Halloween?

"What?! You can be something that isn't scary for Halloween?"--Summary of non-American girls reactions to American girls talking about what to be for Halloween!

"I would NEVER dress up as something scary for Halloween!"--Samantha from America, reacting to me telling her about that conversation!

While trick-or-treating here I started talking to a lady at the door about how shocked I was at the lack of Halloween spirit here and she said "America just knows how to do holidays right!"  I took that as a compliment but before I give that much credit to the states, I will see how New Zealand treats other holidays! Although, New Zealand is definitely missing out on Halloween!

Caitlin and I took the kids trick-or-treating on Halloween evening and we were shocked! Every other house had NO candy and NO houses were decorated. I didn't see one single jack o' lantern! We saw less than twenty other trick-or-treaters in our hour of wandering the empty streets, all wearing scary costumes--we saw a lot of little devils. As Americans, Caitlin and I were shocked but the kids had fun and loved getting free lollies (candy) from the participating houses. But their amount of lollies wouldn't even fill a whole sandwich size ziplock bag! I didn't tell them about how I used to fill a whole pillow case in my trick-or-treating days! 

I went out in Auckland the night before Halloween and it took a good ten minutes before we even saw anyone else dressed up! Where I am from you would stick out like a sore thumb if you went out with no costume any day near Halloween! The costumes were on a whole different than what you would see in the states. I was told by a few people that I had to be something scary but I refused! I wanted to be something cute, maybe pass along the American tradition! Cute is the word I prefer to use when referring to myself. But usually the adjective in front of all American women's costumes is "sexy". You can be anything you want as long as you put the word "sexy" in front of the idea and go with it! The non-American girls I was talking to thought of the movie Mean Girls when we had the costume conversation! 

There are some more differences (like giving unwrapped candy to trick-or-treaters) but I'm just going to summarize by telling the entire country of New Zealand that it needs to step up it's Halloween game! That being said I did have a blast in New Zealand for Halloween! I still dressed in my American style costume and hung with the mixed crowd of cute and scary dressers alike! I also got to go trick-or-treating for the first time in years and eat lollies found only in New Zealand! Speaking of which, I want some more milk bottles and hokey pokey chocolates!

Scary and cute!