Happy Halloween Everyone!
Last year, as we had just arrived and I'm sure we were still recovering from jet lag....Halloween came and went with not so much as a treat, costume or candy corn. My girls were very unhappy to miss trick or treating and dressing up....so this year I decided we would do our best to enjoy it the best we could in France.
You see Halloween is an American holiday that is not traditionally celebrated in France. I understand that at various times different efforts have been made to explain the holiday to the French - and encourage kids to go out "trick or treating" - and people to hand out candy. For whatever reason, this concept has not been embraced. What has been embraced is kids dressing up, families having small parties and lots of candy being eaten. It's also nice that Halloween seems to fall perfectly during the Toussaint school break with All Saint's Day on November 1st. This allows for more flexibility with parties and get together.
We were fortunate enough this year to be invited to parties. The first one being a week ago - and the second being today on Halloween. Even though, the kids were a bit disappointed to not be able to go trick or treating - they certainly enjoyed choosing their costumes, dressing up and partaking of all the cookies and candies. Party games were also lots of fun. After having several conversations with French mothers, the idea of having Halloween parties are fully embraced and dressing up is always fun! In that way, the French do seem to enjoy Halloween and all its glory. There is apparently a little trick or treating that happens in some areas - but it's almost like one needs a map to know whose house to ring or not to ring!
Fun Halloween decorations
Candy estimation game....Can you guess how many candy eggs are in the container?
And then there were the party games.... Twister was a huge hit!
I loved the French spinner!
and then after the bat pinata had been beat numerous times with a stick....it finally revealed it's treasures...more candy of course.
My 12yo and her friends went trick-or-treating in the pouring rain and came back soaked with giant bags full of candy...and other stuff. More than one person was surprised buthese girls ringing their doorbell and when they didn't have candy to give, they got boxes of cookies and even some money!
ReplyDeleteThat's great! Sounds like they enjoyed the holiday! Sounds like their loot might be even better than in the US! Hope you are enjoying break!
DeleteSounds like Halloween was a load of laughs. I loved seeing "Twister" in French!
ReplyDeleteI loved the twister board in French! It was so funny to hear my kids with their "perfect" French accent call out the instructions. So fun!! I love watching them enjoy some of what we enjoyed as kids! Thanks for stopping by again! Love hearing from you.
DeleteHow many kids can fit on a twister mat at one time?
ReplyDeleteexactly...we were trying to figure out the same thing! They had a blast! Thanks for commenting - always fun to hear from you!
DeleteI love your girls costumes. I am so happy to have a girl and finally start getting away from all the moster and nightmare costumes. So cool that they were able to celebrate.
ReplyDeleteGirls are definitely fun - it's just what I know..having 3. Enjoy your daughter (and of course your sons too!) - kids are just fun in general - sometimes I feel we can live a bit vicariously through them!...but always make sure they enjoy was they are doing! Happy Fall - Thanks for stopping by again - it's always so nice to hear from you - I love reading your blog too!
Delete