Jack Tame: Halloween isn't so bad!

It’s October 31st.   

Whoop whoop. You know what that means. That half-finished box of Favourites wedged into the back corner of your pantry since Christmas two years ago could be about to have a very exciting afternoon. Let’s hope the neighbourhood kids like an Old Gold or a Turkish Delight. 

I have absolutely no data to back this up, but I feel like Halloween is a bigger deal today than when I was a kid. At least in the stores, right? Any marketing hook will do if it means hawking a few more ultra-processed goodies or topping up the micro-plastics in the Pacific.  

But then again, maybe not. In my neighbourhood at least, you still don’t see huge numbers of kids trick-or-treating. My wife is always desperate for them to visit our house. She thinks it’s cute and exciting. But for the last few years we haven’t had a single visitor. She’s put out Halloween decorations and gone back and forth between the couch and the letterbox, scanning the street. In the end, we’ve cut a pathetic image, the two of us, sinking into the couch at about 8.30pm and eating the goodies ourselves. But the end I’ve eaten so much that I’m really not enjoying it, I’m just eating.   

When I lived in the States, Halloween was a huge deal, of course. I remember my first Halloween, waiting for my apartment’s buzzer to ring with a bucketful of candy for the Spanish Harlem kids.  

They never arrived either. It was only in Year Two that I realised no one was going to walk up the stairs to get to my apartment. Instead, a lot of my neighbours would get a few drinks and park up in deck chairs on the footpath instead... having a few beers and handing out candy at the same time.  

You may well be a misery guts when it comes to Halloween. It’s very easy to chalk it up as nothing more than a shameless money grab. No better than Valentine’s Day! Worse, even – an Americanised excuse to separate you from your dollars. But if every commercial occasion is being squarely judged on what it actually involves, Halloween isn’t so bad. 

For starters, a good Halloween outfit requires a bit of creativity. Who doesn’t love a good dress up?  It’s a chance to stretch a creative muscle and while most people don’t, I’m always tickled when I see a really clever Halloween outfit. The best ones are always homemade. If you bought it whole or rented it, I’m afraid it doesn't count.   

In this day and age of isolation, I suppose it’s also a reasonable opportunity to get to meet the neighbours. I figure Halloween is the only time that some people who live on the same street would ever find themselves knocking on their neighbours’ doors. 

And if you disagree, you think Halloween is plain dumb, just wait until you turn the calendar over tomorrow morning and realise we’re in the first week of November. If it’s ultimately a choice between my neighbours’ kids putting on some costumes and knocking on the door and my neighbours firing off $300 worth of fireworks on a blustery night... sorry, but it’s a no-brainer.