Do you people hang out here all year?

[Pumpkin_Man]

That's how it was between me and my late brother, Jack. I was a Halloween fanatic, he was a Christmas fanatic. I would be putting up Halloween on September 28th, he would have his artificial tree up on the day after Thanksgiving, and there were more then a few ocassions that he played Christmas music in March or April, because we had a Spring snow storm, and there were also a few times when he and his daughter kelly would be listening to Christmas music in the middle of July while she baked up a batch of 'Christmas n July" cookies.

I introduced the tradition of "Little Halloween" one year after listening to Mitch Miller and the gang, and Perry Comp belt out "Joy to the World," "Jingle Bells,' Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer" and a whole host of others, during a late March snow storm one year he was living with us.

Mike

[Pumpkin_Man]

Sorry for the multiple posts, folks. Either Halloween.com or my compter has a serious case of the hickups.

[NeverMore]

Dammed time machines will do that to you every time. Grrrr!

[Li H'Sen Chang]

I've kind of gotten over the side-eyes I get for being mad about Halloween. My dad always used to tell me that I had way to much Halloween stuff and it was taking up too much room in the attic. Well, one year I did a wee inventory and as it turns out, all of my major stuff fit into two large plastic tubs in the attic. Meanwhile all of his Christmas mess took up the rest of the attic! I pointed that out to him

I felt like for as little room as I took up, not to mention the fact that all the stuff had been bought by me and put up and taken down by me, he could zip it for 31 days out of the year. It's not like I ever complained to him about turning the house into Santa's workshop the day after Thanksgiving through New Years. And I certainly could have too since having to smell cinnamon that long makes me cranky.

Anyhoo, I'm a Pumpkinhead and I don't feel the need to 'splain myself anymore. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who thinks I'm a weirdo for loving Halloween can take a flying leap.

Yes but that was his house so if he want all Christmas stuff and no Halloween that is his right because you lived in his house. I would had went all for Halloween, though!

Not exactly the way it works in my family. We're a pretty laid-back, easy going bunch. There's never been 'well this is my house and I make the rules' mess.

If you were easy going why would it bother you that he has Christmas decoration in his own house?

[Pumpkin56]

Yes but that was his house so if he want all Christmas stuff and no Halloween that is his right because you lived in his house. I would had went all for Halloween, though!

Not exactly the way it works in my family. We're a pretty laid-back, easy going bunch. There's never been 'well this is my house and I make the rules' mess.[/quote]
If you were easy going why would it bother you that he has Christmas decoration in his own house? [/quote]

The Christmas mess takes far to long to put up and far too long to take down. Not to mention it's messy, I don't like the smell and I often get a phone call to come help. I don't see the point with having an over-abundance of Christmas stuff. What difference does it make?

[Li H'Sen Chang]

I see.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Pumpkin, I can understand exactly where your heads at, because Christmas is the hardest to decorate for, especialy if you use a real tree like I do. I actualy do enjoy the smell, but when it's time to take it all down, it's very messy and a lot of work. I enjoy it, but not as much as I do Halloween. Halloween is also a lot easier to put up, take down and a lot less messy.

As for the "It's my house and it's my rules" thing goes, that was very much the standard with my parents and all of my brothers and sisters, as it is with me. I live alone, but it is my opinion that the person who pays the rent or the mortgage is entitled to be the "King or Queen of the Castle" so to speak. Now in the case of married couples, that is more of a 50/50 proposition, and equality between husband and wife is very important, and I would feel differently about it if I were married, but a parent or parents definately have a right to impose some kind of rules on children who are living there rent free, regardless of whether they are over 18 or not. For instance, I have a standing rule against seances or ouija boards in my house. My brother does not allow any form of underaged drinking in his house, not even if the kids parents permit it. I'm the same way. I also don't allow smoking in my house because the smoke makes me caugh and reduces my resistance to cold and flue germs.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I agree, Mike. I think the homeowner has the right to make the rules, even for adult children. That is especially true if the children are living in the home rent-free, but even if they aren't, landlords regularly make rules about their property (no pets, for example), and renters have to abide by them, within reason.

The ease with which family members can blur these lines is a strong argument for adult children to get their own place to live as soon as they reasonably can. Parents will always be parents, and adult "children" inevitably wish to be treated like adults.

[Pumpkin56]

Dang people, this is still being talked about?!

My dad grumbles about Halloween stuff just like I grumble about Christmas stuff and it's only because we don't share the same 'favorite holiday'. It's never been a knock down drag out my way or the highway fight. It's more along the lines of giving each other an eye-rolling hard time. He calls me a Halloween nerd and I tell him he has a man-crush on Santa. If it actually was a big deal, I wouldn't celebrate Halloween at my parents house. However, it has become a bit of a tradition to have all the kids back under the roof to kick back and watch the spectacle. There aren't many TOTers in their neighborhood, but my parents, along with some of the closer neighbors and their kids/grandkids have come to expect me to show up and create the haunt for Halloween night. I always get a call from him at some point around mid-October asking me what the plan is on "the Big Night".

