“Why don’t we have Halloween?”
My curious, confused almost-three-year-old gestured to our new neighbor’s elaborate seasonal display complete with a gigantic skeleton, a flying witch, and glowing pumpkins all over their yard.
Why don’t we have all these fancy halloween decorations is what his toddler logic meant to ask.
“Well, because our stuff hasn’t arrived from New York,” I replied. Though a more truthful answer would have been “We move way too often for us to acquire that many decorations and I doubt we’ll ever go all out for holidays.”
“I wish we had Halloween like that,” he said with a sigh before jumping back on his balance bike and barreling down the trail, forcing me to jog behind him.
Some years, I do too.
Some years, I wish we could be the house with the elaborate decorations or the ones who invite the whole neighborhood over for a Friendsgiving or the person to have a big enough friend group to host a cookie-making day, or even to simple have family over for Christmas Eve.
But we’re a military family. A military family that moved across the world at the start of the holiday season (October 14th, to be precise). It feels nearly impossible to build a community or even decorate with all our households good in transit. If I was being honest with myself, I am not feeling festive this year either. There are too many balls being juggled; too many unknowns.
But my son’s comment nagged at me that night. “Why don’t we have Halloween?”
Why don’t we? Who says we can’t attempt to celebrate just because our world has been tipped on its axis and we’re living out of suitcases and we moved into an empty home two days before?
It is doable to celebrate the holiday when far from family, or after just moving, or even when you’re living out of suitcases. With a bit of mom magic and a heavy dose of reasonable expectations, here’s how we’re making it happen this year:
- Buying simple paper decorations like these bats for Halloween, this leaf garland for Thanksgiving, or this felt Christmas tree that are perfect for celebrating the holiday season with kids on a budget.
- Taking scavenger hunts around the neighborhood to enjoy the neighbor’s decorations. Grab a piece of blank paper and sketch the seasonal items you might find for smaller kids, or list them out for older kids. “Can we spot a Santa, a reindeer, a snowman, a present, etc.”
- Buying a couple seasonal and holiday-themed books. These books can be used for years and it’s always worth acquiring a couple more. A few of our home’s favorites for the season:
- Halloween books: Pick a Pumpkin, Little Blue Truck’s Halloween, Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins
- Thanksgiving books: Thanksgiving in the Woods, How to Catch a Turkey, The Leaf Thief
- Christmas books: Pick a Pine Tree, A Christmas Gift for Santa, Construction Site on Christmas Night
- Make a fun consumable treat like pumpkin bars or cookie butter cookies.
- Have a dance party with festive music and songs. The Monster Mash is now highly requested in our home, as is Deck the Halls and Jingle Bell Rock.
It takes a little more creativity, and accepting that this year’s celebrations may look different than I’d imagined imagined. There may be some traditions that have to be skipped or missed, but it’s always worth making a little bit of magic happen for my military kid.
