UNIQUE GIFTS FOR HALLOWEEN AND HORROR FANS

Looking to impress that special Halloween and horror fan in your household this Creepmas? Well, check out my list of oddball and unique, but totally awesome gifts! Remember to shop local and small business when you can this year!

BUY FACEMASKS! Protect your loved ones and help defeat this Covid-19 pandemic! Great stocking stuffers! With over 280,000 dead from Coronavirus, I’m advocating face masks hard this year. You can never have too many. Buy different kinds. Themed face masks are fun. Do it for yourself, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, your school mates, your grocery store clerks, your favorite artists, musicians, celebrities, and complete random strangers. Staying alive is not a political issue! PLEASE WEAR A FACE MASK.
https://www.zazzle.com/halloween+face+masks

Scare Package from Creepy Co., $53.99-$109.99
I’m not sure this is a new idea but I love it! Creepy Co has fun 2 item or 3 item sets available featuring blankets, T-shirts, hats, socks, etc.
https://www.creepycompany.com/collections/creepy-co-scare-packages

Mezco Toys Presents Living Dead Doll, Elvira-Mistress of the Dark, now available for Pre-order, ships in July 2021, $52
The Queen of Halloween, Elvira joins the Living Dead Doll family. This is a must have if you are an Elvira fan or a Living Dead Doll fan.
https://www.mezcotoyz.com/ldd-presents-elvira-mistress-of-the-dark

Sam Statue Decoration, $39.99
Sam from Trick ‘r Treat movie is our Halloween hero! This 16” light-up statue decoration made of resin, sold exclusively at Spirit Halloween Stores is gorgeous.
https://www.spirithalloween.com/product/16-inch-light-up-sam-statue-decoration-trick-r-treat/178192.uts?Extid=sf_froogle

Legend of Sleepy Hollow Writing Gloves, $26
I think I’ve mentioned before that Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of my favorite literary characters and I adore these fingerless gloves from Storiarts. Great for a night of reading.
https://storiarts.com/collections/gloves/products/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow-writing-gloves

Pawzuph Statue, $23.99
This hand painted polyresin statue named Pawzuph, a horned occult cat, is simply too beautiful for words. I feel like this little guy needs a legendary story to go with him.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/825728054/pawzuph-horned-occult-cat-figurine

The Walking Dead We Are the Walking Dead Black Mug, $15
After ten years, The Walking Dead Universe is still going strong, with two different shows on television right now, the final Season 11 of the flagship show, due out in late 2021, and planned spin-offs featuring our favorite characters. Plenty of more collecting to be had.
https://thewalkingdeadshop.amc.com/collections/drinkware/products/the-walking-dead-we-are-the-walking-dead-black-mug

Krampus Activity Book from Fright Rags, $10
Scary T-shirt afficionados Fright Rags now features officially licensed Krampus brand and this Krampus Activity Book is hours of fun.
https://www.fright-rags.com/collections/krampus/products/krampus-activity-book

MINIATURES
Halloween Miniatures make great gifts. They’re perfect for dioramas, terrariums, supplementing entire Halloween villages, or just all by themselves. Some name brands are expensive, but shop around to get best prices and discounts. Off-season is always a good time to buy. Miniatures make great stocking stuffers too!

Lemax Collection – Spooky Town Villages – Prices and Stores Vary
https://www.lemaxcollection.com/villages/spooky-town

Dept. 56 – Prices and Stores Vary
https://department56.com/

Miniatures.com
https://www.miniatures.com/Halloween-C41.aspx

The Little Dollhouse Company
https://www.thelittledollhousecompany.com/dollhouses-miniatures-furniture-kits/halloween-miniatures-c-9_375/

L.A. COUNTY LOCALS
Suggestions for my hometown peeps. Online ordering and pick-up available. Check website for store hours and other info. Facemasks are great stuffers!

Dark Delicacies – Large selection of horror books, signed CDs & Vinyls, clothing, purses, jewelry, horror memorabilia, horror Geeki Tikis, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab oils, horror facemasks, and other unique gifts.

Frankenstein Turntable Spinature, $25
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1920/Frankenstein_Spinature.html#/

Horror Socks from Character, $10
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1846/Horror_Socks.html#/

FACEMASKS
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1735/Masks___.html#/

******

Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum – Large selection of clothing, books, witchcraft supplies, tarot cards, divination, taxidermy, antiques, and unique gifts. Looking to get into witchcraft, but don’t want to be overwhelmed or intimidated? Then, this is the place to go!

