NFR Am I the only grump who doesn't care about Halloween?

[Evan B]

Though for most non-religious people, that would turn Christmas into "Thanksgiving 2" with fancier decorations. But I'd be okay with that myself.

Pretty much. I could think of plenty of other ways to do a secular/pagan holiday at the time. Plenty of other traditions that are all the same holiday basically. Yule has always sounded interesting... There's a Yule goat, Yule boar, and something to do with a "hunt." I don't know how one incorporates any of those things, but I'm intrigued.

 

[Josh]

Pretty much. I could think of plenty of other ways to do a secular/pagan holiday at the time. Plenty of other traditions that are all the same holiday basically. Yule has always sounded interesting... There's a Yule goat, Yule boar, and something to do with a "hunt." I don't know how one incorporates any of those things, but I'm intrigued.

I've always been a fan of a winter solstice celebration. Not for any particular pseudo-pagen religion thing, though perhaps they appreciated it for the same reasons I do.

But it's always meant a lot to me, as someone who has lived in Cascadia all his life, to recognize the time when we start the turnaround back away from short cold wet days. It seems as good of a reason as any to have a celebration and bring some warmth/friendship to the darkest day of the year.

 

[Josh]

Our neighborhood is probably the busiest place in town on Halloween, so it would be pretty miserable if we didn't embrace it.

I highly suspect a neighborhood like that would have helped me get more into Halloween. The community aspect of it would have been enough to make it more worthwhile.

 

[ThomasM]

I'm not into the commercialization of the holidays but I really enjoy the small gatherings of friends and family to give look back and give thanks or create hope and good will for the future.

The family still call them by the traditional names but I've informed everyone that I'll be celebrating the solstices and equinoxes going forward. Just makes more sense to me aligning with the seasons. They think I'm joking but I'm not.

 

[Evan B]

I've always been a fan of a winter solstice celebration. Not for any particular pseudo-pagen religion thing, though perhaps they appreciated it for the same reasons I do.

But it's always meant a lot to me, as someone who has lived in Cascadia all his life, to recognize the time when we start the turnaround back away from short cold wet days. It seems as good of a reason as any to have a celebration and bring some warmth/friendship to the darkest day of the year.

I can get down with that

 

[Xoxo]

I used to hate that expectant feeling of waiting for the doorbell to ring so i could unload my giant Costco size bag of Halloween candy and having only 15 kids max trick or treat. Then three years ago I got the idea of us all bringing our candy to the alley between our buildings and everyone bring their own bottle and candy and we play music and my husband puts bratwursts on the BBS and we hang out. We are doing it again tonight and if it rains we’ll move into our covered patio.

 

[Xoxo]

Haha…. I think this was mentioned before when i posted a similar photo. We look like we are partying at a storage unit place.

 

[Billy]

I love Halloween!

 

[Josh]

Haha…. I think this was mentioned before when i posted a similar photo. We look like we are partying at a storage unit place.

That is 100% what I thought at first.

 

[mooseknuckles]

I don’t dress up, but if I did…

If the whole idea of compulsory gift exchanges just went away, my dislike of christmas would be cut dramatically.

Ever since our kids were laid (as our youngest says), I have been telling family and friends they do not need a thing. “We want to give” they would insist. “Wonderful, they each have a 529 plan” was always my answer but never well received. After a decade of endlessly berating them over this topic we were able to eliminate gift exchanges a few years back. We have realocated the gift expenditures in to experiences/vacations that are a total surprise to the kids. They know we may be departing home at a set date however they are unaware of the destination and even upon arrival they still do not get filled in on the day to day plans until the last moment necessary. The trips to the dump are far fewer, the complaining and bickering of not getting want they want or who got what has been totally eliminated. So far, every time we have returned home there is gratitude, appreciation and plenty of stories to be told.

 

[Evan B]

Ever since our kids were laid (as our youngest says), I have been telling family and friends they do not need a thing. “We want to give” they would insist. “Wonderful, they each have a 529 plan” was always my answer but never well received. After a decade of endlessly berating them over this topic we were able to eliminate gift exchanges a few years back. We have realocated the gift expenditures in to experiences/vacations that are a total surprise to the kids. They know we may be departing home at a set date however they are unaware of the destination and even upon arrival they still do not get filled in on the day to day plans until the last moment necessary. The trips to the dump are far fewer, the complaining and bickering of not getting want they want or who got what has been totally eliminated. So far, every time we have returned home there is gratitude, appreciation and plenty of stories to be told.

Love that approach! It's what we've tried, but our extended families are far too stubborn. They'd rather spend money on the same type of thoughtless gifts they do every year, despite our requests not to. So every year, we end up with a pile of useless junk from Wal Mart so our family can check that "to do" list off. Our son gets tons of toys and other things he has no interest in because nobody in the family bothers to find out what interests him. So we end up re-gifting or donating most of it.

I'll never understand it, and I certainly don't understand why family gets offended or completely disregards requests to not do material gifts.

 

[Xoxo]

There is so much wasted money spent on buying toys for my six nieces and nephews. (There is so much money wasted on Christmas period!) I love Christmas, but absolutely hate shopping for anything at any time.

So i started a new tradition with presents for them. At first I started giving $100 for birthdays but then decided $50 is good enough for Christmas and for birthdays now on. I went on YouTube and learned how to make origami hearts out of some the dollar bills.

Along with the money i wrote out a list of what they can buy with it after looking up stuff on Google. Jokey things, like how many pounds of broccoli, how many McDonald’s orders of fries to give them some perspective of how much it is since they are all elementary age kids in the 4th grade and younger.

It’s so much easier and they love it!

