It’s late August, and in most years, Halloween addicts are deep in planning how they’ll celebrate Halloween:
- How will I decorate the house this year?
- Will I have a party?
- What sort of treats will I hand out to kids?
- What costume will the kids wear?
- What costume will I wear?
Halloween 2019 was a non-event for me, for the first time in 15 years. I’d sold my house, given the majority of my halloween decorations to the kids next door, reduced everything I owned to a car-load (with the exception of a piano, and four boxes of my favourite Halloween/Christmas/family memories), and was preparing to move to Byron Bay to live in a tiny house. We ended delaying due to bushfires, but it was just a bit too busy to be able to squeeze in Halloween.
Theoretically by now, we were to have finished building a new house, and be preparing for Halloween and Christmas. The neighbours were keen, there was a primary school across the road, and it was going to be big. Then came Covid-19.
Halloween 2020 should have been huge – it’s on a Saturday and almost full moon – conditions sounded perfect.
But there are mixed signals about what will actually happen.
- It’s hard to imagine parents being happy about their kids reaching into pumpkin full of lollies that another 50 hands had touched;
- Or hosting a party with the risk of becoming a new disease hot spot .
- Yet there are lots of public/community/commercial events listed at eventbrite – businesses are hoping that things will be better by the end of October – a vaccine, or successful containment/management.
- Confectionary companies are still planning the usual halloween bags, according to https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/halloween-candy-pandemic-surplus-hersheys-mars-15482469.php.
- Costume companies may be optimistic – we’re all getting better at virtual parties online;
- And being stuck at home has given many families the opportunity to become more creative, with art and craft activities thriving as parents and kids work together more than usual.
I’m still planning to put my halloween decorations up – it’s fun, and I’ll put them up at least a week early, so that the kids can enjoy it as they walk home from school. But at this stage, I think I’ll also put a note outside before Halloween – letting families know that for health reasons, we may not be handing out lollies.
In a perfect world I’d have had blueberries growing on my new front fence, so that there was a healthy fruit option. but given we’re just putting the roof on now, and there’s no electricity or water, and only one blueberry plant in a wicking box, that may be optimistic.
Until then – Happy halloween!