What was the best decade for Halloween?

[Snoopy/Red Baron]

There was a thread here awhile back where people discussed this topic and I thought it would good to have all the new faces around here chime in. My favorite was the 80's when the scary movie boom has still never been replicated (though re-made). It was a time when Halloween was still innocent enough for people to trick or treat without real fear crazies but also a time when the celebration of Halloween was sophisticated to have a lot of fun attractions and be a major holiday. But I'm sure I'm just biased because I grew up in the 80's and have all of that nostalgia associated with it (Garfield Halloween Special, Fat Albert Halloween Special, Its a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, etc.).

So what decade do you think was the best for Halloween?

[Big_Guh]

While I suspect most will mention the decade in which they grew up, I agree that the 80s-early 90s are hard to beat in terms of Halloween culture. As you say, the movies, the specials, the commercials, the promotions implemented were all magical, and captured what I personally define as the elusive essence of Halloween. Simply put, it seemed easier to become immersed in the Halloween spirit, as it was observed on a more macro, community level vs. the more of personal, segmented basis we see today.

Also, costumes were more varied, more special as they weren't as mass produced, or readily available from the countless big box stores most cities have on every corner. Many were painstakingly hand crafted, which represents an increasingly rare endeavor which enhanced the sense of mystery and magic.

Schools were also less PC about celebrating the holiday and holding costume parades/Halloween festivals. I recall most of my classrooms in elementary school were proudly and generously adourned with various Halloween decorations beginning Oct 1. Once again, a loss of innocence in a way, as Halloween is now deemphasized in schools and largely ignored/villanized. Half the build up for me was the Halloween fun at school. These are memories ill always treasure.

I'm sure a lot of this is nostalgia speaking, but it just seemed more care free, whimsical, and ceremonious back in the 80s/early 90s. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate each and every Halloween, but the golden age of the holiday we all cherish will forever, to me, reside in the era of MJ's "thriller", neon colors, and He-man.

[johnsoneliza52]

I don't think I have a favorite decade... each one is special for its own reasons. The 60s for me was all trick or treating, and lots and lots of candy. The plastic thin masks that suffocated you, and the way your mother used to make you wear a sweater over your pretty princess costume.
The 70s was uneventful ... I appreciated the horror movies though...The exorcist, Tx chainsaw..etc

[Big_Guh]

Random thought alert:

Just to add, those iconic plastic Halloween themed TOT buckets from McDonalds seem to serve as a symbol for the era you and I are referring to. I'd post a pic, but alas, I'm too lazy (but at least I'm honest!)

[Big_Guh]

I don't think I have a favorite decade... each one is special for its own reasons. The 60s for me was all trick or treating, and lots and lots of candy. The plastic thin masks that suffocated you, and the way your mother used to make you wear a sweater over your pretty princess costume.
The 70s was uneventful ... I appreciated the horror movies though...The exorcist, Tx chainsaw..etc

Definitely can't speak to the 60's or 70's , but interesting to hear about Halloween during those decades. I'm especially grateful for '78 giving us Carpenter's "Halloween". Was certainly a game changer, and can be argued to be a launching pad for the holiday into pop culture, commercialization, etc

[Pumpkin_Man]

Well, I am going to be predictable, and go by my own personal experience with the holiday. I was born in 1960, and it was during my childhood that I really started enjoying Halloween. Now in fairness, when I was a child, Christmas was my favorite for obvious reasons, but when the farm stand at the corner of 111th and Central Park put the pumpkins out for sale, the excitement in the air couldn't be beat. It was the year I started Kindergarten, the Fall of 65, when I saw those pumpkins for the first time while on my way to school. As time went on, I would make it a point to walk by that store every day during the month of October, and that is also where we got our Halloween pumpkins. I also purchased my very first pumpkin with my own money a year later at that very farm stand. Every halloween, a trip to that farm stand to buy our Halloween pumpkins was a major part of our Halloween tradition. It was comperable to picking out our Christmas tree. Even after we moved to New Lenox in the Fall of 77, I would make a trip to that store to buy our pumpkins up until the year 1980, when a fire ripped through that store, and it was replaced by an apartment complex.

