Witching you a Happy Halloween!

This week is Halloween and I'm reminiscing a little. I remember a time in my life when Halloween was such a big deal. Seemingly everyone celebrated the holiday and it was just plain fun. We'd trick-or-treat, bob for apples, tell ghost stories, go to haunted houses, etc. That was back when you got homemade treats such as popcorn balls, fudge and cupcakes when you went trick-or-treating. We even had Halloween parties at school where we were allowed to dress up in our costumes and have a parade around the school. Man, those were the days!

I don't know where those days went, but they certainly don't exist anymore. Children don't often have Halloween parties at school, and if they do, they have to refer to them by another name such as "Fall Festival" or something similar. No one gives out homemade treats to trick-or-treaters anymore. Now we're afraid someone will try to poison our children or put needles or razor blades in their treats.

I realize there are groups of people in our country who don't celebrate Halloween for various reasons, with the main reason being religion. That's a choice people have to make for themselves and their families and of course that's totally acceptable, but what I don't understand is why the rest of us can't still celebrate the holiday in the same traditional way. Our kids love Halloween, and for them it's all about dressing up and pretending to be someone else for one evening. It's also about hauling home a whole bunch candy in a big ol' plastic pumpkin. To them Halloween is harmless fun, and it holds no sinister, evil meaning whatsoever.

For the last few years we've put up a Halloween tree (See pictures) and the boys just love it. We carve pumpkins and put out a few other decorations as well. It's so fun to watch how excited the kids get when the decorations come out of storage. I know soon enough they'll be too old to really enjoy Halloween in the same way, but I want them to have some long-lasting memories of the holiday, just as I do.