My over the top love of Halloween

Last year, right after Halloween, when the decorations went on sale, my husband got me another fog machine, a life sized poseable skeleton, and assorted ghosts.

He gets me.

He really gets me.

I'm not an expensive jewelry or clothing type of gal and never, ever bring me roses. Want to see me swoon? Buy me a light projector that shows flying ghosts against my house and I'm a happy camper.

This is my "Trick or Tree". (I wish I had made up that name, but it was one of my clever facebook friends.) Well, what else do you do when you have a giant trash bag full of skulls?

Wait. Don't answer that. . .

Our challenge every year is to put together a selection of our decorations in a fresh way to create something that is spooky and creative without being too terrifying for the little trick or treaters yet still cool enough for the teenagers.

I may have struck the balance to the scary side this year, because I spooked a little girl dressed as Wonder Woman. I felt terrible!

As I said, normally Neil waits until the post-Halloween sale to pick up new treats for me. But this year, he couldn't resist and these 2 hell-hounds were added to the stockpile. They are motion and touch sensitive and their eyes glow red and they bark and howl.

So of course I created a tableaux of "good dog" and "bad dog".
(No actual dogs were harmed in the making of this display.)

When night falls, and we bring out the lights and the fog machines, it looks like this:

It was a smaller display than in prior years. Partly because of the stormy weather we had in the run up to Halloween, party because Neil and I were out of town last week.

We've had these bones for years. It's fun to watch the young kids work on reading the words. Just doin' my part for literacy!

And who doesn't need spooky light up zombie hands?

Yes, we fogged up the entire neighborhood. #sorrynotsorry


Today is devoted to packing it all away and putting it back in the attic until next year.

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Halloween 2013: The Doctor Who Edition

Ever since we moved into our home, nearly 21 years ago, I have enjoyed decorating it for Halloween. It's a nearly 100 year old brick tudor, so it really lends itself to the haunted house vibe. Besides, when my husband and I were in our respective High Schools and then in College, we both enjoyed the tech side of theatre. So it was a natural match to pair our imaginations and creativity with Halloween.

You can search the 'Halloween' tag on this blog to see what we've created, going back to 2005 when I started blogging. There are many years of themes we have photos of buried on a hard drive. Some day, I'll find and organize them all.

Some people have attics full of Christmas decorations. I have boxes of spooky: lights, extension cords, timers, spiders, fog machines, ghosts, skeletons, costumes.

A small subset of what we've collected for Halloween over the years

It's a ridiculous amount of work for one night, but that's part of the magic, I think. In the past, I've struggled to come up with the theme, but not this year. From the moment Halloween 2012 ended, I knew I wanted to do something to honor the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. It's a show near and dear to my heart: I've watched it since I was 12. I still have the color changing pin I got for joining the Doctor Who Fan Club of America in the 1970's.

So I decided to build a TARDIS.

The humble beginnings

If I'd had my 'druthers, I would have built a permanent structure from plywood and then used it as a garden shed after Halloween, but time and circumstances made that impossible, so I grabbed a bunch of moving boxes we had in the attic and started to build.

If you notice the small black 'dots' holding the levels together, those are cardboard box rivets I found on the internet. Reusable and very clever.

I bought paint and a foam brush, because you really don't want to soak cardboard with paint, or it will collapse. I love TARDIS blue.

Now this is starting to look distinctly more TARDIS like. White paint and black electrical tape for the windows and 'box' trim on the body. If I'd had more time, I would have used paint. One of the disadvantages of living in a changeable climate come fall, is that the shift in humidity makes it tough for the tape to stick.

Of course, we needed the door sign. Fortunately, images of the sign exist all over the net, so I grabbed one, manipulated it to be 8 1/2 by 11, and printed it as a photo on photo paper. Hot glue guns are your friend for adding detail work, as well as fixing any spots where the paint made the box edges spring apart.

My secret weapon is my husband, who has wonderful handwriting and is far more artistic than I will ever be. My contribution to the signage was to paint the panel black.

And there she is, my TARDIS, parked every so completely inconspicuously in front of the house. The roof was constructed with a small box and then insulation squares taped together with blue painter's tape to make the leveled top. The lantern was a battery powered lantern we had, covered with blue lighting gels, courtesy of our local HS theatre department.

'Would you like a jelly baby?' photo by N. Halin

And this is what it looked like on Halloween eve, with the addition of the 4th Doctor (me!) and some Doctor Who themed pumpkins (weeping angels, daleks, and cybermen, oh my!)  and lights, fog, etc.

If you want to see the whole set of Halloween night photos, taken by my husband, photographer extraordinaire, here's the flickr link.

And if you've ever been involved in theatre, you know the particular mix of sadness and satisfaction that is strike.

