They delighted in this boy’s inherent acceptance of the rules of Halloween, that sometimes you get the trick and not the treat.

“It will have to be a trick,” Jones told the boy jokingly, who said “All right,” and walked straight out onto the lawn to stand on his head. There were no tricks, only treats.Īt lunch that day, Jones recounted to Bradbury how a young boy dressed in a rabbit hood had come to their house on Halloween only to find they had run out of treats. Kids went trick or treating without really knowing why they dressed up, without exploring the dark mysteries of this spookiest of nights, only intent on getting the largest haul of candy in exchange for doing absolutely nothing. So we can hold death in our hands for a little while, or on our tongues, or in our eyes, and make do with it.” – Ray Bradburyīut by 1966, Bradbury already felt that Halloween wasn’t what it used to be. Facing that darkness, that horror, is a very important part of existence. Kids love Halloween because it’s a celebration of all the stories that offer them a glimpse into the dark, forbidden places. As a writer, he’s always understood that young readers shouldn’t be talked down to, that good youth fiction is written for children, not to children. And children, he claims, are fascinated by death.

It’s an important holiday after all, one that allows us to freely explore our obsession with the macabre and the unexplained, to experience “the rawness and nearness and excitement of death” as Bradbury put it. Bradbury commiserated with animator Chuck Jones over lunch a few days later, agreeing that though they admired Schultz, his special didn’t quite capture the true essence of Halloween. They were all disappointed that The Great Pumpkin didn’t show up there was something missing and to them it wasn’t a proper Halloween film at all. In October 1966, Ray Bradbury and his daughters sat down together to watch the Halloween special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Schultz’ second holiday-themed special following the success of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

The halloween tree bradbury