Halloween is a sneakily busy holiday.
Halloween ushers in the craziness of the Holiday season. Much time, thought, and effort go into making this holiday a fun one for our crazies. If your children are anything like mine, they’ve been debating and discussing what they’re planning to be for Halloween this year since last Halloween. As the holiday has gotten closer, they’ve likely changed their minds many, many times as to what their costume of choice might be and, in the process, you’ve likely lost your mind. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I’ve spent way too many hours searching for costumes, making costumes, exchanging costumes for appropriate sizes, and hunting down every last accessory to complete the outfit of choice.
Part of that is my kids (mostly) still like coordinating a family theme for costumes, so I am happy to oblige since I know that they’ll likely be too cool for this very soon and likely resort to zombies in perpetuity. But, seriously, these “group costumes” take time to pull off.
The costumes are only part of it, though. There are class parties to plan, coordinate, or contribute to, pumpkins to pick and carve (I feared Justin was going to make his costume a little too gory by sawing his hand off last year with a reciprocating saw while attempting to execute a Donald Duck carving that our kids picked out for one of our pumpkins), and, of course, decorations to put up. My kids just told me this weekend that our house wasn’t nearly “spooky” enough, necessitating another trip to the party store for more decor. And this doesn’t even include plans for the holiday itself, which for us involves trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with friends and family, followed by dinner at our house. Halloween is a sneakily busy holiday.
Santa’s Dry Run as “The Great Pumpkin”
I can deal with the busyness of Halloween and the festivities. What I really struggle with though is the candy.
I agree there is nothing wrong with candy in moderation, but the combination of Halloween candy and my kids really puts me over the edge. Preaching moderation after the kids have just gone door to door filling a sack with seemingly endless handfuls of Costco “bite sized” Halloween candy always seems to fall upon deaf ears. In the moment, if feels like nothing is worse than your little Halloween angel turning into a Halloween monster after too much Halloween candy. Frighteningly spooky.
Enter The Great Pumpkin, a great family Halloween tradition and my personal savior from crap candy overload. For those of you who haven’t interacted with this kind and lovely Halloween visitor, allow me to introduce you. The Great Pumpkin is a mysterious and wonderful friend who comes to visit on Halloween Eve, after the children are asleep (it’s quite possible he’s actually Santa making dry runs in the off-season).
Our family talks a lot about him leading up to the holiday, setting the stage for his arrival that evening. In our home, we let the kids enjoy a couple of pieces of Halloween candy as they trick-or-treat with friends, and then let them set aside their favorite pieces of candy to enjoy later. We’re trying to stick to each of them keeping as many pieces of candy as they have spent years on this Earth, but the 6-year-olds are protesting mightily over the two additional pieces their 8-year-old sister is entitled to. Our 3-year-old will likely lose his mind in the moment when we attempt to actually enforce the rule, but I have no doubt Justin’s going to go back on all of it for our baby and he’ll probably end up beating the rest of them.
The best Halloween candy exchange tip every parent should know
The hook to it all is the remainder of their Halloween loot is then left on our doorstep for the Great Pumpkin, who takes the candy and leaves a small toy or book in its place for each child. It’s a great mystery as to what The Great Pumpkin will leave, and to date we’ve had luck with the element of surprise on November 1st trumping the separation anxiety from the night before. The kids are elated to have a new toy or book to enjoy, and Justin and I are grateful to not have to police moderation for the next several weeks as they work through a giant pile of candy.
I’m not sure how much longer our kids will willingly go along with The Great Pumpkin candy swap tradition, but for now it’s a critical element to our post-Halloween sanity. Any ideas for what to do once this idea has run it’s course are appreciated!
