Trick-or Treating (2024)

The last time I was here, I said that I'd never been a real Halloween enthusiast.  After I published that post, I realized that it made me sound like a bit of a curmudgeon, as if we didn't let our boys enjoy the costumes and the candy back in the day.  My husband and I definitely let them do so.  We never put on costumes ourselves, or planned big family theme costumes.  Well...that happened just a few times, I suppose.  (As you can see in this old post.)

Anyway, suffice it to say that the Pearl boys definitely trick-or-treated.

I’ve just never been a fan of the bloody, scary costumes, the skeletons and vampires and all that dark stuff.  I like cute.  I like kids dressed like Disney princesses, or animals, or dinosaurs, or policemen.  (That was a popular one around here this year.  We saw about a dozen trick-or-treaters, both girls and boys, in blue uniforms with silver badges.)  The scariest costume among the nine grandchildren who came over to celebrate at our house was the Grinch.  Its wearer was a so-not-scary four (going on five)-year-old girl!

I REALLY like the All Saints Day costumes kids wear at Catholic elementary schools, so much more than most Halloween costumes.  Here's our grandson Junior, dressed as St. Augustine on November 1 over at his school.

Less Freddy Krueger; more St. Augustine.  Please!  But the string of Pearls (and a few of their friends) who came over to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood on Halloween were a pretty cute, non-scary bunch.

Before the gang hit the mean streets in search of sugary goodness, we had chili, Buffalo chicken dip, hot dogs, mac and cheese, and spiced cider available at our house.  (And a really awesome Oreo trifle dessert--a family favorite fondly known as "Heavenly Dirt"--for afterward.)

While the kids were off trick-or-treating, my husband and I did as we always do: we sat together out front with cocktails and handed out candy to the hundreds of kids who were out and about.  Our neighborhood is truly Halloween Central.  It’s such an ideal place to trick-or-treat; the many houses are close together, it’s well lit, and people around here really get into it, with all the decorating and so forth.  Word must have gotten out that on October 31, this is the place to be, because families from other neighborhoods come in and the parking lot at our neighborhood pool/clubhouse gets filled up.  Two of our VA boys' neighborhoods are less-than ideal for trick-or-treating (too rural, or too hilly with houses too far apart), which is lucky for us, because we get to have their kids come here each year!

Those cheap Walmart jack-o-lantern t-shirts are about as close as we get to wearing Halloween costumes!  (We are not those fun parents, like our son #3 and his wife, who love to dress up right along with the kids!)

My favorite part of Halloween every year since we've been here in VA is when our grandchildren come back to the house with their booty after a hard night's work.  Some of them go to the basement to play; but without fail, there are always a few of them who want to sit out front in the dark with Papa and Grammy and help to hand out candy while their parents visit inside (until our supply inevitably runs out, for no matter how much we buy, it's never quite enough!).  And it seems like it's different kids outside with us each year.  Those feel like magical times to me--unplanned and organic, simple yet profoundly sweet--and I hope that when they're older it will be a special memory for them.