I never feel like I’m the right person to talk about Christmas. My first year writing for the post calvin, when I realized my day was the 25th including the 25th, I started to panic. What the hell do I have to say about Christmas? It’s not my favorite holiday, I don’t particularly enjoy the movies except for a handful that my nostalgia has locked in, and hot chocolate, while delicious, is so rich it needs to be enjoyed in very small increments in my opinion.
If it’s not obvious from the absolutely everything about me, I’m a Halloween kid. I love costumes and pumpkins and fake blood. I love spiders and bats and haunted houses. In some ways it’s a simpler holiday than Christmas. It doesn’t require visiting your family, stressing over a fancy dinner, or getting presents for people.
But in a lot of ways, Halloween and Christmas share some overlap. Both are holidays that can be as elaborate as you make them. Halloween decor is just as rampant as Christmas—so much so the most famous Halloween store ‘Spirit Halloween’ recently opened a Christmas division, ‘Spirit Christmas.’ Where I don my shelves with spider webs, my sister (the family Christmas elf) dons hers with garland and snowflakes. Halloween costumes are a staple, but people also make elaborate christmas outfits with santa hats, elf shoes and ugly christmas sweaters. Halloween also has its specific snacks and drinks, featuring candy corn, apple cider, and anything pumpkin flavored. And while no one has the monopoly on holiday specific movies like Christmas does, Halloween certainly has a longstanding place in cinema—including an amount of overlapping titles like Nightmare Before Christmas, Black Christmas, or Krampus.
This is primarily aesthetics, of course. Everything above is what you’d find in stores and magazines. “Here’s What You Can Buy To Have The Best _____ Party Ever!” It’s the unfortunate reality of the society we live in. Things can’t just be enjoyed, they have to be consumed. They have to become MarketableTM. Is something even a part of American culture if there’s not an industry making profit off of it? Not many other holidays have gotten this treatment, though not for lack of trying. Valentines Day and the 4th of July I feel certainly make their case every year. This is not to say enjoying holidays through items or aesthetics is bad, of course. Like I said, I have more Halloween decor than I actually manage to use every year! It’s fun pulling together that perfect party and making the space just right for a celebration you hope everyone will enjoy.
Thinking about what makes a good holiday, the aesthetics are certainly a part of it, but the tradition of it all is what makes it all stick. When do you start decorating? What are the rituals you do every year to make it feel like ‘the season’ has started? “Look at these photos of me from last year.” “This year, we’re doing a fun outing as a group and we’re all going to wear matching outfits.” The annual calendar turns and we as people have to make choices, deeply influenced by the years of holidays that came before. We exist in a context that we continue to build upon year after year. It’s a fact that’s both daunting and special. I wasn’t feeling well this year on Halloween and missed the party my friends threw. I was sad, missing out on the event and knowing I’ll have to wait a whole year to be able to go—but I know it will be there next year.
And I think that’s the real key. When I really think about what I love about Halloween and why it’s my favorite holiday, it’s because I know I’ll get to spend it doing things I love with people I love. I’ll get to share that tradition with them, making them a part of this annual cycle of celebration. Of course we’ll see and talk to each other outside of the holiday, but in that moment deemed special by a calendar none of us helped create, we all choose to be together. And regardless of if that’s in costumes and fake blood watching horror movies or wearing ugly sweaters with hot cocoa watching Hallmark, we make that choice to spend the time with each other. And that is what makes it so special.
So Happy Halloween, Merry Christmas, and have a great whatever else you make your yearly special thing!
Sam is unsure what exact words describe them best: Lunatic has been used, Gothic Romantic is apt, and Big ol’ Nerd is reductive but true. Mostly they just like stories in whatever form stories can be found. Sam specializes in Frankenstein, running “The Uncanny Productions” on YouTube, but they also dabble with podcasts, singing, and theatre as well. They have a DVD collection that’s long outgrown its shelf, a coffin they use as a desk, and an unrelenting joy for things that are spooky, ridiculous, or magical.
