When September rolls around I am ready to put out my Halloween decorations. I no longer care if people think it’s too early, but we are entering my time of the year. I need this to sustain me. In those bleak days of 2020, the promise of Halloween kept me going. But as the promise of Halloween turned into the heartbreak of not having any parties, a switch inside me was flipped that said I no longer needed to wait till October to decorate.
2023 has, for me, mostly been a good year. Yet as I stated a few columns ago, it’s also been one of the busiest of my entire life. This is good, but also it’s been very draining and as we are about to enter my favorite time of the year, October through December, I want to savor it. Seeing as October is looking to be very busy for me, I don’t want the enjoyment of the season to pass me by so quickly that I can’t appreciate it. Hence, decorations are out.
There’s also the time-honored tradition of going to Target and breathing in their seasonal Halloween section. For normal people, this is just nothing fancy. For me, it’s like walking into Willy Wonka’s factory and singing “Pure Imagination.” I need the promise of Halloween to sustain me. I need to be surrounded by seasonally wrapped fun-sized candy bars. I need fun and spooky-looking decorations. I need to play all the wonderful CDs full of 1960s Halloween novelty songs I own.
Last weekend I fully began the celebratory process by lighting a pumpkin-scented candle and watching a few Vincent Price movies. I set a Halloween soap out in my bathroom, and I put the beloved ceramic jack-o-lantern that’s been in my life for as long as I could remember out. I let it all wash over me, I could feel myself getting stronger. Halloween has always been a big deal in my family.
My grandfather loved the holiday and always went out of his way to make it big and special for my mother. This is a tradition she has carried on and it’s become a tradition among my friends as well. There’s candy, a buffet of finger foods, and a TV that plays episodes of “The Munsters” all day long. It’s rather perfect and part of why Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year.
So yes, it’s early, but I fully intend to just breathe it all in for as long as I can. I need two months of Halloween decorations up in my home. You should have seen me decorating my home office last weekend. I was downright giddy with excitement. Playing Halloween music, and setting up a light-up Department 56 haunted castle. I just grinned like a fool the entire time.
But this is why I need Halloween to sustain me. I need the energy, I need the fun vibes, I need the feelings that remind me of being a carefree kid eating way too many candy bars. We are finally entering the best time of the year, and I’m feeling very hopeful and excited about it all. It’s nice, after so many years of indifference, to feel good again. See you next week.