5 Things I Don’t Like About Halloween

Confession: I am a tad of a secret Halloween Scrooge.  On the outside, I will be smiling from ear to ear tonight watching my girls go house to house filling their buckets to the brim with candy beaming with excitement.   But on the inside, as a mom, I have to admit I don’t really care much for the holiday. At all.

And when I thought about the reasons why, it made me laugh so I am going to tell you 5 Things I Don’t Like About Halloween.

1. Gory decor. There is a house a few blocks away from us that has a yard full of bloody baby dolls and Barbie body parts hanging in the trees with a sign that says, “Happy Hell oween.”  I have issue with a holiday that celebrates the fact that it is actually OK to display a scene of this nature on your lawn.

2. Costume drama. Every year there is always some issue with my kids and picking their costumes. This year’s drama had to do with the fact that my oldest is obsessed with matching her little sister.  So I got them matching cheerleader costumes early October because we had an event to go to.  Now last week my two-year-old announced she is going to be Snow White and pulled out the wrinkled dress from our dress up box. She will not budge. She insists she WILL be Snow White. Then my oldest told me since her sister wasn’t going to be a cheerleader anymore, now she wants to be a fairy princess and pulled out another wrinkled dress up costume we had all along. So I am wondering why I didn’t just pull out our dress up box in the first place and tell them to go shopping?

3. Oversized trick-or-treaters. Nothing bugs me more than teenagers that are WAY too old to be trick-or-treating standing at my door in jeans, sweatshirts and some stupid mask to pull off as a costume with a bag full of candy. Glory days are over kids. If you are as tall as me, you are TOO OLD to be trick-or-treating. Come to think of it, maybe I should mark an amusement park-style line in masking tape at my door that says, “anyone taller than this line is not eligible to receive candy.” I wish.

4. The most offensive trick-or-treater of all. No joke, even more offensive than the trick-or-treating teenager is a trick-or-treating parent. Yes, I have actually had on occasion a PARENT carry their own candy bag in addition to the one their child is carrying collecting candy. Seriously?

5. The candy. Here’s where I am really going to be a scrooge.  When the candy comes home and gets dumped out the sheer quantity of it makes me crazy. Sugar highs and tummy aches are all I see in that stack. What kid needs all of that candy?? So I will allow them to delight in the pile and then the candy will tucked into the back of a cupboard until it is forgotten and I will throw it away. But then of course, guess who ends up sneaking a bite sized Snickers in the meantime? Hello most unwelcome extra lbs. 🙁

BOO HUMBUG!

Have a very Happy Halloween and enjoy your little cuties in their costumes!  Be safe and see you tomorrow…

37 comments

  1. Can’t say I am a big fan of Halloween either but then it was a holiday I did not grow up with so have no sentimental attachment. Some dentists will buy back your candy and they send it to the troops. That is what my kids will do this year, I think they get a $1 per pound. They are more excited at the prospect of the money than the candy.

    1. I just found out we can donate the candy to the troops through our school and get $1 per pound for the classroom! I am SO doing this!

    1. Love that post! Thanks so much for sharing, some great ideas! One of my friends says the “Halloween Ghost” comes after Halloween to take the candy and leaves them a little present in return. I thought this was a good tradition too!

  3. I am totally laughing because I have encountered those over-the-hill trick or treaters as well. SO random!!!! I like your idea of the tape on the door! I feel like this year everything has gotten particularly gruesome… I would never take my kids to Party City right now. It’s officially Nightmare City! I do love the actual night of Halloween though and the fun spirit in the neighborhood and the kids joy and excitement. A glass of wine in your hand doesn’t hurt!

  4. Wow you make some very valid reasons not to like it, haha. I have to totally agree with you on #2-4…parents & teens trick-or-treating is a no no. Leave it to the little kids.

  5. i am more than w/you! and yk what? we just don’t “do” halloween at our house … i think one of my young kids asked it right one year “what do we celebrate on halloween?” … i thought it over and i said, yk what? nothing really … so we just don’t and my kids don’t really know the difference … we haven’t had to deal w/many ppl coming to our door anyways and even so, we just sometimes go out for dinner that evening or if it’s a weekend we’ll take them to a church event (many churches have safe alternative events i.e. greg laurie’s harvest in irvine has a hallelujah night) …. less candy/treats from STRANGERS, more games, they still get to dress up IF they want – honestly, the kids have a TON of dress up clothes to pick from anyways … we don’t have to deal w/weirdos or ppl that are all into “scary stuff” as the kids call it …. can’t wait for this day passes!

