Halloween in Disguise

When one door closes, another one opens — sometimes, repeatedly

My nine-year-old daughter, Amelia, loves Halloween. Ever since she was a baby, she’d dress up and trick or treat with either my husband or me. Among the many things that were different last year, Halloween was effectively canceled for many, including us. Even though we weren’t attending parties or wandering the neighborhood, we still wanted to do something. At first, it felt like we were grasping for any distraction from what we’d rather be doing, but we ended up having a fantastic time.

The plan

No matter what else was happening last Halloween, Amelia needed to be in her costume. She had dressed up as a bunny the previous two years, but in a surprising twist, she was a butterfly last year. Just kidding — she was a bunny. While we don’t have a pet rabbit, my child has filled our home with toys devoted to fluffy-tailed cuteness. Whether the little pointy-eared guys are stuffed, resin, plastic, pretend-pellet-pooping, on a t-shirt, or in a drawing, if it involves bunnies, we own it.

Trick-or-treating took a little more thought, but we found a way to do it at home. My husband and I were sent to opposite sides of the house and given one of Amelia’s dress-up bins. Then she ran between us while pretending we were in different homes. Meanwhile, my husband and I kept switching disguises to hand out candy. She can run fast, and I was barely getting changed in time, but we were all laughing pretty much the whole time.

Lessons learned

This year, I thought Amelia would be upset that things were still not back to how they’d been years ago, but instead, she wants to do the same activities we did last year. I learned a thing or two from last time, though. After 20 or 30 minutes of swapping disguises and answering the door, a person gets tired. I’m dragging a chair over by the door. Also, I need five minutes alone with the dress-up bin before we start. Winging it’s too nerve-wracking.

Last year, we all thought we were making the best of a bad situation to get through the day, but we ended up having a blast. Sometimes, people have their hearts so set on something that they think nothing else will do, and it blinds them to the idea that an alternative may also be a great option. In this case, our second choice, while different, ended up being just as good as the first in many ways. Anyhow, some traditions have continued. Guess who’s going to be a bunny this year?