By: Kimberly Welsh
We don’t really celebrate Halloween anymore the way we used to.
But once upon a time? We committed.
There were family costumes. We had wigs, makeup, and props. There was a cemetery in the front yard and a witch’s cauldron with potions inside the house. Some years involved hours of preparation before anyone made it out the front door.
And apparently, my husband, Jesse, and I were destined for this long before we had children.
When we were dating, we once dressed as a knight and princess for Halloween. I doubt either of us realized we were establishing a precedent.
Because once Elena and Liam came along, Halloween wasn’t so much a holiday as it was a family production.
And for a lot of years, I loved it.
When the Kids Were Little
When Elena and Liam were young, Halloween meant figuring out what all four of us could be together.
One year, we headed down the Yellow Brick Road. Elena was Dorothy, Jesse was the Tin Man, I was Glinda, and baby Liam was quite possibly the cutest Cowardly Lion that Oz has ever seen.
From there, family themes became part of Halloween.
We went to Hogwarts for Harry Potter, complete with Harry and a very small Hedwig.
Another year took us to a galaxy far, far away.
And another sent us down a rabbit hole into Alice in Wonderland.
One year, we went with superheroes. Clearly, we weren’t concerned about choosing between Marvel and DC—we just picked our favorites and created our own crossover event.
As the kids got older, though, our Halloweens got a little more ambitious.
We May Have Gotten Carried Away
At some point, simply putting on a costume wasn't enough.
Costumes meant makeup. Props. Wigs. Face paint. And an increasingly ridiculous amount of time getting everybody ready.
There was a year that our theme was favorite movie characters.
That gave everyone permission to go in completely different directions. We ended up with Winifred Sanderson, Edward Scissorhands, Deadpool (even though Liam had never seen the movie), and Indiana Jones standing together on our front porch.
Because obviously those four belong together.
Edward remains one of my favorites. I did Elena’s makeup myself—including the scars—and I’m still really proud of how it turned out.
It also took forever.
That was the thing about Halloweens. They were fun. Really fun.
They were also messy. And time-consuming. And a lot of work.
And Then the Tradition Started to Change
Eventually, the kids got older and sometimes wanted to do their own thing. Jesse and I even recycled costumes one year while they chose theirs—which, after years of elaborate family themes, felt almost revolutionary.
Then Elena grew up and moved out.
And then there were three.
We kept going a little longer, until we reached what would become the final year of the Welsh family costume tradition.
We went out with the dinosaurs.
There are several things I love about this picture. But if you look closely at Jesse’s face peeking out from underneath that inflatable dinosaur, you may understand why it still makes me laugh every single time I see it.
And somehow, it feels appropriate that this was the end.
After years of witches, superheroes, storybook characters, skeletons, and monsters, the Welsh family Halloween Era went extinct.
Literally.
These Days, Halloween Looks a Little Different
I don’t decorate for Halloween anymore. The cemetery is gone. The cauldron and potions are long retired. These days, I decorate the house for fall and leave it that way until it’s time for Christmas.
Well, almost.
One witch still comes out every year. She sits in the room with us and apparently has lifetime tenure.
We sit outside and hand out candy to the neighborhood kids, too. Last year, Jesse dressed as a character from Squid Game and made the trick-or-treaters play games for their candy. Naturally, I have no photographic evidence of that either.
Some of our best Halloween moments only exist in family lore.
I don’t miss all the work that went into those old Halloweens. I don’t miss the mess, the hours of makeup, or hauling an entire cemetery into the front yard.
But I love that we did it.
I love the pictures. I love remembering how excited the kids were. I love seeing how the costumes changed as they grew and how something as simple as choosing what to wear became one of our family traditions.
And maybe that’s the thing about traditions. They don’t have to last forever to matter.
Sometimes, they belong to a particular season of your family’s life. You enjoy them while they fit, let them change when they need to, and eventually look back and think:
We really did have fun, didn’t we?
And, occasionally:
I cannot believe I talked my husband into wearing that!
