Halloween is an exciting or frustrating holiday for me. If I have a place to be on that day and I have created a costume masterpiece in my mind I am stoked! If I have a place to be and have no idea what to be and my costume just isn't coming together as well as I'd hoped well it can be heartbreaking to me.
You see Halloween was always a holiday that was so wonderful for our family. My mother almost always made our costumes by hand. And when she didn't they were fashioned from vintage clothes (back then vintage wasn't cool) or things lying around my grandparents home. The process was always so fun! And in the end I felt like my costume was from my imagination and I was so proud that no one had anything like it! Not ashamed that my parents really had better things to do with our money that to waste it on a plastic costume with ties in the back that we wore ONE time a year.
I often think about parents who take their kids out trick-or-treating in costumes bought from the store. Do they not have the time to make their kids a costume? They have missed out on a HUGE opportunity to connect with their child and teach them the value of creativity and imagination! And I think that's really what I am stuck on this Halloween. The lack of imagination we seem to be instilling in our youth. That if you whine enough you'll get that Ironman costume. Or sure I'll let you dress up like a hooker in the latest pop star costume.
But I occasionally see the handmade costume. The goodwill piece together! And I smile and I hate to admit it... give them more candy. Because Imagination can always use more Sugar!
