Halloween Decor!

I started decorating the last week of September. I used to do it earlier, but I found I didn’t like to decorate when it was still hot outside. It just didn’t feel right. I think the last week of September and the first week of October are the best times for me. YMMV.

The photos above show you the fireplace in my living room all decorated for Halloween. I have so many decorations that I turned an extra bedroom into a Halloween room year round. I love going in there and visiting the holiday throughout the year, but putting it front and center like this is even better. I always end up forgetting some of the decorations and experiencing the joy of discovery all over again each year.

I’m trying not to lament the fact that we’re more than halfway through October already! It always goes by so quickly. I never feel like I get enough time living in the wonderful world of Halloween, despite the fact that I have my own Halloween room. That’s different. It’s not just the decorations, it’s the feel of the time. It’s the cooler weather and the change in the angle of the sunlight. It’s the fact that, for this brief moment each year, the rest of the world is on the same page as me.

I hope you’re enjoying every last second of your own spooky season. Happy Halloween!

Yard Ghosts! Quick & Easy Halloween Decor

I added these ghosties to my Halloween decorations this year and they turned out even better than expected given how relatively easy they were to make. They even run on solar power so I didn’t have to run power cords to them in order to light them.

The inspiration for these ghosts came from this video on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/halloween/comments/16ow7td/light_life_hack/

Here are the parts I used:

2x white carvable pumpkins - I bought mine from Michaels but they’re not listed online.

2x solar powered LED pathway lights - https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Hawthorne-Matte-White-Solar-LED-Weather-Resistant-Path-Light-14-Lumens-with-Ice-Glass-Lens-and-Vintage-Bulb-4-Pack-P5100-01-6white/324154034

2x 84” round tablecloths (sheer) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RRQ392D

2x shepherd’s crook garden stands - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08S392DGG & https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08S3DR6LN

Here’s how I assembled them:

It’s not difficult. Just follow these steps.

1. Assemble each shepherd’s staff leaving the crooked section off.

2. Carve faces in the pumpkins.

3. Carve a hole in the top of each pumpkin to match the diameter of the path lights.

4. Carve a hole in the bottom of each pumpkin for the path light pole to protrude through.

5. Place the path light into the pumpkin. Use glue, tape, or cable ties on the pole under the pumpkin to keep the path light in place.

6. Use some tape to slightly increase the diameter of the shepherd’s crook pole so it just barely squeezes into the path light pole from below.

7. Now you have a pumpkin on a pole with a light inside. Check and see if there are light leaks. Now’s the time to cover them. Especially check around the top of the pumpkin.

8. Open up a tablecloth and find the center.

9. Cut a square from the center the size of the solar panel on top of the path light. Be careful since these tablecloths are very thin, but they need to be to transmit more light.

10. Affix the tablecloth on top of the path light lid, leaving the solar panel exposed. I used some heavy duty packing tape and it’s held up through lots of rain so far this year.

11. Secure the foot of the posts in the ground where you want your ghosts to reside.

It’s all pretty simple. I hope you enjoy sharing your home with your new ghost friends!

It's a Kustfyr Halloween!

2023 marks Ikea’s first foray into Halloween decor. I think they’re doing well. There are 41 products listed on their site as I’m writing this, and most of them have the name KUSTFYR attached. According to Google translate, KUSTFYR means “Coastal Lighthouse” in Swedish. Okaaaayyyyy. I guess I’m not supposed to understand. Maybe coastal lighthouses are some grand metaphor for spookiness in Sweden, but don’t quote me on that.

As to the selection, it’s okay. Most of the items are fairly generic, but it’s a start. I’m particularly fond of the “hanging tapestry” I posted a pic of above. I look forward to seeing what they come up with in years to come.

Welcome to the party, Ikea! Here’s to many more years of Halloween merch!

Check out the new Ikea Halloween here: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?q=halloween

Black Cats and Halloween

Mina is a very special friend of mine. I adopted her in Sherman Oaks, CA in 2007 when she was just nine months old. She turned 16 this month, so she’s been my constant companion for over 15 years. Here’s to even more time together!

There are some well-meaning people who’d like us to remove black cats from the pantheon of Halloween icons. I understand their feelings. They think that the image of scary black cats reinforces that age-old stereotype that says that black cats are bad luck. There are a lot of people in the world who take their anger and frustration out on other people, so it’s not difficult to imagine that many of them also enjoy being mean to our feline friends. That’s one of the reasons why my cats are indoor-only.

