As I walk up the stairs to my front door, I am greeted by gourds, skeletons – one of whom we affectionately refer to as Mr. Bones – and a ghost carved out of a piece of tree trunk we picked up at the arts festival last weekend. If you drive past our house, you will also see a blowup minion, a wolf skeleton that howls as you walk past it, a projector that makes it look like we have spiders crawling all over our house, and several gravestones.
Growing up, I loved Halloween – the costumes, the candy, and the excitement – and I still do!
But when it comes to decorations, my taste is a little more understated, simple, and tasteful. A few cool-looking colored pumpkins and a couple of jack-o-lanterns carved from pumpkins we’ve picked, and I’m set. My boys, however, are not. They love an abundance of spooky, loud, and colorful decorations. The gaudier, the better.
They showed an interest in accumulating gourds from an early age. Each weekly visit to Trader Joe’s in the fall (and I swear it begins earlier and earlier every year) yielded a new gourd for each of them. At one point, I remember discovering a gourd in the pack-and-play way past its time, and that’s when we started keeping them outside. Next came Mr. Bones, and it’s been a slippery slope from there to more and more decorations.
At first, I resisted. But as my boys grew, so did their vision. Their passion and commitment to proclaiming their excitement for Halloween (and Christmas) are admirable.
They work together side by side and discuss their plans. They carefully and thoughtfully set everything up themselves. Aside from financing and a ride to Home Depot or access to Amazon, they do it all themselves. And the result is always impressive.
As I have with most of their creative endeavors, I step aside and let them do their thing. This is their home as much as mine, and I always want them to feel that their opinions and tastes matter, too. I feel lit up when I have the chance to create, and I love to watch them light up, too.
I can only hope that by giving them the freedom to express themselves creatively now, they will always feel safe to do so and confident in their vision for their lives.
Children have so much of their lives decided for them, and I want to honor the times I can let them take the reins, whether it’s my taste or not.
So this Halloween season, you can find me surrounded by Mr. Bones and gourds galore until it’s time to cue the large inflatable Beaver wearing a Christmas hat and a million Christmas lights. But one holiday at a time.