I Miss Halloween

Monkey and Princess, October 2012

Our last Halloween in the States, Audrey was 4 and Claire was almost 15 months old. We followed the Providence, RI routine - we met up at Brown St. Park, had the Halloween parade, and then trick-or-treated back toward our house.  Claire was just making the connection between going to houses, saying Trick or Treat, and getting candy...she was amazed that this kept working at each house.

Audrey was in her element, hanging out with friends and going door to door - Paul told her she was collecting candy for him, and she still believed it.

Monkey Claire learning to trick or treat, October 2012

Brown St. Parade (our friend "Rod Stewart" in the foreground)

Last year, we had only been in Scotland a month at Halloween, and Audrey had just started school a week before, so we knew very few people.  We heard about a few Halloween parties, but weren't invited. Trick or Treating didn't seem to be a "thing" - we saw some older kids roaming around but our house is off the beaten path so we didn't get any trick or treaters.   Audrey was a little disappointed; Claire was too young to know the difference.

This year, we planned to try to trick or treat, starting with some friends who were expecting us, and then go from there, but at the last minute we were invited by Audrey's school friend's mom to go trick or treating in their neighborhood and then go on to a Halloween party.  We drove over there and had a critical mass of 6 kids between the ages of 3 and 10, and we started looking for likely houses.  In their neighborhood (maybe 30-40 houses), about 4 has their lights on, the code for "open for trick or treating" (at least in the US, I assume it also holds in Scotland as well). The process is much more involved, though; instead of bopping from house to house and collecting candy, you are invited in and asked for your performance - a joke, a song, a dance.  After the first house I came up with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat" and got Audrey, Claire, and Audrey's school friend to sing along - it went something like this (bear in mind I made this up on the fly...no pun intended):

Twinkle, twinkle little bat

How I wonder where you're at

Flying up in the sky

Flying low and flying high

Twinkle, twinkle little bat

How I wonder where you're at.

People seemed to like this (at least it was something...all the Halloween songs and jokes that are out there, and I couldn't remember a THING). So at each house, the kids got several pieces of candy, sometimes fruit, and also a little money (for their "punch boxes" no idea what this is, and the all-knowing Internet is no help, a search for this term just gives me boxing equipment).  After trick or treating to the 4 available houses, we went to the party at the community center.  It was a smallish gym, stuffed with kids (aged a few weeks to about 12 years) who were dancing to loud music with disco lights (I remember a jazzy version of the Scooby Doo theme), and their parents resting at tables in the back of the hall.  It was definitely kid friendly - only 1 pound admission and juice and snacks for just a small donation, but it was hot and loud, and Claire was ready for bed so we made an exit, leaving Audrey with her school friend and her parents. We finally ended up at our friends' house (the ones who had been expecting us originally) and chatted with them a few minutes.  Since they are not Scottish, they gave Claire plenty of candy, and didn't even demand a performance.  They were complaining they hadn't had any trick or treaters, but we told them they needed to turn on their front light - and, as if to prove our point, as we left their house, three young teens came up to their door. 

Facebook friends,  I love seeing pictures of your kids in their costumes, with their candy.  I also love the pictures of groups of kids meeting up and traveling around your neighborhoods, because it reminds me that maybe next year we'll be back in the States, and back to celebrating Halloween for real instead of it being an imported holiday!

Wood Fairy and grumpy Princess, October 2014