A little fairy named Eve told me…

Last year was Julian’s first time trick or treating. He was 3 years old plus 2 days and barely could grasp what was going on. Sure he liked to dress in a costume and look at all the decorated houses, but knocking on a door, saying “Trick or treat”, holding his bag open, and then looking his host in the eye to say thank you (a rule enforced by his parents) required every ounce of brainpower he had.

We are a household that goes heavy on candy consumption for the adults and light on sugar for the kids. We do all of our candy eating sneakily, after 8 pm, in movie theaters, or in the front seat on road trips while the kids sleep.

Having read about it on The Berkeley Parents Network, I told Julian that the Halloween Fairy would be leaving a toy outside his bedroom door if he left his Halloween haul in that same spot on the floor. He earned a Fisher Price doctor kit and was slightly oblivious about the missing candy.

This year, a different story. This year, he was 4 years old, plus two days, and was acutely aware of the Halloween events. He was unaware of how much of his candy I consumed during the actual trick or treating stroll (lots), but he was clear that when he got home, he expected his cloth pumpkin to have more than a few pieces of candy.

This year, we also had a new book. We had read All Hallows Eve: The Story of the Halloween Fairy a couple of times that week, so he was, in my mind, primed for the proposal I made him that night.

“Let’s keep four pieces of candy, since you are four years old, and leave the rest outside your bedroom door for the Halloween Fairy.”

He was a little sad about this, but we read the book again that night and then placed the candy outside the door. (Read the end of this story here.) Reading about this myth from a source other than me seemed to legitimize it. The book is written in rhymed verse, so it’s pretty fun for a parent to read.

Although the concept is understandable for a 4-year old, much of the language is not. The hard-working authors used plenty of $2.00 words to make their rhymes work so I would actually recommend the book more for a 6-8 year old.

Other books in the Eve series are: Winter’s Eve: Love and Lights and Christmas Eve: The Joy of Giving, both of which promise to put a positive spin on the holidays and emphasize themes other than materialism
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Thanks ParentBloggers Network for giving me a chance to enjoy these books. I will donate two of them to my local library so that they can circulate in my community.