Creep it Real and Fun!

I was leaving for my evening walk a bit later than usual last night and when I opened my door, it was dark outside and there was a car sitting in front of our house. I paused on the front porch and realized the passenger side car window was down and a young child was leaning out looking at our Halloween decorations. The dad in the driver’s seat yelled, “We don’t mean to disturb you; my son is obsessed with Halloween decorations, and he loves your spider web and inflatable spider!” I laughed and said, “That’s why we put them out because Halloween should be fun for kids.”

I love Halloween. No really, I LOVE Halloween and have for as long as I can remember. It’s so much fun to dress up and be someone (or something) else for a night. As a kid, I liked to create my own costumes out of things I found at home or at my grandma’s house.

I remember being a witch one year using an old ratty straw broom from my grandma’s farm. Other years, I dressed up as a hobo, a gypsy, a scarecrow, a ghost, and a hippie. My hippie costume had a homemade tie-dyed shirt, blue jeans, a bandana headband, a peace symbol necklace and a mood ring. It was so much fun to put the costumes together!

Today, it’s easy to find whatever costume you want on Amazon or in stores. But back in the day, it took a lot of creativity to put a costume together out of things you had at home. The best part of dressing up is that you then go out and collect candy while wearing your costume. What could be better than that?! Have I mentioned that I love candy too?

When my son, Ryan, was a young teenager, he would go trick-or-treating with a group of friends. One year, he decided to be a gorilla, and we were able to find a costume to fit his 6’ frame. Unbeknownst to Ryan, I gave the neighbors warning that a tall gorilla would be coming to their doors on Halloween night. They had fun having bananas at their door for him in addition to candy!

Ryan with part of his Halloween costume on

During the years that all my kids were at home, we had a huge (150-200 guests) family Halloween party every year and my entire family had so much fun getting ready for it. Some of my friends on social media will remember the parties because many of them were there every year. Costumes were encouraged but not required and people were so creative. We actually had the president and first lady show up one year! Of course, I always dressed up too! One year, our party was held during the World Series, so my husband and I dressed in uniforms from the opposing teams in the Series that year.

To plan the party each year, I would begin by consulting the Old Farmer’s Almanac to see if there was a date in October with a full moon to add to the ambience of the night. Once I had a good date, I would write and print the invitations in a spooky font on Halloween paper I found at an office supply store. Remember, this was in the days before Amazon!

Next, I would rent one of those big bouncy houses for the backyard and we would call it a Moon Jump. I hired local college kids to monitor the activity and to make sure we kept everyone safe. We played spooky music outside to add to the fun.

My husband and sons designed a haunted house in our garage every year and it was always a hit with the younger set and with some of the parents too. Our daughter’s playhouse would be transformed into a la-bor-a-tory with a skeleton on a table and jars of things like cooked spaghetti and peeled grapes and gummy worms. It was not gross or too scary, just fun.

I designed the party so that each room of the house offered something fun and different.

The dining room had a large table full of appetizers that had spooky labels. Crockpots might have mummy fingers (little sausages in barbecue sauce) or monster eyeballs (Swedish meatballs). A bowl of cashews might have been labeled as werewolf toenails, deviled eggs might be ogre eyes, cheese and crackers might be rat food, green grapes might be black cat eyes, breadsticks might be witch fingers, rice crispy treats might be skeleton bites…you get the picture.

In the kitchen there would be cookie decorating. I  would bake pumpkin shaped and bat shaped sugar cookies and have icing, colored sugar crystals, sprinkles and the works for decorating. Of course, this was a popular room!

In the family room, I would set up tables with fun make and take crafts for the kids to do. It might be something like ribbons to string with orange and black beads and a glow in the dark bat that they could wear when they were done.

A friend would dress up and tell fortunes in the fortune teller room…which was really my writing room. I found a fun crystal ball paperweight that made it seem even more realistic.

Liza Wolfe-dear friend and my kid’ preschool teacher

In the living room, we would take Polaroid pictures (remember Polaroids?) of anyone who wanted to be in the costume contest and then attach them to a board for voting. The living room also held a large cardboard coffin full of the party bags I made for each guest to take with them when they left the party. Of course, the bags contained Halloween candy and things like spider rings and vampire fangs.

A fun room to decorate was the bathroom, which would be the bat room complete with bats hanging all over the room.

Throughout the house, I would hang orange pumpkins with Halloween jokes on the front and the punchlines on the back. Usually we would have a guess how many pumpkin jar full of Tootsie Pops or bubble gum for a lucky winner to take home. Those parties were a lot of fun and work but sure makes some good memories all these years later.

Since I love Halloween,  it probably doesn’t surprise anyone that I wrote a Halloween book. I was actually writing my book, “The Christmas Church” in October of 2021. It was early one morning, and I was waiting on my coffee to be brewed and looking at the Halloween decorations I had out in my house. I’ve had most of them for 25-30 years so there are lots of memories attached. I began wondering what would scare all the spooky characters of Halloween and all of a sudden, I got the idea for the story of “The Halloween Scare.” Thank you to everyone who has ordered a copy this year!

One final note on Halloween. I read recently that most Americans eat their candy before Halloween night and have to go back to the store for more before the trick-or-treaters arrive. (This might have happened at my house already.) There was a survey done on behalf of CVS Pharmacy and one in four people surveyed confessed to having to restock their candy three times before Halloween night. When people in the survey were asked what made the Halloween tradition special, candy ranked first before costumes, the fall atmosphere and the spooky vibes. I knew it really was about the candy!