Halloween Observations

Halloween has changed, Halloween is changing, Halloween will change.

Fresh off the 2007 Halloween holiday, I have a new outlook on Halloween. I'm just going to go off on an incoherent jumble of thoughts here, so bear with me...

A. Costumes: The marketing industy, of which I'm apart (full disclosure!), has won the Halloween battle. Kids hardly make up their own costumes any more. Instead it's a mish mash of pop-culture outfits. Spider-Man. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Pre-made pirate costumes. Cookie-cutter princess outfits. You get the idea. Where's the fun? I have a lot more respect for the families who put together a fun outfit from odds and ends and use their creativity rather than just pulling an outfit out of the bag and tossing it at the end of the night.

B. Adults: Halloween is now an adult holiday. Adults now glorify this holiday and use it as an excuse to break out of their shells because they (we) can't do it on an everyday basis. College aged girls and older dress as sexy nurses, maids, and others such as are listed in The Onion's hilarious list, while guys wear something offensive or borderline insane. All use it as an excuse to get drunk and, well, the rest is up to you. That's fine and all, but don't try to pull this off as a kid's holiday. It's not. It's adults trying to act like kids while kids would rather be off playing X-box.

C. On that same note, I kind of wonder if kids really even care about Halloween anymore. What's the incentive? Walk around for 2 hours to get a bag of candy that parents are buying every week anyway? It's a novel idea but probably old hat for kids in this day and age.

D. I heard endless complaining on radio talk shows about how plastic guns and similar props are being banned in schools as part of kids' costumes, with people saying that it's a disgrace that they're taking the fun out of Halloween. Gimme a break. First of all, anybody who can see the damage going on in Philadelphia alone should be thankful that plastic guns are getting locked up in the plastic gun lockers at home. Kids don't need any more examples of shooting, even if it is in good fun. Do it at home, leave it out of school. In addition, kids are probably so tired of shooting guns since they can easily do it on most video games at home. So you're really not taking anything away from kids by doing this.

E. While adults harken back to the good ole days of trick or treating and having fun in the way they did, but kids change and Halloween could be totally different in 5-10 years. My hunch is that it will be a very different holiday in 5-10 years.

Ok, thanks for reading my disjointed thoughts. Now I'll have to try and scare up my next blog post...