Establishing Family Halloween Traditions

Traditions to me are the events you participate in or things you do every year as a family on a consistent basis. Holidays often bring up memories of family traditions and as I start and re-start my own family I realize how important these times have played in my life and I want them to root deeply into my sons lives as well. Establishing a tradition is easier than it seems. One of my most favorite holidays is Halloween. Maybe because of the timing of this holiday (crisp fall weather) or the fun associated with it makes it such an awesome holiday to build traditions on. My traditions are listed below and have become a consistent part of our family's life.

Trick or Treating in costume: Every year we make it a family event to pick out costumes for the boys. The usual party supply store works for my oldest since he prefers the more gruesome outfits and for my 17 month old Babies R Us or Pottery Barn for Kids have some great choices for cutie patooties. The most traditional part of this is that the boys cannot wear their costume until Halloween so they stay excited for it and either my husband or I walk the neighborhood with the boys regardless if they are with friends so that we can experience their joy and excitement as much as they do.

NOT Carving Pumpkins: My oldest has in the past carved pumpkins and though I think it's something they should know "how" to do, once they've done it once I don't see the need to continue it every year. We basically ended up being the ones (the parents) to do this and my oldest never seemed to care. I prefer the pumpkins that are fake and don't rot where you just put a light in them and plug them in versus a candle that you need to worry about. I finally gave it up and my husband and I decided to NOT buy real pumpkins anymore except for decoration intact as it's just too much hassle. The stress of pumpkin carving is officially no longer a Straub family tradition.

Trunk or Treat: Every year whether it's at our church or someone else's we participate in a trunk or treat. This entails a bunch of adults lining up their cars and decorating their trunks. You can play scary music on your stereo and really play it up in the trunk. I love it and it's easier than walking miles and miles to get a few pieces of candy. You can do it anywhere there is a parking lot and the more people that participate the more fun it is. You can also give an award to the best looking trunk which is what we like to do.

Establishing traditions is really easy you just need to be consistent for them to "settle in" for your own family and for your kids to actually recognize them as one.