Tell me abt halloween!everlark (either canon or modern au your choice)
can it be southern!lark? 🎃 cause that’s what I got for ya 👻
Peeta’s grandma isn’t 100% on board with the whole notion of Halloween, but she is 100% on board with her grandbaby having a good childhood so you can bet your boots every year from five years old little Peeta has showed up at the Everdeen house to go Trick or Treating with Kitty (usually dressed as such, because Katniss doesn’t really see the point of costumes and a pair of ears will do)
by contrast, her parents are very into costumes, as is Prim, so it’s pretty funny to open the door to the entire Addams family ... and Katniss in a black sweater and drawn on whiskers once again
the neighborhood is 1. so rural and 2. so small that everyone feels very safe letting their kids run from house to house for candy and (more often than not) homemade cookies from someone’s aunt or granny
even the pastor’s family gets in on it, and their front porch sports some of the best jack-o’-lanterns in the business (little Peeta pesters the pastor’s wife repeatedly about her artistry the following Sunday)
then there’s the annual moonlight game of ghosts in the graveyard in someone or other’s field
and the daring of people to go into the woods at night with nothing but a flashlight and put their hand on the Hanging Tree
Katniss one-ups everyone one year at Gale’s urging by straight-up climbing the thing and it’s only when Peeta hugs her afterward that he feels her skin absolutely prickled with goosebumps in spite of her brash confident demeanor
it is really spooky in that forest at night when the wind is high and the mist is low
and everyone thinks that the legend of the singing ghost in a colorful skirt is just a story ... but no one’s quite sure
and Peeta’s not going to tell anyone about that one year he swore he heard an eerie “are you, are you?” on the breeze
Mr. Everdeen has a tendency towards pranking his daughters and their best friend
the most famous incident is when he spooked them in their treehouse (all lit with candles) in eighth grade while they were in the midst of counting their candy and Buttercup, who was present, and up until that point contentedly snoozing in Prim’s lap, freaked out so spectacularly Mr. Everdeen had to get stitches
Mrs. Everdeen 10/10 decorations: the house is always hung with silver moons and stars or paper bats or purple streamers it’s very aesthetic
there is one (1) local (and pretty shoddy) haunted house several miles away which Gale makes everyone attend every year
it’s hardly scary anymore, but everyone pretends and generally has a great time
Prim makes everyone watch Harry Potter it’s inescapable it has to happen
Katniss makes everyone watch Tim Burton in retaliation
it’s not very effective retaliation because Peeta fully loves Corpse Bride
also scarecrows those are a thing
when they’re supposed to be playing a game
they never really outlive Halloween; honestly it’s hard to when your little town lends itself so perfectly to a haunted, gothic, but also very cozy and homey vibe
as adults their house becomes THE HOUSE for Halloween because you really can’t beat Peeta’s homemade treats
or Katniss’s doting, because she’s such a softie about kids
she compliments every single kiddo’s costume, no matter how tacky, in her sweet backwoods accent, and every kid goes away with a full bag of goodies and feeling loved and seen 🥰
