11 Things That Happened on Halloween If You Grew Up Latinx

Updated on Oct 30, 2017 at 5:20 PM

As a kid, your Latinx parents' strictness probably came out tenfold during Halloween. We were allowed to dress up, but only as whatever our moms wanted us to go as (or in whatever hand-me-down costume we got from older cousins). We were allowed to eat some candy, but never baked goods and never (ever!) too much of anything. We could hear family members' scary ghost stories, but forget about having a sleepover to watch horror films.

If your childhood Halloween was like ours, then read ahead for 10 things you definitely experienced on Oct. 31 in years past.

You never went trick-or-treating alone (even as a teen).

Lol, your mom would never let you! You can't remember a single Halloween when you were able to trick-or-treat without parental supervision. Your mom, abuela, tía, or vecina were guaranteed to be with you, or you weren't going.

Store-bought costumes were few and far between.

The year you got a new store-bought costume, you rejoiced — until you remembered that this was the costume you were going to be wearing until you completely outgrew it. How many times can one be a witch? Plenty.

And your homemade costumes were, well . . .

Your mom either went all out or just told you to put a sheet over your head and go as a ghost.

More than one year, no one but all the other Latinx kids got your costume.

Maybe once you were older you got to choose or at least pretend to choose your costume for Halloween, but when you were young, you were dressed as La Chilindrina or El Chapulín Colorado and none of your friends got it.

Your house was the one that gave out the "weird" candy.

Some families gave out Jolly Ranchers and Kit Kats. Yours? They gave out candies imported straight from the homeland and, to be honest, while it's one of your fondest memories, the kids in the neighborhood sort of hated it.

Your grandma wasn't about the candy — she gave you cash instead!

Anytime the candy ran out at abuela's (literally any abuela's house, not just your own), you were bound to come across a few dimes and nickels instead. You were never mad about it.

You always got invited to a Halloween party, but you never actually went to one.

The reality is that the older you got, the earlier your mom probably wanted you home. Halloween parties were definitely out of the question.

No, you still couldn't sleep over a friend's.

Your mom audibly laughed and was like "No, not my problem, bye!" as she said no to a sleepover for you once again.

You were forbidden from accepting baked goods.

Look, your family may have been into giving dulces from the motherland, but no way were they going to give out baked goods. And you best believe they trained you to not eat any cookies or homemade goods or opened candies. Raise your hand if you were told they could be laced with drugs.

The minute you walked back into your house, your mom took your candy away.

Your mom wasn't going to deal with a sick, or even worse, hyper kid! No candy for you unless it was under her supervision.

The ghost stories your family told are why you still sometimes sleep with the light on.

You hope to one day be able to make out a story scary enough that it would have as much of a lasting impact as your tío's stories did on you.