Can you ever be too old to celebrate Halloween?

Have you looked at your Facebook feed today?? Obviously you can never be too old for Halloween. Just look at all your friends dressed as cats and soccer players. Wait, is that grandma dressed as Rosie the Riveter?

I was never a big Halloween fan in my twenties. But what I’m realizing about the holiday is that it unites all ages in a ‘be a kid again’ style of bonding that’s actually pretty cool. It doesn’t matter how old you are when you dress up for Halloween and head out to a party or a bar. It’s one of those weird holidays where if you’re dying to be younger, you can dress up as someone younger… or you can just hide your face.

You can even hide your whole body if you like…

Anyway, Halloween is an ageless holiday that some people love because they can be young again- free to be anybody at any age, but some people hate because it can get wild and kind of annoying when others are being anybody at any age. I used to be the latter- the person annoyed at Halloween- but mainly because I was always too frugal to buy a costume, and never came up with anything to make on my own. And sometimes people are crazy and rowdy and noisy and frustratingly drunk as all hell when they’re being themselves.

But that’s just my opinion. I’m also usually out of town for work on Halloween, so I can have an excuse to pretend I’m too old for it. Which isn’t true, and can’t be true anyway, because as we’ve established, you’re never too old for Halloween.

So this year, I’m in New York and I’m finally embracing Halloween after spending my twenties avoiding it. I’m even going to a friend’s Halloween party later tonight. I figured out a costume I can make myself (perhaps I’ll even put up photos in the next post), and am getting into the fun of the day.

Most holidays other than Halloween come with so much more stress than making a costume. Valentines day comes to mind, as do the December holidays…between spending lots of money and/or worrying about where to go and/or worrying about upsetting someone’s family and/or worrying about being lonely, the December and February holidays make Halloween seem positively carefree.

And I guess Halloween is a pretty equalizing, carefree holiday, if you’re able to kick back and let yourself go. It’s one of those times where who you are right now and how old you are right now doesn’t have to matter. On Halloween, you can simply choose who you want to be today.