Sifting and Shifting Holiday Traditions

I'm the first to admit that I really miss having little kids around the house. Five and six year olds really know how to express glee over impending holidays. I always had as much fun as they did setting the scene.

But now we are all old and cool. No more glow-in-the-dark skeletons around the house. Gone are all the cute Halloween picture books. No more Disney Halloween videos. But they're not yet ready for some of my Halloween favorites - movies like "Sleepy Hollow." So we're coasting along in tween land; "Nightmare before Christmas," old episodes of "The Addams Family," "Edward Scissorhands."

I thought it would be a good time to clear out the enormous bin full of costumes and donate them. I was universally vetoed. "We might need some of that stuff mom!" They refused to listen when I argued that none of those old things would fit.

Yes to candy corn and cookies shaped like bats.  No to cartoonish placemats and the big pile of Halloween stickers that has accumulated over the years.  Goodbye cute pumpkin-shaped trick or treat buckets, hello practical pillowcases that hold a lot more candy.

I can't always predict what goes and what stays (well, except for the candy corn and cookies part, they'd never give those up.)  I can, however, see how traditions centered around the family are still held dear.  Carving jack-'o-lanterns is messy and challenging and the kids don't dwell too much on the merits of the finished product, but it is always a special event to go out and get the pumpkins.  There is always that sunny afternoon when they spend time on the back patio laughing with their hands in the glop.  Later we all curl up on the couch to watch a movie and eat toasted pumpkin seeds.

So I'll bid a fond farewell to the coloring books and cartoons of Halloweens past.  I'll try not to mind all the changes in the rhythms of our holidays.  As long as we can enjoy them together, it's cause for celebration.