Halloween falls out of favor

You are so right. Halloween isn't Charlie Brown anymore, it's Friday the 13th. We took our oldest child trick-or-treating when he was little. At one home, the adult handing out the candy was wearing a realistic and gruesome latex mask. When she saw how frightened our son was, she began speaking very gently and sweetly. Unfortunately, the other adults hiding in the trunk of a car in the driveway couldn't see how young or how frightened he was, so they jumped out and scared the dickens out of him. He wouldn't even walk by that house for over a year.

When I was little, we would go from house to house getting treats and doing tricks. Neighbors would invite us in, and we would do cartwheels in their living room or some other silly activity to entertain them. (I can remember getting caramel apples and popcorn balls, too, before the razor blade and drug scares forced us all to wrapped candies.) I have a list of about 60+ sexual predators who live in my neck of the woods. My children do not go into any neighbor's house unless I know them well.

When I was little, the costume for every child whose parent who didn't have a lot of time or money (next to the ghost-sheet) was the Hobo for the boys and the Gypsy for the girls. So un-PC.

I have some religious objections about glorifying evil, destruction, and suffering. I prefer that my children dress as funny or positive characters. But mainly, I feel that Halloween has become too adult, too commercial and too unsafe. We will go to our church's fall festival. We will give out candy to trick-or-treaters. My children will dress up and visit neighbors that we know, or perhaps participate in some local Halloween event. We will rent bad 50's-style horror flicks for fun. It's an uneasy compromise, but it's the best we've come up with for our family.

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