I didn’t do anything for Halloween yesterday.

I didn’t decorate my front porch, give out candies to kids (there hardly have been any for the past decade), go to any parties or events, or even dressed up in costume.

I’ve got nothing against Halloween, it’s a nice, fun time, it’s just…so brief.

Now, all year long I was kicking around an idea for a Halloween costume in the back of my mind every so often. I would have put my long black locks to use and dressed as Star Wars sequel trilogy villain Kylo Ren.

But a recent vacation and work have kind of put planning on the back burner. Most of all, the cost of such a costume (which would have included the largest capital expense of the purchase of the character’s trademark crossguard light saber) was prohibitively high, for such a brief event.

Let’s break it down:

It’s still fine to give Christmas presents on December 26.

It’s perfectly acceptable to wish someone “Happy New Year!” on January 2.

If the 4th of July falls on a Thursday or Friday, it’s perfectly normal to extend the patriotic spirit through the weekend (Some would argue it’s normal, albeit potentially annoying, to still fire off your remaining fireworks stash post July 4).

Eating Thanksgiving leftovers through the weekend? Totally expected.

But on November 1, IT’S NO LONGER HALLOWEEN.

Maybe it’s the change of the calendar month, but Trick-Or-Treats, Jack-O-Lanterns and costumes are already passe come the turn of November. Thanksgiving Mode has already taken over (and the capitalistically-inclined would insist that (Commercial) Christmas is already here.

Even on October 31st, save for office and school costume contests, the holiday is primarily nocturnal, so with the sun going down at give or take 6 p.m., you really only have six hours at the most to actually celebrate Halloween.

Thursday was a day I’m required to work late, and didn’t leave my duties until around 9 p.m. So for me, I only had three hours to celebrate Halloween. For an anticipated budget of at least $200 for my intended costume, that didn’t come out to be a good bang for the buck.

Previous Halloween costumes trended heavily toward pop culture: Wayne Campbell from Wayne’s World, one of the Men in Black, Elvis Presley, the elevator guy from Psy’s “Gangnam Style” video and Max Headroom.

Perhaps my most involved costume was my 1982 Halloween coup de grace: Pac-Man, a major project involving large amounts of cardboard and yellow poster paint, it was one of the winning costumes in my elementary school’s Halloween parade. Yes, that one required a bit of parental assistance during the construction phase, and at least a couple days’ preparation, but cardboard and and a few bottles poster paint hardly broke the bank.

But fear not, for 365 days from now, Kylo Ren will still be pop culturally-relevant, with the ninth Star Wars episodic saga film, The Rise of Skywalker yet to be released this coming December, my genetics have proven I’m in no danger of losing my hair, and best of all, Halloween 2020 will fall on a Saturday, giving us the benefit of a Halloweekend.

With Halloween 2019 in the past, it’s not so much a blown opportunity, but rather a new start: I now have 52 weeks to prepare for joining The Dark Side of The Force. And maybe I’ll even get a mask 3-D printed or something. I have no excuse now.