12 Comments

The donut tradition is so awesome! We make mac n' cheese every year and whatever friends the kids have circling around come over before hand to eat. I love all your points about the kids' independence on this night and the aberration from the routine. On the point of the "pattern separation" though I have a different POV. I feel like in NYC there is always something going on - the elephant migration art, Diwali fireworks, West Indian Day parade, Mexican Independence Day celebration, someone's birthday, free jazz concert, outdoor movie - that every day feels like a pattern separation and I sometimes long for the routines and steadiness I grew up with in the suburbs of Boston. Anyway, love this post and your take on the holiday. Hope it's really fun!

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That's the magic of New York - it breaks all the patterns for you🥰

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Oooo I love that take! That's so good - the springboard for a post all its own.

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You're so right! Perhaps I'll write it one day🤓

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Would love to read it.

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I worry about parents becoming less and less willing to let their kids trick or treat. In my area, it's becoming more common for parents to drive their kids door-to-door (I live in the suburbs not the country) and to do trunk-or-treats. I get that they can be good for very little kids but for kids old enough to remember walking around a parking lot for 15 minutes cannot come close to the experience of trick or treating for hours.

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Agree — the parents crawling along the street in cars is creepy, not to mention dangerous for the free-rangers.

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Any reason for jaywalking...and donuts (fried in ghee) I am there!

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Okay, you got me — you’re absolutely right about the inversion of the coddling parent prototype, and the donut party sounds so fun.

If we could just get kids to put together creative, homemade costumes instead of the mass-produced junk from sweatshops that only lasts one night, I think I could shut my eyes to the massive inflatable vampires and animatronic werewolves and other signs of a cultural obsession with the macabre.

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I love this 🧡 such a fun community holiday!

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I'm in the UK, just outside of London and we look forward to this day all year! So great for kids and a wonderful way of creating memories!

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I grew up in the London suburbs 50 years ago and still remember the visceral thrill of being allowed out alone, with friends, in the cold and dark. Halloween was a much simpler holiday in those days - apple bobbing and homemade costumes - but those unaccompanied wanderings raised it to another level.

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