Halloween 2012: An Apology

This is the sum total of our Halloween display this year. The sign, if you can't read it, says "Page Error/Halloween/Not Found" and the pumpkin is the '404' error.

It was the best I could put together on short notice, given I had to be out of town most of last week and, well, we had a hurricane.

(An aside. I got to experience "Sandy" three times. I think that might be a record. First in South Florida last Friday/Saturday, then flying through it on Sunday morning, then on Monday/Tuesday in Boston).

Over the years, we have had some wildly elaborate Halloween displays. From haunted pirates, to Harry Potter themes (complete with quiditch match suspended over the front lawn), to the haunted pumpkin patch, and "Occupy Halloween," we have embraced October 31st as our family's favorite holiday.

The candy and the costumes are almost secondary to the chance to turn my house into a set piece, complete with lights and fog machines. I'm typically the person who gets the big idea for that year's theme. Then I turn to my husband and he makes the magic happen.

But this year, Halloween didn't feel very special. We didn't have the opportunity to create an evening of shared magic. Sure we had candy to give out. Sure, we got tons of kids in costumes ranging from the adorable to the truly amazing. (Along with the sheepish teenagers wearing jeans, t-shirts, and maybe some zombie makeup.) My older son had to work, my younger son went out with friends, and my husband had an obligation that had been rescheduled due to the storm. So it was me and the candy bowl. Other than my pumpkin socks, I didn't even wear a costume.

So, Halloween 2012, I apologize. It's not you, it's me. Truly. And I promise that next year will be nothing short of amazing. I've already started to plan for it.

#Occupy Halloween, 2011

I adore Halloween.  More than adore.  Some would think it's an obsession.  They would probably be right.  We've decorated our home for Halloween eve every year since we moved in 19 years ago and have amassed quite a collection of decorations, lights, and assorted other scary stuff.  Fortunately, we didn't lose much of our Halloween stuff in our fire last year and were able to fog the neighborhood yet again.

In past years, we've done pirate themed displays, a haunted house, a paean to Harry Potter, and a haunted pumpkin patch.  This year, I was having trouble coming up with a theme.  And then came my trip to Occupy Boston.

This year, we decided to create an #occupyhalloween encampment on our front lawn.  I was worried that people might think it was done in mockery, rather than in solidarity, but the grownups who came trick or treating with their kids got it.

Here is our display.  (Click here for the full album: Occupyhalloween)

Pumpkins, Blue Hair, Doctors Who and Cap't Jack: Halloween Weirdness, 2010

This is the photostream my husband took on Halloween night.  62 pumpkins (give or take the few the squirrels got into or collapsed from rot in the few 75+ degree days we had after carving), most of them carved by dear friends, who were persuaded (in fine Tom Sawyer fashion) that painting the fence. . . err. . . carving our pumpkins was going to be grand fun.

This is the result.

A haunted pumpkin patch, complete with fog and black lights, candles and glowsticks.

It made my theatrical heart go pitter patter with joy.  Especially when I overheard trick or treaters' families debate which year at our house was their favorite.

It's an insane amount of work (even with the forced labor. . . ) to do this for one night.  But it is a labor of love and silliness, one that everyone in the family helps with.  I honestly can't imagine having Halloween without a display. 

*That* would be scary, indeed.

And I'm still not entirely sure what my younger son was supposed to be.  I only know it involved one very long evening with hair bleach and then electric blue, which resulted in blue hands (mine), blue shower, blue ears (his), and blue towels.  Oh, and blue hair.

One more aside: Notice the shrine to Doctor Who: pumpkins carved as a TARDIS, a spider, a dalek, and a weeping angel.  Don't blink.  Don't even blink.

Happy Halloween, the 2009 Edition

This year, between the wreck of my house after the flood and the real life horror show of reconstruction and contractors, I really didn't have a lot of reserve left to plan Halloween. Add to that a husband with a crazy bad few weeks at work, and it almost left Halloween 2009 in the lurch.

Lucky for me, my son wanted to go as a dalek, and working on his costume got me in the 'spirit' of things.

There are LEDs on the helmet and yes, that's a whisk in one hand, a plunger in another.

He recorded the nasal twang of 'ex-ter-min-ate' on his ipod and he was good to go.

This is what the house looks like before Halloween:

And this is what it looks like after the transformation.

We had a graveyard with open graves that was supposed to be a lot eerier than it was, but the fog machines weren't effective--the huge amount of wind we had just blew the fog to shreds.

Luckily we had enough chocolate to stave off a mad zombie invasion. 

If you look carefully, you can see the shadow of my hell hound in the front door, guarding the portal. . . entrance to the house.

