I, too, still love Halloween, though I think it has more to do with being around children at the libraries where I work, than actually enjoying parties or dressing up as an adult.
By the end of September, kids are taking out Halloween books from the library - and we have gobs of them! In storytime, I start to hear from those who already know what they will dress up as.
A cat.
A Ninja Turtle.
A mermaid.
This year, one of my 4-year-old storytime kids has decided to be a hermit crab, just like the pet he got for his birthday. I started to think back on the costumes I chose for myself as a child, and I also wondered, why?
It's safe to say that I was an anxious kid. I'm pretty sure a childhood illness and an absent father left thier marks. So it's no wonder that I often chose powerful characters to become on that one day of the year.
A princess with a magical wand.
Miss Piggy (quite possibly the bossiest, karate-chopper ever)
Wonder Woman.
When so many things in my life were out of my control, it must have been fun to be one of these, even if just for one night. I started to look at kids and their costume choices in a different way. Sure, sometimes you just want to be a taco. Who doesn't? But sometimes, kids want to be a beautiful mermaid who garners attention, a superhero who is way stronger than they feel, or a firefighter to please their firefighter Dad. Who knows what goes on in their little heads at this confusing time of year.
In storytime, I am careful about what books I choose if I do a Halloween storytime. Some kids love stories with mummies and bats and all the ghoulies. Others are afraid of costumed characters in general and suspicious of the holiday. One book that I made a matching flannelboard set for a few years ago is Three Little Ghosties by Pippa Goodhart. I'll do this story with the 3-5 year olds and get them to help add some of the characters. Basically, the three ghosties go around and scare ghouls and witches and eventually children. But the jig is up when a child sits up in bed and scares the ghosties! Sounds perfect, right? Well, one year, a little girl sat completely unphased through the witches and even the giant ogre, until the part when the three little ghosties' mother comes into the story to scold the ghosties for scaring everyone. As she was sending them to bed, my storytimer stood up and began to cry uncontrollably, to the point where I had to get her mother. Turns out, she could have cared less about the creepy characters in the story. She was so worried about the three little ghosties and how they had gotten in trouble!
So maybe Halloween is about way more than costumes and candy. It's a darn scary world out there and Halloween stories, costumes and creepy things prepare us to deal with our fears. It's okay to read about monsters when you know you can scare them away. It's okay to go to a strangers house when you know you'll get candy and your parents are waiting on the sidewalk. It's okay for me to go see the new Halloween movie when I know that Jamie Lee Curtis is going to face her fear. Okay, maybe I'm still working on facing mine...
Some of my favorite Halloween books:
By the Light of the Halloween Moon by Caroline Stutson
Ed Emberley's Halloween Drawing Book
Hist Whist by e.e. cummings
In a Dark, Dark Room & Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz
Pumpkin Eye by Denise Fleming
Pumpkin Heads by Wendell Minor
Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Halloween by Melanie Watt
Three Little Ghosties by Pippa Goodhart
Which Witch is Which? by Pat Hutchins
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