Converts are the best evangelists

It's true of ex-smokers and I believe it's also true of Halloween dodgers. Readers of this blog since the early days will know that I have shifted my position from scoffing at the US mania for Halloween, to grudgingly embracing it, and more recently, really getting into it.

I don't even bat an eyelid at the fact my gym was closed from noon 'for the Halloween holiday'. Nor do I grumble at the cost of P's Dorothy costume. It's not the dress, it's the ruby slippers, Toto-in-a-basket and the full wig - it all adds up. If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly, I suppose. So I kitted myself out as Glenda the Good Witch, and TLOML got a scarecrow costume, and for the first time ever we did a full family costume.

I kept saying 'we don't normally do this, you know' and 'I've never done this before!' but I think I maybe protested too much. I obviously loved it and I am totally down for whatever creative vision P dreams up next year. It turns out it's fun to dress up for Halloween! Those silly Yanks must have been on to something this whole time.

In another first, we went to a grown up Halloween party. A first for me, at least. TLOML, like anyone else who spent their drinking years in the US, has many years of experience of such events - and an Elvis costume that's a proven crowd-pleaser. I cut my dressing up teeth at artsy, ironic fancy dress parties in North West London, and I used that experience to good effect when planning my costume. No sexy cat woman or naughty cop outfit for me: I went as a murderous bitch with frizzy hair.

Again, I thought we pretty much nailed it - although fewer than 1 in 6 people got the Fatal Attraction reference without prompting.

In case you're wondering, yes, I did get my fluffy white bunny from P's toy collection. No, I didn't ask her. And when she asked me why I had red stuff on my dress I told her I was going to trick people into thinking I'd dropped jam on my front, which would be a hilarious gag. She looked rightly sceptical. Next year I might just dress as cat woman, it makes more sense to more people.

That's right, I'm already thinking about next year - looking forward to it, even. From doubter to fan in just a few years. What with my new love of baseball, and now this Halloween fever this country is really changing me. I hardly dare tell my old British friends what I now think of washing machines in kitchens and teeth that aren't perfectly straight.

The highs and lows of Halloween on 8th Street

In accordance with our Halloween tradition I bought about 400 pieces of candy, only for TLOML to say ‘that’s not nearly enough’ and go out and buy the same amount of sweets again. I was expecting, in accordance with our Halloween tradition, to have to concede to TLOML over an empty bucket that he was right all along and we did need a tonne of sweets.

But no. The bucket remained untouched. Admittedly we do live on a block that isn’t very conducive to trick or treating. It’s a busy through street which is a little short on sidewalks and single family homes. Still, there are some families, and we trick or treated them successfully. When we ventured further down the street, we left a lit jack o’lantern glowing brightly on the drive, which is the time honoured signal for ‘we have candy!’ and I left a little bucket full of Sour Tart Zombies out for people who called while we were out.

When we returned an hour later that little bucket was still full.

Meanwhile we had ventured just four or five blocks west where we found the most Halloweeny street ever. One guy built an actual haunted house in the walkstreet, full of dry ice and spooky music, for kids to walk through in order to get their treats.

This was a lot spookier after dark. Kudos to the man who built it.

Another guy was dressed as the Joker and danced out across his front yard screeching ‘whaddaya want’ at enthralled/ terrified children. A witch a few doors down cackled as she handed out M&Ms over her white picket fence. There was a ten foot tall inflatable black cat outside one house, and another one at the end of the block. And plenty of families sitting out on their porches with Jack O'Lanterns giving out sweets to happy trick or treaters. Lady P and her two cousins had an absolute blast, and we headed back up the hill feeling all caught up in the spirit of spookiness and tooth rotting treats.

