  It was fun to plan, shop for egg-stuffing candy, pounce on after-Easter plastic eggs half-price.  I felt a wonderful connection to the community as bags of eggs started showing up on our doorstep when the big day neared.  Going out in back of the school early the morning of the hunt, in all kinds of spring weather, was exiting.  Seeing who came out to help always made me feel so grateful.  Talking to friends and family and taking picturesque photos to keep forever were the highlights, as well as the kids' overflowing baskets when the mad dash was over.  All fun, hardly any work.

But this year, we were out of town and didn't do it.  Nobody cared, and guess what?  It was fun to skip it.  Fun not to buy any Easter egg stuff, fun to save money, fun to not have egg detritus all over the house.  The "Easter egg hunt that never was" gave me the impetus to cancel all future Halloween parties, too.  As awesome as it was to look forward to that, I'm ready to move on.

The Halloween party started as a good way for me to gather my friends and family around me and have a ball.  Last year ruined it, though.  A group of very large teenagers in masks came with their mom and bullied their way around the activities in about five minutes.  Then the mom came to me asking "what else" there was.  I told her it looked like her "kids" had done everything and bid her good-bye, but she demanded to know what would become of the candy they had brought to contribute if they left.  They stayed to the end, when we drop the candy from the balcony, just to get more candy.  More, more, more.

I felt like my efforts and money were being wasted on people I didn't even know, who were only there to "get" something out of it.  Once people started expecting something, I felt too open to criticism.  So it's the end of an era.  It might seem like a funny time to mention a Halloween party, but we plan for it all year.  Only now we're not planning for it, and it's OK.

It's time for new traditions, new ways to direct our energy.  Now that we have teenagers, I want them HOME at our house on Halloween night, even if - especially if! - all their friends are there too.  If you miss us, you can stop by our driveway Halloween night for our new tradition.  We don't know what it is yet, but I do know that we will be home and nobody will be demanding "what else" I have to offer them.  It will just be a time to connect with our neighbors and share our friendship.  Maybe the hundreds of dollars we usually spend on the Halloween party will go towards as many glazed donuts as we can eat!  That sounds like a good start!