There are those who love Halloween, and then there are those who really don’t care for it (or even hate it?)…and then, there are those who are kind of obsessed with it. I’ve been one of the later for many many years. I can remember as a child devouring every last drop of Halloweeness I could consume…and not just the candy. I would pour over books about witches, pumpkins and fall leaves. I lived for the Halloween episodes from my favorite TV shows and in the 4th or 5th grade I stole away to a friends Halloween party after school even after my parents told me I couldn’t go (yeah that didn’t end well). I just could’t stand the thought of missing out on spooky movies, treats and a blindfolded round of “guess which body part this is?” (you know, with the grapes for eyeballs, and what not). In college I’d go overboard making grand geisha or Matrix costumes with friends and we would live the holiday up…for as long as possible…When I met Jon, I knew we were a perfect match with our mutual Halloween obsession. We quickly spent a far too large chunk of cash on our first Halloween party with friends in NYC (still one of the best we’ve had). We even managed to march in the NYC Halloween parade one year…best memory ever. So yeah, I’m obviously a big fan of the haunted holiday.

As a parent my love of Halloween has only grown. I’ve sort of drifted away from dressing up myself, and transferred all of my costume making energies into my kids. And we’ve had a lot of fun!

And then this year rolls around…and for the first time ever…I wasn’t really feeling it. With all of this background, you can probably get a sense of betrayal these feelings festered inside of me. What was wrong with me? Everything just seemed like too much work with not enough pay off. Everything out there looked too tacky and the costumes…well the kids had their own ideas which was great and all…but the magic was sort of loosing it’s spark. I needed some Halloween help and fast! So I got to work right away throwing a simple kids Halloween crafternoon, which was indeed a lot of fun! This really helped me to get into the spirit of things. But after throwing it, I couldn’t help but feel like I wasn’t inspired by all the party stuff out there, and that nothing Halloweeny was really calling to me. What was wrong with me?! So once again I got to work making my own version of Halloweeny Party and Decor supplies. Yes, that was much better! Halloween was coming back to me…mostly…but a haunted house was needed…so we made one post haste. Success! Happy Halloween feelings were coming back…but then costumes…for the kiddos…Why wasn’t I feeling it this year?

I waited until the last minute to finally start work on costumes. AJ wanted to be something inspired by Fantastic Fox, as my boys love this show and the characters, so we decided to make him a bandit fox, loosely based on the younger sons from the show. I know he would be happy with whatever I came with (he’s my easy costume kid, the other one is a bit more picky). I went a bit crazy on the stylization and it didn’t end up looking fox like at all…more like a wolf (or even a rat?)…but my ever accommodating 7 yr old was cool with it. In fact he liked that it looked like the rat on Fantastic Fox, so we slapped on a red and white striped shirt and we were cool.

Add a few bandit gloves with claws and a trick-or-treat loot bag, and we were all set. And wouldn’t you know, this just about did the trick! Making this costume was so fun (and perhaps my favorite I’ve ever made).

Few! I wasn’t a betrayer of a favorite holiday after all.

But that was about as much creative energy I could muster this year. Thank goodness Little O had a birthday this month and had requested all things Star Wars for his gifts. So he had a Darth Vader costume to wear (sort of…the muscly costume was a thrifted GI Joe find that looked Darth Vaderish enough…gasp! I thought I’d never succumb to the muscly store bought costumes…but alas…). He just insisted that we add a few of the control buttons to the chest part. And Baby M, well we luckily had her octopus costume ready to go! And wouldn’t you know, without any prior planning, the costumes all coordinated in color and pattern. I love it when that happens.

The kids had a grand time and Jon really helped kick things up a notch with dry ice root-beer, dragon pumpkins and spooky music on Halloween night. Little O even proclaimed it was his favorite Halloween ever!

And me, I enjoyed seeing the littles get so excited to trick-or-treat and enjoy all the fun. But I must be honest…I was ready to take the decorations down and move on into Thanksgiving/Christmas town…I don’t know, I guess I’m just getting older, maybe growing out of things a bit? (sad!) Yet I know my love of Halloween with never completely fade…and making fun costumes like this fox/wolf/rat does make me feel a bit giddy about it all again.

But for now, I need a nap and I’m hoping some sugar plums start popping up…cuz I’m super excited about Christmas this year!!

 

What about you? Has this ever happened to you? Did your Halloween fervor come back? Any tips/advice/stories? I’d love to hear!