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Rochester Local

I Witch You a Happy Halloween

happy halloween

Ghostly Greetings!! I’m hoping to convince you that Halloween is the best holiday, ghoul hands down. Before I have Santa, a turkey, Cupid, a leprechaun, or a firecracker show up at my door stating otherwise, hear me out (I would also call all those characters ‘Super cute!’ and give them some treats)!

love Halloween. I start decorating as soon as the State Fair ends, and put my Halloween playlists in rotation. All of the pumpkins, bats, vampires, cauldrons, ghosts, and ghouls start emerging from the depths of my basement to make their way around the house. I stop brushing the cobwebs in the front doorway for extra effect. My husband always makes me wait to put the inflatables on the front lawn until the lawn work is tied up for the year. However, this doesn’t stop us from blowing them up in the living room! My daughter and I go to all the places in town to look for a new inflatable to add to the bunch. There can never be too much Halloween in our house. We even named our cat after our favorite witch from Hocus Pocus: Winnie (Winifred) Sanderson Wilson. When we had the opportunity to do Halloween at Disney last year and see the Sanderson sisters live, you would have thought it was my high school idol. I cried and danced. By the way: Disney goes all out for Halloween. If you ever get the chance to participate in Halloween at Disney (they do it from late August to Halloween), I highly recommend it!

Movies. Halloween movies are the best. Hocus Pocus, Beetlejuice, The Witches, Casper, HalloweenTown, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Hotel Transylvania, The Exorcist, Coraline, Sleepy Hallow, the list goes on and on. From scary, to funny, to sweet, there’s a Halloween movie for everyone!

While the decorations and movies are the very best, here is the true reason I love Halloween: it is all about imagination, silliness, and community.

The imagination and silliness starts in the decorating and the costume ideas. I absolutely love when people come to my door in their costumes and they are so proud. I am Superman” or “I am the fairest princess in all the land“. The joy in their faces is the best. The imagination bug shows in the way you decorate or carve your pumpkin. We have done super creepy, to a favorite character, to one of the scariest sights for an adult: a check engine light. Next, believe it or not, you put imagination into your “treats”. You pick out your favorite candy, and trinkets to hand out to those participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project, or do something totally different! We have a neighbor that hands out home-grown mini pumpkins. We look forward to going to that house every year.

On a typical year, the community aspect of Halloween is wonderful. I can’t think of any other holiday where people go door-to-door and actually interact with one another. Our communities come alive just like Frankenstein when Halloween comes around. There are fundraising haunted houses, trunk or treats, and even some teenagers have come to my door from time to time to collect non-perishables for the local food shelf. The pumpkins are lit, the porch lights are on, and giggles are heard up and down the street. I enjoy seeing everyone out and having fun. As much as I love to trick-or-treat with my daughter, I really do love staying at home and handing out treats.

Use your imagination, put up extra decorations, and enjoy those treats and your favorite Halloween movies.

Happy Haunting!

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