    1. I love the idea of safe places to go and trick-or-treat because the holiday is totally counter intuitive seeing that we tell our kids to never talk to strangers or take candy from strangers!

  6. How about the Halloween costume stores?! First of all they always have disgusting decorations that scare ME! And I feel so old when I walk in there because the music is always SO LOUD!! Boo Humbug! 🙂

    1. OK, the Halloween specialty stores are really the worst. Always some gory structure moving at the doorway as your welcome or other creepy things. It scares ME too, what does it do to the kids?

  7. THANK YOU for posting this!!! I could not agree with you more, Jen! These commercially recognized holidays should be directed at the LITTLE ones whose imaginations are running wild – specifically with Halloween, the fun should revolve around their fascination with dress-up.

    I do love the concept that kids are welcome to knock on a neighbor’s door to receive a friendly greeting and ‘gift’, but the gory/scary stuff and copious amounts of sugary junk (which are damaging to adults in those quantities let alone children’s little bodies!) really do RUIN the whole thing for me.

    1. Thank you so much for sharing this post and I am happy to see I am not the only one!!!

      Couldn’t agree more…I love that kids can dress up, love visiting friendly neighbors, love the excitement but I do not love the gore or junk!

  8. Besides all the horror out there that the children are seeing (really really scary stuff), what happened to the rule of don’t take candy from strangers? I mean we go out and scare the daylights out of our children with rated R looking stuff and tell them they can take all the candy they want from strangers and then let them ruin their teeth and start adding our children to the already obese/diabetics children. You can see how much I “love” halloween. 🙂

    1. Forgot to add…just let your kids play dress up in some cute stuff and do something special like make pumpkin cookies or have friends over and have ice-cream sundaes. It’s a one time treat, doesn’t get thrown away (waste of money), and the kids have a blast making their own goodies with friends. Ok, I’m done! LOL!! Be safe for those trick or treating and maybe keep the candy in a separate bag from the people you know you can trust. I guess I was almost done 🙂

    2. I have ALWAYS thought the same on the taking candy from strangers thing!!! Again, totally conflicting messages!

  10. Wow, and I thought I was the only ‘wierd’ one out there that didn’t like Halloween. Wasn’t even really big on it as a kid. Glad to know I’m not alone!

    1. Couldn’t agree more! Until I wrote this post I didn’t know if I was the only one that really didn’t care for it much!

  11. It’s a nightmare for families with children that have food allergies! We go to the Harvest Festival at Mariners Church in Irvine. So much fun!! And it’s easy to avoid the candy. I give them extra bonus points because they had a food vendor that we could purchase a treat from. That never happens! Sno-Cones WITHOUT corn syrup (corn allergy) and natural fruit flavors and colors! What a delight for my food allergic child!!

    1. You are preaching to the choir with this food allergy mama – it’s a NIGHTMARE! So much chocolate that my little one can’t have anyway.
      And corn allergy is ten times worse.
      My nephew is allergic to corn syrup so I can feel your pain! YAY for a vendor with no corn syrup! If you find out the company, let me know!

      1. Here is the website for the wonderful vendor that served shaved ice at the Mariners Church Harvest Festival.
        hulagirlsshaveice.com

  15. Love this post! Cracking me up! Have you heard the song on Nick Jr “I don’t like candy corn” hahaha

    1. No I haven’t, but the problem is that the one thing I actually do like about Halloween is…

      CANDY CORN!

      Hee hee…

  16. So funny…my thoughts exactly! When my kids were younger and easily spooked I always hosted a neighborhood party before the kids went out together…that way I could control what level of gore and evil was around. P.S. Also a thumbs up for the Mariner’s Church Harvest Festival. Our first year and it was great.

  18. You are my people! If I didn’t have children, I would even so much as recognize Halloween. We turn off the lights and shut the door at 8pm, when the only trick or treaters left are teenages with pillowcase candy bags.

  19. I totally get it! This year in particular for some reason. Would love to just dim the lights and not be interupted while watching Dancing with the Stars. But that’s not going to happen. The candy bowl is full and I’ll be answering the door! Boo!

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