My Favorite Things About Halloween

[Grinchfanatic]

Ghosts, witches, vampires, bats, Frankensteins, mummies, black cats, and Jack-O-Lanterns. Jack-O-Lanterns are my favorite. I just love their toothy grins.

[witchy]

I love them all, but Witches are my fav's!! I also love Frankie, Bride of Frankenstein, Zombies, fairy's, Vampires, bats and pumpkins!! I love the fall weather, the great movies out on Halloween, decorating and the atmosphere in general!! I luv being able to just be me!!!

[Pumpkin_Man]

I think all of those things make Halloween special, but for me, the absulute number one necessity for Halloween is a freshly carved jack o'lantern. Jack o'lanterns are to Hallwoeen what a Douglas Fur with lights on it is to Christmas.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I love the lit jack-o-lanterns, too. I think seeing them against the night is my favorite Halloween image. But I love lots of other things, too--all the costumes, the eerie stories & movies, hot cider and caramel apples, the smells of fall.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Murf, I love all those things, too. I love the costumes, the ghost stories, the horror movies, the decorations and all that, but IMHO, carving a jack o'lantern is THE archatypical Halloween traddition, that Halloween is not complete without. Of course, I love it when ToT ers come to my door, and I love all the other decorations, too. But Halloween with out a jack o'lantern is just not Halloween.

Mike

[scareviewzombies.com]

Jack O Lanterns, Candy, Caramel Apples, Spooky Props, TOTs, Horror Movies, Halloween TV Specials, Haunted Houses, just to name a few! Halloween rules

[Pumpkin_Man]

And don't forget "Haunted road trips." I am hoping to do at least one this October, but I will make more if I can find the time and the cash.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Murf, I love all those things, too. I love the costumes, the ghost stories, the horror movies, the decorations and all that, but IMHO, carving a jack o'lantern is THE archatypical Halloween traddition, that Halloween is not complete without. Of course, I love it when ToT ers come to my door, and I love all the other decorations, too. But Halloween with out a jack o'lantern is just not Halloween.

Mike

Would you believe that I was grown before I carved my first pumpkin?

During my Mississippi childhood, they just weren't common. We would see images of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns in October, in coloring books or on TV, but I think I saw maybe two real ones the whole time I was growing up. My mother didn't have that tradition in her childhood--TOTing being mainly a post-WWII activity--so she wasn't looking around for anything like that.

Once I was grown and living on my own, I started seeing pumpkins in grocery stores, and I would buy one to carve for TOTers in my neighborhood. Back then, as a single grad student living in an apartment, I would get little pumpkins, the pie pumpkins, and I would carve them with triangular eyes and a smile, and put a votive candle in them and set them in my window. They were too tiny to get a nose. I graduated to full-sized pumpkins after I married. For years I used to throw away the seeds! I didn't even know you could roast and eat them. Now pumpkin seeds are one of the highlights of the Halloween season for me.

[Castle]

Jack O'lanterns, skeletons, and werewolves.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Murf, my mother grew up during the Great Depression. Pumpkins were for pie baking only, which was their main Thanksgiving desert tradition. Some of their neighbors did carv jack o'lanterns, but my grandparents saw that as "frivelous," and a waste of hard earned money that was very hard to come by back in the 30s. They did tell ghost stories and there were a few horror stories on the radio back then. ToT was not an option as candy, even home made candy, cost money that most people simply did not have. They made treats for themselvs and maybe a few friends, but they just couldn't afford to hand it out to all the kids in the neighborhood. Halloween, for the most part, was seen as the "gateway holiday" to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

I think it was about the time my oldest brother was born they started carving jack o'lanterns as money was more readily available and more people were doing it.

