Thread: Less is more?

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I've found myself surfing e-bay a lot over the last couple of weeks, occassionally purchasing cheap, and ultimately disappointing plastic props and decorations, mostly for the benefit of my two nephews and my niece who will be coming to stay over the Halloween weekend.
But I wonder how much I really need this stuff and how much the paraphanalia adds to my enjoyment of the season? I'm not too sure, but it's certainly the case that in some years I've looked to these decorations to provide that Halloween 'groove' rather than just enhance it. Not so much anymore.

It's a gloomy, overcast day here in Kingston-Upon-Thames, the leaves are falling steadily from the trees and in sufficient quantity for those wonderful piles of Autumnal crunchiness to form.
It's on days like this, sitting at my work desk, that my mind wanders to times long ago when I was a boy walking home from school kicking my way through the leaves and looking forward to the BBC's after school t.v. programmes that I would watch from 4-6pm before my Dad arrived home and we ate dinner together as a family.
Particularly special were those Halloween evenings. For a couple of years some friends and I went on some highly lucrative trick or treat runs, trick or treat not being popular in our town we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Halloween was never as special for the people around me; there were some TV specials, a mention of the traditions and history at school and the very occasional neighbourhood Halloween party, but for the most part it was a solo homage by me, I would read a spooky book, take my dog for a walk longer and later than usual, and just sit in the back garden watching the sky and letting my imagination take me. One Halloween my Grandfather built a bonfire for me in the garden and we baked some potatoes and sausages, just the two of us, it remains my happiest childhood memory.
I ignored Halloween from 16-19 but rediscovered it at university when even at the expense of going to the student union bar I would take the day off to walk the ancient paths of Cambridge and to spend the long evening with the Witches of Eastwick, a spooky book and time in the garden....my imagination still worked on demand.
From 23-30 I worked overseas in Asia and Halloween was again forgotten.
At 31 I returned to the UK and gradually I found the magic again, I tried too hard for the first couple of years overindulging in Halloween clutter, and failed to recapture those old joys, but then in 2005 my wife and I took my eldest nephew on a ghost hunt on the big day - nothing more than a walk in the woods past the spooky old cottage next to the graveyard, and I was suddenly back in the zone. The next year, 2006, I found these boards and a rapport with the people on them (mostly my colonial cousins but with a Romanian, a few of my fellow Brits and a slightly terrifying Canadian), and suddenly Halloween was a month long event.
I know I'm waffling on, apologies, but to end I wanted to mention that for me Halloween has never really been a party event; I've only been to one Halloween party when I was about 8 years old. Instead Halloween is a state of the mind or maybe of the spirit, I now share it with my wife and my sister's kids and we have great fun, but essentially it's something inside of me that is a personal emotion. It's a month long comfort-blanket where I feel free to indulge myself, where I feel slightly superior to the average Joe because I get it and they don't, and it's also a link to my past, a reservoir of happy memories, a justification for my occasional belief in magic and a link to the history of the country I love.
I'm a big fan of Christmas too and I usually party hard, but it's much more of a group thing and whilst it has all of the great memories associated with it it's just far more in your face. For me Halloween is an annual treasure hunt, a search for the fairies at the bottom of the garden and a nod to myself that that boy from 3 decades ago is still there as part of me and I'm very grateful for it.

Agreed, Halloween has always been about happy memories - both from my childhood, the making ones for my kids.

Sometimes props & Halloween decor help to spread that happy spirit around to more people!

I love your post ^^

I get boundless enjoyment out of each and every decoration/prop i buy or make regardless if it's cheap and tacky or expensive but nothing that can compare to the enjoyment i get seeing those first piles of leaves as the dark evenings draw in with the chance to reminisce on (to borrow your phrase) 'a reservoir of happy memories'

You've hit it, mate, Hallowe'en is a Spirit, not a Party.

I thoroughly loved reading your post! For me it is the same. I do Halloween much bigger than my mom did but she did do it in her own way. It is about the feeling and spirit. I totally get it and thank you for reminding us all what it is really all about

Thank you for that wonderful post. You nearly brought me to tears! How wonderful it is that you have such an emotional connection with the holiday. You've reminded me what it's all about. This season has been a bit rough for me, and I've lost the excitement I normally have. I think you've helped restore that for me. While for me, the decorations are just a fun, added bonus for the holiday, it's really about the magic, and mystery. About being a kid again, and it being ok. Shucking off that burden of adulthood, and letting loose. Letting your imagination run wild. Making memories with family & friends.

