Thread: Why Halloween is better than Xmas...

Tweet

Since this is the supposed season of caring, and sharing is caring, share why you think Halloween is waaaaay better than Christmas...

...for me, not having to be 'Merry'. You can have other emotions and be in other moods other than 'happy', 'cheerful' and/or 'excited'. The minute you don't seem ecstatic it's Xmastime, everyone jumps down your throat for being a 'downer'. At least at Halloween, the fun and joy comes from participating, and it's not expected or mandatory.

Less Pressure.
Last week I was painting a Life-sized "Grinch" stand-up prop. My little girl was all, "Papa. Papa, the green's not quite right! It's too dark!" Hey, let it DRY, OK? At the same time as I was painting the Grinch, my partner was having a devil of a time with the "Baby Jesus' Manger" thingy I made for their Hotel Lobby. The Bamboo had shrunk, and the ties were coming loose. The coconut fronds were starting to sag. It was a major disaster, forget Nuclear Holocaust, WE'RE TALKING CHRISTMAS HERE!!
Everything's cool now, people love both the Grinch and the Manger, but who needs it?

Halloween and Christmas are all about expectations.
During Halloween you might expect to get scared or at least entertained by someone trying to scare you.
At Christmas the expectation is to buy presents for family and significant others that will impress them, maybe be something they don't already have and won't be so cheap as to offend them. (Lexus? Again!!!?)
Christmas doesn't seem to have as much freedom or fun connected to it either. Alot of people get very depressed at Christmas, maybe remembering their previous Christmas dissappointments as a child or an adult that didn't have a huge bankroll to dole out to the X-mas merchantile exchange.
On the other hand, Halloween is all about extreme freedoms, freedom of dress (costume as anything that you can think of) extreme freedom of action and acting like any sort of creature or thing imaginable.
I describe it simply as the one holiday of the year that is acceptable to disguise yourself as someone else, go kick your boss in the butt and get away with it! (If you have a good descape plan or route)
Of course people with limited imaginations might feel threatened by Halloween?
Christmas is much safer and easier to participate in for those types, and this is good, maybe a respite from the horrific challenges of Halloween?

Halloween is just a more laid back holiday altogether. It's meant for sheer fun and enjoyment. No presents to be bought, no one expecting anything but a good time.

Christmas is too full of major expectations. And on top of that you have to be cheerful from November 24th till January 1st or your considered a "Grinch".

If you don't like Valentine's Day, Easter, St. Patrick's Day...it's o.k. Say you don't like Christmas and people look at you like you have a third eye.

Halloween rules...end of story.

GYM I agree, you can be who or what you want to be !

I am, by nature a little reserved and kind of uptight...... but for halloween, I can put that aside and be something different and people aren't saying....... is she drunk ? has she gone insane ? Its just my time to be someone else.
FREEING ! People don't think anything of it. (not much anyway)
ITS SOOOO FUNNNNN !!!!

Maybe I should have worded that differently...... I'm shy, not so uptight....
Just wanted to clarify !

I think both holidays have gotten too commercialized, but then you expect that with Halloween. Christmas was commerical enough when I was a kid, but it's just gotten ridiculous I feel.

Brings me to mind of a line from "Married with Kids". Kelly asked Al one time..."why do they always have to ruin Christmas by bringing Jesus into it?"

Props, of course! Christmas decorations are mainly lights, reindeer, inflatables (lots of those in my area), and lights. All this stuff is off-the-shelf. Not to say that many don't buy Halloween props as well and some of the commercial stuff is pretty good, too. But when was the last time you saw home-made Christmas props?

I find Halloween more stressful than Christmas...I decorate for both, but for Halloween I feel the need to out do the previous years display, to keep it fresh. Not that Christmas isn't as an important of a holiday for me as Halloween, cause it is, but most everyone in my area has something up for Christmas, few have much up for Halloween. So I feel the TOTs...and their parents... look to us dedicated haunters to carry the torch.

For the Christmas display my stressors are, "do I have more replacement lights than I break trying to hand them "and "will I fall off the ladder/roof hanging them".

*whew* - glad I'm not the only one feeling the pressure! (I was afraid I was going to get tagged the board 'Grinch' for this thread!) It seems like it gets taken waaaay too seriously - keep smiiiiiiiiiling!, making sure all the cousins have presents of equal merit, did you put salt instead of sugar in these cookies?!, all the aunts got pics of the kids, right?...it goes on and on. By 12/26 I'm so spent all I want to do is hide in bed 'til New Years. Thanks everyone for letting me vent some, and feel free to vent on as the season crashes to its bitter end. Maybe I'll go work on a prop ...