The Halloween Dilemma

I don’t know about you, but I love Halloween. I mean, I really love Halloween. My kids are all grown up and on their own now. So, I don’t have any legitimate excuse to dress up on Halloween anymore. I truly miss it.

Back in the day, I got as excited, if not more so, as my kids when picking out costumes each Halloween. I am proud to say that I never succumbed to the kids’ requests to buy a manufactured costume with plastic masks and slick satiny fakeness. No, not me. We started planning costumes in late September and scrounged through closets, the attic and basement to find bits and pieces that would later become a costume of unparalleled awesomeness.

Headless men, hopeless hobos and clowns that made Stephen King’s Pennywise shiver in fear, have emerged from the scraps in my closets. Each masterpiece became a notch in my proverbial Awesome Halloween Costumes belt. I understand your envy. My kids and I were masterful. By the way, Pennywise has his own Facebook page – yay, social media!

But, alas, that was then and this is now.

In an effort to create tradition in my office, I go all out for Halloween. The decorations come out on the first day of October and our patients have spooktacular experiences at our office for the whole month. I get excited when Halloween lands on a scheduled work day, as it does this year. That means we can get a little funky with our apparel and encourage the neighborhood kids to stop by for some treats. This is where my annual Halloween dilemma comes in. What to give to the kids that do stop by our spooky emporium?

Do you give candy out at your office on Halloween? Do you give candy out at your home?

My wonderful dad, who was also a dentist, used to give out toothbrushes for Halloween. Young me was horrified! We were the only house that didn’t give out candy. While Mom and Dad thought it was funny and cute, I wanted to apply to be adopted by a candy-giving family. It may, in fact, be the trauma from this toothbrush memory that causes me to feel so strongly about giving out candy. I’ve actually been lambasted on Facebook (to the lambaster’s credit, it was done in a private message) about my Facebook-public relationship with chocolate and chocolatiers, and the inferred incongruencies inherent in that relationship as a dentist. Sigh…

So, do I succumb to the pressures of being a good sweet-fighting dentist and follow in my dad’s footsteps, giving out cute toothbrushes? Or do I stand up proudly as a Halloween-loving, candy-toting, sweets-supporting dentist? What do you do?

By the way… anyone want a Milky Way?

Claudia Anderson, DDS