In less than a week the kids will be dressing up and heading up the street to knock on our neighbours' doors asking "Trick or Treat", but only wanting one answer. Halloween to them is very much based on treats and all things good. I don't believe in celebrating Halloween as some gore-ridden scare fest. That is not what it is about. In fact, that is the furthest thing I want to be celebrating on Halloween. Instead I love celebrating the more traditional aspects and this year I am throwing a family tea with a Day of The Dead theme. It was last year in particular that we decided to start celebrating this Mexican festival a bit more. I absolutely love the idea of it, and the tradition behind it and of course the face painting opportunities. For me, Halloween has become a time where I want to teach my children about remembering the dead, as the Mexicans would and it is absolutely not about child eating clowns or zombies. In fact, that is the kind of Halloween I never want to buy into and is so far away for the true point of it all. I was talking to my Mother-in-Law about it all recently and she was explaining how her mother, who was Irish, used to celebrate Halloween as it was a huge thing the whole family did. It was a great feast and a time for coming together and reflecting on the year, harvest and most importantly, remembering those who had died. It was such a popular thing in their house as it was the only celebration or chance to have a party they got until Christmas time, so it was seen as a chance to just get everyone together.
I really like that. It is a great opportunity to get everyone together, again, not celebrating scary clowns but actually celebrating life. Rob and I love a party and are always happy to host such an evening to allow my family to come together and find a common ground with us to channel the right reason for the season.
Anyway, going back to Day Of The Dead, this year we are having a really simple evening of food, dancing around the living room and watching The Book Of Life {very DOTD themed} on the big screen. It's simple fun. Within that we will have some face painting as I am sure the kids and their cousins will love that and some crafty fun, but most of all getting together like this will allow us to celebrate with the family and remember some very important people who have died in the last year. And as DOTD tradition goes, if you don't remember them they become forgotten souls and you know what, honouring those friends of ours like this is a really wonderful way to remember them.
I have been picking up DOTD themed items from varying places and as far as decoration goes, pumpkins and fairy lights pretty much have that covered, however, I am going to buy lots of bright flowers and pick some of the hydrangeas from the garden to fill all my little vases with. Food wise, I am thinking sausages, a hot dog is always good warming comfort food but we will probably be buying some good local sausages to really fill us up and what pudding would be better than homemade apple crumble with apples from my parents' garden and some of these Halloween biscuits from the amazing Biscuiteers! I have long been following these guys on Instagram and their biscuits are little gems of tasty art. They were kind enough to send me a Halloween box which the kids absolutely love! They will be so excited to share these with their cousins {if they last that long} as a little party treat. What a nice addition to our party table. And what's more perfect is that you can have some to. I always felt a bit disappointed that their shop was so far away but you can buy boxes of their biscuits ONLINE which means we can all enjoy them.
*The biscuits were gifted but the post thoughts are my own.
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