An American Halloween in Prague

Stinkerbell - 16 months.  MadHatter - 2 1/2

As much as I love that picture, it does come with some bittersweet memories. It makes me smile because how cute are those girls!  But it also makes me a bit sad because that was the last time we spent Halloween celebrating in the U.S.  Which means that the girls have no memory of celebrating the way only Americans can.  They don't have memories of dressing up and parading through the school to show off their costumes.  They haven't walked through the streets of their neighborhood with their friends, collecting candy bars and smarties.  They haven't had much of a chance to carve pumpkins and cook pumpkin seeds.  But they also don't have any preconceived notions about how trick-or-treating should work.  Or what types of candy should be given out.  Or even, what the holiday looks like.  Which means that we get to make it our own...again.  So, here is how we try to recreate an American Halloween in a very non-American Prague.

No costumes allowed at school, so we picked to wear outfits that were festive for the Friday before Halloween.

On Friday, we had Trunk or Treat for the Elementary School students.  It included a bake sale, photo booths made and manned by the Middle Schooler kids, 25 trunks open for trick or treating, a magic show and the grand finale, fireworks.  Because the Czechs love a good any reason for fireworks.  All in all, a great evening spent with great friends.

And then we got to do it all again the next night for Halloween.  The neighborhood behind the school houses many expat families.  And each year, they open their doors (literally) to hoards of children hoping to catch a bit of the Halloween spirit.  Children from all over Prague show up to partake in this most American of holiday's and even though the trick or treating doesn't start until 6 pm, the cars and kids start lining up before 5.  By 6:15, cars can no longer drive through the streets.  We started off by taking a few pictures of our group...

And then precisely at 6 pm, we headed out, all together.  Which lasted for about 10 minutes.  14 children are just too many to keep together in a crowd of that size.  So we spent an hour trying to keep track of our own children as they ran from door to door, hoping to get the elusive American candy that some houses import.  And then we headed back to R's house (thank you so much for being such an incredible host R) to celebrate the birthday of one of our own - G!

Lines were long!

MadHatter and A handing out candy.  Their favorite part I think.

Happy Birthday G!

And it wasn't an American Halloween.  And some day I hope my children will once again get to experience one.  But this was still one fantastic Halloween, spent with an incredible group of friends.  And that makes it one of the best yet.