When you reside in Salem, Massachusetts (home of the infamous witch trials), Halloween is a big deal. I mean a REALLY big deal. We are talking a month long, over-the-top celebration of everything spooky, weird, and downright terrifying.
As a local, you either choose to embrace the craziness of the holiday or hide away in your house until November 1st rolls around. When my husband and I became residents of Salem years ago, we decided to take advantage of the plethora of holiday events and activities that the city had to offer. We also started up several Halloween traditions such as decorating our house with crazy lights and dressing up in “family-themed” costumes.
When the kids came along a few years later, we became even more involved in local activities such as the annual pumpkin decorating contest, local children’s costume party, and Halloween fun run. It was safe to say that we became a Halloween obsessed family.
Last winter, my husband accepted a new job and we temporarily moved our family from Salem to a tropical island in the Caribbean. We knew that aspects of this move were going to be difficult for our family, but we did not expect the loss of Halloween as we knew it, to be one of the big ones.
My kids started talking about Halloween way back in June. They were already planning our costumes and asking about activities. Questions ranged from “When is the Haunted parade?” to “Do they do the zombie walk here?” and “What about trick-or-treating with the mayor?” Even though I had previously explained to them that most of the world does not do Halloween like Salem does Halloween, I sadly watched the disappointment creep into their little faces when I had to tell them that many of our favorite traditions and events just don’t take place on the island. The parent guilt quickly set in and I promised that we would still have a great holiday, even if we weren’t dressing up like zombies and parading around town scaring tourists.
Now it is October, and I am in the midst of planning our first tropical Halloween. It has actually been a lot of fun to make some changes and try out some new things. Of course, some of our traditions will stay the same.
We will still be dressing up in our family themed costumes, trick-or-treating around our new neighborhood, and carving (faux) pumpkins. We additionally have some new events in the works such as a Halloween pool party complete with candy corn cocktails, spooky pool games, and floating skeletons. We have also decided to take hold of our Halloween expertise and bring a little bit of Salem to the Caribbean; we have volunteered to help with both neighborhood and school holiday events.
So this year, instead of mourning Halloween, we have chosen to reinvent it. While I’m not sure that I will be able to make this into the best Halloween ever, it will certainly be one that we will recall for years to come. In my mind, when it comes to family togetherness, sometimes the new memories that we make are just as important as the traditions that we pass on.
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Photo by Roberto Nickson (@g) on Unsplash