Trick or Treat

[macdobhran]

Ah, Halloween. The most wonderful night of the year. I haven't really dressed up for Halloween in years. It maybe because MDRF ends right before. Or maybe I just haven't had any really good costume ideas lately. I still love Halloween though but now the thrill for me is seeing all the little kids costumes and the decorating. The first could probably be attributed to being a father and I'm sure the later is directly related to owning a home.

I never really decorated the outside when I lived with my mother but ever since we bought a house, I'm all about the holiday decorations. Well, for cellymcfae's (and our budget's) sanity I limit my all out decorating to Halloween and Christmas. But Halloween is definitely my favorite.

I envy russell_moore's tactics. I too would love to scare the beejeebus out of some kids. The problems are A) our house has a big ol' street light right in front of it so it's not very dark. Plus we're supposed to leave our porch lights on if we're participating in Halloween. And B) we get a lot, like 80%, of very young children.

I try to limit the kitsch factor so I only have one inflatable. It's a 9-foot tall, hooded Grim Reaper and it's legs form a 6-foot arch. I place that at the end of the driveway every year. This year, in someone's yard, I saw an inflatable motorcycle with two skeletons riding it. I gotta tell ya, I was this. close. to getting it.

What I do have is several flashing lights in the windows, orange/purple light strings around the porch and shrubbery, blacklight bulbs for the garage sconces, a glowing skeleton that looks like it's rising from a grave, a medium sized articulated skeleton hanging by a noose from a small tree, five tombstones, and a smoke machine. Oh, and a really good CD of spooky noises. We also got 120 glow-in-the-dark bracelets ($0.16/each) from the dollar store and gave one to every child that showed up. Based on that we had about 115 spooky little visitors to the Castle MacDobhran Rave. "Dracula in da hiz-zouse!" Whoot-whoot!

Damn, when it's listed out like that it doesn't seem like nearly enough, does it?

That was this year. NEXT YEAR, I'm going to kick it up a notch. I realized that I should get a couple of flood lights (w/ blue filters) though because you can't really see the tombstones that well. I'm also going to move away from A-Bunch-of-Halloween-Stuff in the yard to a theme. What theme might that be, you ask? Pirate Halloween, baby! I'm already trying to figure out how to build a ship wreck in the front yard that is storable. I'm also trying to find as close to life-sized articulated skeletons that don't cost an arm and a leg.

Sorry. I don't know what came over me. You can close your mail clients now.

I don't think I can do it by next year but some day I'd really like to make some animatronics. A skeletal pirate walking the plank, a drunk pirate leaning against a tombstone, a hanging pirate still kicking... and I've got a few other ideas too. cellymcfae came up with the idea of giving out those chocolate dubloons and other pirate candy. The best part is that my costume should be pretty easy from now on!

Comments

[wench18.livejournal.com]

That's a fantastic theme! And it can grow every year. The first year...work on the ship or the dead crew. The next year...the other one. THEN you can do dead pirate burial in a side area - Davy Jone's Locker! Then...burying the Treasure Hoard, and the captain killing the diggers! And THEN ...

OMG. You are going to have so much fun with this!

[fireyirishangel.livejournal.com]

Ed's going to read this and have serious Halloween-decor envy. We have a number of inside Halloween decorations, but since we didn't have a party this year, they stayed in the basement. For the sake of our budget, we didn't buy any outdoor decorations, which I think bummed us both out - though him far more than me, since this is his favorite holiday. Next year I'm sure our measely little yard will be full of stuff and we'll compete with the house down the street that was scaring the bejeezus out of kids and playing lot of spooky noises. We could see the flashing blacklights from our front porch.

As long as we can afford it, he can do what he wants. He's like a kid with this particular day and it's fun to see him get excited over it.

Now Christmas? That's all me. He's not into that holiday whatsoever and I cannot WAIT to decorate. Still, we probably won't have much in the way of outside decor since I don't think I'm getting him up on a ladder to hang lights and such. I'm going to do as much as I can, though!

