Sep
01Haunting Season Has Begun..
Posted in Halloween on September 1, 2009 by The Adam
The beginning of the Halloween season is finally here! The first of September marks the start of the season for our spooky holiday. The day we have been planning for all year long, or should I say month? However, around here…no decorating outside until early October! Which brings me to a question, when is it okay to start decorating the outside of your home? I know many of us get resistence from our husbands/wives, friends/family about decorating “too early,” but what is considered “too early?” Many of us wait all year round, only for me to have to explain that the season starts this month for many haunts, stores etc! I usually decorate the inside early, I don’t think it’s ever “too early” to decorate inside. Halloween is so infused with who I am, that if I could have a Halloween themed room all year round I would!
The best part about this time of year is the weather is slowing starting to cool down. The air is starting to crisp, the leaves begin to fall and change their color. Homes and stores start to put out the fall decorations. Halloween is near!
This month I can truly watch “The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” and feel the Halloween spirit. I also like to watch “Garfields Halloween Adventure,” “candy, candy, candy, candy, candy!” I have watched both these specials since I was a kid, they will forever remain loved and classics in my life. How do you celebrate the starting of the season?
I have to wait until the first day of october to decorate outside due to my prudish neighbors. because of that, i’ll do my indoor stuff around the same time. although, whatever i buy during the year goes up in the house. i don’t want to take stuff out to the garage and then have to haul it all in in october. so there is some halloween stuff in the house at all times. i love garfields halloween adventure! “the one thing he’s not is a scardey cat”! i celebrate the start of the season by cleaning my house from top to bottom, inside and out. this way, i won’t have to put my nice decorations out on dirty walls and stuff. fall cleaning is much more satisfying than spring cleaning!
I usually start feeling the urge at the end of August. I listen to more horror and halloween oriented music for a few weeks, change my desktop wallpaper, things like that. As we move into September I do those things much more, fret about having enough time and cash to properly add to my yard haunting, and generally start mentally dealing with the season. I eat more candy. I will admit it, I will eat anything that has a Halloween theme. Last Friday I saw Halloween edition Chips Ahoy at the store and bought them. I don’t eat Chips Ahoy. I never feel the urge for Chips Ahoy. I have been eating them. The Halloween Oreos went into my basket on Sunday.
When the Little Debbie Punkin Delights hit the shelf it will officially be “the season”, if you dig what I am saying?
Then it is time to strip 99% naked (flannel shirt wrapped around the waist, sheepskin boots on the feets) and taking up my icon of the harvest god (or a pumpkin) I must go outside and consecrate my yard to the Phantom Jack O Lantern for the season. Then things really get rolling…
I start out by planting mum’s in the garden, and then i put out a welcome halloween sign in the middle of the garden.By the first day of fall i put out my large plastic pumpkin’s and this is all i do until the day before halloween. I like the element of surprise, and the knocks on my door asking me if we are decorating our yard this year. I always say, wait and see… I’m so paranoid that i will get something stolen, and this is why i wait. The night before, the fence and arch will go up, and the lighting will be put out as well as the the sounds,then halloween day, the yard gets the finishing touches. i have neighbors standing around watching and waiting. And then when the trick or treating is done, and the ghouls have gone to bed, it all comes down the same night. As far as the inside goes, right after Labor day my house transforms.
Although I have not officially started the outside decorating yet, yesterday my boss had to drop by after work. He vaguely knew the neighborhood & street and I told him the house number, but I also said ” you’ll recognize the house….it’s the one with the corpse hanging on the front of the garage.” Work begins in earnest this weekend on the back yard, and the last weekend of Sept. the graveyard will start being set up in the front yard. I usually start with the grim reaper, and each night add a couple of graves. I love watching the reactions of the neighbors when they see the new tombstones that have mysteriously appeared overnight. Since there are 3 multi-family houses on my street, there are always new neighbors who don’t know about my Halloween activities, since I APPEAR normal for most of the year.
Neighbors are starting to ask when we are going to start decorating. If we don’t have a pumkin or something out by oct 1 they are worried. Who knows have a 3 day weekend just might be a tombstone or two in the yard. But new kids in the area-not sure if anything will get stolen or broken. I am ready to get started…
I am SO ready. I plan to start this week by putting my first scarecrow out. His head will be a funkin carved in a ghastly grin. I will put out a few mums in pots. I may even build the huge scarecrow I am planning to put by our grapes. He’s going to be scary. Up here, it’s like a race to see who can get their yards decorated first. I don’t fall into that; no competition for me! Just bee-bop along and sooner or later my yard comes together, usually by the first or 2nd week in October. Meanwhile, those who have rushed to be “me first!”, their props are broken or stolen or on their sides, and mine are still standing strong. My neighbors, or those who are left, like to look for something new in the yard every couple of days. I’ve never seen so many people rush to out-do the next. Not out-do, I mean, rush to be first. Then their yards look kind of frumpy.
There’s a guy in Inkster that really takes his time and makes his right too. I don’t know him, but I always enjoy the drive to see his yard the week before Halloween. AWESOME! A true home-haunter at heart.
There is a house not too far from me that puts out every inflatable they make. Every year they have more, more, more! And that, to them, is decorating. Never mind that they either aren’t working anymore by Halloween, or that some kids have slashed them so they don’t inflate. They must have money to burn because they do it every year. (Same with Christmas, like, 2 days after Halloween.) Maybe their neighbors slash them! Too much light!
To each his own. I’d rather take my time and get it right. I usually re-do most of my tombstones every year, too, unless I have one I especially like. When the neighbors see me in the driveway by the saw-horses with a can of spraypaint in my hand, they start beeping their horns. Makes me feel pretty good!
I look forward to Halloween every year, its the only day I will actually take vacation for. Like one of the subjects above who commented, I only put out my Halloween decorations the day of Halloween and take them down the same night. This is only to prevent theft. But my wife decorates the inside of our house early, which is great. I add to my yard haunting every year, tombstones, skulls, ground breakers, you name it, I try and add something different every year. I even go so far as buying tickets early for Halloween Haunts at Universal Studios (Hollywood) and Knotts Scary Farm(Buena Park).
I am finding Halloween a bit difficult for me this year. I had a baby feb. 2008 so Halloween 2008 was great! This year my child seems to be very scared of ALL my decorations…I really am not looking forward to putting up kid-friendly stuff. I just like my Halloween to be really scarey. I am bummed
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