Halloween, City Style
Halloween is my most favorite holiday. It always has been.
Last year, we had lived in the city for just two months and I couldn’t bear to celebrate here. I was plagued with homesickness and it just felt like the right thing to do to go back to California for Halloween. That, and I had no idea how people even trick-or-treat in Manhattan-in apartment buildings.
Fireman and fire doggie
As it turns out, the festivities in New York City are really quite amazing, which isn’t surprising. There was a huge pumpkin festival in Central Park over the weekend, and a bunch of free events going in our plaza and surrounding neighborhoods. There was no shortage of things to do, as usual.
We invited a couple of friends over to celebrate the night before, and I made the brilliant decision of baking my first pies ever the morning of the party. Two pumpkin pies, one apple pie, two dozen frosted sugar cookies, toasted pumpkin seeds and cupcakes to be exact. They looked a hot mess but tasted fine as far as I could tell. Practice for my first hosted Thanksgiving, I suppose.
On Sunday, we dressed up and headed to our next door neighborhood, where they had a musician playing songs for toddlers and the entire area decked out in Halloween decorations. We stopped to check out the fire engine from Ladder 13, and I did everything I could (including outright begging and bribing) to get the kids to take a photo with Tommy.
It was worth it.
The leaves are changing colors and starting to fall, and as much as I am dreading the cold winter, there is something magical about the seasons on the East Coast.
Even trick-or-treating in the apartment buildings was fun. We found some friends, and started at the 37th floor, running down the stairs and checking every floor to see who was handing out candy. While I miss walking up the paths of the homes decorated to the nines in our old neighborhood in California, this was fun in it’s own way. The only obstacle we ran into was waiting for the elevators on the way up with a ton of overly anxious children.
I’m Halloweened out now, but feeling accomplished and content with hitting yet another milestone in our adaptation to city life.
Glad you had an amazing NY-based Halloween. NY is full of Halloween activities, so glad you found so many that worked for you guys. The kids are adorable! And as usual your pics are gorgeous!
Fabulous pictures!! It looks like you guys had an amazing time with your first city Halloween. Your cupcakes look absolutely delish… 🙂
I love the pictures and the costumes!! What a great time in your in-da-city-halloween!! 🙂 thanks for sharing!
Awesome pictures. Sitting next to Justin during ethics class and he’s a very proud father and husband of a blogger. 🙂
I really just adore that shot of them with the “real” fireman. Wow. Looks like they had a wonderful time.
I’m glad your apartment trick-or-treating went well! We’re lucky to live in the suburbs of Vancouver now (where it’s mild and we get tons of kids), but when we were living on the Canadian prairies, it was so cold at the end of October that very few kids ventured outdoors – most went to malls!
Didn’t look lke Tommy was too happy about it but boy does he look hot in his unhappy face.
Don’t be sad for not taking them last year, they would have never remembered.
We moved BACK to LA from Indiana and it was our first year also. (No trick or treatiing in the country boonies)
I was surprised also at how the community all came together. We brought our new friends from Isreal and they were so amazed at how the community gathered together. Inspiring to see Halloween through their eyes for the first time.
Wow the picture with the fireman is AMAZING.
We were at the Stuy town halloween fest/playground too! We probably crossed paths and didn’t know it.
wow, you say your pies were a hot mess, but those cupcakes look amazing! homemade?
Thank you! I’ve been practicing making cupcakes for a long time now… the pies were a first go and they were a disaster. I had to use cake pans for two of the pies (poor planning) and I didn’t have wax paper to roll out the dough for the crusts. So the apple pie looked like it had been run over by a tractor. They both tasted decent, though!
Thank you, guys! It was a great holiday… I have to say though, the fireman/fire engine photo ops were probably my favorite part. Tommy was more than gracious, and it was HIS idea to get in the pictures! They come to our neighborhood every week to practice drills. It was an honor to get to chat with them.
Oh they are so cute! And Violet has that dress too but I did not see leggings. Wish we could get a pic of the girls together! The dress is just precious!
Glad you enjoyed your holiday weekend in NYC!
Love the fireman with the real trucks and NYC firefighter. Awesome!
Great pictures! That is awesome that you were able to take the one with the real fireman? That is too cute! I bet he loved that.
Can I tell you I just found your blog today and I am in love. This may now be my fav!
You have a new follower and I can’t wait to read more.
thank you!
Awww, they are just cute as a button! I LOVE Halloween too!!!