6 More Things to Do When It’s not Halloween

Happy Walpurgisnacht! We are halfway to Halloween and another long, hot, miserable summer is just around the corner. Last year, around this time, I shared with you 10 Things to Do When It’s Not Halloween. Sometimes, we tend to focus on the bad so much that we forget to concentrate on the good, like the fact there are plenty of Halloweenesque activities to do to keep us happy until October.

Plant a pumpkin

The Pumpkin is the ultimate symbol of Halloween. It’s the heralded icon. The shepherd of the holiday. One could argue it’s the whole reason that Halloween even exists. Planting your own pumpkin can be rewarding in a number of ways. For starters, you’re doing something nice for the environment. Your pumpkin can be insecticide and chemical-free. Second, it might be more economical than buying a pumpkin at the store, particularly if you live in rural areas. Next, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that gardening relieves stress. Watching your little pumpkin grow makes you happy. That alone is totally worth it. Next, you can brag about it on your Instagram and social media. Create a photo album tracking your pumpkins growth. Lastly, you’ll have an amazing pumpkin to carve into a jack-o’-lantern by Halloween!

The Farmer’s Almanac has all the info you need on growing pumpkins:
https://www.almanac.com/plant/pumpkins

Paint Halloween ceramics

Lemax and Department 56 are awesome, no doubt about it, but they’re also a little pricy. Why not try and create your own Halloween village? Everything you need, ceramics, materials, and the tutorials that teach DIYers how to create certain looks with paint, can all be found online. Likewise, you can find paint, brushes and other materials at your local arts and crafts stores. You can paint your own ceramic haunted house and knick-knacks, or add new items to storebought villages piecemeal.

Bonus: Painting ceramics can be a soothing way to relax and hone in your concentration skills

Frankie ©CreativeKreations-Etsy

Finished Frankie ©CreativeKreations-Etsy

Watch all 1225 episodes of Dark Shadows

ABC’s dark gothic soap opera Dark Shadows featuring vampires, witches, ghosts, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures, aired 30-minute episodes on weekdays from 1966-1971.

The first season sluggishly produced efficient melodrama, romance, and the usual family squabbles, as found in a typical daytime soap, until introducing the charismatic, creepy, and somewhat sexy character of Barnabas Collins, a centuries-old vampire played by Jonathan Frid. From that point, the show became his show and Frid’s portrayal of the powerful Barnabas helped boost audience viewership and eventually, made him a horror icon.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Create your own Halloween florals

You can certainly wait for fall to buy some artificial autumn florals or black roses, but it’s always been my belief that some fake flowers are “fuller” than others, during different times of the year. This is certainly just an opinion, based on no facts whatsoever, but if we always paid attention to facts, we’d have no fun at all!

For those of you looking to dye real flowers black, the good people over at Florist Chronicles have put together one of the most comprehensive tutorials on how to create black flowers that I’ve ever seen. Check it out: www.floristchronicles/2011/create-black-flowers

Create a spooky centerpiece

After you create some black florals, you may need a haunted vase to put them in. You can turn any dollar store vessel into a gothic or Halloween centerpiece with some black paint, a glue gun, some fake spiders and other Halloween objects.

spray painted vases paige taylor evans — ©Paige Taylor Evans

Check out this amazing easy to make spider vase tutorial over at KS Craft Shack:
http://www.craftshackchronicles.com/dollar-store-crafting-spider-halloween/

spider vase ks craft shack — ©KS Craft Shack

Need more ideas, check out the Halloween florals board on Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/halloweenkristy/gothic-halloween-florals/

Visit a cemetery

Cemeteries are lovely quiet little places, open all year around. There’s nothing more relaxing than sitting under a tree and enjoying the sights and sounds of nature of a cemetery in the springtime, a time when the flowers and trees are in full bloom. There’s something meaningful, even bit ironic, about so much life flourishing among the dead. Just when you thought your little goth heart didn’t like pastels.

Go early and you’ll have a chance to photograph the gravestones before the morning mist burns off, or try in the late afternoon to catch those eerie shadows falling over the tombstones.

springtime greenwood cemetery — Springtime ©Green-wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY

9 Ideas to help you get over Halloween

It’s November 15th and you’re missing Halloween something awful. It went by so fast. You didn’t see or do half as much as you wanted and to top it off, Christmas creep invaded way earlier than expected. Like it or not, once that calendar flips to November 1st, it’s as if someone pulls the brakes and brings the barreling steam-engine Halloween locomotive to a violent halt. I commiserate with you, my fellow Halloweenophiles. I feel your pain. That’s why I came up with a couple of ideas that might help us ease our suffering.

