My Halloween decorations were up before October even got here, so that probably tells you where I stand. It’s my favorite holiday, and I see no reason to wait until October 1 to start enjoying it. I’m also in a Halloween and fall junk journal swap right now. I jumped on that one. Paper, fall, and Halloween were always going to be an easy yes for me.
By Halloween, Texas usually starts acting like fall, too. I love those cozy earlier evenings and the spooky season of it all. But the costumes and decorating are a big part of why I look forward to it. Halloween gives people permission to get creative and a little ridiculous, and I grew up around people who took full advantage of that.
When I was a kid in South Carolina, I had Halloween parties every year. My parents were divorced, and the parties were always at my mom’s house. She and my stepdad would decorate, and people around town knew about their displays. They’d bring children over to tour the decorations, and the house was regularly in the newspaper.
These were spooky decorations, but they weren’t scary. There was a lot of imagination involved. One year, they made instruments and put together a monster band. Another year, they had a monster wedding. So my idea of Halloween decorating was shaped by people who apparently looked at a yard and thought it needed an entire cast of characters.
As I got older, I helped more, and after my stepdad passed, I eventually took over the decorating. It was something I’d grown up enjoying and then got to help create. I still love seeing what somebody can make out of ordinary materials, especially when the result is something you wouldn’t have thought to try yourself.
Mom could do that. When my kids were around their preteen and teenage years, we had a big Halloween party for them. She came over and decorated our yard and the inside of the house. The yard was spooky and amazing, and the kids still talk about those decorations to this day.
They were into Avenged Sevenfold at the time, and this was after their drummer, The Rev, had passed away. Mom made drums in his honor as part of the display, using cardboard, foil, paint, and things like that. She took something the kids loved and found a way to work it into Halloween.
It was pretty freaking cool. Of all the things I could tell you about that party, those homemade drums are one of the details I remember best. And I love that my kids still remember a Halloween their grandma helped put together for them, just as I remember the ones she and my stepdad created when I was growing up.
My decorating these days is nowhere near that elaborate, although I’m clearly still enthusiastic enough to get it out before October. Between that and the journal swap, I’m finding ways to enjoy my favorite holiday. The creativity is still a big part of the fun for me, whether I’m working on a journal page or thinking about what I could eventually do in the yard.
Because I would like to decorate on that scale again. I want to wait until my grandson is a bit older, but I’d love to put together something spooky for him. I haven’t settled on a theme, and my ideas cover a fairly wide range.
I’m a huge Freddy Krueger fan. The “Welcome to primetime, bitch” scene is a favorite, so there’s that end of the spectrum. But I also love Dirty Dancing, and I’ve seen pictures of skeletons posed as Baby and Johnny doing the lift. I absolutely love that idea.
Freddy Krueger and Dirty Dancing may not seem like natural companions, but those are the kinds of decorating decisions I’d enjoy having to make. There’s no shortage of possibilities, and I’m in no hurry to narrow them down.
For now, my decorations are up, I have a Halloween and fall journal swap to work on, and I’m ready for those cozy evenings. I don’t need a display big enough to make the newspaper to enjoy Halloween, but I haven’t ruled out going a little overboard again someday.
Especially if I can figure out how to get skeleton Johnny to hold skeleton Baby over his head.
With love from Mabank,
Brandy
