Halloween




Halloween has been around for centuries. For most people, Halloween is a time of year for tricks, treats, and maybe even a few scares. It can be fun for both children and adults to dress up in costumes and go trick or treating or to a good party. This holiday provides a small escape where just for one day, you can be someone else.

 

Most cities have lots of activities and family fun at this time of year such as parades, parties, zombie walks, pumpkin carving contests, hayrides, pumpkin farms and haunted houses. Living in the Niagara Region we are fortunate to have many haunted houses, haunted hayrides and ghost walks/tours. With Clifton Hill in the heart of Niagara Falls being right on our door step, we are lucky to have haunted houses that are open year round. 

 

At our house we are Halloween crazy! Don't get me wrong I love Christmas too - but Halloween is uniquely different. It's not the candy or the hayrides or even the crazy zombie walks. I love fall. I love decorating our house, and carving pumpkins, I love the leaves changing color and maybe even scaring a few teenagers brave enough to come to our door.

 

Let me first say that I wasn't always this way. I grew up in an old house that I'm positive is a little bit haunted. I don't know if I believe in "ghosts", but there are just way too many things that have happened over the years while I was living at that residence that I just can't explain. With that being said, as much as I like this holiday I don't like the dark, I will not watch any scary movies and I flat out refuse to go into a haunted house (or my moms house at night when I'm alone).  When it comes to decorating and scaring other people - count me in!

 

It started just about the time when I realized that I was too old to go trick or treating anymore. I guess I never really grew up. This was a way for me to continue to participate in Halloween at any age. Each year I began to purchase and/or make a new decoration or prop. I am now in my 30's and my prop collection continues to get larger and more sophisticated (or expensive) with each passing year. It has gotten so large, that my husband unwillingly let me build shelves in his garage to store my collection. In this collection, we have everything from costumes, to life size dummies, to grave stones, to a stone looking facade for our garage.

 

Halloween for us is really only one day. A few years ago we had a big Halloween party the week prior to Halloween and we put out a lot of our decorations. A few nights later all of our gravestones were smashed by some teenagers. Since then we put everything out on Halloween day, and have to bring it back in on Halloween night to avoid any possible damage.

But on Halloween night, our house is transformed into a graveyard complete with a rickety fence, tombstones, fog machines, and much more. Our garage becomes the haunted tomb with a floating black lit ghost. Over the past couple of years I have started spilling into my neighbours yards, and this year I plan to fully decorate their homes. We have some new animated props, a corn field and a spider infestation that I can't wait to get outside. After having decorated our house for a few years, my neighbours have gained a new found love for Halloween and they both enjoy dressing up along side us.

So whether you like the parties or enjoy being scared, Halloween is fast approaching. Make sure you make time for Halloween before Christmas takes over!

The countdown until October 31 begins........Lets hope that the rain holds out this year!

Have a Happy Halloween!