to halloween or not to halloween

I nearly wasn't going to write about halloween, because it just kind of came and went and I forgot about it, but after just having a look at soulemama's blog, I got all inspired, and remembered this funny photo that I took of the boys as we were leaving to go "ticka treating". They dressed up as vampires, obviously, although willow's effort was a little more bohemian than scary...he decided that it had to be that shirt for full effect. We do tend to do the halloween thing every year, because, let's face it, it's fun, and we like fun. I hear so many people grumbling about how it's american and how we should be celebrating our own traditions, and that's all good and well, but we celebrate christmas don't we, and I don't think it has a whole lot to do with religion. Fair enough, maybe it's about time we did start some of our own celebrations, something a little more kid-friendly than getting pissed and playing cricket on a 40 degree day, and I do agree that it's a shame that these things have become so commercialised, but I don't think that you need to buy into all that in order to participate. What's wrong with letting the kids get dressed up and having a bag of lollies on standby for the other kids that come knocking on the door? We ended up visiting about five of our neighbours and the kids came home with a handful of lollies, 20c and an apple each. And, the best part was, the first thing they ate was the apple, because it was a special halloween apple! The world is a serious enough place already, and any excuse for a little bit of fun and creativity (and a walk as well) is always welcome around here. Oh, but I do really think that there should be an age limit on this kind of activity, it's one thing having a cute 5 and 7 year old knocking on your door, but when you see a 14 year old girl in a pink fairy costume walking down the street, hurling abuse at her "friend" who's at the other end of street, well, that's a differnet story altogether.