Be Afraid!

The smell of smashed pumpkins and the lingering odor of fireworks in the air is gone for another year – Halloween once again took over our house!

Over 25 years ago, when my daughter and son were wee munchkins, simply carving a silly toothy pumpkin grin and throwing together a decent costume was enough (not to mention the candy). As they grew, however, loftier expectations emerged as to yard decor, costumes, etc. My hubby and I knew in our guts that we had established a quirky yet honoured tradition, one that we couldn’t walk away from easily – at least not until they took it over as adults.

Half the fun, it seems, is in the creative touches. And it just is so much better a canvas on which to create some Halloween spookiness when you decorate Mom and Dad’s place rather than an apartment balcony or townhouse stoop. Things need to be draped in tree limbs and shrubs. Twinkling orange lights cast a better setting when they poke out from beneath a thick established vine. Not every neighbour in a complex is going to allow a couple of large speakers on the lawn cranking out Black Sabbath or organ music either!

As usual, it took a few hours to set up our creepy scenario, but this year our son and his girlfriend lent a hand and added a couple of personal touches such as a flickering candelabra and a flying ghost with red glowing eyes. (There was no way either my Hubby or myself was willing to climb out onto the roof to hook up the guywire from the upstairs eves down to the tree by the driveway. It was quite effective, though, having an evil ghost swoop down on the trick-or-treaters and parents as they stopped to view our little cemetery.) Our biggest problem setting things up proved to be a sudden and forceful wind storm that passed through the city mid-afternoon, sending me scrambling to anchor lightweight tombstones before twilight. We even added a second large speaker  out in the garden bed, to join the one inside the witch’s body by the front door, both playing our custom playlist of Halloween favourites.

Wolverine and Storm

Now if you thought all our efforts went into the yard display you would be wrong. For years, Hubby and I have dressed up as witches and wizards, a park ranger and his snow-bunny employee (aka the original Kokanee Beer Park Ranger), a lumberjack and a chocolate moose, hillbillies and other equally ridiculous couples. Our grown kids have been pimps and glamour queens, witches and vampires, Texas rangers and Greek goddesses. This year our daughter dressed up as a witch/wizardess and took our little baby granddaughter (adorable as a pixie fairy with baby wings) around to the local mall. Our son and his girlfriend pulled together a very realistic Wolverine/Storm (X-men) duo, complete with realistic talons, hair coifs, and dramatic poses. It was a hoot! I just love creativity!

Lastly,  the pumpkin carving this year did not disappoint. With precision blade-handling, our X-men duo produced a Halloween kitty and menacing demon.

Halloween Demon 2011

Purrfect Halloween Kitty