🌻That's what Halloween is all about, Charlie Brown.

An ode to the best holiday

It's black and white and orange and purple.

It's a pillowcase full of candy from the neighborhood, dumped on the living room floor, sorted by type and size.

It's a parade through your elementary school to show off your costume (lovingly handmade by Mom).

It's ghosts that look like sheets, and bats that look like beanie babies.

It's Victorian New England and it's medieval Europe. It's Hogwarts and it's Rivendell.

It’s your heart breaking every time Charlie Brown gets a rock.

It's Danny Elfman and it’s Tim Burton and it’s Christina Ricci.

It's a lantern in a misty wood.

It’s skeletons dancing to Danse Macabre.

It's candelabras and it’s secret passageways. It's candles floating on the ceiling.

It’s black cats and it’s gnarly trees and it’s a cloud passing over the moon.

It's screaming “trick or treat!” and knowing it's always a treat.

It's a big, white, Victorian mansion (probably haunted). It's Dracula's castle. It's a cabin in the woods.

It's Ghostbusters, it's Edward Scissorhands, it's Casper the Friendly Ghost.

It's dry ice transforming a cocktail into a potion.

It's witches that fly on brooms, wear pointy hats and striped socks, and really aren't scary at all.

It's spending a month putting together the most perfect costume — or spending a single day thrift store hopping the day before the party in a last minute scramble.

It’s the smell of JoAnn Fabrics.

It's running down the sidewalk in a cape.

It's Thriller, it's the Monster Mash, it's Spooky Scary Skeletons.

It's ghost stories and it's urban legends, told around a fire with a flashlight under your chin.

It's Frankenstein, it's Dracula, it's Sweeny Todd. It's Blade, it's Army of Darkness, it's Evil Dead.

It's eyeballs in the punch bowl and it’s a spider on your cupcake.

It's trying on items in the plumbing aisle at Home Depot to make into a bionic arm.

It's a mustache drawn on a baby.

It's being your favorite fictional character for a day.

It's Goosebumps, it's Are You Afraid of the Dark?, it's Tales from the Crypt.

It's the moment of validation when someone “gets” your costume. 

It's a tiny hat for your dog. Or a mane. Or angel wings.

It’s superheroes, it’s pop stars, it’s stupid puns.

It's Beetlejuice, it’s Practical Magic, it’s Matilda. It's Hocus Pocus, it’s Halloweentown, it’s the Addams Family. And it’s scary movies that aren't all that scary.

It's scarecrows, it’s cemeteries, it’s crows, it’s spiderwebs.

It's the party of the year.

It's a celebration of fantasy. It's a celebration of fall. 

It's fun and it’s frivolous, and it’s the blurry line between imagination and the supernatural.

It's weird.

And it’s the best.

✌️