Monday 2 November 2009

Ooooooooooh!

I don't feel that the British really 'get' how to celebrate Halloween. Having spent a Halloween in NYC (the year before the 9/11 incidents), and having experienced how truly wonderful and awe-inspiring that was, any subsequent non-NYC Halloween was of course going to pale in comparison. The Halloween in question was spent with my Aunt and Uncle and my two gorgeous cousins, we took them trick or treating and on a Halloween parade, and on some sort of Halloween version of an Easter Egg hunt. Everybody seemed to get into the spirit of it (aka, have fun!) and it was just an all round good feeling kinda affair.

I guess maybe it was more memorable because I was watching my young cousins enjoying all the amazing Halloween events. When I was younger, me and my brothers and sister would sometimes dress up for Halloween. I remember going to a couple of themed parties, one with my Brownie pack. My Dad would take us trick-or-treating but usually only to the few neighbours that we knew, and in the car round to my Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents who lived nearby. I remember (and have since seen photo evidence of) my parents going in fantastic fancy dress to parties. But none of this really comes close to what I experienced in NYC that year.

Anyway, last year I put Pearl in a cute pumpkin outfit that one of my Mum's friends had bought her. (She'd also bought one for my niece, so they were super cute and matching for the day). It didn't really matter too much last year as she was only 4 months old, and still in the "I'm just going to lay here and wriggle and burp and pull faces" phase. I didn't want to buy Pearl a costume this year; not just for lack of money, but also because they mostly fucking sucked. Plus, at this age it is only something that would last her one Halloween, therefore one days' worth of wear. No, no and no. So I decided to go with something that I could make from things we had at home. Nothing that required a sewing machine (too little time, not enough skills). Nothing too elaborate (she struggles to keep socks on, never mind some ott costume). I settled on a pirate! We have got an awesome red and white bandana that used to belong to Bobby's Grandfather: which incidentally he wore as part of a sailor costume many years ago. I decided that a bandana would be do-able, since she sometimes likes to wear one when I do. She's got lots of navy and white striped clothes. We bought an eye patch to sit on her head and clip on earring in a Poundland shop. I cut up some old blue pyjama trousers of Bobby's to make a sash to go round her waist. The piece de resistance was a stuffed toy parrot that I pinned to her shoulder, although that only lasted all of 20seconds before she was frantically trying to rip it off her t-shirt!

All in all her costume was a success, and we even went to visit our friends to share some Halloween fun together. We ate delicious home baked pumpkin based treats - pumpkin and chocolate brownies, and pumpkin oatmeal and raising cookies. Pearl played with her friend, who was dressed as a verrrrry cute witch. Then we went to Grandma's house to show off the costume, and that was as far as it lasted. She ripped the bandana and eye patch combo off her head, signed to me that it was finished and then went about the rest of her day. I think that while I still feel that Halloween in the UK doesn't have the same feel as in the US, maybe with Pearl around we can make it awesome in our own way. Can't wait till next year and she'll be old enough to do some proper fun activities together.

We did manage to get some lovely photographs before she de-costumed, I must remember to ask my MIL for a copy of them soon. Maybe one day I might have the time to use our proper computer with a harddrive (the one I use to browse the net in the evenings doesn't have one) and maybe one day I will actually post photos with my blog. Sooooooon.

1 comment:

  1. Next Halloween you and the fam should come HERE. We went to Charmingfare Farm for Addies birthday and during the day they do a special kiddie halloween thing. It's awesome. Pearl would LOVE it I am sure.

    ReplyDelete