Friday, November 2, 2007

Candy Quest (aka Halloween)

Every year at Halloween, we try to have the best candy to give out at our house. While I know many Christians aren't too comfortable with the idea of celebrating something with roots in ancient Celtic paganism, most non-Christians either aren't aware of those roots or simply think of it as a fun holiday regardless of them. And since we want to be a witness in our community, we buy good candy (Milk Duds, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, etc.)and keep the light on late. We have found that doing so gives us a golden opportunity to meet a lot of the neighbors and their children and to build relationships with them.

Karen mans the door and the bowl and I take the kids around. It works pretty well. Karen meets the neighbors who bring kids to our door, I meet the ones who are manning their homes for my little costumed candy maniacs. John went as Superman (of course!), Sara as a golden angel (complete with halo and wings), and Nate as a giraffe (yes, it was as funny as it sounds). Notably, they got lots of good candy from all of the houses we pillaged (er, I mean visited), with none of those nasty "candies" I remember from my own youth--the "chocolate" coins, red and white pepperments, or popcorn balls (who thought that was a good idea?).

Somewhere along the line, roles got reversed, with the kids getting cold and wanting to go home, and Dad campaigning for just one more house. Which just goes to show, candy sometimes gets in your blood in more ways than one...

1 comment:

Alissa said...

Hey Joe, I think you forgot about circus peanuts that were hard as rocks (with matching flavor!) and those nasty peanut butter flavored choke chews in the orange & black wrappers. What WERE those things anyway?