Tonight onCBC’s The National (@33 min) there was a report about how the low birthrate ten years ago will mean fewer trick-or-treaters this year. Moreover children of immigrants are less likely to take part in this local tradition. Here at BC Family we live in a mixed neighbourhood. Some residents have been here for decades and have grown children, while there are also young families who have moved in. So it is hard to predict how many trick-or-treaters we will have at our door. Hopefully we will fare better in the family friendly Tri-City neighbourhood where we live.
Prior to this year, we lived in Yaletown where no children came to our door on our security code protected condo floor. In Yaletown children trick-or-treat at the local stores instead. It’s a cute sight, although not as intimate an experience as going to people’s homes. In an effort to prepare for our first handout experience, we’ve interviewed the neighbours to find out how many children we can expect. (50) We’ve reigned in the resident big kid who has been munching on the chocolates. We’ve interviewed a mum at McDonald’s who suggested that we’re planning to give out twice the norm for candy handouts. (Really? 2 mini chocolate bars is excessive? One seems chintzy.) She also figured we’d be a popular house as we’ve made little pumpkins to house our chocolate handouts. Our toddler twins will be the hosts handing out the candy. That is if they don’t cry from the shock of seeing so many unusual looking and excited children come to our door.
(The three stages of the pumpkin. Cut paper, wrap & add curled leaves.)
It all started with a slideshow from MarthaStewart.com. If you have a stitch of arts and crafts tendency in your body, Martha Stewart’s slideshows are bound to inspire you. If you’ve been reading Martha Stewart Living since the early ’90s you will also know that one of Martha Stewart’s many strengths is coming up with unique and fabulous ideas for the Halloween holiday. Her pumpkin carving ideas are exquisite. We couldn’t resist these Halloween candy bag projects and decided to go with slide 13.
To our surprise the local Michaels store does not sell crepe paper in any shape or form. The line of questioning with the Michaels staff went something like this:
“Do you sell crepe paper?” (“No, sorry we don’t sell it.)
“Are you sure you don’t sell some type of crepe paper? (“No, we don’t have any.”)
“You know what I mean. That wrinkly type of paper?” (Unfortunately we don’t sell any. [Which part of “we don’t sell crepe paper is she not understanding?”])
Evidently crepe paper is old school craft supplies.
As an alternative we bought two ply orange napkins that were just shy of 10 inches and some floral tape. The children’s Gran got the project launched by cutting the napkins into circles. We added two chocolate bars inside, pleated and cinched the paper on the top and wrapped it with floral tape. Then we cut a shorter piece of floral tape, wrapped it around the base, rolled the rest of the length of the tape, wrapped it around the end of a pen and created curled leaves. So simple and so cute. For full instructions, check out the MarthaStewart.com website.
Next year we’ll be making ghosts.
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