Encroach on November

Look at everyone putting their Christmas stuff up one month early. Well, then, no reason why we can’t take our decorations down one month late! Go ahead and leave your yard haunt in place for another month, and if anyone asks you, why????? Just point to the nearest house covered with plastic santas and fake snow. Nuff said.

Shop til you drop, or your credit card gets rejected

Even if the stores are devoid of Halloween items, they still are selling Halloween décor and items online, 50% off or more! The month after Halloween is greatest time to buy the decorations you couldn’t afford during October or stock up for next year’s monster bash.

Continue reading “9 Ideas to help you get over Halloween” →

Halloween is Never Over

I will not mourn the passing of Halloween because Halloween lives here all day, every day, all year around.

What I will miss is the community spirit that shows up every September/October. I’ll miss the creative inspiration that buzzes around Halloween season, driving people to craft, create, cook, make, bake, paint, draw, write, sing and celebrate the spooky beyond. I’ll miss seeing the adorable kids in their costumes and the funny, imaginative guises from the adults. I’ll miss the haunts and the mazes, and the creative minds that have built elaborate, sometimes ingenious, macabre sets. I’ll miss seeing decorations and the lights in all the stores, and in the yards where I live. I’ll miss hearing Halloween tunes on the radio and watching thrillers and spooky movies on television. I’ll miss people talking about their favorite memories and how they’re looking forward to making new ones. I’ll miss the festive harvests, the parades, the pumpkin patches, the endless rows of candy, and the fun Halloween treats that make us feel like kids again.

I’ll miss the Halloween season, but Halloween is never over, oh no, Halloween is forever.

Halloweenis Forever

Autumn is the best season

Between the golden hues of fallen leaves and the smell of fresh baked apple-cinnamon in the air, Autumn is more than just a season, it’s a force in the universe, with the power to bring back memories, compel lovers to take chances, and motivate people to nurture their creative side.

Autumn wraps around people like a warm blanket, sometimes reminding them of happier times in childhood or giving them hope towards the future. Like the trees that shed their leaves, preparing for winter’s coat, people lose the inhibitions that hold them back, allowing themselves to experience the joys of the holidays and all that life has to offer.

Autumn is a time of reflection, a time of nature, a time of wonder and a time to spend with loved ones and friends. So, this fall, reconnect with an old friend or go visit a family member you haven’t seen in a while. Go for a long walk in the park or the forest. Pick out a pumpkin at a pumpkin farm. Take up a new hobby or make some crafts. Or, create a bucket list and have fun checking each item off.

Truman Capote once wrote, “Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.”

Autumn truly is the best season.

Halloween Creep is Good Business

A little birdie told me that Halloween merch is already creeping into the retail stores. While there may be a desire to throttle the messenger, since nobody likes ultra-aggressive commercialism, for Halloweenophiles, this news might as well have been heralded in by silver trumpets. This is the unofficial start of the Halloween season!

Wait, Halloween in July? Why the heck are they starting so damn early? What’s the rush? Indeed, the rush may be simple math. The National Retail Federation estimated that Americans spent $9.1 billion on Halloween last year, up from $8.4 billion in the previous year, with $2.7 billion spent on decorations alone. Anyone who works or has worked in retail knows the need to get sales into the black, as early in the year as possible, is much desired. According to NRF’s annual Halloween survey, over a third of Halloween shoppers start in September or earlier. Roughly 30% of households find inspiration within physical retail stores.

Hallmark Halloween Merch — Hallmark Stores Halloween Merchandise 2017

No one likes empty shelves, so retailers always look ahead. Thus, the term “holiday creep” is born. Holiday creep, which is more associated with Christmas, but can be used interchangeably with all holidays, like Halloween, Valentines, Easter, etc., only increases year to year, so, retailers will often cater to those shoppers in hopes of moving merchandise sooner than the Halloween season, mostly because the bigger holiday season follows right behind.

In fact, those retailers spend a great deal of energy, time and money, fine-tuning their sales process and strategizing their local marketing efforts and inventories for the region. Weather, location and pop culture all have an effect on Halloween sales. They have learned over the years, discounted seasonal items, collectibles and blow-out back stock almost always sells out early. This in turn allows retailers to offer newer merchandise or restock old favorites, at full price, and sell even more during the months of September and October.

