The Spirit of Halloween
Holiday homogeneity (say that three times fast) is giving us a Valentine’s Day in autumn, rife with its own brand of dainty, must-have accessories to celebrate the same way as everyone else. As I walk down the streets around my neighborhood, I see more and more houses tarted up with the hallmarks of a touchy-feely holiday. Giant inflatable Halloween themed Scooby-Doos and smiling plastic spiders, do not a magical holiday make. Cast them out I say!
(Not candy of course, that’s still a necessary evil. We’re not animals after all.)
Where are the things that go bump in the night? I don’t want to buy the same holiday as everyone else. Halloween is brimming over with opportunities to create things yourself, and this month practically demands that you get your hands dirty. Lest I become an old Halloween grump, like a music snob pining for the good old days, I offer a handful of alternatives, commercial and otherwise, to help you and me get in the spirit of the season:
- Spooky Sock Monkeys: Kim at Sock Monkey Drawer is at it again with eight ghastly Halloween sock monkeys. Last year’s monkeys sold out in about a day, so this year she decided to stretch the fun out a bit and put them up on eBay. Guillaume and Morlak are just damn cool.
- Blood Puddle Pillows: Take the most comfortable dirt nap of your afterlife.
- Skull-A-Day: A Skull-A-Day keeps, well, it probably keeps friends away. Some favorites include the doily skull (a.k.a. skoily) and the floppy skull.
- Gross-Out Cakes: Celebrate the holiday in gruesome culinary style with a Kitty Litter Cake. Or maybe you prefer a Toenail Torte?
- Carve Something: Halloween would not be complete without some wholesome pumpkin related fun. If you’re new to pumpkin carving, start out with some basics before moving on to some more serious fare. Make sure you dress appropriately.
- Old time Horror Radio: Ghosts, Monsters, Mad Scientists and more! Something to drown out the howling winds and creaking window shutters.
- Idle Hands: MAKE Magazine has a great Halloween issue this year chock full of tips for making your own haunted house, and really nice makeup how-tos. Check back on Instructables and the MAKE Blog all month long for loads of DIY fun.
- HotBloodStix: Blood sticks that work with your average hot glue gun. You can also make it the old fashioned way.
- Spooky Stickers: The latest Halloween icon set from the Iconfactory. Some other favorites include Vintage Halloween, Halloween 2004, and Eat Me, as well as two awesome desktops, Haunted Mansion and There Castle! (both include iPhone sizes).
- 50 Dark Movies Hidden in a Painting: From last year, but still a great game to waste your afternoon with.
- Posted at 11:03 am in Entertainment, New York, Random, Web
Commentary Closed (10)
Here in the UK we don’t really celebrate Halloween that much but since I met my wife two years ago (she’s from Chicago) it’s become more of an event in my calendar.
She said to me the other day she wanted to open a haunted house in the UK, she seems to think it’ll be a real money spinner (she’s totally serious as well - I just don’t know…)
I’m with you on this one Jason, Halloween is more or less a burgeoning holiday in the UK, even though we invented it!?! but it is possibly my favourite for the fact that it is not coated in saccharine sweetness. I do not like the twee decorations the supermarkets supply and much prefer to see truly disturbing decorations for it. Something that really freaks out the kids and adults and leave them with nightmares through to November 15th.
Like the Sock Monkeys for instance.
Thanks for reminding me.. I’ve been meaning to purchase a Walmart BB gun to take out all those Scooby Doo inflatables in my hood this year.
As always-loved the article. I will have to look into some of the links you posted :)
I personally have always loved Halloween. I know a lot of friends and family that have their birthdays this month-including mine.
Only thing I dislike is the people that go OVERBOARD with their blow-up lawn decorations!
I rather like the way the Irish, at least in Dublin, celebrate Halloween : lots of bonfires and firecrackers.
Halloween 2005 in my neighborhood of Dublin was more than a bit noisy, fire-y, and wild.
It’s a bit twee, but the Curly Purly Pumpkin makes for a nice little decoration, especially since real pumpkins are going to be a little scarce.
Halloween is becoming more popular in the UK — or, at least, the retailers are discovering it sells. Poundland has some fantastic artwork available, and they are just £1!
Dublin Corpo are cracking down on the bonfires and it’s major fines and prison sentences if your caught with, selling or using fireworks. Michael McDowell is/was the major Halloween grump. Just because the kids were throwing the fireworks at each other…
I’m simply a colonial from Tasmania (Australia) where I do see signs on costume shops advertising Halloween - but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone actually doing it.
Here its probably more a chance, if it falls on a weekend, to make it a party theme.
I don’t know, apart from letting our kids knock on strangers doors at night (not really that smart to do nowdays), it looks promising Jason. Now how do we get all the other colonials to get on board with it? :)
If you want to keep it real and go back to it’s pagan Celtic origins, get yourself as big a bonfire as you can and light it up on Oíche Shamhna.
Carve up some robotic evil.