Down with Halloween

I hate to be a party pooper. But what a lame holiday. It is at the absolute bottom of my list of favorite holidays (at least on Labor Day you get a day off from work).

First there are the humongous amounts of disgusting and cheap candy that my kids take in and want to eat all in one day.

Then there is the fact that I have to walk around in the dark and cold, trying to keep track of my kiddies amongst throngs of screaming and running kids.

Plus, I have to help them come up with some costume (which I'll admit is fun for them) at minimal or no cost.

Finally, there is the general creepiness and death worshipping atmosphere created for the whole month of October. Let me explain.

My five year old daughter is tough. I mean tough. She hits her big brother hard (and hurts him!) But she freaks out at the scary decorations that are all over the place during Halloween. In Trader Joe's today she walked in and immediately said,

"Mommy I'm scared! I need to hold your hand. Can I go in the cart?" and later as we strolled along, "I can't go down that aisle," pointing to the scary witch poster hung on the wall. She was scared the whole time we were in the store.

Halloween has been a whole big controversy at our church too. We used to have a "harvest festival" as a Halloween alternative - but even that got cancelled this year. They don't want to have anything to do with a holiday associated with evil things. OK. Alright. But now I'm stuck having to figure out something for my kids to do.

MiniMe insists on trick or treating and visiting the "witches house". Says she won't be scared. Uh huh.

I can appreciate how fun it is for kids to dress up (we usually to non-scary things like pirates or princesses or jedi knights). But overall, there's just nothing positive about this holiday in my book.

Down with Halloween!