Mike

[JonH]

candy, esp. kit kats & milk duds & snickers & candy corn...........hallowe'en history & lore (2 of my favorite books are on the subject, but then again I'm a history teacherd).........home decorations (it takes my wife & I about 3 days to finish inside & out)..........professional haunted houses (live in St. Louis, home of The Darkness, Lemp Caverns, and Creepyworld).........the change in the weather, the crispness of the air, the leaves, the special "electricity" the day & night of Halloween Day itself........the color ORANGE!!!!......dressing up & the big Halloween party each year at our place.......AMC each year (I know it sucks more now, but its still fun to flip randomly thru & catch Halloween 3 mid-movie).......Halloween night itself, the memories of my own ToTing now merged w/ new memories of sitting w/ family & friends around a fire bowl while passing out candy to over 200 kids.......visiting a real pumpkin patch each year, grabbing some fresh made pumpkin & apple butter at the outdoor market (and some kettle korn) before going out in the field & cutting a couple off the vine........and of course, that leads to the #1, the good 'ol Jack 'O Lantern.

[witchy]

candy, esp. kit kats & milk duds & snickers & candy corn...........hallowe'en history & lore (2 of my favorite books are on the subject, but then again I'm a history teacherd).........home decorations (it takes my wife & I about 3 days to finish inside & out)..........professional haunted houses (live in St. Louis, home of The Darkness, Lemp Caverns, and Creepyworld).........the change in the weather, the crispness of the air, the leaves, the special "electricity" the day & night of Halloween Day itself........the color ORANGE!!!!......dressing up & the big Halloween party each year at our place.......AMC each year (I know it sucks more now, but its still fun to flip randomly thru & catch Halloween 3 mid-movie).......Halloween night itself, the memories of my own ToTing now merged w/ new memories of sitting w/ family & friends around a fire bowl while passing out candy to over 200 kids.......visiting a real pumpkin patch each year, grabbing some fresh made pumpkin & apple butter at the outdoor market (and some kettle korn) before going out in the field & cutting a couple off the vine........and of course, that leads to the #1, the good 'ol Jack 'O Lantern.

Hi JonH, I live in St Peters, not too far away!! Man we don't get that many kids, I wish!!!!
My bad, where are my manners, Welcome to the forum!!!

[JonH]

thanks! I've been technically on here for a couple of years, but I mostly just read what you guys are posting.

I'm actually right across the river from you in Hazelwood (think: about a mile or 2 from Hazelwood West, if you know where the Riverwood subdivisions are). We get bombarded here - in a good way! - last year we had someone sitting with us that counted 260 kids. I'd say 95% were even in costume & VERY polite!

This neighborhood even has a Saturday-before-Halloween daytime kids Halloween Parade, complete with candy & snacks at the end. its awesome, we have our nieces & nephews (who live in St. Peters, coincidently) come out for it every year. Halloween is huge around here, we love it.

[NeverMore]

Hey JonH.

Sadly, my favorite thing about Halloween is my memories. Every year I try to recapture the excitement I had as a kid... trick or treating, playing pranks on the neighbors, scaring people. I don't have any kids of my own so I can't live vicariously through them. Closest I can come is trying to scare the kids that come to my door or watching the joy on their faces at seeing the decorations. We usually have a party every year but I think I'm partied out. Don't look forward to it as much as I used to.

[Murfreesboro]

Mike, I hadn't thought about the expense of celebrating Halloween during the Depression (and WWII when sugar was rationed), but of course that would have played some part in people's (lack of) celebrations.

My mother actually grew up in the '20s in Arkansas, and she said in that part of the country (where most people were Protestant, you know), Halloween was a non-event in her childhood. Just a few teenaged boys playing tricks on neighbors. She said she first heard about TOTing when she was a young adult living in Southern California, in the mid-30s. I know from reading/viewing articles and documentaries that Halloween was starting to be celebrated in the Northeast as well, but my mother always thought it had spread across the country from CA. I suspect the South was the last area for it to catch on.

JonH, I love history, too, although my academic field was/is English literature. I love reading about the origins of all our holidays, though.

Does anybody here have the tradition of prowling corn mazes? We don't do it every year, but we have had fun with that a few times. I have heard tell of some local corn mazes that are "haunted" at Halloween, but I have never participated in that activity on the night itself.

I really do love just the whole season. October is my favorite month, no contest there. That dying time of year is so suggestive; yet the autumn is also at its peak of beauty, and the weather is frequently just about perfect, too. The harvest is in, or very nearly so, so there is no better time of year for food. I love football games and tailgating, and bonfires and nature, and the lengthening nights, and the mysterious suggestion that the world of the living and the world of the dead are perhaps not too far apart.