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This Halloween Night

By Christie Cooke

I love Halloween! It is my favorite holiday especially since I am the mother of a daughter who loves to play “dress-ups” and a son who loves to eat candy. My daughter’s first Halloween, she was Minnie Mouse. Her second Halloween, she was a witch. This year she envisioned herself as a “cowgirl” with a “rope” and “cowboy boots.”

This will also be my son’s first Halloween so I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted to dress them in their desired costumes and to trick-o-treat for as much candy as they wanted.

These days, with the cost of gas and food as high as they are, and considering the budget my family lives on, I can’t afford the expensive costumes, make-up, and treat bags, for two children, nonetheless. There are also the daycare Halloween parties I have to buy treats for, too.

With Halloween only a few weeks away, my sister pulled out of storage a collection of Halloween costumes that her children once wore. She knows, being a mother of three, that entertaining children on Halloween night can be so much fun, but also very pricey.

To offset some of the expenses I may have incurred this Halloween, she offered costumes for my children to wear on Halloween. I didn’t care that they weren’t new nor did my children. Immediately, my daughter jumped into an old lion costume and even tried on a Dora costume—brown, mushroom style wig and white sneakers included. My son put on a matching lion costume, as well.

To complete their costumes, a couple of reusable bags for candy were also available. Reusable Halloween treat bags make sense in these days of “greenness,” too.

This Halloween will be just as fun as any other. My sister saved me a hundred dollars or so because of her good sense. Best of all, memories of Rose and Hannah are sure to revisit her as my children, the Lion and Dora the Explorer, knock on her front door for treats this Halloween night.

Christie Cooke's "Native Moms" blogs are available for syndication. Please contact reznet to purchase republishing rights.

Christie Cooke, Navajo, has a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona. She is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's 2007 American Indian Journalism Institute. Cooke teaches English at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan.