Happy Pumpkin Day? Whatever!

How many times have you said “Happy Pumpkin Day!” to someone? Probably never, right? That’s because the holiday is not Pumpkin Day, it’s HALLOWEEN!

At least that’s what it is to 99.5% of Americans. But because it might offend the 0.5% of the population that doesn’t like Halloween, the schools are now having Pumpkin Day.

Leave it to our public schools to suck the fun out of yet another holiday. No costumes, no games, no party…at least not in the traditional sense.

Yesterday Molly’s class celebrated Pumpkin Day. This is what the party consisted of:

First, the kids sat on the carpet and got instructions for their Pumpkin Day tasks. Note the lack of costumes. Next year they will probably ban Halloween tee shirts and anything orange and black.

Next, the kids broke up into groups to work on their Pumpkin Fact Book. Just look at the joy and excitement on Molly’s face. “Oh boy, instead of playing games,eating candy and having a Halloween costume parade, I get to weigh and measure a pumpkin!”

The highlight of the pumpkin exploration was carving the pumpkin.

Even this couldn’t be too joyful because they couldn’t just scoop out pumpkin slime and carve……

Nope. Instead the kids had to count out pumpkin seeds into group of ten to represent 100. Yipee!

My friend Suzanne (Max’s mom) was in charge of planning the party. Bless her soul. She has so many fun things planned until she talked with the school and got the official script which explained exactly how the party would be run. Step by step. No deviation.

There really wasn’t anything for her to plan. She basically had to coordinate volunteers to implement to official school version of Pumpkin Day. I commend her for doing a great job with the task she was given.

Here are the kids in our group with their carved jack-o-lantern.

Molly’s good buddy Allison and her Mom.

At the end of Pumpkin Day, each kid got some cheese and a cupcake. It was the only thing that we did all day that even remotely resembled a party, in my opinion.

Please don’t misunderstand. Everything that the kids did during Pumpkin Day was worthwhile. It was a very good learning experience which made kids think, explore and investigate. I have no problem with that.

But make no mistake. It.Was.Not.A.Party. And it should never replace one of the things that makes a kid’s childhood memorable. I say bring back the costumes! Bring back the games! Bring back the Halloween Parade! Bring back the joy of being a kid!

Stay tuned for the Great Big Halloween post where Molly WILL be wearing a costume, she WILL eating more sugar than she is usually allowed, she WILL be giddy with excitement, and she WILL be celebrating the holiday as it was meant to be celebrated.