She said/he said! Halloween haunting couples for months to come

PHOENIX - It’s that time of year again; the weather is getting cooler, you start moving sweaters to the front of your closet and trees begin to change colors. While several people are grabbing a warm cup of cocoa and cuddling up to their sweetie, there are others who are having a change of heart, right along side with the change in season.

Emmy Award winning writer and executive producer of the hit television show “Sex and The City”, Cindy Chupack thinks the reason dozens of people decide to break it off right before Halloween is because it’s the “last stop before the holidays.” In her book, The Between Boyfriends Book: A Collection of Cautiously Hopeful Essays, she has candidly labeled these people; “Halloweenies.”

       -Halloween is the last strictly “fun” holiday before the heavy hitters (namely Thanksgiving, Christmas/Chanukah and New Year’s) and even the most insensitive single knows you can’t break up during the season. But you can break up on Halloween. The Halloweenie sees the season as an express train to next year, and if he’s at all undecided about his relationship, that’s a train he’d rather not board.

A relationship survey conducted by Yahoo! Personals found that people are twice as likely to think about breaking up between the winter holidays and Valentine’s Day than any other time of the year, making it the National Break-Up Season.

Obviously there is no ideal time for a break up, but pulling out your BlackBerry and trying to narrow down the weeks to find the right time during this time of year can be even trickier, especially if you don’t want to be deemed a turkey or a Scrooge!

However, Kathleen Hall, CEO of Atlanta’s Stress Institute says it’s an unhealthy mind game if the “dumper” allows guilt to seep in just because of the calendar date. “You shouldn’t put off the inevitable,” she says. “If you can’t break up during the holidays, you probably won’t be able to break up before Valentines Day, either. This means you are stuck playing nice for the next four months, at least.

If you are looking to lessen the break up blow out and reduce as much animosity as possible, Match.com suggests channeling a little holiday spirit and cheer during your delivery. You can do this by being kind, apologizing for your “lousy timing” and be honest about the reasons you are breaking ties.

While the “dumpee” will most likely have a sour taste in their mouth, and not from eating pounds of Halloween candy, but in reality, it is only October. Parting ways now will spare both in the relationship, especially the unwilling partner, from all those lovey-dovey emotions expected until February 14th.

“After several late October heartbreaks I get a little jittery when pumpkins and ‘fun-size’ Milk Duds appear in the supermarket,” Chupack writes. “I feel the Jack-o-lanterns are mocking my holiday hopefulness with a grin that says, ‘Happy Halloween! We know we’ll be thrown out in a week. Do you?’”