Aspies and Halloween

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Do you enjoy Halloween? As an adult, is it even still relevant to you? I have an interesting combination of good and bad experiences regarding the holiday. I love Halloween in general; the costumes, the candy, the hay rides and apple cider, it feels a little like Christmas, and I'm still very much a little kid when it comes to holidays like that (for instance, I'm super small and everyone who looks at me judges my age to be between 12 and 14, which means I still get to go trick or treating, which I love!) On the other hand, a lot of costumes I find intolerable from a tactile perspective; I want to dress up as something involving my special interest, but it's frequently uncomfortable. Two years ago I was a Starfleet officer from Star Trek, and I loved dressing up, but the costume material was polyester or something and it drove me crazy. I'm having the same problem with my Wolverine costume this year; I think I'm going to go with long underwear underneath, I just hope it's not too warm!

I also both love and hate Halloween parties; the costumes, decorations, music and food are all awesome, but of course there's the social aspect that I can't stand. Even when I'm having a good time, I generally have to withdraw long before anyone else does.

I also have the problem where I hate being scared. I want to be able to watch horror films with my friends or go to haunted corn mazes, but I know I'll regret it as soon as I do, so I'm always torn between missing out and staying sane, or joining in and not sleeping again until December, (I made the mistake of watching The Shining with my friend last Halloween. Not happening again!)

What are your thoughts on Halloween? Do any of your autistic traits directly influence your opinion on the matter?

I know adults who go to Halloween parties that are for adults only.

But for me, Halloween is just another day for me. I love scary stuff, but I don't believe everything becomes haunted on Halloween. I used to love Halloween as a kid. I watched the film Hocus Pocus a lot, and I wanted to be just like the little girl Dani, and when Halloween came round I would dress up as a witch and bother my older brother.

But I didn't go trick-or-treating until I was 11. Not many kids in our neighbourhood seemed to go trick-or-treating back then. I went to a few kiddies Halloween parties, and one year my grandmother done a Halloween party at her house and invited all us grandchildren round and we have sandwiches and stuff, and the house was decorated with Halloween stuff. It was great. My grandmother was a good entertainer. I loved her Christmas and new year parties as well.

Good times.

I loved the dress up and the candy. The kids here don't really trick or treat in the street so much. I think they do it at the mall now. But we camp every year and the campground has a Halloween night. Everyone decorates their campsites and campers and they get really elaborate with all kinds of stuff. Some people have been doing it for decades so they have all kinds of fancy decorations themed out with moving parts and dry ice smoke and sound effects, it's wild. They also have a campsite decorating contest so people go all out. And they have a costume contest and a pumpkin carving contest. And then on Saturday night, it's usually a week or two before the 31st, right around 7:00om when it's dark they gather all the kids in the whole campground together and as a group they all go to trick or treating at each campsite. It is so cute and so wonderful.

It is very organized and because they have basically an hour and a half or so to trick or treat and they stay in the campground, no outside kids are allowed, only those currently camping and no cars are allowed to drive through the campsite during that time except for the patrolling park rangers so they are safe. And since the place is confined and they go together all the parents don't have to go with them and there needs to be at least one adult at each camp site anyway to hand out candy.

Then after all the trick or treating is done they have a huge snack table set up on the beach at the lake where they do the awards and then they light a huge bonfire. They also have hay bales all around for people to sit on.

We love it and try to do it every year. It's really cute to give out candy to the kids and I always buy candy that we like as well. It's one of my husband's favorite things to do. But it's so nice because we are outside and it is very quiet and all the kids are well behaved and the bonfire is so beautiful by the water. And people do it every year, they have a very devoted following for this so you get to see the same people every year and the kids and their families recognize you and are always happy to see you. So it's great.

So that's our Halloween tradition. No parties or anything like that, just Halloween camping. And then we stay and camp for the whole week because after the Halloween event most people leave and the campground empties out. It's usually the last or next to the last week that the campground is open so it gets super quiet and so peaceful and relaxing. It's my favorite time to camp.

I really like Halloween; it is the perfect Autumn day and also, it gives me a chance to dress up and "be" whomever I like. I also like how it is suppose to be spooky and stuff.

As an adult, I do not care much. I like the horror movies on tv and the spectacle of it but other than that it doesn't effect me one way or another, I don't do parties or give out candy. As a kid I liked it mostly because you got free candy, in all honesty I never put much thought into the costume part of it.

Its was never popular in my country. It was almost unknown when I was a kid. Of course, we knew there is something like that in other countries but it was not tradition here. I remember I used to dress up by myself but there was never anyone to go trick or treat with.
Once our teacher told us we can come to school in costumes on Halloween if we want but I was the only one in my class who did. Fortunately I didn't make the costume standing out - it was just my moms regular blouse with zebra pattern. I could look like a skeleton if there was more people dressed up but with everyone in their normal clothes it was just looking like an interesting but normal blouse.

The real Halloween tradition in my country is starting now, when I am an adult already. Last year a group of children in costumes come to my house to get some candies, for 1st time since I remember. I was wearing a Devil costume when I opened the door and there was a pumpkin lantern in front of my house made by me. That's probably why the kids decided to try it. There was no Halloween decorations in front of any other house. I wonder when more people will learn how fun it is...

