Thread: A Different Reason for Not Being as "Into It"

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I hope that didn't sound all gloom-and-doom. Personally, I HATE to see when other people are feeling not "into" H'ween, yet here I am starting my own thread about it...But I promise not to be too much of a downer. I DO still love H'ween!

Okay, so...I was reading a thread started by a poster who is in his 30s and just not feeling the same "magic"...and then another thread with a post about a haunter who lost a few years spirit-wise, then got back into it when he had kids.

For me, I ALWAYS felt at least a little of that H'ween spirit all season long...when I lived in the northeast. The smells...the leaves...the chill...all of it just was "right there in my face".

I'm in Southern California now and have been here for five years. Now, granted, I AM suddenly this year beginning to feel the differences between the seasons. There ARE seasons -- this isn't the Equator -- but they're more subtle. Also, we do have a bunch of deciduous trees here. But they're all mixed in with the evergreens (including evergreens that look a lot like some deciduous trees -- so I'm not just talking about pine trees, etc.) and I almost feel like they give a "fake" fall.

So, okay. This summer was the first year I've been here that I got just one or two H'ween "tingles"--just like in the old days! I was SO excited for this H'ween because of that. I figured: Now it is real for me again.

But now suddenly here it is, almost October...and...I'm losing the feeling completely.

I don't even know what put it there in the first place so I don't know how to get it back...

It's not about becoming an adult, as I was 38 when we moved here, and it's not about not having children, as I have three children. I am still excited, just...not exactly feeling that...spooky, chilly, fabulous tingle. I don't know how to get it back. Will I get it back? Does anyone know? Has anybody been in this position?

I know what you are going through. This year I just don't have "it". I'm lax, not even wanting to finish my skulls. I don't really have a layout plan, no real props going on, nothing. I'm bummed out and really don't want to disappoint the kids but, I really don't even want to go out and work on anything. It was like every year was bigger and better but, this year, nothing. Hope something happens to both of us to get us kick started. Just don't know what to suggest.

I completely understand, I'm hoping getting the decorations up will rekindle the fire for me. If you haven't started decorating yet maybe that will help, but if it doesn't sit back and just enjoy the the holiday.

for me..If I feel that way..and I do sometimes....I take out some decorations..or watch a really old scary movie in the dark...or hit some good halloween/horror websites...or come here and read the forum and chat.

I officially prescribe this cure to you:

1 large glass of apple cider (warm or cold)

Buy 1 Pumpkin for carving

...And watch this:

I believe that was my thread CaliforniaMelanie. I hope I didn't get everyone too down with my post. It was more about how to replace the excitement of TOTing with something that adults can get away with. If I figure that out, I will let everyone know.

Now, as far as not feeling it at all, that is a different story all together. I had a similar thing happen to me last year. All September long I was absolutely jazzed and ready to slather my house in orange and black and just sit back and breathe it all in. So, I waited until the first official day of fall and just blanketed my house with my Halloween stash.

Awesome, or so I thought. About midway through October it hit me that I wasn't really in the spirit. Oh no! Had I spent it all in September anticipation? I was panicking a little for a couple of days. My darn job had finally gotten the best of me, and now I am a businessman. Crap, that's no fun!

About a week before Halloween my wife and I hit up a pumpkin patch and I bought a ridiculously large pumpkin after running through the corn maze for 20 minutes or so. I got home that night and drew a face on the large one, and carved one of the smaller pumpkins I bought that day. The candle in the newly carved jack-o-lantern was a little too big for it, so it started to bake the top of the JOL. The smell from the JOL hit my nose and snapped me back into the spirit almost instantly!

The following week was a Halloween dream around the house as I carved a few more JOLs and prepared the last bits of my yard haunt. Then November 1st I fought back the tears covering up the last ghoulish grin of my plastic JOLs in the storage boxes.

Long story short, employ your sniffer! Find some scented candles, or sprays or light up an early JOL and see of that can help at all.

If I can think of anything else that helps me get into the spirit I will let you know. Good luck!

-Joey

CM... could it possibly be the 117 degree weather burned all your Halloween spirit away... jk?

I agree with you... this heat wave we are experiencing definetly makes it feel more like summer than fall

And it is hard to get excited about putting up decorations... when you might experience heat stroke doing it....

But you are always so cheerful and full of great ideas.... so I hope you feel better soon.

Originally Posted by JoeyWaters

Long story short, employ your sniffer!

Good advice! I just got finished mowing (wrong thread) through the fall leaves and it definitely triggered something. Wish I could pack up the autumn scent and ship it to ya!

Light, smells, sounds always seem to get through a little deeper into our brains. I think carving and lighting up a pumpkin is a great place to start.

117? OUCH!

Oh, thanks so much, you guys. There are tons of great ideas on here.

Propmistress, yes, this did coincide with the "big heat"...I guess knowing that there could be more, and there won't be a crispness, is still something I don't identify with.

I think what gets to me is...it wouldn't feel like fall (to me) *unless* I went out of my way to create it...as you all say, with candles, 'kins and the like. For the majority of my life, I couldn't have stopped fall if I tried. Even if not a single person in my neighborhood had carved a pumpkin, there would still be a fall feel, a fall smell, a definite "change" coming on.

Here I have to "make" it happen so it feels like it's not really happening at all, except in my mind.

I'll bet if I had been born in the southwest, I wouldn't feel like this at all!

But I AM loving the suggestions, don't get me wrong! I am so going to start scouting out for pumpkins and buying a few new autumn candles (I'm burning an "apple" one now) AND I'm renting The Worst Witch...