( An Arthur Halloween )

😉 You may well at this point, I imagine, have a few questions. These questions, the ones you are currently pondering, may be questions like these.

These are great questions to be sure. And great questions require great answers. Great answers that are, at the very least, tremendously better than my punctuation skills. Read and you will find both below. … And truly, I should have paid a lot more attention in language classes. My sincere apologies for asking you to trudge through this comma infested swamp of my poor writing.

As a small note: A great answer is in this case is one that will beautifully solve the problem. That makes this answer so very much unlike the answers you often get from politicians.

A second small note: It is possible that I have become too fond of notes. 😉 If this is the case, please feel free to let me know.

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Answers to great questions I find must sometimes start with a bit of a what, and most definitely a why.

The what. What is Halloween you ask? Halloween is a treasured holiday. It is a chance to celebrate together the year’s day, just before the year’s night begins. It is a last chance before winter arrives, to huddle together in the company of friends, family, and the larger family of our neighborhood. Even as this holiday approaches we get to enjoy imagining all sorts of wonders. We tell stories and rejoice in the life that spring, summer, and fall brought to us. It is a time to consider wonderous things and stretch our imaginations. It is a holiday celebrated with candy and costumes, but not just candy and costumes. The preparations for a single night’s holiday will fill the entire month with enchantment. Houses and yards may get involved in the festivities too. So, if you don’t know why Halloween is a treasured holiday, then it is quite likely that you have never had a good Halloween. Don’t worry, we’ll fix that. 🙂

The Why. Why am I doing this? I have many small reasons. I have however, but 2 large ones.

• The first: I would prefer that each and every Halloween be as wonderful for children today as they were for me when I was young … those oh so many years ago.
• And the Second: Of this answer there is a longer verson, and yes, a shorter one as well.
  • The short answer: Because I can. And because the children over every part of the world that celebrate this holiday deserve it.
  • The Long Answer: I have answers where the world at large has only questions. I know all of the reasons why this is. It is not something that is going to change. When it came to finding a way to save Halloween, I have found the answer easy to calculate. I have written that answer up. You will see it laid out below. I will place the solution in my hand and hold that hand out. If enough people are interested in saving this holiday, then we will gather, hand in hand, and save it ourselves. Waiting for politicians to come together and help us do this seems a less than effective path to take. We have a chance to save this holiday for future generations. I believe they are worth it. I hope enough of the people reading this do as well. And that is the why of the long answer.

So, let us begin

Halloween as a holiday has taken a beating over the years. And as if there was not enough of a challenge when it comes to saving this holiday, now we have COVID-19. COVID-19 adds an entirely new level of difficulty to the task of saving Halloween.

Is your mind currently pondering questions like the ones here->? Is there an answer to all of this? Why do we need to save this holiday? Why is Halloween so important to us? How do we stop COVID from stealing this holiday from our children?

If you are, below is what I hope you will find to be solid answers to all of these questions.

We’ll start by looking at what Halloween adds to our lives:

• The main sources of wonder and excitement for our children during the month of October comes from the homes around us, our neighbors. Halloween, unlike any other holiday, brings us the anticipation of joyful visits to so many of the homes in our communities.
• Ghosts, ghouls, and all sorts of costumes. The excitement surrounding the costume aspect of Halloween inspires a great deal of creativity in children.
• The joy and anticipation associated with Halloween lasts the entire month.
• Halloween teaches children that being cherished can extend beyond their front doors.
• This holiday nurtures a special sense of community.
• The fall, bringing both the start of school, and it’s change of weather, is for many not always the most favored part of the year. Halloween brings us something to look forward to in a part of the year that could well use some looking forward to.
• For children, knowing that people in homes all around you care about you brings you to care more about them as well. This is indeed a good thing. Halloween is a friendly, self-inspired, lesson in compassion.
• Halloween is a time when we remind children, ours, all those around us, and yes, even that bit of a child that stirs from deep within us, that love, and a sense of wonder are alive and well.

Halloween is a treasured holiday. It is a wonderful piece of our past. It carries with it a sense of wonder and a little bit of magic. Halloween is where many children first discover that being cared about extends beyond their front doors. The realization that they are cherished by their neighbors; people that they may not yet even have met, while amazing, becomes something real. This holiday is for many children where the larger sense of family, Neiborhood, and community finds its beginning.

Halloween is an infrastructure, not of concrete and steel, but of our hearts and our way of life. Halloween is our chance each year to breath new life into that bond with our larger family, aka our community.

And if this is not yet enough, the largest reason to save Halloween can be found in the wonder we see in the eyes of our children, as we hold their tiny hands and take them from house to house, on their very first Halloween. I believe they are worth it. I hope you will too.

With all of this going for it, we are still in danger of losing this wonderful holiday. It needs to be saved. No easy task. Many have tried. None have succeeded. Until now. …

The solution: Read on and enjoy discovering the details of a solution that works. This is how we can save Halloween!

The flow of the explanation:

1. To begin the explanation of the new Halloween I will list the elements, aka the parts and pieces.
2. Following that I will explain how all these parts and pieces comes together to create a wonderful solution.

