So it looks like Halloween is the new Christmas. Not in that it’s a time of peace, love, and brotherhood, or an opportunity for families to get together, or anything like that.
Halloween is the new Christmas in that it makes a good excuse to decorate the inside and outside of your home in a grand spectacle of consumption. It’s also the new Christmas in that a former religious holiday (All Hallows Eve – the night before All Saints Day) becomes a holiday in which we celebrate eating sugar-filled goodies and buying stuff.
It gives tv networks a chance to show themed movies, for stores to decorate, and offices to have parties.
Now, I like Halloween. I like costumes, candy, and themed parties. I will admit that I even like “Halloween villages.” You know, the little houses and people and such that you put on your end table? They’re like “Christmas villages,” but Halloween-themed. I think they are funny. I don’t want to own one, necessarily – but I like the idea of them.
I call this to your attention because I predict a trend of increasing Halloween-into-Christmas transformation.
Be on the lookout for:
* Halloween carols – not the religious kind, but more along the lines of the “Frosty the Snowman” and “Baby It’s Cold Outside” variety (I may have to write some…)
* Some form of Santa Claus-like character (himself a formerly religious figure) with his own mythology to emerge or gain prominence as the symbol of the season– some possibilities include:
- The devil, specifically puppet devil.
- Chernabog - the big demon from Fantasia (in one of the more frightening things Disney ever put out)
- Jack Skelington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (what a great movie!)
- Count Dracula
- Count Chocula
- Count von Count (from Sesame Street)
The new Santa Claus?
Beware! Bewaaaaaaaare!! Ooooooooooooooooo!!
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