I do understand and respect the idea that the home-owner makes the rules for anyone who is living under his/her roof, but it was just never like that for my siblings and I growing up. There were just too many of us at all ends of the spectrum, not to mention all the countless friends coming in and out of the house all the time, that I'm sure my parents didn't think it was worth it to lay down any kind of law (probably didn't have the energy either). I think the idea was "you all know how to behave. don't cause trouble and don't embarrass us"

[Murfreesboro]

Pumpkin, I'm sorry if I sounded like I was piling on yesterday. I posted and ran (daughter came home from school and required the computer). I was actually responding more to Mike's post than to you directly. I do understand where you are coming from. It just sounds like you and your dad tease each other about your "obsessions." It also sounds as if your family (and perhaps the neighbors) count on you to make Oct. 31 festive at your place. You do Halloween, he does Christmas.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Pumpkin56, My late brother and I have a very simular rivalry about Halloween and Christmas. You could walk into his house in the middle of July, and if they were in the mood, you would hear the voices of Perry Como or Mitch Miller and the Gang belting out Christmas favorites like "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer," and "Jingle bells." He and his kids would have a "Christmas in July," party every year, too. They would have turkey with all the trimmings, our family tradktional Christmas dinner, and Christmas music on the stereo and a sing along. I thought it to be a bit hokey. Another thing that sort of annoyed me, but only a little, is when it snowed, they would play Christmas music for mood. IT often does snow in March and April in my neck of the woods. One year, when they had moved in with us, we had a March snow storm. It was actualy Holy Week, and we were all getting ready for Easter, and Jack decided that because it was snowing, he and the kids were going to play Christmas music.

I decided to counter with my favorite holiday. Halloween. It just so happened, that in April of that year, (and I don't remember what y ear) the 13th was going to fall on a Friday, so I started my own little tradition of celebrating "Little Halloween." I put up a card board jack o'lantern and a witch on a broom stick, and rented several horror movies on 3/4 inch Video tapes. We actualy had one of th ose RCA Select A Vision video cassette recorders, the 1970s answer to VHS. Anyway, when he and the kids saw the Halloween decorations and the movies I rented, they asked me what it was all about. I told them that since they plaied Christmas music during Holy Week just because it was snowing, then I should be allotted a little bit of the Halloween spirit because it was Friday the 13th, and so it stuck. Jack is gone into the here-after now, but all of his kids carry on the Christmas in July tradition, and the Christmas music whenever it snows tradition, and I, to this day carry on the "Little Halloween" tradition.

I'll tell you something else. I really, REALLY miss my brother Jack. He was a great guy, and he's the reason why I loved Christmas as much as I did, even though Halloween's n my fav. It's him who I think of when I have my Tree Trimming party, and when I finaly do break out the Christmas records and CDs.

Mike

[cookedcross]

I have one of those carvable foam pumpkins and put it out for the 4th of July just to see if anyone is paying attention.

[Murfreesboro]

I think "Little Halloween" is an inspired tradition. Love it. What a creative response to your brother's special love of Christmas, Mike.

I do love Christmas, too, but I have never much gotten into the "Christmas in July" notion. Of course, mostly the people I have seen doing that are merchants who are using Christmas trees to promote midsummer sales.

When I was in grade school, my mother and I would spend six or seven weeks every summer up in Arkansas at my grandmother's home. She had a piano, and I was musical, so I recall one summer when I went through a songbook she had and taught myself all the Christmas carols in it. That's about as close as I've ever come to celebrating Christmas in the summertime. I was a bored kid, and it was something to amuse myself.

I have seldom lived in an area where I could count on snow (my eight years in Virginia were the closest I've ever come to that). In the deeper South, snow is much less frequent. So I could never use snow as my cue for Christmas.

During my childhood, Christmas trumped every other holiday for me, but as an adult I find that I am very drawn to Easter. It is really what the religion is all about, more so than Christmas, actually. I have often regretted that we don't have traditional "carols" or songs associated with the Easter season. There are a few hymns, of course, but nothing that you just think about hearing every single Easter Sunday, the way you might expect to hear, say, Silent Night every Christmas Eve.

[Midnite Shadow]

i used to hang out here all year but now I visit every so often...I am sure it will pickup as Halloween approaches but life gets in the way now...and other reasons too.

[cookedcross]

Yeah, I don't post on forums much unless I'm sick or too drunk to sleep or bored with my hobbies.