Many cat shelters and rescues claim that black cats are hard to adopt, but I’m not sure that’s accurate. The fact is that there are simply more of them born each year than any other color of cat. This holds up to scrutiny, since black fur has been shown to be a dominant trait. If there are more black cats than any other type, of course there will always be more black cats at shelters. That also means more black cats get adopted than any other color.

For me, the presence of black cats in Halloween decorations is one of the reasons why I adopted Mina. I went in looking for a black cat because I love Halloween. As fate would have it, she was the only cat in the group enclosure who came up to me and wouldn’t leave me alone while I was there. In effect, she chose me, and I couldn’t have been happier about it.

I’ve learned a lot about cats since then, but nothing has shown me that removing cats from Halloween would benefit them in any real way. Human cruelty knows no bounds, so people would just find another excuse for their hatred of these beautiful, intelligent, and highly adaptable animals. I think that Halloween is a great time to educate people about them. Instead of banning them, we should use their popularity in holiday decor to promote them to the world.

Vintage Halloween Cupcake Toppers

Cupcakes were common in my childhood homes because we always had free cake mix and icing. At some point, my mom wised up and turned that little fact into a cake decorating business, but for me, I always preferred the cupcakes. I think it was the lack of competitive spirit in the cupcake. Everyone got the same amount in your own private portion and there was no end piece or frosting flowers to fight over.

There were, however, two issues with homemade cupcakes. 1. My mom never went crazy with icing as big as the underlying cupcake, and 2. she didn’t top them with plastic cupcake toppers. I have no idea how these toppers became a thing. Their only purpose was to add a seasonal dash of spice to the proceedings. And, of course, my favorites showed up each year around Halloween.

I can’t remember why we would occasionally get these on store bought cupcakes, but we did, and I can still remember licking the icing off of the toppers and holding them in the corner of my mouth like Halloween toothpicks. They were proof positive that it was actually Halloween season, and I loved them! Yes, they often had sloppy paintjobs and they served no purpose whatsoever except to proclaim the cupcake’s Halloweenness, but I loved them.

Just seeing a picture of them yesterday was enough to make me feel happy. In today’s world where everyone seems intent on keeping everyone else from having whatever it is that makes them feel good about themselves, these cheapies were invented in a time when all that mattered was a tiny bit of real world, autumnal bliss. I’ll take it.

PS - That pic is from an Ebay auction. Here’s the courtesy link.

Vintage Treat Bags

When I was a child, my mother would buy these paper candy bags to hold the treats we were going to give away on Halloween. During the day on Halloween or the weekend before, my brother and I would put together treat assortments in the bags and twist the tops to keep them closed. The completed bags would be placed inside a large serving bowl and put next to the front door to await the trick or treaters. Since then, this graphic style with it’s ultra-cheap printing and inconsistent colors has come to represent the best of the Halloween holiday to me. They just give me a warm feeling all over.

I’ve thought a lot about why Halloween is so important to me and I always settle for the explanation that it was a kids’ holiday, without the intervention of adults. That was certainly one part of it, along with the gothy goodness, the Autumn season in general, and the ability to become someone I was not. But, lots of kids must have felt those things during childhood, and they still grew up without the fascination for Halloween that I have.

These days, I think it had something to do with being allowed out of my shell without judgement from anyone. I lived in constant fear of judgement. I never felt like I measured up and I was afraid I’d be discovered as a sham. I walked around feeling like there was some big secret that everyone but me had been told. But on Halloween night, I felt free to love myself for who I was and who I might be able to become. May we all learn to feel that way every, single day.

Halloween Leftovers

photo © Thomas Raven

During the pandemic, we’ve seen shortages of all kinds. While there’s been a lot of wild speculation, the only thing we know for sure is that we will continue to see random shortages. Take Halloween decorations, for example. This year, store shelves never got fully stocked. Why? Well, most of the Halloween addicts who post on the Halloween subreddit think that it was due to shipping problems. If that’s true, there should be lots of Halloween leftovers that have either been delivered since the big day or are still en route. So, what will become of all those Halloween goodies?

I think the most likely response of big retail chains will be to store the pallets until next year and offer a lot of the same items again, mixed in with new products too, of course. A company like Target owns copious amounts of warehouse space, and while they’d much rather see quick turns on the merchandise occupying that space, it would cost less to store the Halloween products than it would to go with option 2.

