Liz Atwood wonders whether the lure of Halloween is fading as her boys get older in this week's Tween Tuesday:

In the past, I’ve commented on the trend of trashy-looking Halloween costumes for tween and teen girls and the obsession with gore displayed in the costumes for boys.

But this year, I'm less concerned about what my boys want to wear than clear signs that Halloween is a fading holiday in our house. In the past, Halloween was second only to Christmas in the enthusiasm it generated. We would visit the party stores and Halloween shops weeks in advance to find some new decorations. Usually the kids would pick out their costumes so early that they would be tired of them and want to make a switch by the time the actual day came around.

But this year, the fourth grader announced that he thinks he is too old for trick-or-treating. The high school freshman said he still wants to dress up, but not for trick-or-treating; he wants to scare the little kids who come to our door.

Over the weekend, I pulled the boxes of Halloween decorations out of the basement and began putting out the gravestones and the ghouls and the skeletons. The boys hardly noticed as their attention was focused on a game of touch football in the neighbor's yard.

We still haven't bought the pumpkins. The pre-school field trips to the pumpkin farms are long past, but I had hoped I might be able to interest the kids in a trip to a garden center. Now, I'm thinking I'll probably pick up a pumpkin at the grocery store.

Do you sense that Halloween is fading in your house as your children grow older?