Everyone please read this!!!!!!!!!!Scary!!!!!!!misleading!!!!!! (neighborhood, living in, shop)

[MovinFromUT]

Originally Posted by twiggy

Halloween costumes. Next year I will not pretend that it will be cold enough on halloween to dress in a furry animal costume! I will give my kids a choice of Olympic swimmer or naked man!! I will order my turkey take out and I will BBQ for x-mas! Any funny "hot" or "not" holiday stories would be nice! Local or not, please share some funny stories. In need of humor.

Ha.! We moved here from Utah this past January. My hubby and I grew up in CA, so we remembered how wonderful Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are when you are not freezing. Our kids grew up with those holidays in Utah, so when my married daughter followed us to AZ, she was VERY happy to take her two kids Trick or Treating without their parkas on.! We had a blast this year. I am getting a little homesick for snow around Christmas though....but nothing a 2 hour drive to Flagstaff won't cure.!

[Arizona Annie]

We always had such a hard time keeping our daughter warm during trick or treating in Washington State. One year we special ordered a "Dumbo" costume from Disney and it was the only time she was actually warm enough going around the neighborhood. The whole costume was a very heavy blanket material. Most other years she wanted to be one of the many Disney princesses. Even with tights, she was too cold. It's just not possible to put a coat under a princess costume (believe me, we tried! ). Since moving to Arizona, our concerns have switched from "Will she be warm enough?" to "Will she be too hot in this?" or "Is this costume too revealing? " Is it just my imagination or have childrens costumes become "sexier" in the last couple of years. I don't think of myself as a prude, but really!

[pynkpanther]

Originally Posted by ivanabacowboy

I just moved here from Cleveland, Ohio in September. In Cleveland, the priority was determining whether the child's winter coat or boots would fit under the costume. ;-)

UNDER?!?!?! we had to wear our coats OVER our costumes (in chicago) and i still shudder with jealousy to this day...
not to mention, your nose runs in cold, rainy weather so those r2d2 masks were havens for germs when we would switch masks to go back to houses with chocolates rather than those licorice snaps...YUCK!

[Arizona Annie]

Originally Posted by pynkpanther

UNDER?!?!?! we had to wear our coats OVER our costumes (in chicago) and i still shudder with jealousy to this day...
not to mention, your nose runs in cold, rainy weather so those r2d2 masks were havens for germs when we would switch masks to go back to houses with chocolates rather than those licorice snaps...YUCK!

Yes under , when we put the coat on her, she would keep shrugging it off so people could see her costume. After all, what's the point of wearing a costume you can't even see.

I remember those cheap plastic masks!! How uncomfortable it was to wear those things, I'm surprised we could even see. It was a challenge. I remember the condensation too, ick.

[pynkpanther]

Originally Posted by Arizona Annie

Yes under , when we put the coat on her, she would keep shrugging it off so people could see her costume. After all, what's the point of wearing a costume you can't even see.

I remember those cheap plastic masks!! How uncomfortable it was to wear those things, I'm surprised we could even see. It was a challenge. I remember the condensation too, ick.

oh, yes...how could i forget the condensation...almost every halloween it would rain, so everything and everyone was always cold, wet and icky! however, there is more trick or treating in the midwest than here...we persevered, didn't we?

when we moved from chicago to michigan, we experienced people driving to our neighborhood to trick or treat, so there would be loads of cars parked in our neighborhood. but only in michigan was there a curfew...we had none in chicago. if was fair game until all the candy ran out. it michigan, it ended at 8pm.

i think my favorite costume as a kid was the blow-up monster that you tied on top of your head and put make-up on...i forgot what they were called, but they were out for just a spell.

[Auntie Freda]

At the risk of being labelled as a party-pooper -
Until quite recently, Australia has been totally free of this Halloween nonsense.
Just not part of Aus culture.
But inevitably, it is starting to creep in.
Perhaps the result of American TV programs turning our kids' brains into mush.
And no doubt there will be those who will make money from it.
Whilst the chipping away of our identity continues apace ..............

[NYtoAZ2007]

Originally Posted by twiggy

How long have you lived in AZ? If you don't mind me asking.

I know - you want to know if I've really experienced the heat yet! I came this past March and made it through my first summer just fine. Believe me, I'm enjoying the weather much more now. And I could feel the humidity on the days it was higher than "normal" - but it was still better, for me, than lower temps/higher humidity.

I know some people find the heat bothers them more, vs. less, over time. We'll see. Right now, I'm just trying to enjoy all the reasons we decided to come here and not complain about things we didn't expect or don't like - we CHOSE to move here.

[azkylady2]

Originally Posted by Auntie Freda

At the risk of being labelled as a party-pooper -
Until quite recently, Australia has been totally free of this Halloween nonsense.
Just not part of Aus culture.
But inevitably, it is starting to creep in.
Perhaps the result of American TV programs turning our kids' brains into mush.
And no doubt there will be those who will make money from it.
Whilst the chipping away of our identity continues apace ..............

hey its fun, let the little kiddies have Halloween, you get to play dress up, run around a get a full bag of candy. whats not to love??

[pynkpanther]

Originally Posted by azkylady2

hey its fun, let the little kiddies have Halloween, you get to play dress up, run around a get a full bag of candy. whats not to love??

the great thing about halloween is that you can make it whatever you want and still get lots of treats...like, say - for instance - a HARVESt fest

but there is nothing better than a "goosebumps" and "courage the cowardly dog" marathon on the cartoon network!

[Arizona Annie]

Originally Posted by pynkpanther

oh, yes...how could i forget the condensation...almost every halloween it would rain, so everything and everyone was always cold, wet and icky! however, there is more trick or treating in the midwest than here...we persevered, didn't we?

Yes, we did. It was a blast!! We never worried about any of the candy either. One lady in the neighborhood gave us each a big bag of fruit, and I loved it! Another made us homemade popcorn balls every year.

when we moved from chicago to michigan, we experienced people driving to our neighborhood to trick or treat, so there would be loads of cars parked in our neighborhood. but only in michigan was there a curfew...we had none in chicago. if was fair game until all the candy ran out. it michigan, it ended at 8pm.

I know what you are talking about. It still happens. Here in Arizona in our neighborhood, every halloween, there are cars parked up and down our street and trick or treaters pile out from who knows where. The same thing occurred in our last neighborhood in WA state. I guess we just seem to pick the neighborhoods where the kids like to go and the parents like to take them. Unfortunately, this year I guess a lot of the houses were dark, some speculate it was because of the large numbers of kids arriving in cars from other neighborhoods. Personally, we enjoy it, the more the merrier.

i think my favorite costume as a kid was the blow-up monster that you tied on top of your head and put make-up on...i forgot what they were called, but they were out for just a spell.

I remember those! They were out after my time, but I remember giving candy to kids with big blow up things on their heads. I thought it was a good idea for visibility, but I often wondered how many kids were grabbed by bigger kids and pulled down by those things on their heads.

Good times. Safer times. Good memories.