Thank you. I just needed that this morning.

Last year summed it up for me.
I spent a couple of weeks preparing for Halloween, bought the food, some new decorations, some games for my sisters kids to play; I tried so hard to make it extra special for the kids, my wife and I. On the 31st we went to a Halloween open day at the local park, played games, ate the food, carved our pumpkins etc etc, but it felt just like any other day.
My sister arrived about 6pm to pick up her kids and I settled down to watch tv with the wife, disappointed that my efforts had come to nothing. Like most years I was unable to put my finger on exactly what it was I was looking to achieve, all I knew was that I had failed to find it.

Around 6:30 the doorbell went and I was delighted to find some T-o-Ters had called (we were in a new house, we never used to get them as our old place was just too out of the way). In the next hour the doorbell went a few more times and I rapidly ran out of sweets to give out, so I donned shoes and coat and set out for the Supermarket to buy some more.
Our street is only about 200 yards long but that walk down it about 8pm that evening made my Halloween. About 50% of the houses had jack o'lanterns out on their doorsteps or gate posts, there were several groups of kids T-o-Ting, and the air was crisp with a brilliant full moon overhead. I reached the end of the street and stood for a minute or two just breathing it in, it reminded me of that scene from E.T. which as a child had firmly set in my mind what Halloween on the streets should be - pretty damn close. I found what I was looking for.

I guess all I'm saying is that as much as I wanted to induce that special Halloween feeling, no amount of pumpkin shaped sweets or zombie decorations helped (although I wouldn't like to do away with them completely), instead a random walk with some random weather managed to completely nail it for me.

Mmmm, very nice posts, Yoohaloo. That is why I got nuts on Halloween. I remember growing up in Vanier (Ottawa) and on Halloween, people went nuts. Now, I barely see much houses like I used too, the older I get. Now, being an aldult, I feel a need to rekindle that spirit for all the new kids that have not seen much Halloween in their life.

You can imagine how I feel everytime I see some parents thanking me for what we do. The kids eyes lights up, even teenagers come and thank me for going all out. Since I moved to Orleans (Still part of Ottawa) and started decorating 5 years ago in my new neighbourood, now, almost every house has decorations! Even last year, when the news came to my house, I ran to every house on my street and knock on doors, getting all the kids to be on tv withy us, parents were amazed and thank us for all we do.

I like to think we decorate for ourselves, but deep down, we do it for the little kids in everyone.

Well what you're doing Osenator is creating the nucleus of the community spirit, as you've found it only takes one person to make the effort and others will often follow.

I think here in the UK, Halloween is far more prominant than it was 20 years ago but it's still very much focused at kids, us adults either live it through them or enjoy it privately.

With so many Western nationas becoming multicultural it seems to be one of the only fun days that is truly 'inclusive'.

Have a great time in Canada.

These are some really fantastic posts, Yoohaloo...thank you for sharing your thoughts.

I totally agree. I certainly love and enjoy the horror films, the going to haunted attractions and soaking in the ambiance of fog machines, latex props, animatronics, and expecting some guy or girl in fright makeup to come jumping out with an air blaster or a chainsaw. I love making my home and yard my own private horror movie and getting to share the atmosphere I enjoy with others. But you are dead on target: Halloween, and the true feeling of it, can be so much simpler.

Remember that it was conceived initially as a time when the realms of the dead/passed are closet to earth, and simple pleasures can still bring that back. The crunch of leaves underfoot, the smell of autumn in crisp night air, lit jack o'lanterns on porches, passing down the local ghost lore and thinking this year, if you go in the right place at the right time on a moonlit night, this time you could see or experience something eerie and unexplainable. It's fantastic and nothing beats that, as much as I love the rest. That feeling, of the season melding with the darkness and the symbols of the holiday plus the slight tingle of fear or anticipation of the unknown..that is exquisite and personally affecting for me still on a basic primal level, amongst all the more lighthearted and fun trappings of the "haunted attraction".

Very well stated, and I love this thread.