I spend more money on Halloween than I do on Christmas. And every year I realize it more and more … I’m spending money on Halloween to share it all with a bunch of strangers and their children rather than on my own family and friends.
I already give lots to my family throughout the year, I don’t need a special holiday to justify those relationships. I used to spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars on decorations, suppers, gifts and doing things for family in or around Christmas and none of it ever made a damned difference. I still love my family but it wasn’t because of Christmas … it was because they are my family. I don’t do any of that any more and you know? I still have the same level of appreciation for my family and they do the same for me … without all the BS of Christmas fanfare.
But on Halloween, I’m giving more to random strangers I don’t even know or will probably never meet again during the year … and all just for the sake of being nice to them.
So now I find that Halloween is a more giving and fun holiday than Christmas. It’s made me realize just how wholesome Halloween is compared to the commercialized hellhole that Christmas has become.
I would also say that Halloween is the last remaining holiday that encourages and expects self-expression and artistic abilities. Making costumes, coming up with unique prop ideas, carving pumpkins, etc.
Also, the act of trick or treating and joining halloween parties encourages socialization far, far more than other holidays which seem to just expect you to have dinner with people you don’t necessarily want to be around. The act of sending kids to knock on neighbor’s doors does more for our communities and our shared future than all the inflatable santa’s in the world.