And then we got home to find our bucket was full. I left it out anyway, to save us answering the door, and thinking maybe some of the 20 and 30 somethings who walk down our street to head to the beach bars might enjoy a sweet treat en route. During dinner on the deck TLOML even shouted down at a couple of passers by 'hey, help yourself to candy' to which came the reply 'no thanks man!'. We literally couldn't give the stuff away. I left the bucket out overnight thinking that maybe some late night drunks might enjoy the treats. By morning it was still full.

So now, for the first time, we have a significant surfeit of Halloween sweets. And that's over and above the surplus in Lady P's haul (fortunately she can't count much above 10 so we are okay to whittle her sweet collection down).

TLOML suggests we save the excess for next year. But I'm not sure next year will be any different. Unless, of course, we have won the lottery and moved to a walkstreet by then. So now I'm weighing up the merits of giving them to troops vs just eating a couple of treats a day for the rest of our lives.

Harvest Festival

In the UK at Harvest Festival children bring tins of food, and dry food, to school. The school collects all the tins of beans and bags of rice and so on, and puts them into food parcels. Then the kids go out and deliver those boxes to local people who will appreciate them, like old people.

At least, that's how it was when I was a kid. I don't think it's very different now except I'm guessing they probably don't send unattended children into strangers' homes anymore. Still, it's about gathering in the fruits of the harvest and sharing them with the community.

Today we went to a Harvest Festival at Lady P's school. I was confused. This is what went on:

Lady P dressed as a pumpkin, playing 'Honey Drop' in return for a plastic spider prize

A spider's web dance party

There was a pumpkin patch and place to decorate pumpkins. Lots of little fairground style games. A popcorn machine and a pizza lunch. A bounce house. And absolutely no harvesting or giving to the poor going on at all.

So I learned a couple of things today. Harvest Festival is what the Montessori school cunningly call their Halloween party, presumably because someone devout once complained about celebrating a pagan festival. Nice job Montessori, you almost had me fooled.

The other thing I learned is that the Halloween Party Harvest Festival is my opportunity to demonstrate what a cool, creative, firm bodied mother I am by dressing up as a banana, a Dr Seuss character, Princess Leia, or a cat. There were a lot of fun/ foxy costumes on display at 10.30am in the Montessori playground today. I did not seize that opportunity, choosing instead to dress like someone who skived off work for 45 minutes and was in a hurry to get back to it. Damn those Manhattan Beach mums with all that time on their skinny hands!

Maybe now I understand what's really going on here I'll do better next year.

My first Halloween

I don't count the ones before I moved to the US, for obvious reasons. Or the ones when I lived in the US but was not in the same place as TLOML, because I never went to a Halloween party without him. And home alone, no-one really trick-or-treated our apartment in Malibu or Manhattan, or Fox Corner. Last year was my first chance to do the whole 'baby in a cute costume' thing, and I was out of town.

So I consider 2014, here in Hermosa Beach, my first proper Halloween. And I loved it.

Lady P went as a cat. A little unimaginative I know,  but she does a great 'miaou'. She also incorporates the  straight arm wave of the lucky cat in the window of Thai Top...

...and a strange yawn, I think because cats in books are often yawning.

Add these interpretive elements to Lady P's costume, and take off the ears and tail (as she did) and it's a rather nuanced portrayal of a cat. Still, she had a good cat face, a clear 'miaou' and clearly had no idea why we kept insisting on dressing her up as a cat. She was in costume for storytime at the library, and for her music 'class', so by the time actual trick or treating came around the costume was a little worn but the routine and the face paint were well rehearsed.

We stocked up big on sour candies, lit our pumpkins and headed out to meet up with our neighbours. 

In the assembled gaggle, there was a kid dressed as a banana, a ladybird, a couple of super heroes, and a 9 year old boy dressed as a pretty cheerleader, blonde wig and all. Oh, and TLOML in his Elvis costume. Not at all embarrassed to be the only adult in costume. And rightly so.

After a little neighbourly chilli, we three headed out and hit up about five houses on our block. Nice way to meet the neighbours (and judge them for the quality of their treats and costumes).

