Thread: Do you celebrate Halloween?

I absolutely ADORE HALLOWEEN! Much like you Little Bear I wait all year for Halloween to come around! I always loved it, even as a child I loved it more than Christmas and I still do. From the thrills, chills, and spills to the harvest festivals, the nice cool weather, the unique food this time of year...everything! I love all of it! I love the decorations, and costumes mainly for the fact my family always made everything by hand. We didn't use store bought stuff accept maybe lights or going out and buying things like materials to make decorations and costumes. We did everything ourselves and had a wonderful time with it. From the planning to the set up to enjoying how it all looked it was wonderful. Halloween always use to mean family block parties when I was a kid. The neighborhood would set up spooky trails in the woods, carve out corn mazes, everyone helping everyone else to decorate their houses, making props, cooking food for the event, it was a wonderful, wonderful thing! We had several neighbors who composed music in their spare time and would create custom sound effects and music tracks for the celebration. Plenty of people loved to cook and bake...there were all kinds of home made candy and treats and OMFG the pumpkin spice corn bread was to die for! It was glorious....I was so sad when we had to move.... As I aged I use to become very depressed when Halloween came around. Mostly because I was at that age where I was considered too old to run around like a kid and have fun but still too young to go out and do parties. Once I turned 21 I vowed to change that and I did for a few years. I use to attend Ren Fair Festivals and my friends and I would get together and create our own unique parties and celebrations. We would mix and match different aspects of the holiday together. From making our own costumes and treats, watching scary and silly horror movies, visiting the graves of the dead to pay our respects, holding bonfires...we included a little bit of everything. I know some people around the events thought of us as disrespectful if not out right freaks since our celebrations often looked like Day of the Dead crossed with attributes from PaganWiccan and several other cultures depending on who was attending we would do our best to find some way to include their traditions. Again, sadly this too was cut short as people began to move away and or become too wrapped up in work, college, their own families, etc. It was understandable but still sad to see such wonderful times once again come to an end. For the past few years I have been unable to do anything for Halloween. Either due to finances, no one's schedules matching up with mine, or working constantly and not being able to get time off to do anything. While I do enjoy a good drink I don't like being drunk let alone dealing with drunk morons. I'm not a fan of store bought candy and while I do love haunted houses and scary things...I don't like going to them by myself for the fact it's not nearly as enjoyable unless there is someone to share the experience with. Even if I try planning weeks in advance the plans have always fallen apart, things happen, people bail...life just gets in the way. All of the really awesome attractions are at least a 90 minute drive away from my house....there is nothing around here to do, no where to go, nothing to see....and most people around here don't bother with Halloween. They all skip right over it which is sad in my personal opinion. I seriously wish I had the ability to take off work for the entire month of October and travel around the country to see and experience all these different festivals and attractions I've only ever seen on TV or heard about in conversation. Maybe one day I'll have enough money saved up to do just that.