Thread: Thinking of taking a year off...

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I never thought I would ever say this...but Im thinking of taking next year off. I know, crazy right?? It has been my dream to have a big Halloween party wit the house decked out, have all our friends come and have a good time and rave about how fabulous the decor is. We do not have many TOT (only 20 this year which is good for us! Only two kids on our street) so we do a party. Last year it was our first and I was over the moon happy...evertything went so well and I wanted it to last all night. Sadly, this year I was ready to be done before it even started. So much work, Ifelt like I was going through the motions...the shopping, the setting up, even our party this year. I actually got teary eyed sunday am after our party because of how exhausted I was mentally and physically, how much money we had spent, how many hours we spent setting up....just to be disappointed. I really didnt enjoy our party this year, as much as I hate to admit it. We had some lighting problems, singing pumpkins didnt work or the Hallowindow, lost power completely all outside in front and back for 20 minutes...then the house was packed, people were spilling things, kids running around, inflatable haunted house didnt get put up, windows not decorated how i wanted, got dressed 15 minutes before people arrived. etc...(some people RSVP but not show up, although we still had close to 80 people) Everyone told me what a great time they had and how awesome it was....but I didnt get that feeling at all this year...a little bit during TOT...but thats it. Not during the party preparations and party for sure! I think we will take a year off...and I think thats part of the problem. We spend so much time on our party prep that we literally do nothing else the month of October...no scary movies, bon fires, pumpkin patch, etc...the whole month flies by without really getting to enjoy it because we are getting the haunt ready. It consumes me all month, and not in a great way. Im putting the last away of my deccor now and will be glad/relieved to not see if for another year...it will give me time to decided what we want to do next Halloween and have time to bring the magic back....we will still decorate, on a smaller scale, maybe have bon-fire with our close friends...Im starting to think in the decor and party side, less may be more if it means being able to truly enjoy the holiday and not be so stressed out! It sounds like several of us had kind of lost the Spirit this year..im glad im not the only one bc I was feeling pretty bad about it! Im sad another year has passed and I never got my true Halloween Spirit!!

Nothing wrong with taking a year off. Sounds like it was really taxing on you and if you truly didn't enjoy it, it's time to shift gears. Doing a smaller scale get-together might be just the ticket. It wil be less stressful, less expensive, less time consuming (allowing you time to enjoy other aspects of the holiday). As you aid, you have a whole year to rest up and re-evaluate things. You may jump in with both feet again next October, or maybe you'll scale back to something more manageable. In either event, do what allows you the most enjoyment, otherwise you may become disenfranchised with Halloween altogether....and we can't have THAT now, can we?!

I understand where you are coming from. I'm still going for it on Halloween, but Christmas decorating this year is going to get cut back dramatically. I just don't want to take the time to set up, nor do I want to wait for Mother Nature to dictate when I'll be able to take stuff down. I've already started spring cleaning

It's completely understandable. We've been doing the Halloween party since 1995 when this all started for us. We also don't get a log of TOTs so we have a Halloween party. It all started with just a few close friends and a few decorations. Every year it would grow bigger with a larger guest list and more decorations. I think it was in 2001, which of course wasn't a good year, that it became somewhat of a letdown for the same reasons. Too many guests and many now shows so we decided at that point that the big Halloween party would be every other year and we'd go all out. On the off years it would just be our close friends and we'd make some home made pizza, have some drinks and just enjoy ourselves.

This has actually worked very well to keep the spirit alive and give us time to breathe. Now I have 2 years to work on big projects and don't get as stressed as I used to. We also scaled back on some of the things I used to do which also helped. We don't invite as many people and the rule has become if you're invited twice and don't come then you're off the list. I'd rather invite 10 close friends to enjoy all our hard work than 50 people who just don't really care.

Nothing at all wrong with taking some time off. I did for a couple of years, and now I'm ready for a quite a few more. When hobbies become jobs, or start to feel like them...then it's time to take a vacation. Find something else to do for a bit, then when you're ready, take a stab at it again. On a smaller scale ofc. Maybe go to someone else's party instead of throwing your own. Lol! LET them stress over it, and you just sit back and enjoy.

I'm just coming back from a year off I took in 2005! lmao... 3 kids later I'm back! Redid the website and I'm ready to get at it! Time off is good...You can still shop for parts in the down time!

Absolutely no problem taking a year off! Many people benefit from the every-other year party schedule. This way, you can enjoy other October/fall activities and really get your anticipation back for the next party. Just as a FYI, I start my party planning schedule at the end of August, starting with really small items that don't take much time. By spreading it out over several more weeks, it helps me avoid the extreme burned-out feeling.

This year I did not make one new prop. I bought some online items, and spiderwebs from Walmart. I basically just did a set up of my stuff.

I did not have the energy to build build build.

I put some dead trees from the forest in buckets of dirt and arranged some large tree stumps. I put up lights.

I thought hard about how stress takes AWAY from Halloween. Anytime stress creeps in, it's not fun. my funnest Halloween was my first. I did 3 props and a bit on my porch. I was DELIGHTED with my work. I felt like I was springing a lovely Halloween treat on the world.

The more I try to be perfect, to be "really good," to impress people, the less i like Halloween. 99.9% of Halloween civilians are awed by the smallest set up, yet we drive OURSELVES to madness in pursuit of perfection.

Enjoy your year off!

My advice is don't have a party next year !!!!! - It's funny how we let our imagination run wild with how our party will look and go only to be let down with the harsh reality of how it is....I don't think anyone can truly appreciate the amount of time it takes to put something like this together unless they have actually done it....I certainly understand where your coming from because every year I'm down to the last minute getting everything up, going and rushing to do the costume at the last minute.....We actually took this year off because of my work commitments but we still had time to go enjoy all the different happenings...We did something different every weekend this year and I really enjoyed it.....I didn't miss having a party nearly as much as I thought I would because of all the things we got to go do....I've come to the conclusion that from here on out, I will have a party every other year because there were things I was missing out on that I didn't realize until I had "time off"....Another great example of what I'm talking about just happened tonight....It was a great evening (around 60 degrees) and I was outside working on some Halloween projects just really enjoying it like I used to.....There is NO WAY I would have done that, let alone enjoyed it if I had just finished tearing down the haunt and putting it away for the year....Nope, there I was working on a Halloween prop and NOT stressing about getting it done and ENJOYING my time working on it....Who would've thought that's what it would take? .....Take it for what it's worth....ZR

Well.... I, if not anyone else, am COMPLETELY offended that you are taking the year off, and think that you should check your selfish feelings and get back to work!

What do you think this is? A holiday?