Friday 30 October 2015

I don't like Halloween


 



There I’ve written it – I don’t like Halloween. When I was young we carved out swedes, put candles in them and made holes for string then carried them around. Yes, it was pretty lame. There were no pumpkins, or dressing up, or extra chances to let off fireworks, and there was certainly no trick or treating, and I’m so glad.

I would have hated dressing up – the pressure of finding a costume for a child who was larger than average and having to get my mother to make something. I hated fancy dress days at school as well. Now I know adults who dress up and decorate their houses, often a couple of weeks in advance – and they say Christmas is getting earlier each year - but I don’t get it.

On the night, I want to turn off all the lights and hide from the knocks at the door, but instead I reluctantly hand out sweets to the children who knock the door, glad that I don’t get many, and that most of them are with their parents. I don’t like the idea of sending children out to ask for sweets, or that there is a veiled threat of a trick if you don’t join in. I know people don’t see it that way, and I’m sure they have fun. I guess I’ll just be seen as a Halloween version of Scrooge.

So pardon me if I don’t enthuse, or hang spooky pumpkins, or spiders, or anything else on my blog or on Facebook. I’ll admire some costumes – although why they have to be sexy this or that for women I don’t know, including last year a sexy Ebola nurse – I kid you not.

Happy Halloween to those who enjoy it and for everyone else, including those who hide in the dark, at least it’s only one night a year.