Then we headed home to hand out candy to the gangs of costumed kids. They really make an effort around here, and I like that. I also like how many people were out and about, trick or treating. I guess this is how Halloween is meant to be. And I like it.

Halloween again and this year it's bigger than ever

It's that time of year again. Time for Americans to go nuts for Halloween and me to write a post about it.

After a few years of living in America and / or with an American, I'm getting on board with the Halloween fever. Last year TLOML dressed Lady P as Yoda and I thought it was brilliant. We had a pumpkin lantern on the front door step and I was good with that too.

So this year I put some thought into Lady P's costume, and we even got a pumpkin patch trip in, to make sure we were well furnished.

And yet... it looks like I'm going to be running to catch up here in Hermosa Beach. Does Halloween get bigger every year, or have we just moved somewhere they are really into it?

Either way - look:

One of several houses on our street with gravestones in the front yard

Massive spider webs are popular

If in doubt, cobwebs, spiders, and pumpkins on every available surface are a good optoin

These spiders are each bigger than Lady P

Just a little light ghoulishness

And now, look:

Just when I thought I'd cracked Halloween, I feel we still have some way to go.

Happy Hallowe'en 2013

For it turns out that it is, indeed, a thing now. Its funny that I never celebrated it once in the US, and now, almost two years after we moved back to the UK I am living in a house with a carved pumpkin at the window. Or ‘Jack O’Lantern’ as TLOML hilariously, and quaintly, insists on calling it.

I blame the baby. It is Lady P’s first Halloween, and thus it is decreed that we dress her up as Yoda and parade her up and down the street (or at least, to my sister’s house). And that we light a Jack O’Lantern so others will come calling (or at least, my nephews). Never mind that she’d prefer to be crawling around naked, chewing on my iphone. Never mind that she won’t remember any of this. She will be marking Halloween, and we will have the photos to prove it.

I am out of town for a couple of days so will miss the fun, and I’m actually a bit sad about that. When I get home I’ll make something delicious and autumnal for Lady P out of the pumpkin scrapings.

I have never felt so much like a good American mommy.

Is Halloween a thing now?

As I prepare to enter another season of explaining to TLOML that we don't really 'do' Halloween, this display stopped me in my tracks.

It's everything you need if you actually want to mark (celebrate?) Halloween: trick or treat buckets, scary paper napkins, masks and so on.

I am also reliably informed that the children at local drop-ins, Rhyme Time and the like, will be wearing fancy dress. Or Halloween costumes as they are probably called. Which means that half the kids at the childminder will be too. I found myself digging out the Yoda* costume an (American) friend gave us when Lady P arrived. Then I put it to one side, since, as I've said before, 'we don't really do Halloween here'. So what on earth would we want a Halloween costume for? Anyway, dressing an eight month old baby up is just silly.

And yet, the costume is still out on the top of the chest of drawers, ready for wear. Meanwhile, I find myself drawn to pumpkins which look like they'd lend themselves to carving, or satsumas decorated to look like pumpkins, or biscuits made to look like ghosts with marshmallows on them. And wondering if I made a big batch of flapjack with googly eyes drawn on, if that would do for trick or treaters.

We could put some of this down to too much time spent on Pinterest, of course. And perhaps I can still blame the hormones of motherhood - for making what has previously seemed a bit naff suddenly an essential pastime. Or is it something more? Is Halloween really a thing in Britain now? And if it is, given that I live on the friendliest street in small town heaven, can I really avoid getting involved?

I don't know yet. But something's in the air. And it might just be childishly spooky.

*Not Obi Wan Kenobi as per my earlier post. Apparently that's not a good costume.

Happy Hallowe'en

‘What are we going to do for Halloween?’ TLOML asked me, a few weeks ago. Because of course, for Americans, Hallowe'en is an event for which celebrations and jollities should be planned.

