Halloween

It's NaBloPoMo! A post every day and then, World Domination!!!
My turn! My turn!
How many posts have you seen about not celebrating Halloween this year? Maybe it's just the types of blogs I read, but I have seen A LOT.
Like 7. (that's a lot for me)
Now, if you had brought up not celebrating Halloween because of it's Pagan origins/promoting selfishness/promoting immodesty/ fill-in-the-blank any previous year I would have said, "thanks for the opinion grandma!" and gone merrily on my way hanging up my ghosts & tombstones & spiders. Halloween has always been my very favorite holiday! I love spooky things and I love dressing up.
But I'm 30 now. An adult. (serious face) And I've spent a year praying and reading and learning about what I want to make room for in my life. And there isn't a lot of room left for things that aren't truly important. There are plenty of posts out there about the satanic aspects of Halloween and I'll leave those for you to google and decide about yourself. I definitely think it's worth discussing.

What I want to address is holiday decorations & costumes. I have 2 large totes for Halloween and 2 more for Christmas. In one tote I store 4 ghouls/ghosts I hang from my tree and 1 more who peeks from behind a large tombstone. I have a big spider web & accompanying spider as well. Then there are the lights (half of which I didn't even hang up this year) and some other small decorations for inside.
I used to dream of having a "haunted house" at Halloween. One that looks like the cover on a magazine spread with fun jars and spider webs and such. But what I never realized is 1) nobody actually lives there, 2) if someone does, it only looks like that if the Jones's are coming over, & 3) they don't have children. So what's the point in trying to emulate it?
I find myself preferring the idea of decorating with things from my yard. Gourds I've grown, sticks the wind blew down, corn stalks, harvest stuff...things I can throw into the c
ompost instead of a plastic bucket for 11 months. I can't say how Jesus would feel about my decor, but I do know that if He came over, I would feel uncomfortable with some of it. And yes, I do think that is something worth considering.
So sorry to my neighbors who love my ghouls. If you'd like them, just let me know! (then I'll know who's reading my blog too :P)
The second tote is full of costumes and trick or treating pumpkins. The latter is easy. Those are plastic pumpkins we bought from Walmart a couple of years ago for trick-or-treating. They are a horrible use of space and they are going. Just like our easter baskets, I'd much prefer something fabric that can be folded up. Or I can just cancel trick-or-treating all together, mwhahaha!
(seriously, I'm about ready to. The older, ungrateful ones are ruining it for us) Now the question of how likely we actually are to reuse costumes in storage. This year my son was a mosquito. In all likelihood, that costume will never ever be used again. Luckily it was homemade and didn't take a lot. We also borrowed the lady bug vest. I can't recommend that route enough.
Speaking of which, what is with all the brand name costumes these days? I was ready to start withholding candy from all the Iron Man's and telling them to be more creative! /rant
I'm going through my box and keeping accessories, but that will probably be it. No one will be a bumblebee again and no one will be that pumpkin. And I need to just accept that and donate or sell those costumes. The kids have plenty of dress ups and can use those for future costumes if needed.

I just find myself preferring a homegrown/homemade Halloween to a made in China one. Do you love your decorations? Are they just up to impress others (or even yourself) or because you couldn't pass up a sale? Let's give ourselves permission to let that stuff go.

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