The Family Spirit of Halloween

Family in Crayon Costumes

   The Family Spirit of Halloween.

Hello Kitty Witch Pumpkin

   Living in Germany causes a problem for Trick or Treating. For the most part Germans don't celebrate Halloween. So if you want to go Trick or Treating you have two choices. First you can try to guess which of your neighbors are Americans and hope they have some treats. Or you can do as most military families do, go on base. On the military base Trick or Treating is set up to be very family oriented.
   To start off, it begins at 1700 (5:00pm) and ends two hours later, just when it starts to get dark. Next, the housing  area is pretty much closed to traffic and the military police have a strong presence. Then large groups of families go door to door often waiting in line to pose that famous proposal of Trick or Treat.

My Honey Bees

  The focus being a family event with the majority of kids no older than grade school. I can't understand why some people feel that it is appropriate to wear Sexy costumes. There are two groups that do this tweens and adults. Both fall under the responsibility of the adults or Parents. As the father of a little girl, I don't want my daughter viewed as a sex symbol. Therefore she will not be allowed to dress in that manner until she is old enough to vote and even then I hope that I will have instilled enough self-confidence that she doesn't seek that kind of attention. There are also adults that dressed in sexy costumes. I am not against grownups dressing as they wish, but I do feel that there is a time and a place. Trick or Treating with hoards of kids around is not the time nor place to be dressed as a Naughty Nurse or sexy Little Bo Peep and should be kept for adult engagements or behind closed bedroom doors.
  Going to a military base to trick or treat for Halloween while living overseas is as close to being back home as possible. Seeing the smiles on the kids faces especially my little Honey Bee makes me glad the military provides us these opportunities.

--UPDATE: The reason that I wrote this post is because while waiting at the end of a driveway for my daughter to trick or treat. I heard some guys commenting on a sexy witch costume saying "did you she that witch," at that point the girl turned around and she was no older then 13. The mistaken guy quickly said, "Oh, no she is too young." But for a minute they were looking at her in an inappropriate way. I wonder if her parents knew that this would happened if they would let her out of the house in that costume?  Even with the actions of a few bad apples this was still a wonderful event.