Hallowe'en

HALLOWE'EN

BOO!!  (Did I scare you??)

The month of October is filled with anticipation in Tuk...for October 31st! Of course, kids all over the United States and Canada get excited about Hallowe'en.  There is something fun about dressing up in a costume or a disguise or being somebody different for a day or a night.  Up here, though, Hallowe'en is HUGE.  Since the Northern store only carries limited costumes, make-up and other seasonal merchandise, most families make homemade costumes that are simply out of this world.

Charlotte the Wonderful Witch

There is something about a homemade costume, don't you think?  Growing up, I was always lucky that I had a parent who sewed.  Over the years, my mom sewed me a gypsy costume, a wonderful polkadot clown costume complete with patches on the knees and a ruffle for my neck, a pilgrim costume including the little hat that turned back, and a wonderful ghost costume with a tie in my school colours that made me the 'school spirit' - lol.  I wore these costumes for several years in a row over the years and when they were outgrown or no longer used, they were passed on to other kids in the neighbourhood.  Up here, though, the costumes have a northern flair to them, which is only fitting.

The celebration of Hallowe'en would have begun on Friday, October 24th with an all ages Hallowe'en costume dance, but it was cancelled this year due to the fact that somebody broke into the Community Centre where the dance was being held.  I don't know how much damage was done or if it was a punishment, or whether things had to be replaced and they used the budget allocated for the Hallowe'en dance to pay for it....I'm not sure, but there was a lot of disappointment in the community about it.  How sad that the actions of a few idiots ruined it for everybody else.

Patrick the Tacky Guy...on the left

On October 30th there was a costume parade at the Community Centre, and people of all ages, especially kids, dressed up and went to be judged by members of the community.  Prizes were given out by age, and the kids had a ball. James, Patrick and Charlotte were not interested in going, and by the time we found out about it, it was almost too late anyway.  I am told that a lot of the kids who dress up and attend this event wear a different costume the next day at school, and then perhaps even something different again to go out trick-or-treating!  That's like a bride changing from a ceremony dress to a reception dress, which is becoming a popular thing.

James, the Ghost of Christmas
Future!

Anyway, the next day at school was Friday, October 31st - Hallowe'en.  That morning you could feel the excitement throughout the school...there was a buzz of energy that was almost palpable.  During the morning, kids came in their regular clothes.  There was a door decorating contest sponsored by the Grade 5 class, and they came around and judged the doors, which were adorned with all manner of spooky decorations.  My favourite door was Charlotte's Grade 3 class.  They made the neatest haunted houses for their door.  Each class had also been designated an amount of wall space in the gymnasium to use for decorating for the costume contest in the afternoon.  Some classes went all out, others....not so much, but it sure was fun to see what they came up with to decorate their space.  The Junior and Senior Kindergarten classes were definitely the ones who put the most effort into their wall space and they were creative and fun to view.


One thing lacking up here in Tuk at Hallowe'en are pumpkins turned jack'o'lanterns.  They do not travel well past the Arctic Circle, and they are so heavy that the cost is prohibitive.  This is why this year one of the stipulations of the gym decorations was that there had to be pumpkins somewhere in the design.  It was a little strange not seeing a jack'o'lantern glowing on front porches or in windows, and I admit I was a little sad not to have carved a pumpkin with the crew - but such is life.

Patrick's class before the judges post-parade.

The costume parade at school was amazing!!  Each class had their spot in the gymnasium and after lunch, they were brought to the gym in their costumes for the judging.  There were all kinds of community members in the gym watching and cheering for the kids.  I was in the audience too, and I had so much fun!!  They were playing great music and I was so enthusiastic, bopping there in my seat, that I actually got some of ladies sitting around me dancing too!

Some of the costume highlights were: a homemade Queen Elsa coronation costume that was even better than the Disney deluxe version; another Elsa whose hair was braided the way Elsa's was and then sprayed silver; an old Nanuk (which means grandmother in Inuvialuctin) with a cane and a hunched back; a two person (i.e. two-headed) werewolf; the most authentic vampire I have ever seen with make up that looked like a Hollywood make-up artist had travelled to Tuk; several cute and beautiful homemade princess dresses, pumpkins, clowns and witches and the cutest jellybean machine I have ever seen.  There was also a toddler running around in a homemade Jake and the Neverland Pirates costume whose real name is Jake.  I took a lot of pictures!

