Scaring Up Some Canadian Culture

It is a sad state of affairs when kids have never had the pleasure of experiencing trick or treating. We set about to rectify that. About six months ago when we were getting ready to go back to Canada and discussing our return date we decided that we would be here for Halloween. Aiden was disappointed when he found out that most Australians do not celebrate Halloween. So even back then, we had plans to throw a Halloween party. Not such an easy task when there is not much Halloween stuff in the stores. Roz and I were both on the lookout for Halloween themed party supplies and as the date approached we were lucky enough to come across a few things.


The entire school, nineteen families in total, were invited as well as the principal and teachers. The school was generous enough to let us use the shed (gym) for the activities even though it was not a school function. The shed proved to be a little difficult to decorate with limited supplies and such a high ceiling but I must say Roz and I didn't do too bad of a job with balloons and a few other decorations.

We were pleased with the turnout and the effort the parents and children put into it. All but three families were able to make it. Amazing by all counts since it was considered a long weekend. November 4 is Melbourne Cup Day and many will take the Monday off as well to make a long weekend of it (but that is another blog).

All the kids came dressed for the occasion and many of the parents got into it as well. Witches were popular among the girls and vampires with the boys but there was a cat, a spider, a few skeletons, the Hulk, a mummy, pirates, zombies, and cricket players. The parents were very creative with the snacks they brought: Scabs and skin flakes with blood and guts, pus and gangrene fingers served up with blood, spider, bat and black cat sweets, Mad Professor Corrigan's gut samples, ghosts, worms in dirt, boogers on a stick, eyeballs and all sorts of creepy things.



We played a number of games through out the night. While it was still daylight we played eyeball relay races out on the oval. There was a little bit of technical difficulties with this one. We found the ground was a little harder here and caused the eyeballs to burst when dropped and soon ran out of eyeballs. We tried to convince the crowd to donate some but none were willing. I guess they were not as into it as we thought ;-) Next we moved onto the Mummy wrap and it is amazing how long kids and not so little kids will play with a roll of toilet paper.

After that we had pumpkin bowling (until the pumpkins broke), Mad Professor Corrigan's Lab, Trick or Treat Riddle game and pumpkin carving. Yes, we were able to find two pumpkins large enough to carve. There were not orange but a light grayish green. I believe we call them ghost pumpkins back home. Very thick skinned – a small carving saw and a knife were broke in the process. In the end they turned out well but unfortunately on Sunday we forgot to get a picture before Sean hacked them up to make pumpkin pie.

We ended the evening with Trick or Treating. How you may be wondering? The school is a number of separate buildings all with doors to the outside. We had a number of parent volunteers man the doors and sent the children around in small groups. It is hard to say who had more fun, the kids getting the treats or the parents playing tricks on them. It was a great end to a fantastic evening.