Why Halloween has become one of our favourite family traditions
When I was growing up, Halloween wasn’t really a big thing in Australia.
There might have been the occasional costume or Halloween party, but trick-or-treating certainly wasn’t the neighbourhood event it’s become today.
Now, I get to experience it completely differently, through my granddaughter’s eyes.
She’s nine now, and every year the Halloween countdown seems to start earlier. Weeks before the 31st of October, she’s already thinking about costumes, talking about what her friends are wearing and deciding who, or what, she wants to become for the night.
The excitement is contagious.
Sure, the lollies probably have something to do with it. But when you watch kids getting ready for Halloween, you realise pretty quickly that there’s much more to it than filling a bucket with treats.
It’s the dressing up that makes it special
There’s something wonderful about watching a child decide who they’re going to be.
Maybe they’re a witch this year. Maybe they’ve got their heart set on being a police officer, firefighter, superhero or something completely unexpected.
For one night, they get to step into another world.
They dress up with their friends, wander around the neighbourhood, compare costumes, laugh themselves silly and come home exhausted with stories they’ll probably still be talking about the next morning.
Those are the bits I love.
If I’m hosting Halloween at my place, I get involved too.
Let’s just say I don’t answer the door in my usual hi-vis.
Or my police uniform… 😉 Wink, wink.
Instead, out comes the witch’s hat, spooky nails and a few decorations ready to surprise the little visitors who come knocking.
Seeing their faces when the door opens makes every bit of effort worthwhile.
Dress-up is about much more than Halloween
Halloween might give us a good excuse to pull out the costumes, but imaginative play doesn’t need a special occasion.
We see it during Book Week, at birthday parties and on rainy afternoons when someone suddenly decides the lounge room floor is a fire station, hospital, construction site or faraway kingdom.
Give a child a costume and suddenly they’re not simply wearing a hat or jacket.
They’ve got a job to do.
They’re rescuing somebody. Building something. Solving a mystery. Running a shop. Putting out a fire. Looking after an animal. Flying to the moon.
That ability to turn something ordinary into an adventure is one of the best parts of childhood.
Costumes give children permission to experiment with different characters, stories and ideas. They can create their own worlds, change the rules whenever they feel like it and become whoever they want to be for the afternoon.
Sometimes all it takes is one costume to keep a group of kids entertained for hours.
The memories are the part we keep
As adults, it’s easy to get caught up in making everything perfect.
The decorations. The food. The costume. The photos.
Kids usually remember something completely different.
They remember walking around with their friends after dark. They remember the house with the really spooky decorations. They remember Nan answering the door dressed as a witch. They remember laughing so hard somebody dropped their lolly bucket.
Those ordinary little moments become the stories families tell later.
You can always buy another bag of lollies.
You can’t buy more childhood.
That’s probably why Halloween has become one of my favourite family traditions. It gives us another reason to dress up, be a little bit silly and make memories together.
Getting ready for Halloween?
If Halloween is on your family calendar this year, Aussie Kids at Work has plenty of dress-up favourites ready for the occasion.
Whether your little one wants to patrol the neighbourhood, save the day, get to work or create a character entirely of their own, the most important thing is giving them the chance to enjoy being a kid.
Because childhood only happens once.
🎃 Browse our Halloween costumes and find something for this year’s adventures.