Why Halloween Is My Least Favorite Holiday
I love everything about fall—cozy sweaters, autumnal tones, picking out pumpkins and going to haunted houses—except Halloween.
Before you freak out on me, let me explain: I actually really enjoy Halloween parties, passing out candy, and all things spooky. I'm just not wild about dressing up for said occasion.
The earliest memory I have of Halloween is from first grade. I was brand new to the school I was at and hadn't established a friend group yet, but I did get invited to a Halloween party, which got me excited. At school, group costumes weren't allowed (to save anyone from feeling left out), but at the after school party on the night of Hallow's Eve, no such rules existed.
I remember wearing my same costume to the party—I was a poodle girl— only to be greeted by five girls all in matching pajama outfits. They all dressed up as babies for the night with cute little bibs and pigtails, and there I was in my stale retro '50s look that everyone had already seen.
I remember feeling so left out and so sad that no one had told me to dress up like a baby, too. To make matters worse, we were playing tag around the pool after trick-or-treating, and I stepped on the circular pool drain wrong and ended up falling into it. The whole night was a rather traumatic experience, and needless to say, put a damper on the holiday for me at a young age.
I wish I could say my Halloween experiences got better as I got older, but they honestly got worse and really never improved. In high school, I remember getting left out of countless Halloween group costumes and being hurt, angry and embarrassed just like I had in the first grade, but luckily my unique style had my back, and my Halloween costumes always turned out cool even if I was secretly sad that I didn't get to dress up with my "friends." The sad part is I really used to enjoy dressing up for Halloween, it was like an art. I love fashion and I love transforming my look with different styles and trends, and Halloween is basically an exaggerated version of what I do every day. But after being hurt by the holiday so many times, I sort of have PTSD from it.
Flash forward to life as an adult and I will say things have gotten better. I love Halloween parties and feeling festive, but I don't ever really dress up—unless you count cat ears, which I wear just about every year. The moral of my Halloween story is this: Out of all of the holidays we celebrate (Fourth of July, New Years, Thanksgiving, etc.), Halloween is less about celebrating with the people you love and more about dressing up in revealing costumes and directly or indirectly making people feel left out.
Even small things, like going to a Halloween party as a single person when all your friends have S.O's with matching costumes—or getting left off of the Halloween party invite list or group costume text chain. It just opens the floodgates for people to be insecure about themselves, which is why I'm all about getting into the spooky spirit, but never make it a priority to dress up.
And if you do get left out of a group costume or left off the invite list, try not to sweat it. Use your creativity to come up with a really cool costume and make the haters wish they'd asked you and your creative superpowers to dress up with them.
Whether you love Halloween or hate it, you'll definitely relate to THIS list of the holiday's Expectations VS Reality.
