Halloween is very famous in The Philippines. It is a yearly tradition that children are looking forward to because they get a chance to collect candies/treats as many as they can during the trick or treat.
Our house subdivision always holds the Halloween party once a year. This year's theme is "Villains in the Village". We had to dress up like villains in Disney movies/Batman/Superman.
Before the party began, the children from the subdivision would go around the complex for trick or treat, then we would continue with the Halloween party. There were many competitions held during the Halloween Party; such as the best costume, the most original design, and the scariest. There was also a competition for the best decorated house.
I like to make and design everything by myself. I always try to minimize the cost as much as possible. I really enjoyed making the Halloween decoration and costumes with any recycled materials. I halfway made the trick or treat loot basket from the old newspaper, but my son preferred to have the big green pumpkin basket he saw at the mall. That pumpkin basket was the only expensive thing in my budget. It cost me 99 Pesos (= USD2.2). All other materials cost me nothing to less than 90 Pesos (= USD2).
Since at this time in Philippines is the typhoon season, I decorated my house with Halloween decorations that can stand the rain and the wind. Although my house decoration didn't win, I'm quite happy with it. I have a witch made of garbage bag guarding my gate..:)
As for the costumes, I made my son's Chernabog (from Disney movie Fantasia) costume from garbage bag, leftover wire, and old newspapers. For my daughter's Queen of heart (from Disney movie Alice in Wonderland) costume, I made the skirt from plastic string and from what ever I have in my storage room.
As for me, I chose to dress up as the evil Queen from Snow White Disney movie. I made my cloak from garbage bag combined with what ever I have in my closet...:)
And for my husband, since he refused to wear anything weird and scary, I asked him to dress up as Lex Luthor from Superman which required him to dress up like what he normally wears to go to work. My husband is balding, by the way, which was another reason why I chose Lex Luthor character for him... :)
The Halloween party started at 5PM but the trick or treat started at 3PM. It was raining so heavily just before 3PM. I was in doubt if I should send my children out for trick or treating. But then the rain stopped. So, I accompanied my daughter first joining all other children to walk around the subdivision collecting the treats. My son was still taking a nap. We went from one house to another house. Candies were not the only thing to be given as the treats. There were many different kinds of treats my daughter got. There was a cotton candy (with the cotton candy guy made it in front of the kids) given out by one of the house in our subdivision. There was a barbecue sausage, a cup cake, and some juice that were also given out by a different house. There was also a cup of nice lemon tea and a balloon for the children given out by another house.
After an hour and a half going around the subdivision, my daughter and I were exhausted. My left hand was aching so much because I had to carry her all the time. She refused to walk when she was afraid to see any scary figure she met on the street. It was our first time to join this kind of activity so I didn't know that we were allowed to drive around the subdivision instead of walking. I saw many parents drove their kids around subdivision. Lesson learnt...:) Next time I will just drive my kids around for trick or treating...:)
When I entered the house, my son just woke up. I quickly asked him to catch up with other kids to collect his treats, but unfortunately, the rain came back. So, he only managed to collect some candies from my neighbors. I was ready to drive him around to catch up with other kids when I realized that we already had to get ready for the Halloween party in the clubhouse.
So, every one took shower and quickly wore our villain costumes.Within half an hour, we were already in the clubhouse. There were so many people attending the Halloween party. It was full house at the clubhouse.
When we arrived, I saw every head turned to see me. Their facial expressions were so stunned as if they just saw a ghost! They said I looked exactly like the wicked Queen in Snow White, beautiful but evil...whahaha... :-D Many people took an opportunity to take picture with me. Everyone also asked me to join the Parent-child Best costume competition. They were so sure that I would win the competition.
So, when the Parent-child competition was announced, I went up to the stage with my son. He was all black just like Chernabog from the movie Fantasia in 1940. Every one cheered and took many photographs of us. Honestly, for a moment, I felt like a movie star... :-D
After dinner was distributed, came the announcement for the best costume. I was so surprised when my son's costume won the Most Original design costume for his age category. I never expected that his costume was going to win. But every one told me that his costume was very unique because it was the only one that was hand made and was made out of recycled materials. He won a bookstore voucher worth 200 Pesos...:)
Then, I had another reason to smile, as every one had told me before, my costume won the best costume for parent-child category.... :-D My son and I won a dining voucher worth 250 Pesos from a very nice restaurant. So, total winning prize I received was 450 Pesos. I got back all the money I spent for the costume and decorations... :-D
I felt so grateful that every one was so supportive of me. They acknowledged my creativity and design. I was very happy that night. Wow! I really could not stop praising the Lord for helping me to make all these happened. I always believe in Him even on Halloween. My son and I were already quite sick during the process of making the costume and decoration. We recovered just in time for all of these.
Everyone was very happy. We all had a blast, especially my children who managed to collect 2 big pumpkin basket of candies and toys during trick or treat and during the party. We certainly look forward to attend the same party next year with a different theme... :)
