Tis’ the season to celebrate and I don’t mean Christmas. I’m talking about Halloween. It’s the season to put up the spooky decorations, dress up and take to the streets to gather some loot (aka candy), listen to scary stories and watch creepy movies, and participate in assorted haunted activities. I freely admit it…I just love this time of year. Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays.

I’ve always enjoyed it even as a kid but didn’t really get into the Halloween spirit until I was an adult with children.  The kids just have made it more fun. Having children gives you permission to do things you wouldn’t normally do, and be a kid again.

I do realize there are a lot of people who don’t like Halloween, and that’s fine. Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and opinions about All Hallows’ Eve. But me, I just happened to love it. And this is not about worshiping pagan rituals, sacrifices, or raising the dead. I celebrate it for other reasons. Some of them are:

Community
This is probably the main reason I love this ghostly holiday. It is truly the only community-based holiday there is. In our case, this includes my kids’ school’s Halloween festival, our spooky back yard treasure hunt, parties for both kids and adults, and trick-or-treating (which is the best part). Our neighborhood does it right on Halloween. It is always buzzing with excitement. Almost all of the houses on my street are lighted and decorated. The streets and sidewalks are filled with kids and families. It is festive, fun and a great way to socialize with friends and neighbors.

It’s all-inclusive
That’s right. This holiday is for both adults and children. Everyone gets to have fun and can dress-up.

It’s creative
This is the really the most fun part for me. I love being able to decorate, do crafts and activities, and create costumes. Dressing up is the best. This is the one time of year you can be whatever or whoever you want to be and nobody judges you (unless it’s a contest). My oldest really loves this part. He creates his costume from whatever he finds in the closet or combines costumes from years past to create something new. Three years ago he wore a Darth Vader mask with his Anakin Skywalker costume. He called himself Jed Vader, the brother/Jedi-wannabe no one ever talks about (maybe the family is embarrassed by him since he never could cut it.).

Best of all…candy!
I’m no fool. This is totally the best part of all. I have an incredible sweet tooth (mostly for chocolate) so any opportunity that I can load up on candy & chocolate guilt-free, I am all for. And, ofcourse, all of it is for the children, not me. Well, okay maybe a few for me.

I was curious to see what other people out there thought of Halloween. So I did a littledid a little looking around on the web. I am glad I did. I found quite a few like-minded folks out there. There were alot of good blog posts out there to choose from. It was hard to narrow it down but I found a really good one that completely sums up my feelings and thoughts on this spooky time of year. It’s a great story and I agree with this mom blogger, I wouldn’t have my family miss out on any of the fun of Halloween either. Here link is attached be sure to check it out.  http://bethwoolsey.com/2014/10/on-robin-hood-his-merry-men-and-why-we-celebrate-halloween-even-as-christians/ We also have a link to another good halloween site on our Facebook page. Check it out when you can.

I hope you have a fun, safe, and happy Halloween!