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i looooooove halloween. my birthday is also the day before halloween, so it's always been a fun time of year for me!

@Mrs. Pen: this is interesting to me as I grew up in an area where Halloween/ToT was (and is) the norm. Would you mind sharing a little more about what it is that you don't like Halloween? Please feel free to let me know if it's personal or you don't feel like sharing more. Thanks!!

ETA- saw your response above!

I don't love it myself, but growing up I thought begging for candy was the best!

I used to really not care about Halloween. I didn't grow up celebrating it. However I have changed completely since LO was born. It is so weird. Now I get excited about thinking what he's going to be for Halloween, and enjoying the decor and festivities for the entire month prior to that.

I am neutral about it, but I dress the kids up for Halloween parades and school parties. We haven't gone trick or treating yet. I don't give them candy so I figure what's the point until they know better and ask to go.

@Mrs. Pen: ahhh! Yes!! I wish we could skip Halloween and go STRAIGHT to Thanksgiving and Christmas! I use to love Halloween until I had kids and now I feel like it's a chore. Buying an expensive costume, taking them out in the cold, decorating with items I never use and just take up space in my attic. Ack.

Also, I know everyone doesn't celebrate Christmas and that's fine but in my city, people go nuts decorating for Halloween and no one does Christmas lights! I love Christmas lights. I hate plastic pumpkins on tree's that sit out all year round.

I like Halloween. It's not my favorite it holiday. Growing up we weren't allowed a lot of candy and we didn't go trick or treating every year or decorate. I grew up in NYC and Halloween can be sketchy--especially as I got older it was all about getting home before getting egged! And we lived in a building so we didn't really go trick or treating often, sometimes to the local stores.

I'm with @irene. Never used to like Halloween but now I'm getting into it as a mom. Even putting up some decorations which I never would have done before. Like I'm trying to enjoy marking different seasons and festivities for their sake! And it's fun!

I am not a big fan of Halloween either. I wasn't going to do anything for LO last year (10 months old) and then it turned out there was a whole thing at daycare. This year I tried to make it not too crazy by getting a cheap costume on ebay. It might be fun as LO gets a little older but I am not looking forward to the teenager ridiculousness. I agree it has gotten kind of over the top...

I'm pretty ambivalent about it. I think I'm too much of a homebody and it never actually lives up the the hype (although it did a decade or so ago...best party, ever).

I like putting E in a costume, though, because I think it's super cute. And I'll take him trick or treating this year with my nieces because I want to show him off (but probably no candy).

Thanksgiving though? ALL about it!

@luckypenny: I totally feel like that, too. My mom didn't like Halloween so she didn't make a big effort. I'm pretty sure I was a hobo on several Halloweens. A HOBO. So don't gel bad about your princess jasmine outfit.

@Mrs. Pen: I don't like it. My parents never raised us to celebrate it so, I've never been trick or treating. In college, I did attend some costume parties, but I didn't like Halloween, I just like parties.
As a parent- we don't do Halloween. DH is more against it than I am, for the reason you mentioned above plus a little bit of a religious mindfulness thrown in there too. It's just a big, made-up holiday, very commercial and based off a dark idea. Bleh.

That being said, I think kids in costumes are adorable and I will buy lo costumes when they are on clearance after Halloween, just to wear to birthday parties or to the pumpkin patch or something. I also love discounted candy!

I'm neutral. I dress up LO, but his trick or treating consists of visiting family so we don't get a ton of candy and we know it is safe.

@TurtleDoves: discounted candy is probably my favorite thing about Halloween and valentines day! (: haha.

@HLK208: See, I kind of feel that way about Christmas. I HATE how ridiculous and meaningless and materialistic the holidays have gotten. I think that comes from working in retail for so long. I see the very worst side of the greed.

Halloween isn't even about candy for me. It's just FUN. Maybe it's just the theatre geek in me that loves to dress up. Fall is my favorite. I love Halloween. I don't get this "dark side" people always talk about. You do realize that Halloween in a Christian holiday, right? It's a holiday to remember the dead and the "departed believers". People mash is up with Samhain and other celebrations, but it evolved independently of them.

@loveisstrange: totally get what you're saying about christmas too!

@loveisstrange: I was going to write about the All Hallows Eve/All Saints' Day/All Souls' Day aspect, too. We're Catholic, so we observe them as a vigil/holy day/feast day trifecta. All Saints' is a holy day of obligation, so we go to church then; All Souls' is a feast day. Halloween is really just the vigil before All Saints', which is kind of all the "reason" you need for a party! And as a former theatre geek myself, I can totally appreciate the desire to dress up and decorate! I made some amazing costumes as a child and as an adult, and I'm really looking forward to throwing costume parties.

That said, I'm not a huge fan of the trick-or-treating aspect of Halloween. I went a few times as a kid, but I never loved it nearly as much as I loved making costumes and carving pumpkins, and I don't plan to encourage it for LO.

@loveisstrange: Totally agree with you. I hate Christmas...I think it can bring out the worst in people. I had a shoe thrown at me once on Christmas Eve when I was 17 because we ran out of an item a parent wanted to buy for their child. Halloween is just a good time. Plus I'm an October baby, so I think I'm just wired to love it.