The treats we would get in our 'Trick or Treat' bags were also something to look forward to. The absence of political correctness and fear mongering was not a factor, so we ToT ed til all hours of the night on Halloween. My friends, sister and I would come home with a huge shopping bag full of fabulous Slo Poke carmel pops, some SPECTACULAR popcorn balls that one of our neighbors made from scratch, and a whole assortment of treats that seemed to only be available during October. After 'Trick or Treat,' the park would put on a Halloween party, complete with a spook house and costume judgeing contest. In either 71 or 72, (I don't remember which year it was) I decided to start making my own Halloween costume. With a few unsuspecting cardboard boxes, cloths dryer vent hoses, flashlight bulbs and batteries and some silver spray paint, I made an awesome robot costume, and WON first prize in that contest that year. A crisp new 5 dollar bill. To this day, I wish some one had taken a picture of me in that get-up, because that was my best effort of all time.

So I think the best decade for Halloween was the 60s and most of the 70s. Things sort of took a nose dive when we moved to New Lenox.

Mike

[NeverMore]

I say the '20s. Halloween just keeps getting more awesome that by the next decade it's gonna surpass that holiday with the jolly fat guy. One can dream?

[johnsoneliza52]

Ah, yes...the popcorn balls!!! When you were "allowed' to hand out things like that!

[Kolchak]

If we allow the politically correct attitudes to continue without us putting up a fight, and putting a stop to it. I fear in 30 years, if not sooner, all we'll have left is memories of the good old days regardless of the decade it was.

[NeverMore]

You said it brother.

[Pumpkin_Man]

The 20s?? If you're talking about the 1920s, that was way before my time. If you're talking about the next decade, then I agree with Kolchak and Nevermore. The way we have allowed political correctness to dictate to us, how we talk, what holiday greetings we can and can't use, and what decorations we can and can't put up, there won't be any Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas. It will simply be called "Fall Holiday," "Turkey Feast Day" and "Winter Holiday," and that's if people even bother celebrating those days at all.

Johnsenliza, back in the old neighborhood, one of our neighbors made popcorn balls from scratch, and they were absolutely THE BEST I ever had. I never tasted anything quite like them before or since. She handed those out right up to about a year after we moved to Arm Pit New Lenox. Then everyone was starting to get scared about all the 'razor-blades-in-the-apples' stories, and Halloween just became another scape goat for the news media to fear monger everyone. My mother was a MAJOR 'worry-wart,' and when she saw those stories, she and my sister in-law franticaly adminished my nieces and nephew not to eat anything until they've examined it.

Mike

[NeverMore]

Funny you should say that Mike. I just read yesterday that there's an online petition to change 'Columbus Day' to 'Explorer's Day', as a way to honor John Glenn amongst others who changed the course of human history. Anyways, there are a lot of people who feel honoring Columbus specifically isn't such a good thing. Specifically the Native Americans. Though, if it wasn't Columbus who opened the door to their conquest it would have been someone else.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Nevermore, I don't think Columbus Day should be changed, but I do think that we should honor people like John Glen, Neil Armstrong and all of those space pioneers who did in fact change human history. I also think that while Columbus Day should be an observance, that Halloween should be the actual October holiday so people can enjoy it without having to worry about school or work.

Mike

[scareviewzombies.com]

I say the last 10 years from me personally have been the best costumes are better now, masks are better now, Halloween props now are bigger, better more scary, more spooks houses haunted attractions,

[Murfreesboro]

For me the best decade was the '90s, when my kids were being born and I was rediscovering modern Halloween. I grew up in Mississippi and TOTed during the '60s. While I loved it, the holiday in that place and time was nothing compared to what it had become when my own kids entered into it. My mother, and probably most adults during my childhood, had never TOTed themselves. It was not done in the American South prior to WWII. So our holiday was being managed by people who had never done it and didn't really "get" it. You can't possibly imagine what a big, big deal it was for me even to see a jack-o-lantern in the '60s. Most people didn't have them. And the scariest thing I ever saw was a young man who came to the door with a nylon hose over his face and a flashlight under his chin as he distributed the candy to us. Honestly, I have remembered that simple effect my whole life long.

I felt as if I had fallen into Halloween Heaven when my own kids got big enough to TOT. It makes a huge difference to have the holiday organized by people who celebrated it themselves as children.