Practical ideas for an uncertain Halloween

One of my favorite days each year faces down *this* year.

Halloween’s going to be a little weird this year.

This is the warning I’ve given my children this year, because I’ve found through trial and (mostly) error that the most important thing you can do as a parent is to temper expectations. This is the same reason that I will never tell my children where we are going if it is somewhere good—lest something go wrong—but I will warn them about a dentist’s appointment six months in advance. You have to set expectations.

So, yeah, Halloween. It might be weird?

You see, my kids love Halloween. Of course they do. They’re kids. They love an excuse to dress up as Spider-Man or a panda or 19th-century architect Stanford White and be given a literal bucketful of candy. It’s awesome. You know who else loves Halloween, though? Me. I love Halloween. It’s one of the absolute top holidays, a silly, pointless day that allows you to flex your creativity and be silly for no real reason. Heck, even if you’re a curmudgeon who doesn’t like Halloween, there’s an es…