Michaels Halloween merch — Michaels Halloween Merchandise 2017

There’s another really good logical reason by Halloween merchandise appears in stores early, and one could argue the term holiday creep shouldn’t even apply here. Anyone who frequents craft stores like Michaels or Joann’s understands that the supply chain must start earlier in the season. Artisans, designers, DIYs and other craftspeople who create and sell their own Halloween merchandise, can’t wait to get product in September. To be ready by October, their work starts now. The same goes with Christmas, shoppers need to craft their items before the holiday season in order to sell in the holiday season. That’s why Halloweenophiles, stake out their local Michaels and craft stores during the summer, we long for the glorious warm hues of Fall to first appear and caress our demented little souls.

Michaels Halloween merch4 — Michaels Halloween Fall Merchandise 2017

Halloween creep may be an annoying reminder to some people that time is flying by and the holidays will soon be here, but until the backlash is louder than the ringing of cash registers, holiday creep in general is unlikely to change. If you encounter anyone freaking out over that fact, kindly remind them this is a totally natural progression in our capitalist society, which benefits the entire country overall, relax and enjoy the fact that we Americans get to celebrate holidays at all.

10 Halloween Things to Do When It’s Not Halloween

Here are ten things to do while we patiently await the return of the Halloween season.

Listen to Halloween Music
From spooky orchestral to monster remixes, the fastest way to invoke some Halloween spirit is by getting your groove on. If you don’t have time to create a Halloween playlist, the good folks at Halloween Radio got you covered with four different live channels to stream online. Lend them your ears here: http://www.halloweenradio.net/

Read Halloween Themed Books
Sometimes it’s just fun to read novels set around Halloween time in the middle of spring. October Dreams Volume I and II is a great collection of short stories, novellas, and personal essays from the world’s best literary minds. Who knows, you might be inspired to write your own Halloween story.

Watch Halloween Themed Movies
Believe it or not, there’s a lot more Halloween themed movies out there than Halloween or Hocus Pocus. Check out some more obscure movie titles, like The Monster Squad or Trick r Treat. Careful, the first one is for kids and latter is most definitely not. You can find more movie suggestions here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_set_around_Halloween

Plan/Shop for a Halloween Costume Early
Whether you’re buying a full outfit or shopping for accessories, now is a great time to start looking for things that sell out during peak season. You could even find sales online or sharp discounts. Remember to buy items that fit. It is risky business buying costumes two sizes too small, in hopes of losing weight by October.

Practice Halloween Recipes
Practice makes perfect! Sure, you could wait until October to make chocolate-pretzel spider balls or toasted ghost marshmallows, but there’s always a risk involved in trying out a new recipe the night before your big shindig. Pinterest is filled with hilarious Halloween recipe fails. If your waistline and your wallet can afford it, work out the kinks of the kitchen now, and by the time Halloween rolls around, you’ll be the Betty Crocker of Samhain.

Make Halloween Crafts
Since the emergence of Pinterest, DIY Halloween has become wildly popular. It’s easy to find online tutorials for dioramas, door wreaths, etc. Places like Michaels, Joann, and local art stores happily cater to your craft needs all year-around. While stylized Halloween supplies are indeed more abundant during the season, generic supplies in Halloween colors can be found every day. Online shopping off-season could yield some pretty good discounts too.

Visit a Real Haunt
From haunted homes to spooky hotels to abandoned asylums, chances are there’s a few places near you with a ghostly past. Taking guided ghost tours is most entertaining way to learn about history of your town or city and an excellent way to get some exercise. You may even have your own paranormal experience. The spirit world doesn’t exactly wait until Halloween night to make contact.

Shop for Vintage Halloween Items
If you’re lucky enough to hit right the estate or yard sale, it’s like finding buried treasure. eBay, antique shops and swap meets are also good places to find vintage wares. Buyers beware! If you plan on getting into the collecting business, be sure to do a little research on what’s vintage and what’s not. Take time to research market values of rare collectibles and learn how to spot replicas (cool) or outright fakes (not cool).

Find a Halloween Conventions, Expos, and Tradeshows
There are several websites dedicated to passing on information on expos and tradeshows that you can attend outside the Halloween season. Some shows are for home haunters, which has grown into its own multi-million-dollar business; and some that simply celebrate Halloween, horror and such. Conventions and expos often showcase new industry trends, animatronics and products for haunters. Film festivals are another subject entirely, but another awesome way to satisfy those Halloween cravings. Check out the Favorite Links page to find events near you. https://halloween-haiku.com/favorite-links/

Join a Halloween Facebook or Google Plus Group
Find like-minded souls who share in your love for Halloween by, what else, talking about Halloween! Halloween fans love sharing ideas and tips and movie and book review with each other. Seriously, Halloweenophiles will gobble up anything and everything Halloween, because every day is Halloween!