[Image from stevechasmar’s excellent Halloween in the Time of Cholera flickr set]

Yay! This is my very favorite holiday ever, and my favorite day of the whole year. I think it has replaced Christmas (and quite soundly, I might add). It is not because I am of the Gothic persuasion (though I am). No, it is because I (1) love to dress up and (2) hate the Christmas season with the burning passion of a thousand fiery suns. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love Christmas. I like getting together with family and doing things in the cold and decorating the tree and going to midnight Mass. I do not, however, like the whole crappy consumer hype leasing up to it. I remember in the not-so-long-ago that you got to celebrate Halloween clean, and then right after Thanksgiving you’d see Christmas things in the stores. I like it like that. I went to buy Halloween candy and decorations last week (well before Halloween) and I had to endure canned Christmas carols and hunting through Christmas decorations to find the last of the spooky paper plates. We are not amused.

So I’ve decided that Halloween is my new Christmas. I had lots of fun last night with Jennie, cutting out tentacles to stick to the windows, and spreading fake cobweb over the bushes. We listened to Halloween music and drank hot tea, and it was marvelous. Much better than listening to the same Celine Dion carols over and over. I think next year I’ll continue this tradition, and make up some new obligatory Halloween activities including, but not limited to, a festive knitted item (Yorick is on my Ravelry queue).