Halloween in Spain

Traditionally, October is an exciting and chilly time of the year, with leaves falling, chimneys smoking, pumpkins, hay bales, scarecrows, and Indian corn decoration-- oh my! It is a month of delicious treats and family fun, all leading up to Halloween. Well, here in Southern Spain we knew October would be a little different. First of all, it just started getting chilly last week, and the only leaves falling in our yard are from palm trees. As for the pumpkins and hay bales, they aren't native to this area either. And the Spanish don't even celebrate Halloween! You might be familiar with Dia de los Meurtos (Day of the Dead) celebrations, but those are from Mexico, not Spain. Apparently, the whole concept of costumes and trick-or-treating is a fairly American tradition. Luckily, here on base there are still enough Americans to carry on such traditions, and make us feel at home. So driving around base housing, you will see pumpkins at most houses, and yard decorations of orange lights, ghosts and witches in trees, etc. Where do they get the pumpkins, you wonder? From the Commissary, which imports them! So a few weeks ago, we made our trip to pick out some pumpkins. It wasn't exactly the traditional farm experience we had grown used to, but then pumpkins weren't actually native to North Carolina either! The Commissary had a nice little display inside the store for moms who need those pumpkin-pickin pictures:

They had a limited selection, but I actually thought their prices were decent: $.30/pound, or $5 for a largish pumpkin. Sophie picked a big round one, Danny got a tall skinny one, and Alex got a little one. We planned to carve them, which is always a fun and detail-intensive process for my husband, but his work schedule kept him away from the house several nights, so we never quite got around to it.


Next item was costumes! I am not a big fan of buying costumes, since we often made ours when we were growing up. Of course, when we were this young my mom made them for us! I do not have a sewing machine, but thankfully my sister Marie made Danny a wonderful pirate costume when we went to the Renaissance Fair together this summer. He has been wearing his pirate accessories almost every day, and goes around the house saying ARRRR! and singing, "Hey ho, blow the man down!" so of course he loved being a pirate on Halloween too. Of course, he also got excited about the 'new' pumpkin costume I found in a box of Alex's winter clothes, so he wore that around the house for the last week or so. :-)

Sophie wears princess dress-ups around the house every day too, so we knew she would want to wear one on Halloween too. But she was a little jealous of Danny's pirate accessories, and I wanted her to have something new and exciting to her costume, so a few days before Halloween I got her some sparkly fairy wings. She was thrilled!

Alex of course gets no vote for his costume. Before we left North Carolina someone gave me some baby Halloween costumes. So he got to be a bunny when we went to a friend's party, and the pumpkin on Halloween night.








Last weekend we all went to a friend's party where adults and kids came in costumes. Our kids loved making new friends, playing in the bounce house outside, and staying up late. We got to enjoy adult conversation, drinks, jello shots, dancing, and some delicious food! Everyone made their favorite spook-tacular appetizer or dessert, so I made some googly-eyed olive puffs from puff pastry and pimento-stuffed olives, as well as some chocolate spiders (lo mein noodles coated with melted chocolate). I unfortunately forget to take pictures, but the kids loved them!

We also took the kids to the Haunted House, which is organized by the Seabees. They have a kid-friendly version for the first hour each night, so we went to that. They gave each kid a bag of candy with their ticket, so while we waited in a short line they chatted about their candy and how much fun it would be to see scary costumes. The day before, when we were walking through Puerto, they got very excited over a scary display in an Irish pub window. They actually liked the blood, skulls, rats, etc, so we thought they might like the haunted house. Well, Sophie walked in the front door, and then immediately turned around and walked out saying "I'm not doing this!" I was surprised that she did not even want to follow me, but she sat happily with the ladies at the front table and ate her candy. Danny was a very brave little man. He was in his pirate costume, and I told him that if he got scared he could always say ARRRGH! And boy did he! He said Arrrrgh very bravely to most of the monsters he met. They didn't jump out or yell, since they could see that he was so little. In fact, some of them handed out candy, and others just stood quietly and waved at him. He was nervous, but he enjoyed it too. Interestingly, the most memorable part for him seemed to be a box that shook menacingly but never opened. I suppose the unknown can be scarier than anything in a costume! But he did really well and had a good time. Sophie was a little upset to learn that the monsters had been handing out candy, and said she wanted to try going in, but there were no refunds, so we told her she could just try again next year.

The base organizes a Little Munchkins event the night before Halloween, where the kids can collect candy in a small, safe area. But the rainy weather forced it into the gym, and we didn't feel like braving the rain and crowds, so we settled for just walking around the block with some friends on Halloween night, when the weather was great. We all had a great time! Sophie was amazed that strangers were handing out candy, and kept running back to me after every house: Mom, they gave me CANDY!!!!! The Spanish employees on base get several tickets per family to come trick-or-treating on base, so it is a pretty big deal for them. The adults and kids all dress up, and there were probably more Spanish in base housing than Americans that night! But it wasn't as crowded as I had feared, and even though some people weren't home, others set up chairs in driveways or cul-de-sacs to make it a more social event. After a half hour of running up to different houses, each kid had a few handfuls of candy and was starting to get tired. It was just starting to get dark, and we watched the sun set over the ocean as we walked home. It was beautiful! They came home, ate some of their loot, and went to bed while Dan and I handed out some candy and then watched Hocus Pocus, haha! It was a fun holiday, and I know the kids will be looking forward to repeating it next year!