James' class.  His teacher dressed up as Snow White because
she is the GRADE 7 teacher......get it?

 At our house, we had a Wonderful Witch (who did not want to be a scary witch), a dancer from Weird Al's video about the song "Tacky", and the Ghost of Christmas Future.  Nobody really understood the boys' costumes...which was sad, but they just aren't into Weird Al Yankovic or classic Christmas movies up here.  You know when someone comes up to you and gives you a weird look and says, "What ARE you?"  Well, James heard that far too often in the span of a few minutes, and took the Santa hat off his death costume after that.  Patrick just ignored peoples' comments about his Tacky costume.  WE all thought he looked wonderful!  I dressed in long white gloves, some Hawaiian leis, and wore a headband with colourful streamers hanging from it, took a teddy bear, and smeared lipstick all around and on my lips and went as a kid who played dress up.

Then there was Greg.  Greg's students were teasing him throughout October and said to him that with his round belly, he should be a pumpkin for Hallowe'en.  Well, Greg decided to go for it, and he dressed as a jack'o'lantern.  I painted classic triangles for his eyes, an upside down triangle for a nose, and a goofy grin around his goofy mouth, and he added a green wig to be the leaves and stem of the pumpkin.  The kids loved it, and teased him about the hair, which he tossed around and joked about how great it was to HAVE hair!  The best thing about Greg is that he takes whatever  ammunition the kids could potentially have against him, and he uses it himself before they even have a chance.  The fact that he's fat and bald makes him a perfect pumpkin, and they loved that he went with their suggestion.  He sure did get a lot of laughs from the community members too!  On a side note, last year Greg shaved his head and wore a checked long sleeved dress shirt and a black fedora and went to work as a plumper version of Walter White from Breaking Bad.  It was great!

Charlotte's class in front of the judges after their parade.

Oh yeah.  There is one thing I forgot to mention.  On Hallowe'en night, it was -20C before windchill, and there was blowing snow and crazy wind with reduced visibility.  It was downright miserable outside!  James and Patrick opted out of trick-or-treating, preferring to stay in and hand out candy in their woolies.  They said no amount of candy was worth being out in that weather!  Charlotte, on the other hand, wanted to brave the cold.  We realized that she was going to have to wear her snowsuit if she was going out in the weather so she hopped into that, we took one of Greg's black windbreakers and put it on her backwards, added a black toque and gloves and a red cape, and I did her face up as a vampire.  She was the coziest vampire out there! She was out for half an hour and then she called it a night.  Greg followed her in the van, not really wanting to be out in the weather, and he discovered that all the parents were doing the same thing with their vehicles and snowmobiles.  Like I said, the weather was terrible!

On Hallow'en night the RCMP detachment does up their garage as a haunted house, and this year it was excellent.  Charlotte got part way through and chickened out.  All chickens get to sit in a warm room and drink hot chocolate plus they get a small bag of candy (which is big by Southern Ontario standards).  The ones who survive the haunted house get a cup of hot chocolate and a big bag of candy.  The Fire Station gets out their two trucks and they put on the lights and let the kids climb on them.  You can trick-or-treat at the two grocery stores and all the kids know which houses give out full size chocolate bars and which ones give out cans of pop and which ones give out home made fresh candy apples.

Now that Hallowe'en has come and gone, we have settled into November at school, and before we know it, it will be December and time to come back to Ontario for a visit!  Now that we are seeing the Christmas commercials on TV, we sure are getting excited!  We have heard that Southern Ontario didn't exactly have the greatest weather for trick-or-treating either, so we don't feel like we missed out on much.  I have to say that it sure felt weird to be dressing the kids in their costumes for school.  Although I groused at first about Hallowe'en being Black and Orange Day at school, there is definitely something to it.

From the Crazy, Frozen Wilson Family to yours

we hope you all had a safe and enjoyableAll Hallow's Eve.

Happy Hallowe'en everybody!!