Oct 31, 2023 — Are you eager to greet trick-or-treaters (or feeling over it already?!) Ha! Contributing Cardie Candy Clausell cracked us up with her comment to this Cardie Newsletter last year: “I don a dog mask and answer the door with scary music playing in the background. With the name ‘Candy,’ needless to say, Halloween is my favorite holiday :)”
Last week, I was both tickled and turning green with envy listening to Creative Coordinator Emma sharing childhood Halloween memories. “Growing up in the heart of New York City, of course we were surrounded by towering skyscrapers. And, on Halloween, we saw our apartment building as brimming with tasty possibilities.” Hehe, she said the cache of candy she collected would become so colossal that she’d have to go back to the apartment just to lighten her load, then head back out to continue her quest for sweet treats!
Sounds great to me! Growing up in the heart of the heartland, we were surrounded by fields of corn and green beans. What’s worse, my mother never let her kids go trick-or-treating. As I whine in this Halloween edition each year, not once was I allowed to come up with a costume, go to the closest town, and hit the streets. Year after year I tried cajoling, whining, reasoning with my mother … all to no avail. “If you want candy, we’ll buy you candy,” Mom would say, “but no child of mine is going door-to-door crying, ‘Gimme!’”
Ay yi yi. Every year I’d plead and she’d give the same infuriating, thoroughly un-American answer, even when I tried, “What if I just dress up, refuse all candy, and accept only donations for UNICEF?” One raised eyebrow said it all. “What if we stay in and read,” was always Mom’s Halloween Plan for me.
I was in my 20s when I spotted The Perfect Card with my mom written all over it. :) On the cover it read, “For your front door this Halloween.” Inside was a ready-to-hang sign that said, “Welcome, Children. The Next History of Halloween Lecture Begins in Approximately 15 Minutes. Please Sit and Wait Quietly.”
Hahahahaha. I had one of those moments that all true Cardies know well — when a card expresses your sentiments so cleverly that your irrepressible laughter rings out from the card aisle, making everyone else in the store crack a knowing smile.
I sent that Halloween card to my mother every other year for the next 20. And, every other year, Mom sent it to me. It was The Cardthartic Experience through-and-through, as that card conveyed, “I see you, I get you, I forgive you, I love you,” all in its great card way.
After reading this story last Halloween, Contributing Cardie Nancy McGinn commented, “I can relate! I grew up on a farm about an hour away from where you did, and was never allowed to go trick-or-treating for candy, either! But I could dress up and go around for UNICEF. I always wanted a store-bought costume but, alas, every year I had to go as a ghost with an old sheet thrown over my head with two holes cut out of it for eyes. And because I could never get that sheet arranged quite right, I wasn’t able to see very well, and once stumbled on a porch step into a bucket of eggs the family had gathered from their hen house that day. Happy ending: The following year, my mom got me my one-and-only store-bought costume!”
As my otherwise-fun mother was known to say, “Gotta keep laughing!” Indeed. If you have your own Halloween memories, we’d love to hear them!
Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative
Oct 31, 2023 — Are you eager to greet trick-or-treaters (or feeling over it already?!) Ha! Contributing Cardie Candy Clausell cracked us up with her comment to this Cardie Newsletter last year: “I don a dog mask and answer the door with scary music playing in the background. With the name ‘Candy,’ needless to say, Halloween is my favorite holiday :)”
Last week, I was both tickled and turning green with envy listening to Creative Coordinator Emma sharing childhood Halloween memories. “Growing up in the heart of New York City, of course we were surrounded by towering skyscrapers. And, on Halloween, we saw our apartment building as brimming with tasty possibilities.” Hehe, she said the cache of candy she collected would become so colossal that she’d have to go back to the apartment just to lighten her load, then head back out to continue her quest for sweet treats!
Sounds great to me! Growing up in the heart of the heartland, we were surrounded by fields of corn and green beans. What’s worse, my mother never let her kids go trick-or-treating. As I whine in this Halloween edition each year, not once was I allowed to come up with a costume, go to the closest town, and hit the streets. Year after year I tried cajoling, whining, reasoning with my mother … all to no avail. “If you want candy, we’ll buy you candy,” Mom would say, “but no child of mine is going door-to-door crying, ‘Gimme!’”
Ay yi yi. Every year I’d plead and she’d give the same infuriating, thoroughly un-American answer, even when I tried, “What if I just dress up, refuse all candy, and accept only donations for UNICEF?” One raised eyebrow said it all. “What if we stay in and read,” was always Mom’s Halloween Plan for me.
I was in my 20s when I spotted The Perfect Card with my mom written all over it. :) On the cover it read, “For your front door this Halloween.” Inside was a ready-to-hang sign that said, “Welcome, Children. The Next History of Halloween Lecture Begins in Approximately 15 Minutes. Please Sit and Wait Quietly.”
Hahahahaha. I had one of those moments that all true Cardies know well — when a card expresses your sentiments so cleverly that your irrepressible laughter rings out from the card aisle, making everyone else in the store crack a knowing smile.
I sent that Halloween card to my mother every other year for the next 20. And, every other year, Mom sent it to me. It was The Cardthartic Experience through-and-through, as that card conveyed, “I see you, I get you, I forgive you, I love you,” all in its great card way.
After reading this story last Halloween, Contributing Cardie Nancy McGinn commented, “I can relate! I grew up on a farm about an hour away from where you did, and was never allowed to go trick-or-treating for candy, either! But I could dress up and go around for UNICEF. I always wanted a store-bought costume but, alas, every year I had to go as a ghost with an old sheet thrown over my head with two holes cut out of it for eyes. And because I could never get that sheet arranged quite right, I wasn’t able to see very well, and once stumbled on a porch step into a bucket of eggs the family had gathered from their hen house that day. Happy ending: The following year, my mom got me my one-and-only store-bought costume!”
As my otherwise-fun mother was known to say, “Gotta keep laughing!” Indeed. If you have your own Halloween memories, we’d love to hear them!
Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative
First of all, it’s snowing here in WI so the poor trick or treaters are going to freeze. To this day my kids make fun of the costumes I made them. I don’t sew & I’m not creative so mostly I decorated big paper bags. When our daughter was 2 , my brother sent her a raggedy Ann doll that was as tall as she was. You guessed it, the doll’s clothes became her costume!
We currently live in a town that has a cute little main street of store fronts. Smart as young children are of course that is where they trick or treat. Why schlep all over town when you can shop local ;) Just in case children on my block ring my bell I buy a big bowl of candy to give out (my favorite ones of course).
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!