How do you extend the Halloween season?

[adrian]

i may be one of the ONLY people in america that hasn't been to Disney world

[Murfreesboro]

LOL I haven't been to Disney World since 1980, so I am almost in the same boat with you.

I basically celebrate the month of October as Halloween month. I love looking at magazines, decorations in the stores prior to that, but I don't start decorating for it until (at earliest) the first day of fall. Fall is my favorite season anyway, and October is my favorite month. My wedding anniversary even falls in Oct. (the 24th). My husband's birthday is that month, too (the 29th). My father's was the 4th, but he died in my childhood.

I didn't know anything about the Mexican Day of the Dead until my husband and I honeymooned in San Antonio, 28 years ago. They had decorations up for it there, and I thought it was uber-cool. I love reading about the history of Halloween as well as other, similar celebrations that seem to take place around the same time of year. It is fascinating to me that such unrelated cultures can have similar ideas about the end of Oct.-beginning of Nov.

I don't decorate all at once for Halloween. I sort of build it throughout the month. I think I may start a little earlier in the month, though, to attract more Trick-or-Treaters. We live on a busy street, and people drive past but don't walk past it very much. I tell myself that even if not many people stop, a whole lot of people see what I do.

I look for activities throughout the month--corn mazes, ghost tours, haunted attractions. I also have a cache of scary movies I love to pop into the DVD player throughout the month. Halloween night is definitely the best, though. I love the masquerade on the street even more than my kids do, I believe. Last year we bought one of those backyard braziers, didn't use it much. I hope we make more use of it this fall.

I like the idea of winding down the season through All Saints/All Souls Day at church. I adore Halloween but let go of it as I turn to Thanksgiving in November, then Christmas, which officially starts for me on Thanksgiving weekend. I have saved one of those Pumpkinmaster stencils of a Thanksgiving turkey and use it to carve my last pumpkin on Thanksgiving morning, while my turkey bakes. Then it becomes the centerpiece for my table. I love love love carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds.

[adrian]

sounds like you guys have a TON of fun my fiance and i similarly do the same thing corn mazes, haunted tours, ect.

if you like halloween this place is THE PLACE to be. the forum does a great job to get you in the mood

[Ghoul of the Graves]

I'll be heading into the town tomorrow to see if any stores have any Halloween stuff out yet.

I can't wait

[Halloween_crazyy]

Well, I like to get my decorations down on November 1st, but since I do ballet I like to keep practicing our Halloween mini-show, its a fun thing our company does in between Nutcracker rehearsals, as if it's still going to happen soon (we separate into groups, the corps de ballet makes up a dance, the soloists, and the principals), and I like to watch scary movies nd clips of Halloween things on YouTube to keep me in the spirit!

[shanda]

October needs a couple more Saturdays!!
My birthday is Oct. 5th so that is Shanda day. LOL. That means dinner and a scary movie. (This year I am thinking Halloween II or Zombieland.)

We have a huge Halloween Hay ride and bonfire. This year it is on the 17th.

We go camping on the weekent before Halloween. This year the 24th. Our campground has a massive Halloween weekend. Costumes, TOTing, bonfires, haunted maze. Great!

This leaves the other weekend (the 10th) to visit some of the local attractions. Cornmazes, haunted houses, the Zoo (they have Boo at the Zoo. Fun TOTing all thru the zoo at night.)

We have a ton of fun all month long.

[Halloweennut08]

Sounds great this year I am planning to start a day or two ahead of last year to get a jump plus I have more decorations this year I will probably still be pressed with time.

[adrian]

ahhhhh if weather permits (which it hasn't been) i'll be fully decorating by this week end along with that and a small road trip to helen Ga. for some shopping

[MacPhantom]

We're probably the only house in town (and maybe the county, if not the state) that keeps a skeleton in the front yard all year round. My first Bucky about seven or eight years ago just did not want to go into the basement with all the other decorations in November, so we let him stay out, next to the lightpost. Then, he started to dress up for each of the seasons; he's got a Santa suit for Crimbo, bunny ears for Easter, a red, white, and blue hat for the fourth of July. He wears a winter coat in January and February, and swim trunks, flip-flops, and sunglasses in the summer. A few years back, he moved from the front of the house to the side of the carport, but he still welcomes every visitor to the house as they walk up the driveway. I don't even think of Bucky as a Halloween decoration any more, even though he wears his Phantom of the Opera costume in October, because he's always there, but I guess for others, and people in town ("Oh, YOU'RE the one with the skeleton in the front yard all year 'round!"), he helps keep the Halloween spirit going three-sixty-five and twenty-four-seven.

[adrian]

hahaha that sounds like a good land mark

[MyersFan1]

We're probably the only house in town (and maybe the county, if not the state) that keeps a skeleton in the front yard all year round. My first Bucky about seven or eight years ago just did not want to go into the basement with all the other decorations in November, so we let him stay out, next to the lightpost. Then, he started to dress up for each of the seasons; he's got a Santa suit for Crimbo, bunny ears for Easter, a red, white, and blue hat for the fourth of July. He wears a winter coat in January and February, and swim trunks, flip-flops, and sunglasses in the summer. A few years back, he moved from the front of the house to the side of the carport, but he still welcomes every visitor to the house as they walk up the driveway. I don't even think of Bucky as a Halloween decoration any more, even though he wears his Phantom of the Opera costume in October, because he's always there, but I guess for others, and people in town ("Oh, YOU'RE the one with the skeleton in the front yard all year 'round!"), he helps keep the Halloween spirit going three-sixty-five and twenty-four-seven.

You should post a picture of Bucky, I'm sure we would all love to see him.

[Halloweennut08]

Yeah I would love to see the pics!!!!

[MacPhantom]

Okie dokie.

[MacPhantom]

And...

[adrian]

hahahhahaha that just made my day you're skeleton is the BEST!! wow! no matter what kind of day i could be having, if i drove past that in the morning, all would be well