Someone’s knocking at my door. What? On Halloween? This can’t be. Another knock? Sure enough, there are little children dressed in cute costumes. How can this be?

It may be an annual tradition for others all around the country, but in this town where I live the tradition has been different. For as long as I can remember this city had an ordinance that said that trick-or-treating could only be done from 4 to 6 PM on the Sunday that the city designated as Halloween Sunday. It could be the Sunday before or the Sunday after Halloween, usually whichever was closer. And yes, one time the city celebrated Halloween on Nov. 2nd. They’re knocking again.

I have not seen trick-or-treaters for the past 4 years anyway. I think it was about 4 years ago when we had that snowstorm on Halloween that ended the trick-or-treating in this neighborhood. I stopped buying candy, stopped putting up decorations, my kids were all grown up anyway. Celebrating Halloween not on Halloween never felt right to me anyway.

Somebody must have changed the law!

Well, I guess I wasn’t paying attention when that happened. Fortunately I was prepared with boxes of candy by the door that were headed for tomorrow’s Sunday school kids. Ah, they won’t miss a few handfuls, I bought a lot. We probably won’t get a lot of trick-or-treating in this neighborhood anyway, although I’ve answered the door 5 times already in the past 45 minutes. It’s an unusually warm night for this time of year.

It does my heart good to see the silly munchkins all dressed up it their goofy, crazy, ‘what are you?’ costumes. My husband, being an alien, never understood this tradition. I’m sure everyplace has strange traditions. It’s just for fun and entertainment anyway. Too old for dress-up parties myself and too young to be a grandma, I’m happy to welcome the ghosts and goblins, witches, princesses and Ninja’s to my empty nest. Dracula? Have a chocolate, trust me it’s better than blood.

Happy Halloween!