[macdobhran.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I understand about the new house/money issue. We bought our house in April and when I spent $100 on Halloween decorations (because we didn't have anything at all) I thought cellymcfae was going to have a heart attack. Then I bought the candy and she had a mild stroke. Yet we ran out of candy that year.

She's mostly settled down now and realizes that I won't go too overboard. (get it? pirates? overboard? I slay myself.) Plus I think she likes seeing me all excited about it and she liked hearing the compliments we got at the door last night.

[cellymcfae.livejournal.com]

Well, we have a little more money this year, plus, it does make you SOOOOO happy! *g* However, this ia not a license to go CRAZY with the pirate theme in one year, k? *g* ::smooches::

[sweetpea86.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but what kind of candy did you give out?!

[sweetpea86.livejournal.com]

ps: I volunteer to play the part of The Drunk Pirate. It'll be a stretch, but I think I could pull it off.

[mizjawnson.livejournal.com]

You = No Rum.

[macdobhran.livejournal.com]

Dum-dums, M&M's, Butterfingers, Snickers, Reese's cups... nothing but the best. I hate crappy ass candy. We also gave every kid a glow-in-the-dark bracelet. I think I could have given them worms as long as they got a bracelet.

Mmmmm... next year...

dude

[zammis.livejournal.com]

definitely gotta see this next year if you do it. :)

[madam-macaw.livejournal.com]

Big Daddy has Santa riding on a harley inflatable thing, but I would have loved to have seen the skeletons on the bike.

[masowolf.livejournal.com]

I love the glow in the dark bracelet idea; I'm going to remember that for next year.

You should talk to...

[ladylyonesse.livejournal.com]

Your fellow Rogue, Chris Welch, aka Trask. The man is a veritable FONT of Halloween decor information, as he goes ballistic in their yard every year, including some basic animatronics. :)

Re: You should talk to...

[cellymcfae.livejournal.com]

He does! He sent me some pics last year. I'll try to help the hubby track him down for advice. ;^D

[ladyariyana.livejournal.com]

wow.. I love what you have done already... and the bracelets... I bet all the kids loved you!!! Breena would have gone nuts.. very cool idea.. and yes you did have the good candy.. hmm too far away for Breena and I to trick or treat at your house! darn (but pics of my little one from last night are in my lj)
I love your ideas for next year and beyond.. and I am going to hook you up with 2 lists I belong to... these people take halloween seriosuly but share ideas and tips and how to's very well.. there were quite a few pirate themes this year so there should be advice and help available to you... The people are very nice as well.. Plus there is a archive (somewhere will have to search that out for you) of all the messages for a time period or beyond... so you can look back at it for other information
ok email this addy halloween-l-join@wildrice.com to join the Halloween L list.
halloween-l-digest@wildrice.com Join the list in digest mode.

and this one
howl2000-join@wildrice.com Join the list.
howl2000-digest@wildrice.com Join the list in digest mode.

After you join, and pop in to introduce yourself, tell them Scariyana sent you! yep I go by Scariyana or Scari on the lists!
My biggest reccomendation is to start a gmail account just for the hall and howl mails... sometimes there are a ton of them.. and gmail is the only mail system I have found that seem to keep up! If you need a gmail just ask I have invites.

also there are lots of halloween gatherings every year with helpful advice seminars etc but the very best one and everyone will agree is Ironstock
http://www.theironkingdom.com/Ironstock/
It's like a big fun family reunion with the cool realtives, plus majorly wonderful seminars and etc!!

ok I will back off now.. I probably overloaded and scared you with all this... oh and have I mentioned www.cryptchat.com its where the listers go to chat and visit.. yep I am sort of into all this.. hard to blieve judging from the pathetic display in my aprtments front yad.. sigh lost all my decor stuff in the divorce so I am slowly starting over, very slowly.. and sadly.. but someday......I shall scare people again!!!
mwahhhhhhahahaahahahaha

oh and {{hug}}

[shhhlisa.livejournal.com]

There's a street in Hackensack you should live on. 90% percent of the resident decorate elaborately (and 10% gnash their teeth for two weeks of the year). Plane crashes, an actual hearse, graveyards - it's intense.

And we had the motorcycle skeleton this year.