It appears that everyone lost their love for halloween when they grew up!! At the age of 21,Halloween is still by far my favorite holiday. I don't dress up every Halloween or go trick or treating anymore, but there is still a lot of fun to be had.In my opinion, it is the happiest,most exciting holiday.

As a kid, I guess Halloween was OK. I was never much into the candy thing so it always seemed to be a lot of work to get candy from people that bought the same stuff from the store you can always buy expect this stuff is a year old left over from last year. Then you have to come home and turn your so called treasure over to your parents so they can inspect it and make sure some psychopath didn’t put razor blades or poison in your hard earned reward. When you’re not old enough yet to realize that you look like a complete idiot, it has its entertainment value. Once you pass this point you end up worrying all night whether your costume looks right and trying not to look like the complete idiot you already know you look like. For the most part its OK though because everyone else looks just as stupid as you.

Since childhood, I have always had a special fondness for this goofy holiday. In some ways I think I was truly lucky not to have been let in on the darker aspects often attributed to it until long after my Trick or Treating days had passed. I can't speak for everyone, but it certainly didn't inspire me to sell my soul to the devil or even take up the black arts. To this day I can't help thinking of it as simply an opportunity for all the frustrated costume designers, makeup artists and actors of all ages to go on a wacky, creative bender for one night of the year. I remember with great affection heading out into the crisp fall air with family and friends - jack-o-lanterns glittering and grinning on nearly every doorstep and the feeling that the dark night was ripe with possibilities. The candy was great, of course, and you always tried to get a haul worthy of bragging about at school the next day. But the real fun was the mystery and intrigue the whole experience created in a young fertile imagination.

As a former elementary school teacher, I can safely say that the day of the Halloween party is the worst day of the entire school year. As a former kid, however, I remember it as being one of the best. You couldn't beat the thrill of assuming another identity, going out in the dark with your friends, getting free candy, and staying up late. What about the fun of sorting your candy after you returned from trick-or-treating? Throw in listening to scary stories and carving jack-o-lanterns, and you have a holiday custom-made for kids. I always felt sorry for the kids whose parents didn't allow them to participate in Halloween activities at school. Through the eyes of children, Halloween is simply a lot of fun- nothing more than that.

As a kid, this in one of the top holidays, no question about it. But after grade school I've always struggled to enjoy Halloween. I think the problem comes down to the fact that I just can't make myself spend time on a costume. Each year I tell myself I'm going to get a good one, and sometimes I even have a decent idea, but I never get around to putting the thing together. So it ends up being the day of Halloween, and there's generally a costume party to go to, and invariably at the last minute I'm doing something idiotic like thinking if I cut holes in a sheet I'll be set with a ghost costume. Then I realize that's even worse than no costume at all, so I end up going out with no costume, and everyone gives me that half-disappointed, half-"you're lame for not dressing up" look. Ugh.