I was a kid it was safe to walk the neighborhoods in search of candy, now you should go to a mall or something and go from store to store. My school used to have Halloween parties and assemblies where we would sing all kinds of spooky songs, now my daughter is allowed to wear a costume to school, but it can't be anything scary, no masks, no makeup, there's no Halloween party, only a “celebration of fall” party, there's no assembly, no cool witch's brew songs to learn (i'll have to teach her that one myself, i guess). Things have definitely changed, and yes, trends ARE always changing, but not always for the better. Also, I just paid 40.00 for her costume (because I caved when I shouldn't have, but that's a different story!), and 29.00 for my son's; when I was younger my mom would just make ours out of stuff we already had or she would go to the Salvation Army and find something, even trick or treat Bags are expensive nowadays!! Whatever happened to a pillowcase or a cheap paper bag, times are definitely changing.

start selling stuff earlier.

were no such thing as halloween lights when I was a kid.

I lived in a very religious town when I was young and no one objected to Halloween that I knew of then.

there's all this hubbub about its pagan origins, which is true of most major holidays.

for kids the point is to have fun. I wish people wouldn't get in the way of that.