Halloween on the Farm

I’ve had mixed feelings about Halloween my entire life.

I was always eager to imagine who I could be—or what—yet Halloween itself always seemed to fall short of my aspirations.

Trick-or-treating became scary at some point in the 1980s. Razor blades in candy. You didn’t have to tell me this more than once.

I tried Halloween a few more times in my teens, but it wouldn’t be until my kids were old enough to pick out their own pumpkins that Halloween became something I really looked forward to.

Our policy was simple: you could have as big a pumpkin as you could carry.

It was a great policy until about age 13. In fairness, no one ever tried to take advantage of it, and the pumpkins could always fit in the car.

The excitement of costumes began long before the actual trick-or-treating yielded much candy.

My eldest son was Buzz Lightyear for three Halloweens—and he slept in his costume between those years!

My youngest son was Woody. He slept with his boots on and wore that darn red hat to preschool.

My daughter, although excited about Halloween, was less impressed about dressing up. We would reimagine her recital costumes instead. Much like a wedding dress—you pay all that money to wear it once?

Then we discovered, quite by accident, speed trick-or-treating.

Or what Mom (a.k.a. me) called: We live around a lake with really dark roads, and I’m not going to have us walk in the dark and get run over by a car, so let’s take the car.

But here’s the part none of us expected.

The houses we visited, because of the dark and tiny roads, never got trick-or-treaters.

And they were SO excited to see us!

They were also unprepared, so my kids got full-size candy bars—or whatever treats they happened to have on hand.

Halloween and fall were a bit different in the suburbs of southern New Hampshire. I didn’t have a garden. I had planters. I went to a farm stand and bought bundles of straw and gourds, and the kids were in charge of picking out the pumpkins.

Now, all of our children are grown, but Halloween still finds its way to our house. Last year, my youngest carved some pumpkins to decorate the front of the house.

And this year, we would love to invite young and old to come celebrate Halloween on the farm!

I understand costumes can be complicated, but it’s also permission to be whatever you’d like to be—even if only for a morning.

Come share our joy of the season and the fruits of so much labor.

Come have fun. Come relax. Come make some memories. Come see what finds you.

Crystal & Rob