Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Halloween
Boo!
Now we come to the time of year when my kids bug me for stuff. Constantly. Halloween costumes, decorations, and Hanukah presents (them: but there are 8 days of Hanukkah!Me: but you are only ½ Jewish! 4 presents are plenty!) And then, the Christmas aka: the festival of greed.
Ai yi yi.
So here is to staying strong, not buying and trying not to overdo it- like last year…
When I told my 9 year old son that I wasn’t going to buy him the nylon Captain America costume from Ricky’s he went home and created a costume out of his brother’s old, black jeans, an old motorcycle helmet and his faux-leather jacket. All he needed, he informed me, was a beard. Done. A beard is small and easily repurposed. Plus, a biker is so much cooler that Captain America!
Meanwhile, my daughter rejected all of our crowd-sourced costume ideas (thank you all) so she is going to wear the faux-fur jacket I bought her to wear as a costume for real; and her big brother’s handed-down army costume for Halloween. Aside from my feminist pride that my daughter wants to be a soldier for Halloween, the great thing about this costume is that it is actually clothing from the Army/Navy store, and while it cost the same as some flammable costume from Oriental Trading company, both my boys have worn the camo pants and jacket quite a bit, though only together on Halloween.
My daughter is also resentful that I wouldn’t spend a lot on Halloween decorations. I pointed out to her that we can barely shut her crafts drawer, and that perhaps if we pulled out all the orange and black construction paper and foam and went onto Martha Stewart.com we could have a triple win: reduce clutter (for me), computer time (for her) and money saved (all of us.)
So as we head into this season of excess, let’s rein it in, repurpose and be more creative and less consumerist. It is the Found-Biker and Hand-Me-Down-Soldier that will save America this Halloween… not the made-in-China Captain America.