Perhaps next year, we will be able to rise to our usual standards, and my partner in crime won't be called into work on Halloween eve.

Getting ready for Halloween

I've slogged through the doldrums and am starting to get into the Halloween spirit. (pun intended!)

I spent much of the day yesterday making my 13 yo son a dalek costume. For those of you who aren't familiar with the world of Dr. Who, it is a long running British sci fi serial about an immortal Time Lord who travels through time and space in a TARDIS, his time machine that is stuck looking like a British police call box.

I am a Dr. Who fan from my childhood, in the Tom Baker era. (The Doctor has been played by 11 different actors over the years.) I've utterly ruined my own children's chance for sanity by exposing them to Dr. Who and Monty Python from an early age. :)

My son is trick or treating with two friends, also in Dr. Who costume, one as the Doctor, one as his nemesis, the Master.

Gives me hope for the future.

:)

Fatigue

In a little over a week, it will be Halloween. For years, I have taken Halloween as my personal holiday. Ever since we had a home of our own, I have been going all out decorating it for the day, typically choosing a theme. Over the years, we have acquired quite a stash of decorations, including skeletons, skulls, bats, spiders, and fog machines. Yes, machines, plural. 3 to be exact.

This year, I have little energy for Halloween. I promised my younger son I would put together a Dalek costume for him, and friends and neighbors have been asking me what the theme for this year is.

I have some ideas, but the truth is, I am uninspired. It may be a result of returning from our overseas trip to house chaos, and the fact that we still have open walls/ceilings and exposed plumbing.

I want to tunnel under the blankets and not come out until spring, and that is not like me. I have always loved the winter, its purity and starkness. We even had show showers this weekend, and that would usually have me doing the happy dance, anticipating good skiing come full winter.

Perhaps I am seeing the slowing down of things in a different light, given my parents' fragile health. Perhaps it is realizing that my husband will soon be the age his mother was when she died. Perhaps it is only my own mortality I fear, seeing how tenuous it all is. How quickly it all changes.

I think I need to practice gratitude. It is the only way I know to banish this self-indulgent fog. I have so much to be thankful for and I forget to cherish it in the here and now. Perhaps it is easier to live in fear of what we can lose rather than revel in what is in this moment.

Please forgive the whining. I am just working through something.

Halloween, 2008, redux

Before: We lose our dining room to boxes and bags full of Halloween goodies, and I'm not talking candy. 3 boxes of outdoor extension cords, multitaps, and black lights alone. 3 fog machines, 1 strobe, 1 thunder/lightning generator. Then there are the bones, skulls, skeletons, motion sensitive ghosts, not to mention gravestones, rats, and spiders.

It's hard to carve a pumpkin when your dog wants your attention. Notice her perfect-for-halloween-colors.

Things look pretty ordinary during the daytime, but wait until dark!

You'd think that this headless scarecrow is just like our other one. But no. *This* one is my 12 year old son. Taken with the flash, you can tell there's a person in there, but keep scrolling down to the magic of fog, lights, and nighttime and see the transformation.

You can really fog up the neighborhood with 3 fog machines.

A closer view of my 'headless' son.

A closer look at the fake scarecrow.

The boneyard.

Boo!

Beware!

After: The complete effect. Notice the spooky skulls in our upstairs window.

My 15 year old son was too cool to hang out with us. He went to a Halloween party dressed as Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books.

Happy Halloween!

Last night, my husband and I were putting out decorations and wiring extension cords by flashlight. It's that time of the year again, when I sit myself down and ask myself why the hell do I do this?

Do what, you ask?

The whole Halloween thing.

I dragged 8 boxes of decorations, lights, and extension cords from the attic yesterday. Yes. EIGHT. And not little wimpy boxes either. And that doesn't include the boxes of costuming pieces I've collected over the years.

And I didn't really even like Halloween as a kid.

This year, we have a haunted house. Well, really, it's an ez=up tent with the four sides down that the trick or treaters will have to walk through to earn their candy. (Mua haaa haaaaa haaa). Lights, spooky sounds, scary creatures. Oh. And did I mention the fog machines. Plural.

Yes, I'm officially out of my gourd. (<--notice, the Halloween/seasonal reference?)

Pictures tomorrow--we'll take them in all their lit up gory. . . I mean glory.

For a sneak preview, or inspiration, or to convince yourself that I really *am* nuts, here is a link to the ghosts of (our) Halloweens past.

The Architects of Halloween Insanity at our House

L & N, the Halloween Fools



Me & the boys, "Harry Dresden" and "The Dread Pirate Roberts"

Halloween, Redux

We needed a lot of chocolate to handle the dementors.

Lots of places to visit at Hogwarts tonight.

My alma mater