 

[Evan B]

There is so much wasted money spent on buying toys for my six nieces and nephews. (There is so much money wasted on Christmas period!) I love Christmas, but absolutely hate shopping for anything at any time.

So i started a new tradition with presents for them. At first I started giving $100 for birthdays but then decided $50 is good enough for Christmas and for birthdays now on. I went on YouTube and learned how to make origami hearts out of some the dollar bills.

Along with the money i wrote out a list of what they can buy with it after looking up stuff on Google. Jokey things, like how many pounds of broccoli, how many McDonald’s orders of fries to give them some perspective of how much it is since they are all elementary age kids in the 4th grade and younger.

It’s so much easier and they love it!
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That's fun! I like doing creative stuff like that. For me, if I do gifts for anyone, it's throughout the year and usually things I make myself: Smoked salmon, hot sauce, coffee we roast, make a fancy dinner, etc etc.

 

[Salmo_g]

Halloween was fun when I had young children. They had a wonderful time thinking up costumes each year. We always limited the trick-or-treating to just a few neighbors' houses so we didn't have to deal with kids bouncing off the walls from sugar highs. This will be our 12th year in our "new" house, and we only had a couple T or Ters one year. So we always buy some candy to have on hand, but do no decorating. And I'll most likely be the one eating candy for 2 weeks. So I bought Reese peanut butter cups this time.

 

[DanielOcean]

I like all all the holidays. I am in the young children phase of most of them. However, i know that my wife and I will always actively do things during the holidays. Love every bit of it. Its not constructive to get grumpy about things

 

[Tom Butler]

I guess I look at hoalloween different than most because todays my birthday. As kids there were always Halloween birthday parties, then as a teen and beyond always drunken craziness. When our kids were young we did it up big. The kids live in a newer neighbor with lots of young families and so many do neat stuff, so we go over there and trick or treat, it's about the fun the kids have. SixO today by belly button years.

 

[PhilR]

yeah, you are all a bunch of grumps, except for those partying in the storage units

Hearing all of the "great in theory, but not how I want..." really resonates, though. My wife took it on herself/ourselves to change things up for TG and Xmas dinners. I think it was Moroccan chicken last year, and nobody complains about dry (or undercooked) turkey, or weird dressing. It took me a while to get used to the idea, but it has turned into something fun. @Evan B , your sushi fest would be just that sort of thing.

the other thing we've done is gone beyond family is to go beyond family for these events. Or, just lock it down to the four of us. Choose your own adventures.

 

[Xoxo]

That's fun! I like doing creative stuff like that. For me, if I do gifts for anyone, it's throughout the year and usually things I make myself: Smoked salmon, hot sauce, coffee we roast, make a fancy dinner, etc etc.

We used to give away to friends small gifts like smoked salmon that my husband made in his Little Chief smoker. We also made almond butter that we made in our Vitamix. But then our Vitamix started getting wobbly from making it so we decided this was all too much of a chore too. So i asked the friends if we could just quit that too and make an effort to get together instead. They agreed. I like the holidays a lot more now that we quit the worry of the gifts. And don’t even get me started on those parties where you steal the gift. I hate those too because most people just bring a bottle of alcohol and i usually got stuck with something like Fireball, which i hate. Haha.

 

[Xoxo]

Because I need a break from family this year we are doing Thanksgiving at our house with a couple whose husband plays guitar in the band with my husband since they are in the middle of a kitchen remodel and don’t have parents who are alive or siblings they get together with. (Their daughter who is a nurse is also coming. So just the five of us.) I realize how much I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving (which i usually hate cause it’s too close to Christmas and we are often driving over the pass to my husband’s side of the family). We are BBQing a turkey. So let the holidays begin! It’s starts today!

 

[Chadk]

When I was a kid we would all gather at my grandparents. My family with 4 kids, then my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Would be about 20 people depending on who could/couldn't make it that year. We'd meet for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. There were some interesting moments and awkward conversations - but my grandparents were the glue the kept us all together and everyone respected them and tried to be on their best behavior. Once they moved in retirement homes, we'd meet at one of the relatives places. Then once they died, the events just went away as well. All the families just went their separate ways.

As a young married couple, this wasn't a huge deal for us at the time. We liked figuring out our own family traditions as we started having kids. But the older I got, the more I appreciated what we had as kids growing up. My wife grew up in a single mother home with no extended family (or what ever family she had was severely dysfunctional on many levels). So, for the few years she got to spend with my grandparents and get a taste of those deep family traditions - they really resonated with her.

So now, years later, we are taking on the role of my grandparents. No grandkids yet, but we got the ball rolling with traditions. Not stuffy old traditions full of facades and motions and expectations - just family time. We don't fuss about perfect place settings. No Martha Stewart pressure. Just happy to spend time together and be real with each other. We host our "family dinner night" each Sunday. All of our kids (8 total) have an open invitation and can of course bring their spouse/family as they grow theirs. My dad and step-mom come each week. My MIL. And we have a few friends who come on the regular who are like family. Then that same group has open invites to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter - but a few more invites to out of state relatives. I imagine in 10 years it will be quite a bit like my childhood as we get some grandkids in the mix.

As for Halloween, I could do without it. But the kids have had some fun with it. I view it like the fair or Disney land - just feeds the instant gratification on sweets (figuratively and litterally) and cheap (and not so cheap) thrills and gimmicks. And while I do love a good candy bar from time to time, I think sugar is a poison and someday we'll wonder what we were thinking pumping that into our bodies and our kid's bodies. Bah humbug!! As for tonight, my 15 year old twin daughters and I have some deer to chase. That's my kind of Halloween