Who’s in Charge of Halloween
Who’s in Charge of Halloween? tells the story of Isabel who meets a Giant while vacationing at her grandmother’s house in Tarrytown, NY. The Giant’s name is Canute. He was not an actual giant but one of the original giants, the first people on earth before human people came into being. He and his brother Klaus were given instructions by The Director of Central Planning to create four holidays for the human people. There was to be one holiday for each season of the year. Klaus, Canute’s brother, took the winter one and became Santa Claus. He runs Christmas. Ester, their pet rabbit, took the spring one and became the Easter Bunny. Canute took the fall one and decided to name it Hello Bean Day. He did not try very hard to get it up and running, however, so it did not exactly take off very well. They all rather forgot about the summer one. Isabel decides that Canute’s Hello Bean Day has been hijacked by witches, or ghosts, or somebody. After a Google search, she decides the Headless Horseman is the culprit. Canute and Isabel go to a witch to help them track down the Headless Horseman. During a séance, they believe they hear him approaching. They run outside to see a giant fellow on a very strange looking horse waving a pumpkin and yelling “no, no, no.” They run away in fear, only to get entangled with each other and land in a ditch full of mud. The Headless Horseman, it turns out, was only Santa Claus on one of his reindeer. He thought it would be fun to ride through Sleepy Hollow waving a pumpkin. The story ends with Santa explaining to Isabel that a holiday about being thankful was never going to be very successful. Human people were much more likely to love Christmas, as they were always wanting something they thought would make them happy instead of being happy with what they have.
