Halloween. October 31st.
Trick or Treating is still scheduled for the 31st, but Spokane schools have decided this is the year to not celebrate Halloween.
What?!?
I just read the newsletter that came home Wednesday while I was out-of-town. In response to pressure from many “groups,” Halloween is not celebrated in the classrooms on Halloween.
The Parent-Teacher Group at our school decided to host a Monster Mash on October 25 from 6-8 PM. The designated “fall holiday” will be celebrated by classrooms on November 8.
My kids are shell-shocked, not fully grasping that they won’t get to wear their costumes in class. I’ve sold them this bill of goods as three fun events instead of one. They will get to dress up and participate in the Monster Mash, a dance, pumpkin bowling and other great stuff. Then they will trick or treat in the neighborhood. The grand finale will be the Harvest Party in November.
What really grates me is the Monster Mash requires costumes by October 25! A full week in advance of Halloween. Apparently the PTG isn’t a group of seamstresses. Instead of having two weeks to sew, I know have 7 days. So much for an R & R weekend for me.
Of course, to further complicate matters, my boys haven’t decided what they want to be this year. They too thought they had more time.
To get us in the mood and inspire us all, tonight the boys carried up from the basement the boxes of Halloween decor and costumes from year’s past. The house is decorated and costumes are strung from one end of the house to the other as the boys sifted and sorted through and tried on costumes trying to decide what to wear, what to “be.”
Lots of ideas, but no firm commitment from any of them on what to be. I’ve given the hard deadline of 8 AM tomorrow morning to commit to a costume, so I can start my day at the fabric store.
We have awesome costumes in the boxes. Curses to me for encouraging creativity and originality. The cactus, the outlaw cactus variation, the vampire, the evil jester, the skeleton, and the super cool Club Penguin Fire Sensei costume have been cast aside as “maybe” (read: if I have to. most likely no way). Don’t even suggest wearing dad’s letterman jacket circa 1985.
The boys impulsive choices all deal with evil this, death that or some variation that involves weapons. Halloween is barely allowed and you think these costume choices will be permitted? Think again my friends.
I suggested they go as fox and sing the catchy What Does The Fox Say? They said no way. I suggested unicorns and rainbows but that resulted in a fight over who would be the horse’s ass, not what I had envisioned. Why do “unicorns and rainbows” always incite a riot?
We’ll have to see what they chose in the morning.
Maybe boycotting Halloween this year isn’t a bad idea after all.
multi-hyphenated-me 