Hundred bucks says your kids are going to grow up resenting you for this. That’s assuming they don’t already.
What’s the good in horror? A better question is, what’s the bad in horror? How is dressing like a vampire deterimental to a kid? I can understand not wanting to feed your kid a bunch of candy. I can (almost) understand not wanting your kid to emulate things you consider “sinful” or “ungodly.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but from your post, I gather neither of these are major issues for you. So what if Halloween doesn’t serve some higher purpose? Isn’t it enough if it’s just fun?
If the gore thing is such a big deal, dress your kid like a princess, or a pirate, or whatever. I remember in the fourth grade, a friend of mine dyed his hair green, cut the bottom out of a plastic garbage can, and went as Oscar the Grouch. IIRC, he won an award at our school’s costume competition. Another friend once braided her bright red hair around some wire hangers and went as Pippi Longstocking. Personally, I was a purist as a kid. My costume had to be scary, or it wasn’t worth wearing. Zombies were a favorite. I always wanted one of those fancy latex masks, so one year my dad suggested we make our own. We started working on it in July, and barely finished it in time. We started with a styrofoam block that we carved into a vaguely head-like shape, molded some clay over it for features, covered it in latex, and the cut the styrofoam out of the inside. We popped the lenses out of a pair of those big CHiPs-style sunglasses for the eyes. The thing weighed a good ten pounds, but it was easily the coolest costume ever made by anyone in the history of Halloween. Why? Because my dad and I made it together.
Holidays are what you make of them, Halloween moreso than any other. It might take a little work, but you can use Halloween to instill whatever values you think are important in your kids. Unless one of your values is that people shouldn’t enjoy themselves.
Yes, and looking at it from the other side of the argument, I wasn’t aware that “ninja” was a Japanese stereotype (in the sense that if someone asked me to name some stereotypes of Japanese people, “ninja” would probably not be on the list). Any more than “mountie” is a Canadian stereotype.
(Yes, you have my permission to go as mounties for Halloween. Or even witches. :rolleyes: )
In my son’s schools parade yesterday there was a little girl as a Christmas Tree!
So creative and different!
A few kids were unallowed to celebrate, so during the parade and bingo games aftrwards, they had to go to a room for crafts, or their parents picked them up!
My son’s teacher even left during the day because he doesn’t celebrate it either!
It wasn’t as cold as we’d thought it would be last night, so we had fun.
Only 75 pieces of candy, though.
I have to agree with what jarbabyj said: Halloween is fun.
Its supposed to be.
I feel bad that some don’t celebrate it, its fun for the kids.
My sister’s one-year-old baby was dressed as a bunch of roses in a basket. I can’t wait to see those photos.
I find it sadder to learn that some people are trying to put a stop to Halloween than a lot of things I’ve read on this board. Halloween always meant costumes, candy and trick-or-treating to me and it’s a great holiday that screams, “This one’s just for you kids.”
Man, I never thought I’d have the misfortune of actually coming face to face with anyone as twisted as to try and suck the joy out of Halloween until last night. My neighborhood was SWARMING with Trick-or-Treaters (i’ve never had that many, I ran out of candy in an hour!). At one point, I made my bf tend to the little tykes while I watched the kitten (don’t want a solid black kitten running out of the house in the pitch black of night on HALLOWEEN!) and he came running in pointing to the ceiling saying “freak!! freak!!”
Apparently my upstairs neighbor came down to yell at him for handing out candy because he shouldn’t be celebrating that “Pagan Holiday.” sigh
At least we had a good laugh out of it. I made sure every trick or treater I got after that was greeted with a very loud “HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! AREN’T YOU CUTE!!” Aimed upstairs…
Well, don’t stop there, blackeyes. Either fill us in or don’t start at all. We have others posts to read, you know, and we can’t keep rechecking all of them.