October 4, 2006

Halloween– It’s Not Just For Satan!

We had a fabulous dress-up closet when I was growing up. The piece de resistance was a white chiffon cape that my mother claimed had been part of her honeymoon trousseau. We called it “Susie Snowflake.” I remember the nightgown that came with it, also long and flowy, and beaded at the bodice. It had disappeared by the time Aunt Su and Aunt Lulu came along. I never knew whether I had worn it to shreds or whether my mom packed it up somewhere while it was still intact enough to hold some memories.

As the bossy oldest child, I always wore Susie Snowflake as my Halloween costume and just changed my name accordingly: Cinderella, Fairy Princess, Ballerina, North Wind. Actually, Aunt Su didn’t seem to mind. I can’t remember a year that she didn’t stuff her shirt, put on a fake wig and Lee Press-On Nails and go as Dolly Parton. When we got home, I’d trade all my Three Musketeers for her jelly beans, and we’d go to bed sugary and satisfied.

Now that I’ve been on the parental side of Halloween for almost a decade, I have some Halloween wisdom to impart.

If you have small children, you should be sure and dress them up in cute costumes for as long as you can so you’ll have at least a few precious pictures to look at:

The sad truth is that once they’re old enough to have opinions, boys, at least, don’t ever dress up as anything fetching again. All you’ll see are superheroes and Ninjas. They’re not so cuddly, in my view.

I don’t remember Halloween ever having Satanic connotations when I was growing up, and maybe that’s because Dolly Parton is about as far from the devil as you can get. However, the holiday apparently poses religious concerns to some groups these days, to the extent that some churches offer alternative activities so that families can skip trick-or-treating and accidentally worshiping Lucifer along the way. (Stop– don’t send me angry comments about religion. My church does this and I completely respect your decision to handle Halloween however you want to. It’s like breastfeeding or co-sleeping: your decision as a parent.)

I have an alternative for those of you who really want to let your children experience the joys of dressing up and fighting over Hershey’s Kisses, but don’t want the evening to turn into a greed fest.

Since 1950, kids have been carrying a little orange box along when they trick-or-treat, asking for change for UNICEF when they get their candy. I had never heard of this program before, so I was pleased to hear of a way kids can help others while they help themselves to large fistfuls of Jolly Ranchers.

UNICEF is so savvy that it’s created a website to get your children excited about the prospect of collecting money. There’s a game, ideas for fundraisers and a way to print out a sticker for an official UNICEF money collection box to use on Halloween night. Grab your children and click here if you want to add a new dimension to your Halloween activities. You’ll be amazed at how far UNICEF can stretch a dollar to help children in need.

Between this and the hepatitis C post I certainly have been all serious and public service announcementy, haven’t I? Don’t get used to it. The man from the heating and air company is here to do our winter checkup of the heating system, but he’s spending a lot of time in the bathroom and he just asked me where the plunger is. I’m anticipating a post called “The Day The Heating & Air Guy Stopped Up Our Toilet” but maybe I’m just being pessimistic.

Oh, and if your children decide to run a lemonade stand to raise money for UNICEF, watch them carefully and make sure they don’t try to sell beer also. Sure, they’ll double their earnings, but the cops tend to stop when they see eight-year-olds waving Gatorade in one hand and beer in the other, trying to get drivers’ attention. The cops are not stopping to purchase the beer. Just a friendly warning to save you some trouble!