I was in the library yesterday and checked out some Halloween craft books and some on pumpkin carving, they even had a video and the girl that was checking my books out goes “ A little early for Halloween isn’t it?!” All loud and stuff! What if I had been checking out a book on rashes or something ( which I wasn’t) but how embarrassing for someone to call you out on something!! LOL I didn’t know what to say… actually I did but was too nice and just sort of smiled and laughed it off. She later said..”Well, I guess it’s a good way to get ideas now. Then when people try to get them in October you will be ahead of the game”…and I just smiled and said exactly!
Little does she know I start thinking about Halloween right after Christmas ….she will not be getting an invite to MY party ..lol
It could end up being a blessing. In my case, I don't get a lot of the "it's so weird" comments; instead, my family and close friends don't forget that it's my holiday, and they turn up with things they've found on sale at weird times of the year. They may never be as heavily into Halloween as I am, but they chill out about it, at least.
The last time someone tried to preach to me about my unholy obsession with Halloween I responded, "I have a coven meeting in ten minutes but would love to chat later - see ya!"
My family already thinks I'm weird so I don't talk halloween to them much. The sad part is that my brother passed away in feb and at his funeral were tons of photos of all the good times HE had at halloween. I never new this about him and missed it all
Sorry to hear about your loss, Deadna, but it shows that you had more in common than you even knew. Hope you can enjoy Halloween all the more because he did.
If it weren't for this forum I would think I lost my marbles for obsessing on a holiday, so thank you, everyone. I think for some of us at least, it comes down to our childhoods, and getting to enjoy Halloween then and wanting to keep that tradition alive.
I had a moment a few weeks ago, as my wife an I were getting ready to go to my cousin's cookout on the 4th of July.
Now, we had been to Ironstock the week before, and the rest of the time I'm going to renaissance festivals and reenactments selling my wares. And noone in the family "gets" us...but they do accept it, even dressed up for our medieval wedding last fall.
But I reailized as we were leaving...what do we say at these functions? How do we relate to the "normals".
I later illustrated this with one of my aunts at the cookout when she asked how married life is, what had we been doing....
I said,"Its hard to explain our lives to you guys, because our ancedotes are so different from yours. Take last week, we were in Indiana(Ironstock) with a friend of ours and his teenage daughter. And saturday night, we had to make a stop at Walmart. Now up to here, this is a story you can relate to. But here's where it goes off:
All four of us happened to be dressed as zombie pirates."
(This is where my aunt and cousin said"okayyyyyy", and my mom rolled her eyes).
I then told how we limped into the store mumbling about brains, and how we got 2 little girls in trouble for telling lies.(They ran into us in one aisle, ran 2 aisles over to tell their mother there were dead pirates in the store, she didnt believe them and yelled at them).
They all laughed, a little uncomfortably, and launched quickly into talk of band camp and my cousins kids.
Interestingly, my cousins daughter is 15. Despite her mothers attempts to staunch it, she is becoming quite goth, and really wants to come to our haunt, and maybe help. but her mom likely won't let her....
Although I would readily admit that you and your wife are far more into ... "this stuff," than I am (had a "normal" wedding - it's the marriage that's the horror show ), we do REALLY get carried away with our Haunt. Most friends and neighbors enjoy it, or perhaps they just get past it.
Regardless, when I am actively encouraging some co-workers to come by to show their kids the Haunt, envariably I run into some folks - usually very active church goers - who equate the Haunt with some level of evil. OH, they never say that out loud, but they DO say they are taking their kids to the Church Un-Halloween Fair at the Church parking lot so they can't come by to see my Haunt - which I had just told them, is always finished at least a week prior to Halloween.
I happen to be a church going Christian, but I am not so insecure with my beliefs, so as to consider Halloween trick or treating and Home decorations / Haunts (or professional Haunted Houses for that matter) a threat to my religion or beliefs. I resent anyone trying to tell me what I and my family MUST do at Halloween ... Chistmas, New Years, 4th of July, Easter, or even next Tuesday!! Un-Halloween celebrations, in my opinion represent the ultimate in both belief insecurity and Church Control at the same time.
I doubt if I have offended anyone here (HALLOWEEN FORUM!), but if I have I'm sorry they are offended. Everyone has a right to their beliefs.
My belief is that God does not feel threatened by the combination of plastic and wood that occupies my front yard for all of October. In fact, I hope He gets a laugh from some of the stuff we put out on display.