The Elements:

• Posters – These will identify which homes will be giving out the new Halloween treats. Treats here translates to tokens, not actual candy.
• Tokens – These will be exchanged by stores for actual candy.
• Candy manufacturing company participation – Halloween candy companies will make
  • Halloween posters to identify participating houses
  • Halloween tokens – these resemble real Halloween candies but there is no candy in them. They have tokens inside them, or they may be the tokens themselves
  • And of course, the Halloween candies themselves
  • The tokens are exchanged for Halloween candy later at stores
• The New Halloween system provides –
  • Posters to identify participating homes ahead of the actual holiday
    • Posters hanging in the windows of homes identify will show which houses are participating in the “Happy Haunting” Halloween program
    • The posters are from candy companies so they identify what types of candy tokens children will get at a home
    • The posters are purchased in stores individually. This allows people to pick which decorative style they like
    • Posters may be made in Halloween group themes allowing people to build decorative scenes in their windows. For example:
      • A haunted house
      • Pumpkins
      • Cats
      • Ghosts
      • Witches
  • Tokens for Halloween candy
    • The tokens are tamper-free because they do not contain Halloween candy
    • The tokens are exchanged for the actual candy at stores
    • The Halloween candy tokens will not go bad sitting in a bag
    • Stores have the opportunity for additional business as Halloween candy tokens are exchanged, over time, for the actual Halloween candy.

And now, how it all comes together

People will purchase the New Halloween posters from stores. The posters hang in the windows of homes to show which homes will be giving out the New Halloween treats, (aka Halloween candy tokens).

Bags of Halloween candy tokens will look like the real Halloween candies. This will help keep the kids excited as their Halloween trick or treat bags fill up with the candy tokens. The tokens are quite light, so small children will be easily able to carry full bags. That should add even more glee for the little ones. Now they can match the big kids.

Bags of the Halloween candy tokens can be purchased at stores.

These same Halloween candy tokens can then be exchanged at stores. This will help parents influence candy intake. Allowing children to exchange a few tokens at a time also makes the Halloween treats last longer. But remember parents, those are the children’s candies.

Safety improvements

People tampering with Halloween treats has been a big concern with many parents. Halloween candy tokens remove that concern. The New Halloween posters should be accompanied by state and federal laws that requires homes displaying the New Halloween posters to only give out the New Halloween tokens.

Candies sitting around and going bad, melting, or being gorged on has at times been a problem. New Halloween tokens should fix the first 2, and at least help with the last. 😉

As the New Halloween candies are actually tokens, people do not eat them. This means that the Halloween candy tokens can be sprayed and wiped down to disinfect them if you like.

Also, as they are tokens, the people giving them out will not be snacking on them. They will come in clean bags, be dumped into bowls, grabbed by happy children, and be carried off to be, also quite happily, exchanged in stores.

Why is this holiday so important?

Halloween is the only holiday we have where we see the homes around us as the primary sources of joy, surprise, inspiration, and wonder. It brings us together and gives our children a sense of being cherished by their neighbors. We have during the month of October, a larger sense of community and family. It is a time where we celebrate together in ways unique to this holiday.

This holiday is not one we should allow to be lost.

A last look at the questions and answers:

How can we prevent the loss of Halloween? We use the wonderful solution you just read about. How do we make it happen? We speak up and let people know we want it! That means call your newspapers, radio stations, and Senators and Representatives. Ask them if they know about it. And as importantly, ask them how they are helping.

As for my end, I will be moving this solution along those same lines. They may contact me if they wish to help. In addition, I will set up a separate website just for this solution. There all involved may track the solutions progress. When I have the website started, I will list it’s address here: _________________.

Oh, this project, aka saving our new Halloween will need a name. One other than “saving our new Halloween”. I will list see about listing options and providing a method for us to all vote on one.

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A large warning!

This project will get a lot of attention. Many scammers will try to use it to, in quite plain terms, steal from you.

The only valid website will be the one to be listed above. Having that official website should make it considerably more difficult for scammers to trick people into thinking that they are attached to and working for this effort.

You will find on the website not only how the effort is progressing, but any options for things like, donations, lists of valid participating candy companies, lists of recognized groups involved in this effort, all will be listed there. Even, as incredible as it sounds, should any politician come forward that seems credible in their willingness to help in this effort, they too will be listed on this site.

Letting unscrupulous people steal from good people by pretending that they are part of the effort like this is one of life’s tragedies. It is however, one that we can prevent. If anyone or any group can not be found on the website to be listed above, then they are not actually associated with this effort. People lying about being a part of this effort will be common. Don’t let them use what we are doing here to steal from you. We, the greater sense of you and I, are working together to create something wonderful for our children. That something is well worth protecting.

We can save this holiday for our children now, and for their children after them. All that remains is for us to choose to do so. The question to be answered is, … will we?

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My father once said to me that, in the end we are measured by the lives we touch and how we touch them. If such a measure is to be given, I would be honored if it were given to him. Born in 1922, his name was, and is, Arthur. Thank you.