The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Burks’ 2023 Halloween

This Halloween feels so much more different than previous ones. I’m pretty sure it has to do with the fact that my oldest son is the most excited he’s ever been for it. I have never seen him get this crazy about it before. So much so, that he’s actually the one that has decorated our house and planned the theme for our family Halloween costumes.

While Cayden was on summer break, he discovered The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was his first time watching it and has been on replay in our house ever since. One of the reasons we went to Disneyland for his birthday in September was because they put up all of their Halloween decor and transform the Haunted Mansion to include scenes from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Of course, my son already knew this (thanks to his own Google and YouTube searches) so he asked us to go so that he can see it for himself and celebrate his new chapter with his favorite cousin and brother.

As soon as we got back from that trip, Cayden decided he was going to be Jack Skellington for Halloween and requested that we dress up with him. If you know Steven and I, then you know that we’ve never been crazy about Halloween. We both come from being raised by old school Christian moms and grandmothers and they don’t play none of that Halloween stuff. It’s hard to break old habits but I try to celebrate it to a certain extent to do the cute stuff with my kids.

And because I’m an overachiever, as Steven calls me, I wasn’t going to let my little one down when he asked me to be Sally. I’ve never transformed into another color in my life, so you know I was committed to making Cayden’s vision come to life when I turned my entire face blue.

I wish I could have recorded his face when he first saw me, his eyes lit up with excitement as he hyped me up for my makeup skills. As much as I’m not a fan of dressing up, I have to admit that I loved how happy he was to see me transform into the character he had planned for me.

I was surprised that putting this costume together was extremely easy. Spirit Halloween was a one-stop shop for my makeup, my wig, my dress, and tights. My favorite part? I got to pull out a pair of Christian Louboutin booties I hadn’t worn in years because y’all know I had to put a little boogie twist on it.

Of course, there is no Jack Skellington without his rival Oogie Boogie. Cayden wanted Jaylen to be Oogie Boogie and I was so nervous that Jaylen was going to put up a fight. But surprisingly enough, Jaylen loves him some Oogie Boogie and was down to get suited up… after some candy bribes.

I love how little brothers always look up to their oldest brothers. Believe it or not, Jaylen has been watching The Nightmare Before Christmas Sing-Along on Disney+ ever since he’s seen how into it his older brother is. He’s watched it so much that at just two years old he knows the words to Oogie Boogie’s song to Sandy Clause.

As much as I don’t care for this holiday, I’m really happy that my little ones push me to be more festive so that we can create moments together such as these.

My favorite part out of all of this is that Cayden got Steven to dress up for once. Since we know to take baby steps with daddy when it comes to getting him out of being stuck in his ways, Cayden picked him to be barrel which didn’t require much but a mask and a onesie.

I never thought I would see the day where Steven would actually get into a full costume and partake in our shenanigans. I love seeing this side of him (the side where his kids got him wrapped around their fingers).