Thread: First Halloween sighting in stores...

Tweet

My wife made a comment asking why I was doing so much work on my Halloween props with Halloween months away. I had no idea how to reply to that, Although I guess this year I have been more active than normal with bigger than normal projects.

It is good to see that I am not the only one who get excited about the stores getting in their Halloween stuff. I really do get that 'feeling' when I walk through the Halloween isles, and the sooner the store get them stocked the better.

I was really puzzled last year when Wal-mart waited until the beginning of October to get their stuff out. They had isles of Christmas already set before they started on Halloween. SO I had already spent a fair amount of money at their competitors because they obviously had the wrong priorities.

Is there anyone else here who could handle getting rid of all the other holidays during the year except Halloween? I just get tired of holiday after holiday and too often they just don't do it for me. If I didn't have kids of my own, I most likely would ignore most of them and be able to save up more money for Halloween, the only holiday of the year that really matters.

Originally Posted by Kooka

Is there anyone else here who could handle getting rid of all the other holidays during the year except Halloween? I just get tired of holiday after holiday and too often they just don't do it for me. If I didn't have kids of my own, I most likely would ignore most of them and be able to save up more money for Halloween, the only holiday of the year that really matters.

Have you recently listened to Stevie Wonder's 'I Just Called to Say I Love You', Kooka? I've been hearing it alot at work lately, and that's almost dead-on with what he says, except when he's talking about the holidays, he also mentions "no Halloween". Very close to your sentiments, though...

Personally, I think the other holidays should remain, just they need to become more dark and twisted

There are other holidays?
Seriously, I do halloween and Christmas (on a much smaller scale) and that's it. I don't even bother with the others. Waste of time and money I could be devoting to Halloween!

Originally Posted by The King of Halloween

Hey Rikki I do the same thing. My friend owns a convinient store so I rob all the Michael's coupons from his papers and purchase all the new Spooky Town in one day. I keep walking out to my car, going back in to a different register.

You can get the coupons online without having to steal them out of newspapers.

My holiday season starts with Independence Day and ends in middle January when I produce my review of the past year and my plans for the new year.

A few notable stops along the way include:

The beginning of "retail autumn" on July 5, when the garden hoses and flip flops go on clearance and the first box of file folders reaches the shelves, amidst the paper towels and storage bins that are used for placeholders between seasons. This is also when my fall decorations go up, celebrating the heat of summer as the relentless approach of autumn becomes palpable. July 5th to whenever it actually finally cools off.

Halloween...the shopping starts in august and goes thru october, but the real fun starts with the haunts and scary films that open in the entire month of October.

Thanksgiving...glad that cool weather and fall foliage and family gatherings are going on. Emphasis on relaxing fun gatherings and not panicky stressful events. Watching the parades with family and friends and cinnamon rolls and coffee. Going camping and fly fishing throught the month of November.

Formerly the great grand daddy of the holidays in my youth, Christmas has matured and mellowed; rather than a panicked shopping season followed by an insane gift exchange event after which it's all over, the emphasis has matured into a month of opportunities to hang out with family and friends, with cooler and hopefully wintry weather.

And new year's events; a chance to figure out what just happened and what should be undertaken in the coming year.

Of these holidays, all enjoyable, Halloween alone retains a sense of magic, excitement, and mischievous fun. I take those things to the other holidays, but they reside in Halloween. People are actively building and rebuilding what Halloween means and the scope of its observance, and every year there is something new.

Fantastic. I was awaiting this thread to finally emerge.
Being someone who really doesn't post too much anymore, I found myself incapable of holding back on this one.

I'm sitting here, listening to "The Village" soundtrack, mainly because it gives me that overwhelming sense of fall- allowing me to envision myself driving down that winding road to some far off harvest/Halloween event, whilst all the forest preserves surrounding it are mostly turning into those beautiful colors I've come to know and love.
For us, Halloween is something we cherish immensely in this house. While, we haven't exactly done a display in over a year, since we've been devoting our time at the Haunted House my mother and I currently work at, Dream Reapers in Melrose Park, IL; we still manage to find time to do those typical and traditional events in our autumn season that just makes Halloween the most heartwarming and sentimental time of the year. The first is making that trip, after so many failed attempts, to Michael's and seeing all of the new products that Gemmy has to offer this year. Filled with excitement at bringing home something new to add to the collection, or frustration for not being able to buy it all! I just can not wait until we can happily buy a new set of pumpkin spice and apple pie candles, light them- sit amongst our newly decorated home, and watch "Nightmare Before Christmas."

It has finally begun again, and I am thrilled to death. :] (no pun intended.)
-Anthony

I'm sitting here, listening to "The Village" soundtrack

Cool! I just took that out of the mix after listening to it a lot. Great summer to fall music. I've got the Sleepy Hollow score in the mix now, and it's another favorite.

I went to Michael's today and looked at the autumn decor they've put out. It was great to see the orange and yellow and brown again.

I also just went to Michaels and ran squealing down the isles of pumpkins and fall flowers. So nice...

Heh you all sound like me.

I think thats why there is community like this. I too have had to deal with people being annoyed or questioning why I am thinking/doing something Halloween related months early. I think some people just don't get it. I think someone on here mentioned the reason for that is people tend to loose their imagination as they get older.

I have and always will like Halloween beyond how other people think its "just one month/day out of the year, I don't get it." I try to explain to people that its like Christmas accept I like Halloween alot more. Or its like collecting a line of something, or its like a shopping obsession (where people love to buy clothes all the time) ...why? Because it just makes you feel good and happy!

I also find it hard to explain to people why I love Halloween when they don't have anything they love as far as a band, a holiday, a movie, a TV show (they blog about it, dvr it, talk to people about it) etc. I have to often dig around to figure out what someone likes alot and than say "well I love Halloween that much."

I also skip over all the other holidays accept fourth of july, we get fireworks and do them in the street. But otherwise we just celebrate Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas. But we combine thanksgiving into christmas. On thanksgiving, we put up the christmas lights, the tree etc - it has been a tradition for about 11 years now.

I heard Hobby Lobby is already putting Christmas out...

I can only think of a couple of things that I will be looking for in stores this year. Most of the stuff I'm thinking about I have to build myself and the good stuff to buy like Buckies and big fog machines have to be bought on the net. That said, I'm sure I'll hit Michaels looking for bargains