Commercialisation

Indeed so - I fully agree. People are just out to make a fast buck and in the process much enjoyment is lost.

This is true, but think so many parents work now they don't have the time ( and possibly the inclination) and there are more Halloween parties going on which require a lot of props.The thing that bothers me is how scary a lot of the stuff is, last year I was near a mother and toddler, and he was screaming and sobbing as he passed all this stuff ( his Mother just exasperated with him!)He was pointing at it all and turning his face away.It was all placed by the entrance so couldn't be avoided.

We get a lot of children coming around at Halloween, from tinys to teens, almost all of them in bought costumes. GS has one or two but they have been passed on to him by older cousins. As has been said, lots of mums these days have neither the time nor the imagination to make something. It's just easier to buy. DD always carves a pumpkin with GS but that's about the extent of it. She does go the extra mile if he needs something for a school project - a cracking set of armour and a helmet for a Greek warrior for instance, entirely made out of cardboard and other bits of household stuff.

A while back there a series on telly in which people got the chance to try their hands a various crafts; stone masonry, stained glass, bodging, etc. What surprised me was just how many people had reached adulthood having never discovered the satisfaction of making something themselves. It reminds me of people who will look at something you've made and say "you could have bought one of those". It's what you get when status is associated with having money to buy things, and making things yourself is associated with having no money.

There is a great deal of pleasure from doing something for yourself, and making something particularly out of nothing, and I think sometimes the children are quite proud to say "I made that".

I was teaching my eight year old GD how to knit during the school holidays. She (we!) ended up making an outfit for Cat, her favourite soft toy since she was a baby. A pair of trousers complete with a hole for his tail, a scarf and a jumper. She is so proud of her knitting and quite rightly so. A bought set wouldn't have been given a second thought.