Some long for Christmas, beginning the countdown the second the tree is put away on Old Christmas Day – if not (shame on you!) much, much later. 

While Christmas is magical and all, there’s just something particularly perfect about October 31st. Not knockin’ the sanctity and ceremony of that Oh! Holy Night and all, but let’s face it; at least for grown ups, the days leading up to December 25th is simply a heck of a lot of work and stress. 

Flammable plastic fun 

But Halloween? That’s just a barrel of laughs and a whole lot of gleeful, immature fun. As a child growing up in the 70s, the exciting thrill of dressing up in flammable plastic while walking the dark, unlit rural streets in a face-slicing mask you couldn’t see out of was the best! All the rowdy cousins got together and hounded the Morgan and Butler relations that lived within a stone’s throw of our place and relished as the old timers guessed who we ‘longed to, before  tossing an apple, a bar, and a can of pop into our sacks. We then lugged our haul to the next yard for a repeat. Wicked! As I aged, my costumes became a little more heavy on the make–up, light on the mask–ons, but remained off the scale on fun. Halloween was all about dances, dates, dress up, and having a laugh.

While the few Halloweens we spent in Ontario were uneventful, moving back to an outport meant cleaning up come Trick-or-Treat time. With one hundred households and 20-some-odd-youngsters, all those grannies ga-ga over the wee ones went gung-ho with the goodies, dolling out sacks (baggies no doubt left over after packaging up that year’s moose kill) bulging with terrible for the teeth but soothing for the soul treats. The kids cleaned ‘er. 

Wee little gHouls

While, as the saying goes, Christmas is for children, Halloween is for everyone. Having my wee little ‘ghoul’ to play dress up with each and every year has been a mother’s dream come true. One of my favourite pictures of all time of my daughter is her dressed as a little ladybug. Be still my heart! 

My eldest, at 22, has thankfully never matured enough to out grow the fun either, dressing up each and every year. Even though he won’t be home on Oct. 31st this year, I still found myself texting him costume possibilities, everything from a totally inappropriate yet somehow comical Jesus get-up to cutesy Fred from Scooby–Doo attire. The outrageous and adorable options are endless.

So, embrace your inner inappropriate self this year and be whomever you’d like this Halloween! From Trump to Trudeau to a lump of poo emoji! Have at  ‘er, my duckies, full tilt, because there’s no age restrictions on fun! 

Pam Pardy Ghent, The Herald’s Managing Editor, can be reached by emailing [email protected]