Saturday, October 31, 2015

Hallow-humbug

I'm not a big Halloween person. It's a holiday based around things I mostly dislike.
Costumes: What I wear hasn't ever been particularly important to me. Dressing up as someone else, even less so. I'll do it when there's a good reason, but I can't say I'll ever enjoy it. The problem with Halloween specifically is that you're expected to dress up somehow. No matter how much people may say it doesn't matter, the peer pressure is still there. I'll just stay home, thanks.

Fear: I don't much like being frightened. Weird, right? All the haunted houses, slasher movies, etc the are everywhere around Halloween do very little for me. That's not to say I don't enjoy suspense; I do, such as in spy thrillers or mystery novels. Just not the kind of "give you nightmares" stuff that is pushed at Halloween every year.

Trick or Treating: As a single middle-aged man, I realize I'm way out of the demographic for this one. But I still hear about it all the time...the local news talks about the weather for it all week, every store has candy on sale, the Internet is covered with stories about the cute little ghosts and witches. On the bright side, at least living in a condo building means I very rarely get anyone knocking on my door.

Nothing is all bad, of course. That cheap candy is nice, especially if you shop in the first week of November when they put all the leftovers on clearance. Sometimes other people's costumes are interesting to look at. And there are some fun Halloween events in my favorite online games each year. Overall, though, I could do without Halloween.