Fortunately, as it turned out, he was too busy winning medals at the swim nationals in Sheffield for my lack of a plan to matter. He did remind me to buy candy, for the trick or treaters who would surely call at Fox Corner. I then had to confess my Halloween plan was to hunker down in front of the Halloween specials of Strictly Come Dancing and X-Factor, and not to answer the doorbell to anyone.

I suspect American readers will be disappointed by this revelation. The fact is, Halloween is not – yet – the big hoopla over here that it is in the US. You might see some kids out trick-or-treating the people they know on their street, and some people throw parties. Regular club nights may call this weekend’s bash a Halloween special, and encourage fancy dress. There’s probably one pumpkin on a windowsill on our street (of 100 houses). But that’s about it.

I'm a sucker for a seasonal candy, me.

It’s all a bit weak compared to the jamboree of pumpkins and spookiness that consumes the US throughout October. Over there it seemed to me every one had a costume and a night of parties planned since Labor Day. Pumpkin patches sprung up in malls and parks, with excited kids picking out their pumpkins. The shops were full of that lovely, sugary ‘candycorn’, and little spooky marshmallow ghosts, and all sorts of other good, teeth rotting stuff. And the doormen said ‘Happy Halloween!’ like it was an actual cause for celebration, like Christmas or Thanksgiving (as opposed to a night of famously spooky and dark deeds).

This is normal over there.

As it happens we never really did the Halloween thing in the US. TLOML was out of town both years at that time, and I was too British to get dressed up and go party with randoms like Americans do. Still, I soaked up the general Halloween excitement - ate the corn, said 'Happy Halloween', and admired our neighbours' decor. I liked the vibe and the way it marked the start of the brilliant holiday season.

I surprise myself by admitting, I kinda miss it this year.

Happy Hallowe'en!

It is about this time of year that Americans go absolutely mental. I say 'about this time' because although today is Hallowe'en, they've been working up to it for weeks now.

I was first alerted to the onslaught of holiday fever when we were invited to a pumpkin patch, run by the managers of Rabbit Hutch Towers, a couple of weeks ago. I was a bit confused by its location, in a little park in Tribeca.
'Wow,' I said, 'I can't believe anyone grows pumpkins in Tribeca!'
'No, you jackalope!', TLOML gently corrected me. 'They don't grow them there. They truck them in from Illinois and put them out on display in the park in Tribeca, for people to go and pick them.'

This is no pick-your-own-fruit scenario. By 'pick' they mean 'pick up from a cutesy display'.  Here's a pumpkin patch in sunny Marin County.

There's a massive 15 foot long wall of pumpkins - all shapes and sizes, some ready carved too - in Chelsea Market. I meant to take a photo, but since I always tut loudly at tourists taking photos of groceries in there, I felt I couldn't. Not even in the name of art my blog. Here's one I nicked from someone's blog:

Not content with having an enormous pumpkin patch thing, Chelsea Market is also leading the way in spooky displays. Apparently this one has caused a bit of a stir, for being too ghoulish.

They love a ghoulish display, do our American brethren. This effort has dominated the lobby of Rabbit Hutch Towers for a couple of weeks.

And people who live in houses have made the most of having their own front door by, um, covering it in fake cobwebs and putting pumpkins and skulls outside.

No, I don't know why either. But when I ask - especially when I take my special, cynical tone - TLOML accuses me of being unfestive, or unAmerican, or some such. (He will change his tune when I unveil the gingerbread house I am currently fantasizing about constructing).

So, tonight's the night all this pumpkin spookiness really peaks - and I am home alone. I was thinking of baking some cookies for trick-or-treaters - glad of the excuse to create some full fat treats and then foist them on others. But apparently kids these days aren't allowed to take anything other than a heavily wrapped, additive-full candy bar. I think it's in case that scarey English lady in Apartment P has poisoned the homemade cookies.

Instead, I am going to ignore the whole shebang and watch an old episode of Sex and the City. Bah humbug indeed!