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Expensive Halloween

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Clarissa

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As happens every year, I either forgot or repressed that my town does trick-or-treating on the 30 and not on actual Halloween. It’s hot like the dickens, I spent an hour in traffic, and going out to trudge around in hot, humid air that feels like heated up cotton wool wasn’t extremely welcome.

That’s not the point, though. What I wanted to say is that I go around the same neighborhood every year. And I never – and I mean ever ever – saw such expensive Halloween decorations in every other front yard. People are clearly not suffering much economically because I’ve seen these toys at the stores, and they are upwards of $1,500 each. Huge, motion-activated contraptions, very elaborate. And people have 2, 3, 5. To have a house after a house featuring them – that’s really crazy.

It’s like everybody suddenly won the lottery and I never heard about it.

17 responses to “Expensive Halloween”

  1. random reader Avatar
    random reader

    Where I live, Halloween is out of control too. Not sure what it all means, but I am very glad this holiday will be over soon.

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  2. mosckerr Avatar
    mosckerr

    Morning blood sugar dropped from 128 to 124 on day 5 of the fast. Am really feeling the lack of water now.

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  3. Nonna Maus Avatar
    Nonna Maus

    Valencia got hit by the deluge:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/almost-100-people-killed-by-devastating-floods-in-eastern-spain/ar-AA1tgkqO

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I saw, terrible. I love Valencia. It’s so beautiful.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        I mean Valencia is, not the suffering from the deluge.

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    2. Nonna Maus Avatar
      Nonna Maus

      Clarissa, how was trick or treating in your town yesterday? Or did they do trunk or treat instead? Did Klara collect a lot of candy (if she has a sweet tooth).

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        We did trunk-or-treat on the weekend and trick-or-treated yesterday. These were great but today is our annual Halloween parade that I’m boycotting on ideological grounds.

        Here’s the explanation for newer readers:

        Halloween Humiliation

        A horrible, horrible practice yet I’m not managing to find a single person who thinks the same.

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  4. TomW Avatar
    TomW

    I know someone who is really into Christmas decorations including the inflatable stuff. It all goes on sale for a deep discount the day after the holiday and she buys a lot of stuff then. It’s possible some of your neighbors are doing the same for Halloween stuff.

    It’s also possible that they spend freely and are deeply in debt. I believe the average American’s credit card debt is currently around $7,000. And since there are many of us who keep that at or near zero, there must be plenty who are way higher than that. There was a bit of family gossip years back about one of my cousins and her husband having over 50k in credit card debt. They are constantly trading cars and going on cruises and trips to Disney.

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    1. - W Avatar
      – W

      I have seen vids on youtube that show folks who have no sense of how money or credit cards work with credit card debts of 60K+. It has never made any sense to me. I mean if you have a major medical emergency, or something of that nature sure, that’s understandable.

      However those who and I quote, “buying things make me happy” I will never understand. It almost seems like its some form of mental disease or addiction like how some people get addicted to alcohol.

      • – W

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      1. Nonna Maus Avatar
        Nonna Maus

        The median credit card debt for someone Clarissa’s age is ~$3000.

        https://www.moneygeek.com/credit-cards/average-credit-card-debt/

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          I have no credit card debt because it would really hurt my husband’s feelings. He’s into manufactured spending, and I reap most of the benefits, so I can’t complain.

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  5. ShadowsCollide Avatar
    ShadowsCollide

    I’m on break so I can write this, but if there is a hell, it’s a kindergarten class on Halloween with a substitute and 20+ kids. The kids all have fancy costumes that all look brand new and have to be taken off completely to use the bathroom, plus some parents brought in treats for a party this afternoon so they keep whining about having cupcakes and candy now.

    Of course the kids have snacks with loads of sugar and they’re keyed up, and the teacher assigned them work. Nobody wants to work and the boys keep chasing each other, the girls are whining some other girl is mean to them. I’m dreading the party this afternoon, being in a room of sugared-up little kids is hell. I don’t understand why they just don’t have a half-day and let the kids play or maybe watch a movie, like when I was a kid. Halloween is the day when kids don’t want to work and where the costumes are more important than schoolwork, it’s dumb to assign work

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    1. Random reader Avatar
      Random reader

      My sympathies. My child’s school has planned trick or treating for the morning where children go from class to class to get candy. They are not allowed to eat any candy at school, just bring it home. Then, they do some work but really just take it easy for the rest of the day. It worked quite well last year. My child got fever last night, which means no school today (there have been a lot of tears due to that). Anyway, they have so many food allergies, that there is almost no candy they can eat (they still like to collect it though).

      I find the entire holiday over the top and I will be glad when it ends. We will celebrate All Saints’ Day tomorrow and All Souls after that. I have very fond memories of All Souls’ Day from my childhood – we used to go to pray to the tombs after dark, with the entire cemetery full of people and being illuminated by candles that burned on all the tombs. There was nothing creepy about this holiday, just a festive and somber atmosphere when everyone remembers, and prays, for their dead.

      Liked by 2 people

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    2. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      My kid’s school forbids costumes in school for precisely this reason and I support it. It’s torture for the teachers and completely unnecessary. So I’m with you completely.

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Socal Dendrite Avatar
        Socal Dendrite

        Our school has a costume parade for ~45 minutes first thing, and the children and families all love it. My kids then give me any potentially breakable or uncomfortable parts of their costume (wings, tails, masks) to take home and go to class, somewhat tired out and ready to sit. All kids are told to bring a change of clothes in case they get tired of being in their costume. It’s worked pretty well over the years, though certainly better for 1st-grade and up than pre-K and K (I agree that the bathroom/costume combination is less than ideal for these grades). Our district was pretty smart: they have a staff training day on November 1st, so they don’t have to deal with kids’ Halloween hangovers 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

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  6. ShadowsCollide Avatar
    ShadowsCollide

    Another thing that bothered me was that the kids all had fancy, elaborate costumes with all sorts of accessories that must cost at least $60-70. These costumes are flimsy polyester that will get stained easily, lose the accessories and can’t be worn next year because the kids either outgrew them or they’re too stained, you can’t even sell them on eBay.

    My adult costume are just stuff I threw together, one year I was a hippie wearing a Jimi Hendrix shirt, jeans and a headband over a grey wig. Another year I was a hipster in skinny jeans, an Org Records t-shirt and a wool hat carrying a toy ukulele. Both costumes were stuff I already had and the ukulele I got used on eBay. I also have a blue robe and various wigs and costume jewelry, I can cosplay as different fantasy fiction characters. Last year I was Arwen from Lord of the Rings and one year I was Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I’m very fortunate in that my kid is very loyal. She wore the same bunny costume from age 2 to age 7. By the end of it, she could barely squeeze into it but she refused to betray the bunny.

      This year she’s an archer with a bow and arrow that she shoots all the time, so we don’t suffer the aggravation of buying a costume to be worn for a couple of hours and then ditched.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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