I’m sorry to admit, Halloween has never been my favorite holiday. But I give it due credit for being one of our most creative holidays. Witness all the clever yard displays in your neighborhood, or the variety of spooky or adorable appetizers popping up on your social media feeds, or the myriad Halloween-themed crafts you see on the store shelves.
I’m a writer and an ideas person, not someone good with my hands. So, when my very young son announced he wanted to be a sabretooth tiger for Halloween, I called on my mother-in-law’s sewing skills and, lo and behold, she pulled it off.
In other years, our daughters asked to be a mailbox, a camera, and a Christmas tree. I left that to their dad’s creativity, and he did not disappoint. He was also in charge of carving the jack-o-lanterns. One year, he carved a pumpkin and some gourds to look like the characters from Veggie Tales. I was impressed.
Since I’m not a big fan of Halloween, today I’m choosing to focus on one other aspect, besides creativity, that I do enjoy about the holiday. An aspect we don’t focus on as much, kindness. If you’ve ever gone trick-or-treating with a young child, you know it’s the one time of year the neighborhood is guaranteed to come together. We walk our kids from house to house, where they’re greeted by happy faces who praise their costumes and hand them treats. On the sidewalks, we watch out for each other’s kids, just in case one toddler is running too far ahead. Even at the houses where no one answers the door, there is often a bowl of goodies waiting for the children.
For one evening, you hear laughter on the street, people greet each other as they pass, and kids share their candy with the smaller children. And we marvel at each other’s creativity, complimenting a homeowner on their porch display, praising the costume of a passing child, smiling at the parents who also dressed up to join in the fun, and appreciating the generosity in our kids when they offer us what they know was our favorite childhood treat.
Creativity can come from necessity, it can come from obligation, it can come from grief, it can even come from desperation, but creativity that comes from joy is the type that lingers the longest. As much as I dislike some aspects of Halloween, I still feel joy when I remember trick-or-treating with my little sabretooth tiger, or watching people giggle as they opened the mailbox door to deposit their candy, or knowing there was no way, even in the dark, I’d lose track of my lit-up Christmas tree.
This year, I’ll try a bit harder to enjoy the creativity of Halloween, to appreciate the kindness, and to focus on the joy.
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