Rushed by Christmas Amid Lingering Halloween
By wchung | 22 Feb, 2025

Christmas closes in but my heart is on Halloween.

Christmas is officially in the house. Or in the Walmart I went to anyway, primped and ready to slump on a plastic tree branch, vegetate above a fireplace or suffocate in a stocking. Not that I don’t love Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday. I just can’t help but remember a month ago, when our friendly neighborhood skeletons and Darth Vadors were loitering the aisles, on clearance, or even a bit before then, when they were full priced alongside the giant tarantulas and talking tombstones.

The holiday season is in full gear and as usual, each holiday is moved along the conveyer belt, swiftly and automatically. Although I love each holiday just as much as the rest, I have a special place for Halloween, being the forerunner and consequently, the first casualty. It may sound childish, but I still feel a sense of sadness whenever a holiday ends, especially one as fun and unpretentious as Halloween.

Growing up, my parents treated Halloween as just another ridiculous American holiday where Asian parents have to bend over backwards to match the white parents next door. And my parents weren’t about to be bamboozled by this meaningless, money-eating machine. So my only option was to throw on my mom’s black skirt and a pointy black hat from the 99 cent store and viola! Dorothy beware.

Even so, I had fun, because what I loved most about Halloween weren’t the costumes themselves but watching everyone else break away from their daily monotonies, playing make-believe and being spirited. Especially the adults normally drowning in responsibilities, so far removed from childish tendencies. I remember even more vividly how unbelievable it is to walk into a store the day after Halloween and see everything stashed away in the back on clearance. It seemed illogical for something with so much buildup to suddenly vanish into thin air. Halloween decorations gone, people back to their street clothes, going about their lives like it never happened.

I suppose that’s why I’ve always liked dressing up, even if it’s for ill-reputed occasions like themed college parties. Cynics chalk these sordid affairs up as an excuse for students to get drunk and naked, but I’d like to believe that for some people at least, it’s the big kid in us who’s sad to see Christmas decorations up.