A reflection on overconsumption and the holiday burnout that follows.
I remember when I tried candy corn for the first time. I thought it would be sweet –– it was candy after all –– but instead I bit into something hard and waxy. The wax coated my tongue with a chalky paste and left notes of stale sugar in my mouth. It took a lot of hot chocolate before the taste was washed out of my mouth.
I joined the majority that day of people who hate those white, orange and yellow triangle-shaped pieces of wax. And yet, candy corn persists like the ghost that haunts the house in every horror movie, coming back again and again, stronger each year. Every year there are more candy corn, in more flavours.
There are few days in the year kids anticipate as much as Christmas, and Halloween is one of them. Or at least it should be; it used to be.
While shopping the other day, I was bombarded by Halloween decorations and candy everywhere I looked. This would be a great sight, only none of it felt authentic. There were poorly painted mugs, flimsy plastic monsters that looked more sad than scary, and “haunted” picture frames showcasing AI slop. Nothing was sweet, nothing got me excited.
Sure, buying junk you don’t need has always been part of Halloween, but companies at least seemed to care about quality over quantity. Now there’s plenty to choose from, but nothing you truly like.
Walking through the candy aisles isn’t any better. Chocolate keeps getting thinner and the good candy keeps getting more expensive and harder to find. Candy corn, however, is always there, overflowing on the shelves like blood in a hotel’s elevator.
There will always be people who buy the decorations despite the dip in quality and overproduction, just like there will always be people who like candy corn and consume it. But the piles of candy corn that sit in bags and bins and grow stale as the months wear on remind me too much of the amount of Halloween decor junk that rots in the trash bins behind the stores before haunting the landfills.
I believe there is a disconnect between what companies think we want and what we actually long for. Halloween, in the way of all western holidays, has become about overconsumption and therefore has grown stale. Barely any kids trick-or-treat anymore and there is little heart put into decorating.
This holiday should be about dressing up on a chilly autumn day, sharing candy and facing fears. It used to leave a sweet taste in my mouth, but now there’s no taste. I want children, in the present and the future, to know the sweetness that was once there.
If we continue to consume these uninspired, cheaply made Halloween decorations and candy, that’s all companies will give us, and the true excitement of this holiday will fade away.
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