It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is one of my favorite stories. One of my fondest memories of my dad is watching the cartoon on TV and discussing the story in different ways depending on my age and what was going on in our lives.
When I had my own children and their first Halloween approached, I found the book and read it to them and then we went to a pumpkin patch and explored the pumpkins. I realized anew that the magic of the holidays is so important to foster the imagination of children. I decided to start a tradition at the preschool to be sure we keep the magic alive.
Every year, the week before Halloween, I gather all children on our Fiesta Deck together and read them the “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!” story. Then I tell them I was in a pumpkin patch last night and the Great Pumpkin rose out of the patch and gave me magic pumpkin seeds for all the Happy Hall children. I pass out the magic seeds (craft sand with glitter) and ask them to “plant” the seeds all over our playgrounds. Then we wait to see what happens. After nap time, magically, pumpkins appear all over the yards and each child picks one. We have lots of fun pumpkin decorating and talking about the magic of the Great Pumpkin for days.
The looks of amazement and the exciting retelling of how the pumpkins grew while they were napping fills my heart. My children remember this event from when they were at Happy Hall and now they want to help make the event special for the little kids and then watch the movie and read the story again.
Make sure you enjoy small magical moments with children and help them create a little magic of their own.