Last year we were in Jordan over Halloween. We woke up on October 31st in Wadi Rum desert and explored dynamic Petra all day. There were no signs of a Halloween holiday anywhere in sight!
Big Apple Halloween
Halloweens past were always celebrating in New York City. Participating in various school/childcare costume parades and neighborhood block trick or treating fun. My go-to costume for years was Waldo (of Where's Waldo fame) and Doug's was a random Dr. Seuss-like hat. The girls cycled through all kinds of costumes, from watermelons to ladybugs to (rainbow) princesses/fairies to most recently, witches. Spooky walk down Halloween NYC lane, including with visiting fabulous grandparents many years!
Kiwi Halloween
This year we find ourselves in New Zealand on October 31st. We weren't exactly sure Halloween would go down in NZ. After asking around to quite a few locals, we learned that trick or treating was "kind of" a thing, and that "lolly scrambles" were a big deal. When in Rome! Here's how our day went . . .
Costumes & Face Paints
Given the general consensus was that Halloween was pretty low key, I insisted we keep single-use purchases to a minimum. Paige opted for a vampire (easily achieved through cape, fake teeth & makeup) and Sadie a cat (another easy one, with ears headband, tail & makeup). The girls excitedly donned their costumes and sat for facial makeup. I did Sadie's cat face and our neighbor Jayne did Paige's awesome ghoulish vampire face.
First Treat
In the cold rain the girls popped over to Andrew & Erika's place to make their first official NZ trick or treat! Andrew was ready and gave each happy girl a bag of chocolates. Success!
Out On Their Own
We piled into cars and made the 10-minute drive over to the Shotover Country and Lake Hayes neighborhoods. We dropped Paige off with a bunch of her friends, all equally ghoulish. Funny how one year they just switch from preferring sweet, happy little costumes to spooky, creepy ones :)
We agreed that Paige could go trick or treating alone with her friends, without an accompanying parent, and with a cell phone among them. This was new territory for Paige, getting to go out & about without parental supervision. New territory for us too :)
Walking around the neighborhoods, we came to see that kiddos cruising around on their own is the norm. 99% of NZ kids walking around trick or treating were out on their own, no parent in sight. The only exception was very young kiddos. That struck us as very different from the States; or at least apart from our Halloween experience living in urban NYC. Could be that in the American suburbs, kids out on their own is an acceptable norm; I'm not entirely sure. Yet another example of the more laid back vibe going on here in NZ. It was a great experience for Paige to have, and even for us to trust her with that independence. When we were talking the scenario through with her in advance of agreeing, Paige made it very clear how utterly embarrassing it would be to her if we came along with her & her friends. We're at the point, folks; we are officially mortifying to our 9.5 year old :)
Knocking for Lollies
Meanwhile Sadie, Lani & Mika enjoyed trick or treating around the neighborhood with us along for the ride. The three of them were so cute approaching the houses and shyly knocking on the door. Here in NZ houses indicate somehow if they're participating in trick or treating; usually with some kind of decoration on their door or mailbox. No "signal" of any kind, highly unlikely they're giving out "lollies" (generic for candy in NZ). In our experience, max 25% of the houses in the neighborhoods were giving out candies and participating in the Halloween fun for kids. Nothing like the scale of American Halloween! The other big difference was that houses didn't decorate. In the States, houses, brownstones, apartment buildings, etc. go BIG on elaborate decorations and pumpkins. That was missing from the NZ Halloween scene.
Lolly Scramble
Unique to our Halloween experience here in NZ was the infamous "lolly scramble", which is effectively when organizers throw lollies (candy) up in the air at a designated time/spot and kids go feral trying to snatch up as much candy as they can :) We headed over to McBride Park in Lake Hayes to participate in the 6pm lolly scramble. It's worth noting that by this point, the skies had opened up and it was a completely gorgeous, sunny evening. Thank goodness! Oddly, there was no announcement that the lolly scramble was starting (nor any age divisions like advertised on the event website); all of a sudden candies were pelting around in the air and the hundreds of people on the park sidelines started racing (literally running, adults & kids alike!) towards the candy in the center of the field. Complete chaos ensued. Sadie wasn't interested in getting trampled (can't blame her!) so we hung back a bit, only scoring a few limited pieces of candy. About three minutes later - NO exaggeration - it was all over. That was it! As folks scattered afterwards, I overheard one mother say to her younger daughter, "Well. That was mental!" Couldn't agree more!! Don't think we'll be rushing to do any lolly scrambles next Halloween :)
Good Time Had by All
All in, the girls had a great NZ Halloween. The candy they received was appalling in our opinion; virtually all rock-hard sucker candy that will break/rot your teeth just looking at it! Virtually no chocolate to be found in their sacks. American Halloween candy wins out, for sure!
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