Everything I needed to know about Fall Festivals

Test Run of the Outfit Friday night

With Thing One and Thing TwoWith Daddy at the Fall Festival

Several years ago, there was a popular book entitled, "Everything I Needed to Know about Life, I Learned in Kindergarten." The kids and I made the round of Fall Festivals this afternoon, and I am now filled with all the knowledge I will ever need about Fall Festivals. I learned it all in one hot, tiring, frustrating afternoon.

Here's the deal:

III and Rosy will be with their Bio Mom this Halloween. Through a fluke in scheduling, Hubby and I have had them every Halloween since we got married. Halloween is BIG for me. We all have to dress in theme. Planning usually begins in August and costumes can take weeks to make. The kids are accustomed to this and excitedly participate each year. Rosy has asked me many times what we are going to be this year, and I have had to tell her each time that we aren't doing a family theme with them this year because they will be gone.

Our church Fall Festival will be on Oct. 31st and Superman is going to be the Cat in the Hat. Hubby and I are going as Thing One and Thing Two. We really needed costumes where we could easily manage him, and this group seemed like the perfect answer.

Late this week, I started to feel bad that III and Rosy were going to completely miss out on seeing Superman in his outfit. I looked online at our newspaper's "Things to Do" section, and found 2 Fall Festivals scheduled for this Saturday afternoon. The kids and I made plans to attend them. They agreed to dress as Thing One and Thing Two to keep Superman company.

The first Festival was at the local Methodist church. It was advertised from 9 - 5 with a supper at 6 and a "singing" at 7. I picked the kids up from Bio Mom at 2PM and we hurried home and got in costume. We got to the Festival about 2:45. There were NO other kids in costume, so we spent 15 minutes unpinning the Thing One and Thing Two patches from their shirts and ditching the wigs. We were parked way out in a field and it took forever to get Superman in his stroller. (He rides sitting up like a big boy now!). We got to the entrance and the sign said "Tickets and Information". There was no one there and no one seemed to know where to get these tickets or where anyone with any information was. Finally after wandering around for a few minutes, we saw a sign that said, "Games Inside". We went inside only to see the workers dismantling all of the games. The only thing that was still working was the bounce house and, guess what, you had to have tickets to bounce. But, no one was still selling tickets! No adult that I asked for information seemed to care that I had three small children who were getting to do NOTHING! I was disgusted with the whole thing. If that's the face that the church is putting out to this community, it's no wonder that no one bothers to attend.

We then loaded up and went to the Fall Festival at the Methodist church across town. They had a cute little Festival going. The games were far below III's level, but that is sort of to be expected. Rosy had a great time, and we got to enjoy it as a family. Hubby wrapped up his meeting and was able to join us.

Here's what I've learned:

1. Stick to the posted times. Just because you're tired doesn't mean that a family that needs a church isn't going to show up with 5 minutes left in the event.

2. Identify the people who can provide information. Sometimes it was hard to tell who could help us find the next attraction or even the end of the line. What if I'd had a real problem? Or, needed a bathroom? Maybe church members or Festival workers need a little "My name is" pumpkin badge.

3. If there's a fee, state it up front. The first festival made no mention of having to buy tickets. What if I'd shown up with no cash? The second festival didn't charge anything. They just wanted you to have a good time.

4. Be generous. Both of my older kids said that they really liked that you got a good prize whether or not you won the games at the 2nd festival. Also, no one complained when we made a second round of the games. I had told the kids that they couldn't get candy the second time around, but the hosts insisted that it was okay. They had plenty!

5. Don't play favorites. The second festival we went to was at the site of a daycare. You could really tell when a daycare kid was playing one of the games. The workers really made over them. If it's an outreach, we need to reach out to the newcomers more.

6. Put on a good face. I saw and heard more than one worker ( and, I suppose, church member) at each festival say how glad they would be when "this" was "over". It didn't make me feel welcome.

7. Share Jesus. We spent several hours at church festivals and only one lady mentioned Jesus. She nicely painted Rosy's fingernails and as we were leaving, she said, "Rememer, sweetie, Jesus loves you." NOW, that's a message that the community needs! I'm married to a pastor and we talk about Jesus often, yet it stood out to me to hear such a simple beautiful truth from that stranger.

8. Make it fun! I always went Trick or Treating as a kid, so this idea of games is kind of different to me. I know that the church I attended in my 20s, did a Fall Festival with games. . Right now, our church does a Trunk or Treat with a hay ride. There are some mega-churches in our area that can (and do) put on a mini-fair for their Fall Festivals. Maybe, we should let them stick to the "midway" and we should do what we do. I've never been involved in planning our Trunk or Treat, and it has always come off beautifully without my two cents worth. I figure they don't need my nagging at this point. All I know is that whatever we do, we need to remember the fun of it.

Happy Halloween!