It seems as if it’s almost here.  Just on the edge of what you can feel, smell and experience, and already I miss summer!  Actually autumn is one of my favorite seasons, well the beginning of autumn at least.  I love that the weather is the comfortable 68 degrees jacket optional bliss.  This also brings us to the start of my wife’s Halloween decorating extravaganza (which you can see here http://mermaidgardenparty.blogspot.com/, shortly) it is her favorite holiday.  Well, favorite in the sense of ownership.  She continues to give me a hard time because my favorite holiday is Christmas.. Just like everyone* else.  So, for her, even though Christmas is a close runner-up, Halloween makes the cut.  I however still love Christmas.  When we started talking about why we loved these holidays it got interesting.

For me a holiday is the sum of it’s parts.  Sure, I like presents at Christmas time, brauts on fourth of July, and those little candy hearts (which I buy an entire bag of) on valentine’s day, but that’s only a picture.  The reason why some things stand out to me is the entirety of the experience.  When I think of Halloween there’s only a handful of things that come to mind, namely costumes and candy.   There aren’t any particular smells, at least nothing that I directly associate to Halloween and not autumn.  My family has never really cooked anything special around Halloween nor do we set aside time to spend with one another.  There isn’t much to pull from my Halloween folder other than a yearly pilgrimage to the pumpkin farm.

But when you mention Christmas!  I think you could write books on the smells of Christmas: nutmeg, cinnamon, Douglass fir, eggnog, turkey (thanksgiving too)  and peppermint.  There’s all the decor as well, entire rooms destined to house trees and presents, garlands and wreaths elsewhere throughout the house and lights on every gutter.  Then of course there’s the family and the extended family, and the food, and the time off… While Cara has Halloween I can’t wait until I start walking on the crisp leaves and apple cider that bring about my favorite time of the year.