After all of these years in Germany and with children old enough to be able to say 'pumpkin', we finally headed out and did something relatively 'non German': we went Trick or Treating. (I was dressed up like a cowboy ;-)
I have to admit, I have been rather apprehensive of the whole thing since it is nothing like I grew up with in the US: not many houses participate. In other words, the chances are high that you can ring the doorbell and the people look at you funny...or give you an apple or something. I really didn't know how I would handle such a situation, and I didn't want Quinn or Emily's first Trick or Treating experience to be bad...so I sort of ignored the situation and never went out.
It certainly helped that a couple from Quinn's kindergarten invited us over. The more the merrier ... even in uncomfortable, potentially embarassing situations. Of course, I had these memories of my Trick or Treating experience. Even with all of the fear about tainted candy (that hit the US in the '80s), we still got tons of candy and the whole thing was relatively safe.
Thankfully, our neighborhood is extremely young, with lots of young kids. So, I learned the strategy from our friends: ring at the houses with Halloween decorations. Ok, this is simple enough. The kids were wired and excited, Emily was a bit confused (at first), and I was hoping that the first door would be a success.
Quinn and the other 'older' kids ran out in front of us. Apparently excited by his success of getting free candy, he and his friends were running as fast as they could to the next houses (for the US based readers, keep in mind that the houses are more like townhomes / condos, so the distance from front door to front door is about 10 yards...not the 100 yards that I had to walk as a kid).
Emily and I went to the first house. I was pretty sure it would work, since Quinn had rang at this door a few times and successfully got candy. Emily sheepishly went to the door, the person at the door smiled, and gave her candy.
Candy! For free. She seemed happy.
At the next door, Emily pushed her way past the bigger kids to the front of the door and stretched out her arms and bag: more candy. Sweet. I like this game, she must have thought. From there on out, it was evident that Emily understood the game, and she really liked it. The rest of the night, she Trick or Treated like a champ.
Quinn and his kindergarten friends must have ran 2 marathons that night. They were also very happy. When we got back to our friends house, the kids went upstairs and played (you can ask us what happened...definitely LoL...but not for blogging), and the adults chatted.
All in all, it was a blast. I was relieved that the kids had a great time. We'll definitely do it again. I especially liked doing it in a group, which gave the whole event a very community feel. Eva and I felt like we were creating new / stronger friendships in our community, which we also like.
I was also very happy that the event somewhat matched - despite the difference in 30+ years and cultures - my memories as a child. I was the only parent, however, that checked the candy and threw out all unwrapped candy. I also would have thrown out the fruit (Quinn didn't get any, but some of the other kids did)...hated getting fruit as a kid on Halloween. Thankfully, there were no dentists giving out free toothbrushes like our neighbor down the street in my childhood neighborhood.
Happy Halloween.
