Tonight finds me inside sitting in my cosy living room, music on, beer in hand, and I am completely content with this situation. But this is not a post about my reason for boycotting Halloween or what I am doing instead. This post is about creativity.

I had some great costumes growing up. I remember being a clown and a princess as a little girl. In high school I pulled off a great Tinkerbell (think Hook, not Disney), and in grad school there was a pretty great Pippy Long Stockings. For sure, there were costumes in between these that were not A-quality, but there were some great ones, ones that I would happily repeat. And every single one of those was homemade. Parts of each costume were bought (thigh-high stockings), were thrifted (dresses), were sewn (clown costume and Tink clothes), and other parts pulled from the stock in the house (dive knife and shoes and make-up). The creation was part of the fun of the event. When I was at home, I had the assurance that mom could always help me create what was in my head, and since then I figure I learned well from the master.

All of this to say that I have mixed feelings on people buying costumes. Store bought is easier and often looks slicker. The cutest costumes that I have seen in the last few years have been for babies and kids – tigers an ducks and pumpkins. They have all been store-bought and these kids were cute enough to eat. I wonder if I will have the time and energy in the future to create costumes for myself or to help my kids create their own. I am not passing judgement on purchased costumes. And yet I love the idea, the principle of engaging the imagination and creative juices to build a costume and wear it well. To own it.

Where does this leave me? Hoping and wishing that Halloween is as much about engaging the creative as it is about anything else. It is that one day a year that we are all encouraged to carve pumpkins and create costumes and paint faces and own a piece of creativity. I hope you your creative juices have been flowing this weekend.

Tags: creativity, halloween