October
Of course children dress up in the Neitherworld for Samhain. But what's different from Halloween is that they dress up like humans. Abe Lincoln is always popular since he's easy to imitate with a rolled up cardboard hat and a fake beard. But Beatie had seen photos of Mama from years before and she was taken with the red spider-webbed poncho and hair scrunchy.
"I want to dress up as you. Please, Mama?" she begged. "Nobody else will be you so I'll be special."
Beetlejuice picked her up and gave her a smacking kiss. "You're special anyway, Trix." He turned to his wife. "Why not, babes? I think it's a great idea!"
So Lydia whipped up a small red poncho and found an old scrunchy, which she cut down and re-sewed. Her current make-up was close enough and black leotards were easy to get.
The end result was a huge success. Grammy had crocheted Chazz a tiny pumpkin hat complete with a wee green stem to go with the orange ribbed sacque his mother had fashioned for him.
"Beej, did you know your mother crochets?" Lydia was enchanted with the hand-made toque.
He shook his head. "I think she learned just so she could do stuff for the kids." He leaned over to plant a careful kiss on his son's forehead just below his mother's gift.
Beetlejuice and Lydia were the designated parent escorts that year, accompanying and overseeing the kids from house to house. There was quite a small crowd of kids to supervise, too.
The Little Monster From Around the Corner was, of course, dressed as Abe Lincoln, but his brother, the Littlest Monster, had borrowed his Uncle Monster's cowboy hat, which came down almost to his cheerful grin, but he was as excited as the other kids and got perhaps even more treats. Iris was there, dressed as Marie Antoinette, which was another favorite and the powdered wig was passed around the neighborhood year to year. Flubbo's three were dressed as the Marx Brothers. And, of course, the three Sappy Face Ghouls were there – Sniff, Slimy, and Squeak – and they had costumed themselves as the Three Stooges. But the hit of the night was Beatie as a young Lydia.
They visited all Lydia's friends in the Neitherworld – Flubbo and Monica, the Monster Across the Street, Jacques and Ginger (who were now openly cohabiting), even Mr. Crumb, Beetlejuice's old landlord. Mr. Crumb was still a little crusty, but handed out the largest spider chocs the kids had ever seen. Scuzzo and Fuzzo had made caramel slopcorn balls, which promptly stuck every child's teeth together. They even visited the palace where Prince Vince in person gave out Footsie Rolls. Beetlejuice managed to wangle a couple, claiming the escorts were hungry, and immediately started chewing one chocolate toe off.
For the last visit of the night, Beetlejuice opened a portal to the Deetz house where all the kids got granola bars from Delia and apologetic looks and shrugs from Charles. Then it was back home for the kids to tote up the take and, finally, bedtime.
"I think everybody had a wonderful time, don't you?" Lydia had cleaned the make-up off her daughter's face and Beetlejuice had tucked her in. Chazz was sound asleep, still wearing his tiny pumpkin hat. "Okay, the granola bars were a bit much, but I'll have a talk with Mother before next Samhain."
"It might be a good idea." Beetlejuice shook his head in disbelief. "I heard a couple of the kids say next year they'd go as villagers with pitchforks and torches."