It Ain't Halloween Without Horror

I am a pacifist who generally can't handle movie violence or horror, although along with everyone else in the world I have become inured to the gore of modern films (a tangent to this that I've been meaning to write about is the increasing presence of torture in films--a sign of our government's new embrace of torture?). Anyway, I wasn't meaning to make this deep or depressing, but I just got this note from school:

"Please keep in mind that our younger students sometimes have difficulty differentiating between reality and a costume. Severed limbs and scary faces can be very frightening to these little ones, so please be sensitive. NOTE: Costume weapons such as guns, swords, lasers, daggers, scythes, etc. are not allowed at school. A child's costume at school can be different from the one they use trick-or-treating."

Now, this is one area where I think they're being too protective. The whole point of Halloween is to take our fears and parade them down the street. Costumes should be funny, scary, bloody, fantastic, and above all, creative! I don't have a problem with weapons. Of course, I won't let my son go as a soldier (not that he wants to) but if someone does, so be it. Is that really worse than 25 pink princesses in identical tutus and tiaras?

Horror is what Halloween is for! The costume industry is one of the more depressing things I've seen among today's kids. I may not make dinner every night (or at all), but I'll be damned if my kid wears a store-bought costume, however cute it might be (and yes, they are often super cute). Invariably, he is one of just a handful of kids in homemade garb. I'm not against purchasing props or masks, but the entire assemblage should be a creative expression of individuality.

It doesn't have to take weeks to make, either (we have not started and my son wants to be a zombie ventriloquist dummy!?!). Have fun and make it scary!

Rant over.