Passing on Traditions or Forcing Them?

We have reached an impasse and I am not sure if it is the big deal that some others are making it out to be. I have been discussing Halloween with Macy for a month or so, trying to discover what she wanted to dress up as and explaining the baisc idea of trick-or-treating to her. We dressed her up when she was 5 months old and took her out, not that she had a clue what the deal was but she was adorable. We posed her in many costumes with props and took tons of pics. Last year, we found the cutest witch costume in Cracker Barrel and bought that knowing that with her coloring the costume would just "pop" and she would be beautiful. She was. Notice there are a lot of "we" terms in this? She didn't really have much interest in it either time but went along because WE bought the stuff, dressed her in it and drug her door to door. She never once uttered "Trick-or-Treat", she didn't hold the goody bag and most times she hid her face when the door opened. Even in Publix, where she routinely 'holds court' with all the sweet little old grandmothers and great grandmothers in there who cannot help but stop to say hello, she wouldn't participate and insisted Daddy carry her. So now here is my situation. I asked, prodded, suggested and got out of her that she would be a mermaid this Halloween. I scoured the entire south end of Sarasota county to find a mermaid costume for her. I contemplated a costume intended for a large Dog at one point because I could not find a people one. Then something told me to get to Target and do it fast. I went in and was even distracted by a few shiny objects as I made my way toward the Halloween area, but each time I stopped, I would hear that voice saying to get my butt to the costume area NOW! I walk back there, I find adult sizes, kids sizes, accessories, makeup - no toddler sizes. Okay voice, what was the big rush? They don't even have her size of anything! Keep looking, walk around. Once again I follow the urgent sounding voice in my head and - TA DA!!! I see ONE toddler costume, and it is a mermaid. To be fair, there were actually dozens of costumes, but I only saw the one and I could swear it had an ethereal glow to it. Maybe it was my tired foggy brain, relieved to have found it at the 5th store I stopped in that day. Anyway, I zoom over to it, size 4... she wears 3T but it will do, I have safety pins, needle and thread, duct tape - whatever it takes. No accessories, but I can improvise. I find silver glittery mary janes, perfect! The tail of the costume has silver glitter too - I am ecstatic! Grab and go home, savor the thrill of the hunt and finding exactly what I was looking for. A couple days later, I go get all sorts of sparkly shiny things to attach to the costume, just to make it really stand out. I am so excited about how this is going to look!! Again, notice there is a lot of use of the pronoun "I", not much about Macy. I bring it all home, gather it on the table to begin my masterpiece when I get a call from my Mom. She found the matching crown for the costume!! She is sending it right down! This is going to be the best mermaid costume ever and Macy will be so amazing in it, I can hardly wait. When the crown arrives, I carefully open the box, revealing the treasure inside. How beautiful this will be perched on her red curls!! I lay out all of the pieces, can't wait to show Macy how adorable she will be for Halloween! She comes over to look at it, takes it all in for maybe 5 seconds and says....... I don't want to be a mermaid. I want to be a puppy. Thinking on my feet, I say we don't have a puppy costume but we have this beautiful mermaid costume. Now she claims she doesn't want to be a puppy but a kitty. I said "How about a catfish?" which is going to look remarkably like a mermaid with whiskers of glitter. She agrees to be a catfish. I let it slide, knowing when to walk away from a battle. I find out that the Charlie Brown / Great Pumpkin special is coming on, figure this will be a great chance to pass on a tradition of watching holiday specials. Well, I wasn't allowed to watch them until I was almost in high school, but still. So I tell Macy after dinner, if she will pick up all her toys and put them away then she can get into jammies and come into Mommy and Daddy's room and lie on the big bed with all the pillows and watch a special show! She is hooked right away. She picks up toys like you never saw, gets into jammies so fast the show wasn't quite on! So I make a deal of talking up Halloween, how much fun it is, getting treats and being outside and seeing all the people and homes in full decor. I put aside my work and pile on the bed too, crank on the bigscreen, and here comes The Great Pumpkin. She watched about 8 minutes total and that was largely because I made her sit down and look at the TV. As it was about to go off, I asked her if now she was excited to go trick-or-treating? She said she doesn't want to go at all. I reminded her there will be candy..... chocolate candy, if she goes. Nope, don't wanna go trick or treating. I will just stay home and watch it on TV. Now comes the part where I am flipping a coin. My family tells me that she is getting too mouthy and I need to remember who is Mom and make her do what I say, period. I just don't know if forcing a child to participate in something "extra" like Halloween is really such a smart idea. When I look back over the preparations, it was 99% me and 1% her agreeing with me. Did I do all the searching and planning because I want to be that mermaid out there or did I do it because she should take part, like it or not? I kind of think her not wanting to dress up and go out to ask for treats is really not a big deal. Not like she will be scarred for life if she doesn't go, right? Halloween is 2 days away and I really wish I knew what the 'right' thing to do was.