A little halloween Rant

[tantraman]

Has anyone felt, when you have your Halloween traditions, others will see what your doing and try to join in with you and ruines it, I know most of the time they want to have a good tome and share the excitement with you. Most of the time it kills the mood or mojo what ever you want to call it, has anyone felt the same way?

[Murfreesboro]

Not exactly, no. At our house, I am the one who decorates for all the holidays. Even at Christmas, I rarely get any help decorating the tree.

If you mean that neighbors start decorating their homes, too, and don't do so in the same spirit that you do, I guess I'd say, to each his own. Some people like eerie, some jokey, some gory.

I have seen neighborhoods where two or three houses cooperated in setting up one continuous scenario. That is kind of neat, but unexpected.

[Fall fanatic]

I can see what you mean. I have had experiences where someone joins and it may not turn out how I envisioned it, which can be a downer. But I do enjoy it because I think about Halloween throughout the year and go to these forums and plan, and it is nice when the time of year comes around when Halloween actually comes to the surface and others also get in the mood for Halloween.

My biggest issue lately has been trying to let life slow down a bit. When I think ahead to Halloween or think about Halloweens past, I always picture a happy time in the autumn, with decorations and peaceful nostalgia. I want to just soak it all in and enjoy it when it arrives, but when it gets here I am still worried about work, finances, and life stuff in general. My indoor decorations went up this week and my outdoor stuff is going up tomorrow, and I am already finding myself in the rut again. Hoping to find some time soon to just enjoy it!

[Andybev01]

You nailed it.

Time does indeed fly.

I keep a small assortment of low key decorations out all year to enjoy when I am jonesin' for fall, and movies too.

As far as the 'tourist' crowd is concerned, I do appreciate their involvement but also think like Henny Penny. They didn't help with the process of making and baking the bread so they dont deserve any dad-gum bread !

[tantraman]

I can see what you mean. I have had experiences where someone joins and it may not turn out how I envisioned it, which can be a downer. But I do enjoy it because I think about Halloween throughout the year and go to these forums and plan, and it is nice when the time of year comes around when Halloween actually comes to the surface and others also get in the mood for Halloween.

My biggest issue lately has been trying to let life slow down a bit. When I think ahead to Halloween or think about Halloweens past, I always picture a happy time in the autumn, with decorations and peaceful nostalgia. I want to just soak it all in and enjoy it when it arrives, but when it gets here I am still worried about work, finances, and life stuff in general. My indoor decorations went up this week and my outdoor stuff is going up tomorrow, and I am already finding myself in the rut again. Hoping to find some time soon to just enjoy it!

the last few years I have been taking at least one day off from work to sok it all in no kids no wife no work just me and halloween most of the time I go to my past when it seemed to be funner back in the day lol no most of the time it is a good escape

[Murfreesboro]

I guess what you all are talking about is just the pressure of adult life, which never lets up and sometimes even intensifies around holidays. You have to learn to pace yourself and, sometimes, let good enough be good enough.

I think one reason I enjoy Halloween so much is that there is less pressure to do everything "perfectly" than there is at Christmas. For instance, one of my favorite decorations is a series of "ghost lights" or "spirit jugs" I made a few years ago out of empty plastic milk jugs. The TOTers always love them, and they are so simple and cheap to make. The thing is, I could never put up Christmas decorations made out of recycled trash, but at Halloween, that is totally acceptable.

[SIEFKA]

I somewhat know what you mean about when you have a vision in your head about what you want to do for Halloween lets say its a yard haunt and you want it set up a specific way and the other person has other ideas that are different compared towards yours. I have not run into this problem yet but if it ever arises such as this year we are doing a Halloween decorating at my University and I've got some really great ideas on what to do I will just compromise with people since they love Halloween and I love Halloween so it will be a great time!