I was born on the 29th of October. If you’re savvy in the math department, then you may have figured out that my birthday is exactly two days before Halloween. Now, living in the shadow of the greatest holiday ever (for those in the 3-10 age group) has had its ups and downs. Granted, it’s nothing like being one of those poor souls born around Christmas, but it’s not all cute pumpkin garlands and candy apples either.
For one, my parents had it pretty easy. No need to scour the 1980s equivalent of Pinterest for ways to pull off the perfect party theme. I was born with one! It’s also pretty easy to come up with last-minute birthday treats for school when the local grocery store has shelves of halloween themed baked goods at the ready. If my gifts didn’t quite live up to my expectations, who cares, in two days I’d have a pillowcase full of candy!
In Junior High, my friends and I used my birthday as an excuse to get my mom to drive us to Omaha to go to haunted houses. Here’s where I admit that I actually hate haunted houses, and horror movies, and really anything that falls at the scary end of the Halloween spectrum. But hey, it was a trip to Omaha with friends, so I took advantage (thanks, Mom!). In college, my birthday almost always coincided with already-planned costume parties, so no need to organize my own thing. I mean, who was I to force my friends to choose between dressing up as Jessica Simpson or Foxxy Cleopatra over having dinner and beers with little ol’ me. I’m a bit of a non-confrontational people pleaser, so giving into the Halloween complex was easy.
Then I got old and decided that the only way to make October even more #basic was to go ahead and birth both my children in this month. My daughter, born at the beginning of the month, is for the most part safe from the Halloween shadow. Although I admit I’ve shamelessly disguised her Halloween costume as a birthday gift. Whatever, don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same thing.
However, my son, whose birthday is seven days before my own, has already fallen victim. Planning a birthday get together around school parties, daycare parties, and 32 Trunk-or-Treats is no easy task.It’s almost impossible to find a time slot that is both socially appropriate and well attended with everyone’s bursting fall calendars. On the plus side, those pesky treat bags are easy to fill, thanks to all the Halloween goodies filling the aisles of every store.
By the time my birthday rolls around, we’ve already had a full month of celebrating, so that even cake no longer sounds good. After four years, I’ve gotten used to being the afterthought. While some people spend their 30th birthday partying in Vegas, I spent mine recovering from a C-section and googling, “is breastfeeding supposed to hurt this much!?” The Halloween shadow doesn’t have as much of a hold on my birthday as it once did. Now, the month is more about celebrating my family than me.
We’re also lucky to have all the fall activities around us to make this month of celebrating even easier. Trips to the local pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, playing football in the backyard, enjoying the cooler nights, and indulging in all the pumpkin spice goods we can get our hands on. Instead of acting as an inescapable shadow, Halloween has now become the end cap to a month of celebration. For me, there’s nothing that caps off another trip around the sun better than watching my kids excitedly run door-to-door collecting candy (that I get to eat later) in their costumes shouting, “Trick-or-Treat!” Put a pumpkin beer in my hand, and it’s downright perfection.
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