Thread: Halloween Rituals

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Does anyone have any halloween rituals? I don't mean religious ones where you go out to the woods and dance around the fire and worship the earth (but feel free to post if you wish I may not be pagan but I have an open mind). Some of mine are that I pull out my Halloween edition DVD of Roseann late Sept. or Oct. 1 and thats about all I watch the whole month of Oct. I will also play Mortal Kombat on my Playstation as I associate these games with Halloween due to the fact that they are usually released in the Fall so they remind me of Halloween. None of my halloween decor goes up until Oct. 1 and comes down 12:00 AM Nov. 1 to make way for TG and Christmas decor. I told about my Catalog ritual in the OTC catalog thread.

Have to make caramel corn and usually just bring it in to work for folks to eat.

We go scrounging the neighborhood for 'ugly sticks' as the kids call em to make our scarecrows. We try to hit the elderly folks houses, or houses where we know the people could use help cleaning up their yard. Just drive around, knock on someone's door, "excuse me, we're looking for sticks to make some scarecrows and notice you have a bunch out back, can we clean them up for you?"

Oddly this is typically followed by doors being slammed in our face and the occasional cop call....

Chili. Have to make chili for day of halloween.

We try to make it to one of the 'ghost tours' around town.

I take the day off, and Nov. 1st.

On the day of Halloween, I wake and have coffee from a Salem, Mass. coffee mug, big sucker with the city seal on it.
I immediately put on creepy music, be it internet radio, my own stuff or cable's "Sounds of the Season" music channel.

I usually have the movie schedule for the day well-memorized.
I generally watch films or listen to music and relax.
As afternoon gets going, I prep for visitors, light candles and Jacks, that sort of thing.

Dinner is junky kid's food, the stuff you eat to have hot food but no nutrition... corn dogs and Frito-chili pie.
Halloween is not about spinach. Spinach can have the rest of the year, along with all the other healthy veggies and meats I love.
I let October die without concerns about my fiber intake.

I see the sun rise on Nov. 1st. If my pumpkin is still intact, I bring it inside to spare it the sight of early christmas lights.
If it met it's fate in the road, I toast what I consider an honorable death. Anyone who falls in the line of duty, guarding my house from the nightmares abroad, well, they deserve a complimentary remark and a lifted glass.

Originally Posted by UnOrthodOx

Chili. Have to make chili for day of halloween.

That's just WEIRD!!! We always made chili on Halloween, and when I got married, my wife picked right up on the tradition. YAY CHILI AND CORNBREAD!!!

Whilst the chili is "brewing", we do the "costuming of the kids", and when we get home, we have some chili and candy until we all have stomach aches.

MAN I love Halloween!!!!

DH and I both start working through our horror/suspense movies according to what we want to watch during the entire month. Must watch every year: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, one of the Abbott and Costellos meet.... pick a monster, House on Haunted Hill (both the Castle original and the 90s remake), Halloween, Monster House, Suspiera, any bunch of Alfred Hitchcock's fine movies...

A few nights before, we spread out a big dropcloth in front of the tv and carve about a dozen pumpkins while watching Scooby Doo or other related cartoons.

Day of, I take off a half day and DH takes off the whole day, we go out for a really nice lunch (it IS our anniversary ) and then come home and start setting up. I like to get EVERYTHING finished before 5pm to make sure that we have enough time to check positioning and still hand out treats to the little ones that come out before it's dark.

We start pulling up stuff around 10 pm. We still hand out candy to anyone as long as we still have some even if we're in the middle of breaking down. It ALL comes in that night, so it's like the whole thing just disappeared the next day.

Yea Halloween rocks. It allows me to feel like a kid again. Halloween and Christmas. Thats why I love Fall. My Favorite Season plus my fav. holidays Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas one after the other without 3 months of boring holidays in between. I don't have kids of my own so I haven't done the TOT thing since I was 13. I miss it. But now I can do the grown up stuff like hainting the house and yard. Just human nature to want what we can't have. When we're kids we want to be grown-ups and when we're adults we want to be kids again. Kinda sucks in a way, but being grown up has its perks.

Originally Posted by ntokheim

I don't have kids of my own so I haven't done the TOT thing since I was 13. I miss it. But now I can do the grown up stuff like hainting the house and yard.

ntokheim, just know that you are doing a GREAT thing by creating memories for all of the kids that come to your house on Halloween. The most profound memories I have of Halloween are the folks who put out a strobe light and someone jumped out of the bushes to scare us. I have loved the holiday ever since. I miss the old days too, but I will enjoy creating memories for the kids just as much

I always watch the original "Halloween" I have it on tape but it is usually running non-stop on some channel...

Thats about it... I keep it wide open to imagination each year...

I take the day off work too... Get up bright and early (usually after a night of frantically pulling together those pesky last minute details, like dragging out that one last prop that you forgot you wanted to put up in the house!) and jump right into it... I always have the Halloween tunes blasting as I'm setting up the "stuff I don't want to have stolen, so put out at the last minute" props. I'll also be cooking the severed fingers food for the party, chilling the bloody margaritas (might take a sip or two too!), and getting in the spirits (pun intended). Then, early afternoon, I'll scrape the funk off and put on whatever costume I've decided to wear.

In the good old days when I lived on Capitol Hill (in Washington, DC), the TOTers would start coming around at about 4pm. I lived right around the corner from not one, but TWO elementary schools!! I'm down to about 300+ TOTers in Cheverly, MD, so it's always a pretty exciting high unholy holiday!

I have a few. Not everyone will agree with this but here goes. I have lived in this neighborhood all my life. When i was a kid my friends and i would always plan for Halloween weeks in advance. We would make a mile trek into the woods along a hidden trail we made to a pumpkin patch. Still to this day i am not sure who owns the property. It is in the middle of nowhere with no dirt roads in or out. Never to this day have i seen any tracks coming or going. Any ways. We would make our trek to the patch and each grab the biggest pumpkin we could carry back and have a little carving party. I am the last of the old friends in the neighborhood. Everyone else has gone there own way. To this day i still make the trek every year along the same route to the old patch and bring home a pumpkin. I sit and carve it out in old school fashion like we did when we where kids. It takes it's place right out front in the haunt. My way to carry on the tradition that started so many years ago.

Always take the 2 days before Halloween off. And the day after.
Attend my sons Halloween parade at his school.
Watch Hocus pocus and The years past dvd set from the halloween propmaster set.