Option 2 would be to sell the goods off to discount stores like Big Lots for merchandising next year during the Halloween season. Salvage merchandise like this is the core of these store’s business model, so they could easily absorb these products. This will likely be the choice of smaller chains that don’t want to spend the money on additional warehouse space.

The third option, and the most gruesome, is for the items to be made available for online-only purchase at full price right now. We’ve already seen this happening at Spirit Halloween’s site. They’ve introduced several new Halloween animatronics in November. The problem with that is no one’s looking for new Spirit merch in November so those items are likely to fail hard. Of course, Spirit could always hold onto them until next year, like the rest of the heavily discounted stock they didn’t move during their big sales after Halloween.

So, what does this all mean for Halloween 2022? I think it’s highly likely that buyers will purchase less and create fewer new seasonal products next year. That also means you might actually be able to get your hands on those cool faux neon lights from target in 2022. Fingers crossed!

Broomchick

One of the coolest additions to my Halloween decor this year is a witch’s besom from Broomchick. It’s a handmade broom crafted from naturally (and ecologically) sourced materials. Being a vegan, I’m a little disappointed that it wasn’t disclosed that a leather cord would be used on the handle, but other than that, I’m very happy with it. Perhaps a twine cord could be offered as an option for those of us who prefer not to harm animals?

According to Broomchick, “you have a choice of natural (summer), black (winter), rust (spring), or mixed (fall) colors of broomcorn.” I opted for the rust color because I thought would look best with my Halloween decor, but you may prefer the traditional choice for the season.

Check out Broomchick’s Etsy page here, but do it quickly. Despite being shipped via 2-day Priority Mail, there were four days prior to shipping and then another eight days until I received my order. I’m not complaining - these are just the realities of the pandemic world. Plan accordingly.

Tekky Toys

I’d not even heard of Tekky Toys until I started looking for some new Halloween items this year, and now the name seems to be popping up everywhere. From the Scarecrow prop I posted about recently to the new Michael Myers animatronic at Party City this year, Tekky seems to be making some great original and licensed designs for the season of fear.

Turns out they’ve been around since 1997, which could explain their retro-cool web site. Click on the image at the top of this post to check it out for yourself. But beware - Tekky designs and manufactures items. They don’t sell many of them directly. A few discounted items can be found HERE, otherwise you’re in for a bit of a hunt if you find something on their site you really like. Begin your search at Spirit and Party City and you’ll be off to a good start. You’ve been warned.

I know that these are kind of cheapies if you compare them to some of the awesome homemade and pro props being made these days, but there’s something to be said for making it easy for everyone to do a bit more decorating at Halloween. I don’t hear anyone complaining about the awesome 12’ skeleton at Home Depot! Not that it’s cheap, exactly, but you get my point. There’s definitely a place for mass market Halloween coolness and Tekky is making some super cool stuff in that category. Much cooler than most of the cheap junk I got at Kmart and Zayre when I was a kid.

In addition, they’re doing a great job with YouTube videos illustrating the products and even how to assemble them. This is clearly a company that understands how to internet. Check their videos out at their YouTube channel.

The Halloween Room

I’ve taken my first steps toward converting a disused bedroom into my own Halloween sanctuary. The floors had some termite damage (a fact I knew before I bought the place) so I had them fixed and refinished, then I painted the knotty pine paneling a deep blue. Now the Halloween gallery wall is taking shape, made from lots of things I’ve collected over the years and had scattered about.

I like how it looks so far. It was surprisingly easy to get the disparate elements to balance just by laying them out on the floor. I clearly need more pieces for this wall, but I’m well on my way. Now I just need a convertible sofa to add to the room for guests. Fancy a visit to my haunted house? This is where you’d stay if you did.

All of this begs the question I’ve seen others post in Halloween forums - when is it okay to put up Halloween decorations? Some, like me, have some things out all year and only go whole hog in October. Others like digging into the season in August or September, but where I live the weather is unseasonably hot during those months. It’s not at all conducive to that autumnal feeling.

I like having semi-Halloween decor out year-round. There’s a bit of a Haunted Mansion vibe in my living room, for example. Still, that hasn’t stopped people from commenting from time to time. I had a Los Angeles apartment inspector in my bungalow years back and he commented that we were ready for Halloween early. I had to break it to him that the place looked like that year round.