When I rented the house before I got divorced, I used to start putting up decorations on the second weekend of September.
I had over $3000 worth of stuff. Animatronics, Inflatables, gravestones, rope webbing, Motorized bats on poles that would fly around, 3 fog machines and abouncy house. Just all kinds of stuff.
I would start with the small things and every weekend I would put out more al the way until I revealed whatever my newest thing was 2 weeks before Halloween. Then there was always more stuff. I was voted best house in town the last year I was there on a FB page that would publish a map of the best houses.
People would come and be all over my yard taking pictures all October long.
It was great fun.
I think I have a video on youtube from my second year of doing it? I'll see if I can find it.
I have nothing against Hallowe’en. It USED to be a time when parents and children carefully considered what they’d “be” for Hallowe’en. They thought about what would contribute authenticity to their look. Tin foil was epic. I once made a clown wig by weaving yarn into a pair of panty hose with the legs cut off. My daughter made me do it.
Now, thanks to corporate America, it’s an industry. Once upon a time, kids focused on costumes and treats and WHAT THEY WOULD LEARN TO EARN THOSE TREATS. A little poem. A little dance. A song. Their parents would escort them to front porches and greet the treat dispensers.
Almost everyone in every neighborhood looked forward to it. It was local theater. Apples, cookies, candy.
Now it’s nothing more that another “gift” season. Now we can’t thoroughly trust treats that are not individually wrapped. Truth is, we can’t even trust THOSE.
Now kids wear conveyor belt costumes. Where’s the imagination? Where’s the effort? Where’s the family? Where’s the joy?
@Mamapolo2016 The neighborhood I live in gets a lot of trick-or-treaters, and I don't want to disappoint them, and my granddaughter would be disappointed as well. I do not treat Halloween or Easter as Christmas