Halloween is just normal for my kids. It's interesting and strange to see how they just accept it and think that EVERYONE is doing it when in fact the highest concentration of "real" Halloween was in my little neighborhood and consisted of me and a few friends.
When we did Halloween in the US 2 years ago, I noticed Suzanne's relationship to her booty. The next day, she'd forgotten it despite the fact that she had at least a pound of candy. This year, after hitting only 7 houses, the kids came home and Suzanne instantly spread her candy out on the table. She organized, categorized, counted and tried to trade with her little brother. I stood there and laughed since that's exactly what we used to do. But instead of gorging herself with candy, she promprly forgot about it and her Halloween bag (a black cat we brought back from the US) is still sitting on the sideboard. Max on the other hand has been sneaking candy without telling us and his stash is slowly dwindling.
All of the people were neighbors I know or friends, except for one. When we rang his bell, he came to the door and it was a man I'd never seen. A youngish guy with a nice smile (don't get any ideas). After he gave the kids candy, I thanked him for answering my call for participants. He told me he was happy to participate and actually thanked me for taking the intitiative !
I guess that I have imparted the fun of Halloween on my children. But France has imparted its respect for food and its moderation...
And, as a parent, I've realized that all you need is 7 neighbors to give you candy and a whole bunch of loud friends to have a fun Halloween!
Tuesday 13 November 2012
Halloween the Franco-American way
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3 comments:
Do you have the tradition where you live of putting out pumpkins for 'Hallowe'en friendly' houses? Everyone does it in our neighbourhood and it's so useful to see at a glance which door is okay to knock on!
I was explaining Halloween to some colleagues and talking about all the "fun size" candy, and a colleague said "Oh, you mean it's all individually wrapped? I imagined a bowl of Dragibus and you give each kid a handful."
I'd never realized that the French would think of handing out handfuls of candy, but then again leave it to the Americans to make bite size individually packaged candies.
@Tallulah - that's exactly what we did. I asked the Halloween friednly neighbors to put a pumpkin on their window or door. 7 houses is a success as far as I'm concerned...
@L - I was surprised when people dipped their hands into a bowl of marshmallows and handed themt o the kids. les microbes!!!
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