Vampir Slippers, $38
https://beardedladysmysticmuseum.square.site/product/vampir-slippers/4111?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=13

Krampus Air Freshner, $5
https://beardedladysmysticmuseum.square.site/product/krampus-air-freshener-/4137?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=53

FACEMASKS
https://beardedladysmysticmuseum.square.site/s/search?q=face%20mask

*****

Halloweentown Store – Large selection of T-shirts, costumes, facemasks, replica vintage Halloween decor, novelty gifts, Funko Pop! Vinyl Figures, Wacky Wobblers, Iconz, Mystery Minis and more. Great place to find sold-out collectibles too.

Trick ‘r Treat Vinyl Record, $105
http://www.halloweentownstore.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=HS&Product_Code=WAX105&Category_Code=Vinyl_Records

Ouija Mystifying Mints, $5
http://www.halloweentownstore.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=HS&Product_Code=CANDY117&Category_Code=Mints

FACEMASKS
http://www.halloweentownstore.com/page/HS/CTGY/Face_Masks_Fabric

*****

Monster-A-GoGo, featuring Kreepsville 666 The “Original Scare Wear” – New location in East L.A. (Melrose closed), clothing, purses, accessories, pins, collectibles, Hexmas, and brand names such as Elvira, Vampira, Vincent Price, and more!

Haunted House Purse, $54
https://store.kreepsville666.com/collections/new-and-restocked/products/haunted-house-purse

Elvira Macabre Mobile Men’s T-shirt, $25
https://store.kreepsville666.com/collections/gifts-under-25-00/products/elvira-macabre-mobile-mens-t-shirt

FACEMASKS
https://store.kreepsville666.com/collections/face-masks

*****

Traditions – Traditional homemade style and replica holiday themed vintage décor, wreaths, figurines, ornaments, home and garden, tableware, Bethany Lowe, Kathrine’s Collection, and more! Collectibles and other items sell out quickly!

Jack O’Lantern Topiary $150
https://www.christmastraditions.com/product/TJ7743.html

Black Cat Jack with Pumpkin $15
https://www.christmastraditions.com/product/TPH7812a.html

MERRY CREEPMAS!

Happy Krampusnacht!

A special haiku in honor of Krampus night, December 5th.

open window
where are the children
krampus bell

Creeped Out Christmas Art/Photo Challenge 2020

So, here’s the deal, Krampus is coming. That’s that. 2020 is not done with us. The face on Grandma’s vintage snowman, probably caved in. Those holiday lights you put away last year with meticulous care, suddenly, a big knot. The money you saved to give the kids a nice Christmas, probably going to fix your car or pay the rent or buy a new refrigerator, whatever, it’s gone! To top it all off, Covid-19 just ruined all our holidays plans! Such is pandemic life!
Burnt cookies, broken baubles, no problem. Don’t get mean, get creative! Join us on Instagram this December for the Creeped Out Christmas Art/Photo Challenge 2020! We like it dark and scary! #CreepedOutChristmas

Join in the fun any time, any day, but, if you post something all 25 days, you’ll be entered into a random drawing** to win a prize!!!

**Contestants must post an authentic, original art piece or photo each day from December 1-25, on Instagram, using #CreepedOutChristmas AND be a current follower of @halloweenhaiku9 be to be entered into the drawing. Contest ends midnight, pacific time, December 25, 2020. Winner will be chosen and announced here and on social media on December 26th. Please see Contest Rules for more details.

Prize – TBD, valued up to $20.

Sinister Saturday: Krampus Approved Christmas Coal Recipe

Earlier this week, I went out Halloween shopping, looking for a few items needed to complete my decorations. Unfortunately, Halloween has already been replaced in the stores by Christmas! What crap is this. Wait your turn, Christmas!

Now, I’m no hater. I’m just pissy and sad the Halloween season is half over. I suppose it’s only fair, I mean, Christmas-loving folks are just trying to get happy like us Halloween fans were trying to do back in July. So, in the spirit of community, I’m willing to compromise, with the help, and permission, from the The Necro-Nom-Nom-Nomicon, I’m by sharing a fangtastic recipe that brings both Christmas and Halloween together with Krampus Approved Christmas Coal. Krampus might not be the sweetest creature stirring but this black-as-night dessert is sinfully spookilicious!

