I hate Halloween.  Yes, I said it.

I don’t like scary things.  I don’t like the pressures of a Halloween costumes.  Pumpkin carving is nasty and it just never turns out right.

I do try to fake it for my kids.  But overall, I just see Halloween as a blocker to my favorite holiday, Christmas.  And no, I don’t count Thanksgiving as a holiday.  That’s a day to be thankful with my family and not something I really need to invest a lot of time planning for.

Even as a child, I don’t think I was all that into Halloween.  I’ve always been into the candy end of the night – but I also knew I could just go to the store and buy what I wanted.  I was the type of kid that wanted anything chocolate – and Almond Joy’s don’t count.  Give me a mini-Hershey bar or Nestle Crunch any day of the week.  A Reece’s Peanut Butter cup was like gold.  But I could live without the strange taffy and Almond Joy’s.  Why are there always so many Almond Joy’s?!

I really only remember two Halloween costumes growing up.  I’m pretty sure I was a witch for about 10 years of my life.  My mom made our costumes and I love it, it was easy. Done.  I also remember being Little Orphan Annie.  I had the big, the dress and the locket.  It was pretty awesome.  Thankfully, I don’t think pictures exist anywhere of that.

As a parent, I’ve enjoyed Halloween a lot more.  It’s been great making costumes for my kids and going to all sorts of fall festivals.  Now they are older and Halloween has become a fight.  We did lots of disagreeing last year over costumes.  This year, I let them do whatever they wanted.  My only rule – you can’t be anything bloody or gross.  So this year, my children managed to pick costumes that were pretty easy and not gross.  But now, we have creepy.

My oldest has decided to be Slender Man.

Do you see the Slender Man? Do you think he’s creepy?

According to Wikipedia:  The Slender Man (also known as Slender Man or Slenderman) is a fictional character that originated as an Internet meme created by Something Awful forums user Victor Surge in 2009. It is depicted as resembling a thin, unnaturally tall man with a blank and usually featureless face, and wearing a black suit. The Slender Man is commonly said to stalk, abduct, or traumatize people, particularly children.

So my oldest is dressed up like a kidnapper.  Awesome.  My youngest first told me that for Halloween, he wanted to be “a black guy that teleports.”  So after lots of laughing, I finally figured out what he was talking about.  He’s going as an Enderman for Halloween.  It’s a guy from Minecraft, and it apparently going to be a popular costume this year.

My Enderman is the one of the left.

Please let me other parents out there have similar Halloween trauma? I would hate to be going through this alone.  I’ve just about gotten to the point where I can tolerate Halloween.  I don’t want to start hating it again if I’m going to keep fighting about costumes.

When can I start decorating for Christmas?????

This is the only thing that I’ve made that I liked this Halloween! Sparty Glitter Pumpkin! I may like Halloween more if I can put glitter all over it.