Halloween - November 4th, 2018 — The McNeill Experience

November 4th, 2018

The pumpkin Doreen and Logan carved.

We had a spooktacular week filled with all kinds of Halloween fun. Halloween in Germany is hit or miss and mostly adopted from the Mexican tradition, Day of the Dead. Although a more traditional American style of Halloween has started to take hold with the younger generation, it’s not nearly as popular as you’d imagine. Perhaps it’s because Germans celebrate Carnival shortly after the new year or perhaps it’s because they already have so many holidays. Never-the-less, if we wanted Logan to have a more traditional American Halloween we were going to have to create it from the ground up.

Several weeks ago Chad got it in his head that he could will the building into supporting a Halloween party complete with Trick or Treating. In the beginning of October we put together a letter campaign (both in English and German) announcing the holiday and asking people to participate. We received a pretty good response off the bat, and combined with Doreen’s almost daily reminders in the shared courtyard, got enough of the residents to commit to the evening. Together we crafted many posters, flyers and door hangers along with some instructions on how to participate. Doreen gobbled up all the decorations she could find and daily dressed Logan in jack-o-lantern socks as a billboard of sorts for the big day.

As the 31st approached we got more and more excited with the responses we were getting. The stores on the ground floor were anxious to participate as-well-as the Danish, Swedish and Israeli families (all of which were celebrating their first Halloween). We managed to have a dozen kids, with a dozen doors to knock on, and countless smiling faces. Magnus, one of the Danish parents, even stepped it up a notch with a full adult scary bunny costume. While the other American couple in the building were excited to pass out full size candy bars. The entire event was a hit and there are talks next year of a haunted house. We might have even unknowingly unleashed a monster in Magnus who was ready to fill it up again after we knocked on the last door.

The rest of the week was pretty calm by comparison. Doreen has been enthralled with The Great British Baking Show on Netflix and baked a pumpkin cake for Chad’s office - with Logan’s help of course. On Friday Chad introduced Logan to Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin while on Saturday we enjoyed a bike ride around the city before it gets too cold. Logan also enjoyed the 3 story indoor slide for the first time at the Mall of Berlin - Doreen on the other hand, didn’t have the same apperication. We even manage to plan our next trip which will be to Poznan, Poland at the end of the Month. We’re very much enjoying fall but also looking forward to our upcoming travels and the wonderful Christmas Market season Germany is known for. We hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween where ever you were.