For ingredients list and recipe, please visit www.eatthedead.com

If Christmas insists on encroaching on Halloween’s turf during October, well, then, we’re just gonna have to make the holidays all dreary and fright. How do you feel about it? Let me know in the comments or tag me on social media @HalloweenHaiku9

Have yourself a scary little Christmas and a Happy Halloween!

Recipe of the Month – December: Spiderweb Soup Halloween Recipe

A day late and a dollar short, that’s what’s going on my tombstone. Apparently, I was naughty this year, so Krampus brought me a nasty cold for Christmas. Not sick enough to die, luckily, but sick enough to miss my blog post-deadline. Mea culpa. It’s been a rotten week.

The good news is being sick means you get to eat soup, cuz soup is great for colds. It’s also great for cold, rainy days. So, thanks to the folks over at the Gourmet Food Store for this perfectly simple and tasty recipe for Spiderweb Soup with Halloween shaped croutons: https://www.gourmetfoodstore.com/spiderweb-soup-halloween-recipe-15336

spiderweb-soup-halloween — Spiderweb Soup from Gourmet Food Store

Ingredients:

6 medium tomatoes
3 medium carrots
1 ½ tbsp. Sugar
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
4-½ cups vegetable broth
¼ tsp. cinnamon
½ tbsp. ginger powder
¼ tsp. ground cloves
8 slices white bread
2 tbsp. Chopped fresh herbs (oregano, thyme, basil, and rosemary)
2 tbsp. Olive oil
16 peppercorns (pink if available)
7 oz. crème fraiche
Special equipment: Halloween-themed cookie cutters, piping bag

tomatoes

For the full recipe and cooking instructions, please go here: https://www.gourmetfoodstore.com/spiderweb-soup-halloween-recipe-15336

If you still have leftover ham, this soup pairs fangtastically with a ham and cheese panini.

ham and cheese chef Akis Petretzikis — ham and cheese – chef Akis Petretzikis

Happy Krampusnacht!

According to German folklore, December 5th is the day that Krampus visits all the naughty children and whips them for misbehaving, gives them lumps of coal, or steals them away to eat them later. You gotta be really, really bad to have the latter happen. You might not agree with the methods of Santa’s evil twin, but you gotta admit, he gets results, even the adults act a little better during the holidays. Besides, Santa doesn’t really like being the bad guy, and all that coal weighs down the sleigh. Better to outsource a job like that.

These days, we hold annual balls and festivals in honor of Krampus, who’s now more a whimsical dark hero to us misfits.

Ghoulish Bunny Krampus — Krampus ©Diana Levin

Artist: Diana Levin
Company: Ghoulish Bunny Studios
Social Media: https://twitter.com/ghoulishbunny or https://www.instagram.com/ghoulishbunnystudios/

Shop: https://www.ghoulishbunnystudios.com/shop

Tips for Handling Post-Halloween Depression

Well, it’s happened. Another Halloween season has come and gone, and it’ll be 11 long months until our favorite holiday comes back around. Post-Halloween Depression is real. There never seems to be enough time to do all the things we want to do during the month of October. While it’s easy to fall into the trappings of woulda, shoulda, coulda, guilt never brought back Halloween any sooner. If you have a serious issues, get help. Young folks, talk to someone. For reals. Maybe you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is the loneliest time of the year and it doesn’t have to be.

If you think you got a handle on it and you’re just looking for ways to squeeze the spookiness outta the holidays. Here’s a few helpful tips:

Find Your Tribe

Life is simply too short not to hang with people who don’t engage your interest, inspire your creativity or support your vision, even if it’s just turning your front yard into a cemetery every October.

Halloween groups on Pinterest, Reddit and Facebook are great places to find likeminded fans. Commiserating with others helps us not feel so alone, and trust me, you are not the only one who cannot bear to watch Freeform’s sugary programming on repeat for the next two months.

Shop ’til You Drop

Don’t put away that credit card just yet because shopping for Halloween items is even better after Halloween. This is the time when stores are blowing out their stocks and have slashed prices from 50-80% off. Spirit stores, Michaels, Joanns and World Market, just to name a few, all have big sales still going on. Never underestimate the power of retail therapy.