About costumes - it is cold in my country at that time of year so it is hard to dress up for trick or treat. You must wear something that can be worn at your coat or else noone sees your costume. Last time I was going out during Halloween (I met with my friends sometimes on Halloween) I dressed up as Grim Reaper because I could use my normal coat. Together with hand made scythe it was clear who I pretend to be. Other time I dressed up as a old fashioned pilot (not scary at all, I know) because I could wear a huge scarf and a hat to keep me warm.
And when I stay at home/go to house party(as if!) I just make a costume by myself, using my regular clothes or by buying some cheap clothes in secondhand and destroying them. I consider buying/renting real costumes a lack of creativity and being cheap (since the costumes are usually "made in china" junks).

I love the pilot, that is a great idea, nice and warm and very cute. Here in the US a lot of people who practice Christian based religions don't want their children seeing Halloween in the spooky sense. So they make it more like a festival of harvest since a lot of crops are harvested near this time. So the kids get to get candy and dress up and participate in fun activities like the other kids but rather than making it spooky they wear cute costumes and make the theme more based on Christian principles. It's good because the kids don't feel left out and they can celebrate it in a way that honors their beliefs.

I love Halloween. I should still put up the decorations but sadly we don't get any trick or treaters. That was the best part of Halloween. But I love to take my son out for it.

I dislike Halloween, for the same reasons I dislike most holidays, because they are shams. They are white washed for the masses to seem innocent and child-friendly. But behind the scenes there are very dark occult ritual ceremonies taking places on these dates.

All I can say for Halloween is, at least it doesn't pretend to be a Christian holiday, like Christmas or Easter.

I liked getting candy from my parents as a kid but I never was really into horror movies or decorations. I mostly went trick-r-treating at relatives houses because I lived in a somewhat rural area on a major highway so no one except neighborhoods kids ever trick-r-treated at our house. We were the only house that turned porch light on; neighbors who normally had theirs on all year round turned it off for that one night. I think Halloween is kind of pointless but I always been no fun.

I love the costumes and candy to. I also enjoy haunted houses and horror movies with ghosts, demons, and such. (Not the gory gross ones so much. Saw just sounds like a glorified snuff film...if you don't know, don't ask.). Mom always made our costumes so tactile issues weren't a problem. I hate store bought costumes. Each 1st grade classroom is going to have 10 Elsas this year, where is the fun in that?

I love love love Halloween, the creepyness, the cold air, the costumes, THE CANDY.

i guess the Halloween costumes are always comfy and i love to wear them, i always wear them for like a month before and after halloween because i love them so much.

last year i was Fionna the Human from adventure Time but this year im going to be Walter White which is more of a cosplay so itll be different.

I love all the fantasy about Halloween and costumes and candy and getting to dress as whatever I want. I put a lot of my drawing and crafting skills into making decorations and costumes. But I'm not supposed to go trick-or-treating any more, I think that's really unfair. No one comes to my apartment for candy anyway, so why I should I say stuck inside. There's this Halloween party I normally go to but it can get very frustrating when the DJ won't listen to me and play a spooky song I like that fits the theme instead of the same boring music they play at every dance, or when everyone else acts like I don't exist when I ask them things. Or when there's so much feedback from the DJ mike that my eardrums nearly explode. Last year I came for the party on the wrong night and I was so depressed and angry that I spent so so much time getting into costume and paying for a cab I ended up not going at all. I don't that to happen again! My mother and I are planing to go to the Fright Night festival that's being held this month. I've been there before and the first time we went mom and I wore costumes but no other adults were except those participating in the hay rides and stuff. I had to wait in line forever in damp, chilly weather while watching an incredibly cheesy puppet show to go on the ride, and the scariest thing was all the people coughing and sneezing and spreading their germs all around me. I hope the line ups won't be as bad this year and that it's not too dark so I can actually see what's happening. I'd better bring my flashlight. I put together a white unicorn outfit but I won't wear it to the Fright Night because it'll be a dirt magnet. Maybe I'll just put on some cat ears...

I'm not into all that gory, slasher stuff about Halloween, either. Horror movies? Forget it! The real world is scary enough as it is. I couldn't care less about seeing them, anyway. Although I do find some of the soundtracks to be eerily beautiful, so I have them on CD.

Where?! I wasn't invited

[font="couriernew"]I believe this video sums up my views on haloween:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g5M8FrGpZ4[/youtube]
Credits to "Shining Luna Productions" for this video.[/font]

That might be the reason why Halloween was never popular in Poland - it is a Christian country. Well, not officially but since about 90% of people here are Christian and government relies a lot about what Church thinks it is just as if it was really a religion country.
Right after Halloween we have the All Saints' Day free of work which is very sad holiday - everyone visits graves and mourns for the dead(I hate doing it! But my parents force me to.). A lot of people think that celebrating Halloween and having fun is disrespecting because it is too close to the sad All Saints' Day.