Waiting for The Great Pumpkin

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a time-honored Peanuts special featuring the Peanuts gang as they prepare for Halloween, including a long, but unrewarding wait by Linus van Pelt for none other than The Great Pumpkin.

Though he is the only believer in the fictional holiday figure, Linus holds strong his desire to foster the same seemingly-crazy belief in his friends, who ultimately laugh at him. Alas, (spoiler alert!) Linus’ evening ends without having met The Great Pumpkin, as he falls asleep in the pumpkin patch waiting up for The Great Pumpkin to materialize.

Even though The Great Pumpkin is not as prevalent a holiday figure as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, some fun can be had with kids in believing The Great Pumpkin exists.

Every Halloween, my kids get a visit from The Great Pumpkin, but instead of receiving toys and candy like kids might on other holidays, they receive important, but nonetheless fun, goodies for their soon-to-happen Trick-or-Treating adventure.

The Great Pumpkin never forgets…

Glow in the dark sticks, bracelets and necklaces for after-dark trick-or-treat excursions.
Flashlights for kids, for parents, for all!
Juice boxes, because trick-or-treating actually makes little ones really thirsty about an hour into the adventure!
Animal crackers, gold fish and other dry take-along snacks, because running from house to house really works up an appetite.
A tote or sack to carry some of these items in as you explore the neighborhood…or for mom to carry them in, because you don’t want to waste precious trick-or-treating hours running back home to fuel up.
Disposable ID bands for your child and their trick-or-treating group in case you are separated.