Scare up Your Next Halloween

There’s no time to cry when you’re a notebook deep full of ideas for next Halloween, and next year is gonna be a doozy. Halloween 2020 will be on a Saturday, there’ll be a full moon and that’s also the day we set our clocks back. Sounds auspicious already!

Let Autumn Linger

I don’t understand why people insist on rushing into Christmas when we have the beauty and wonder of the harvest to celebrate. Pumpkins, scarecrows, fall leaves, much of what we love about Autumn is what we love about Halloween, and nothing is better than natural spookiness of fall.

You can always decorate with autumn lights and harvest candles. Hang a fall wreath on the front door or somewhere over the mantle. Instead of the Christmas tree, put up an autumn tree during the month of November. Check out this fantastic autumn home decor from All for Fall & Halloween member Megan Sanders:

Photo courtesy of Megan Sanders/ ©Megan Sanders

Give Thanks to Dark and Moody

Maybe you’re one that needs to feed your gothic soul all twelve months outta the year. Well, Wednesday, keep your striped socks on, because it’s quite easy to flip the holidays to satisfy our love for all things dark and brooding, as seen here in this incredibly beautiful dark holiday photography:

©gempicker.com

For more photos like these, check out our Dark and Moody Holidays board on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/halloweenkristy/dark-and-moody-holidays/

Celebrate Bad Santa

Of all the bad Santa origin stories in the world, Germany’s Krampus is the clear winner. The half-goat, half-demon, schnapps loving, children whipping, horned god of the witches is the most recognizable of all holiday bad boys and has been depicted in numerous way, but the consistency has always been his long twisted horns, a long tail, snake-like tongue, razor-sharp claws, and black hooves for feet. Additionally, he often wears a long heavy coat, wrapped in heavy chains, with some type of big bell attached.

Krampus ©Brom

Krampus is bad cop to Santa’s good cop. He carries a bundle of birch branches for whipping naughty children and stuffs the really, really bad ones into a basket or sack that he takes home to torture, drown and eat.

How this devil ended up as Santa’s evil sidekick is a mystery but he’s the only one celebrated internationally, even has his own designated night, Krampusnacht on December 5^th

Embrace the Spooky Side of the Holidays

Krampus is more proof that Halloween and Christmas go together like peanut butter and jelly. Artists, creators, and movie makers have been genre-bending and making the holidays scary for decades.

From twisted Santa histories to spooky holiday tales, there are plenty of the dark or supernatural elements to admire or revere during the holiday season.

So, dry your tears and get to planning, cuz the holiday scares are just beginning. Put some fangs on your snowman or hang some bloody reindeer antler bones on your front door and your relatives just might behave on Thanksgiving day.

Wicked Art Wednesdays – Holiday Edition: Sherrie Thai

Every Wednesday in December, Halloween Haiku will present the fabulous art of the very best artists from around the world, some well-known, some unknown, but all of them are amazingly talented.

This week, we share the fabulous art of an uber-talented artist and designer out of San Francisco, Sherrie Thai.

Artist: Sherrie Thai
Company: Shaire Productions
Where to Purchase Goods: http://shaireproductions.com/shop/
Website: http://shaireproductions.com/
Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/shaireproductions/

Haiku of the Week

wake up, startled
heavy hooves on the rooftop
not santa

krampus shadow.jpg

Season’s Greetings from Halloween Haiku

Happy holidays! After the busy Halloween season, it was good to take a little break in November and gear up for December festivities. I’ve mentioned before that I think Christmas and Halloween are close cousins. They go hand-in-hand and mix well like peanut butter and jelly. Point in case, Tim Burton’s classic Nightmare Before Christmas. There’s plenty to do and see during the holidays that appeal to Halloweenophiles, so there’s no need to reject December or feel blue. Get creative! Haunted holidays is an awesome theme for decorations. Make Halloween themed Christmas cookies. Make a scary gingerbread house. Watch a scary Christmas movie, and who doesn’t love shopping for cool Halloween items to fill your gothic or black stocking up with? Lastly, there’s the iconic Krampus. The antithesis of jolly Santa Clause. He’s scarier than any Universal monster and twice as old.

This month, is basically a chance for second Halloween. So, check back often. Halloween Haiku is going to have plenty of new haiku, fun stuff and cool ideas that our pumpkin-loving hearts will enjoy.

Have yourself a scary little Christmas and beware of Krampus!