Boo-Who?

For a few years, now, I've lost all interest in Hallowe'en. I haven't carved a pumpkin or decorated the house. I leave all of that up to DW, while on the actual evening I lock myself away in our bedroom and binge on television shows, waiting for the kids to pass through our cul-de-sac and for things to die down.

I'm the Grinch of All Hallows' Eve.

A couple of years ago, DW made me find a costume to go to a party at a friend's house. While I did want to see our friends, I didn't want to dress up. I was considering putting a toy jet airplane in my pocket and, when someone questioned why I wasn't wearing a costume, would produce the plane and say, "I'm an aircraft carrier."

(Thanks to our friend, Jody, for giving me that suggestion.)

DW wouldn't have it. Instead, I borrowed a mask of a creepy guy wearing an spiked, ghoulish pilot's helmet from the WWI era, donning a leather jacket and silk scarf, and calling it a day.

It freaked out our friends, so I call it a success.

This year, I told DW that I didn't want to go to our friend's party. Though I would have liked to see friends, I didn't want to have to wear a costume to do so. I had already dressed as a pirate for a themed birthday party, this summer, and I had decided that was the last time I was dressing up as someone other than myself.

This party had an added theme, whereby everyone had to dress up as a Saturday morning kids' show character, and I really wasn't interested. I told DW, who dressed as Daphne from Scooby-Doo, to give my regards, and I stayed home.

In my old age, am I becoming even more curmudgeonly? I've already lost interest in Christmas, apart from being with family and loved ones, and Easter doesn't hold anything for me, now that one kid lives in another city and the other is in her 20s.

I'm not interested in cramming into a bar full of drunk revelers on St. Patrick's Day and I'm perfectly happy to be out of town, eating Italian food, on Thanksgiving.

So tonight, as the doorbell rings and kids come looking for candy, I'll be happy to find solitude for a couple of hours. Is that bad?

What about you? Do you still celebrate Hallowe'en? Are there any holidays and traditions that you've given up?

Leave a comment.