The Witching Season at Our Little House
One of my favorite holidays to decorate for has always been Halloween.
It goes back to my childhood, as I knew then that Christmas and my birthday were just a couple short months away.
We always had such cool decorations, too. Little wax figures and pumpkins. They cost .10 cents then at the Dime Store, but are worth a fortune to collectors now.
Since we’ve moved from the city, we don’t have trick or treaters and we don’t have any little kids, but I still enjoy getting out my Halloween décor.
Photo from Mother Earth News
I don’t decorate as much as I used to because we just don’t have the room. My décor is limited to a door hanging at The Belle Writer’s Studio, a lighted Halloween tree on the porch there to provide creepy orange glow when I’m working in the pre dawn hours, a windsock, an electric jack o lantern inside, a ceramic ghost I painted during my ceramic period and a cute little stuffed pumpkin a friend from high school brought the first year we had our now annual slumber parties.
At Our Little House, a small ceramic pumpkin that I bought for my first apartment and tablemats are it.
October 1st is my signal its time to get out the décor, so doing this on Sunday after getting the surface clutter cleared from the studio was also on my to-do list.
Decorating for the holidays is a challenge when you live in a small space, but like everything else, we have to only put out what we truly love, things that have special meaning, and pack away or get rid of the rest.
Do you like decorating for Halloween?
I string lights all over the inside of the house and love it! I do it around Thanksgiving and leave them up into January. Otherwise, I do not decorate for holidays. If something catches my eye, I might hang it up. For example, I have a single ornament with a dog on it that I hang up…that is it!
We have a few things, but Halloween comes and goes so fast; we do more decorating for Christmas. My mom has us over for dinner and trick-or-treating in her neighborhood every year, which keeps us from being home for the trick-or-treaters… mums, a jack-o-lantern, and a couple of little shelf decorations inside is as far as we ever seem to get.
Sounds like fun. My mother did this when I was little too. My nephews were only 4 years younger so my dad would take us all trick or treating, after we warmed our bellies with the first pot of chili of the season, of course! I carried on that tradition up until the last Halloween my mother was with us. Dale’s sister would bring her boys by. Since we don’t get trick or treaters here, it’s just me and Dale for the chili now.
LOVE decorating for Halloween – it means I can bring out my vintage Nightmare Before Christmas figurines (they’re vintage if they’re original from 1993, right?) and leave them up until the New Year!
Ha, Casey, you’re just a baby. I have vintage decor from the 1960s! 🙂 Have fun decorating!
I do. My husband made this 7-foot spider one year from heavy fabric, wiring and such. We’ve used it ever since.
Sounds fun.
I decorate for fall more than Halloween. I’m at the point now where I pick and choose what I put out – I have too many things to use all the time.
I can remember when it took me a complete day to decorate for Christmas. Now, maybe a couple of hours and that’s trimming the tree included!
We decorate every year. I haven’t gotten anything out yet, but I seem to remember that our collection grew last year. We have a few sets of purple lights and a couple of stand-ups for outside with all kinds of knickknacks inside. We do pumpkin carving with our son close to Halloween and stick those outside to up the ante.
And then there’s the annual family Halloween party. I usually plan months and months in advance–I like to pick up my costume little bit by little bit from clearance racks and thrift stores. Usually something fairly inappropriate. And I work hard to nail down the persona with dialects or accents. In previous years, I’ve been Marc Antony (the wife was Cleopatra), Dr. Huxtable, Fidel Castro, uh…a 70’s porn star (fictional)…I know I’m missing a few more. The porn star was my favorite. He was basically Matthew McConaughey’s character from Dazed & Confused. With a stuffed tube sock down the pantleg. This year, I let it all get away from me, so I’m going to be a cowboy. Maybe Urban Cowboy.
Mat, you had me rolling with the 70s porn star! 🙂 Your house sounds very festive this time of the year. I bet your son loves it!
He’s very excited about it. Although, he gets costume day at daycare a couple of times a year. He’s been Buzz Lightyear and Optimus Prime so far. Just after Halloween last year, we got him an Anakin Skywalker costume (thank you, clearance!) and while at a baby sale a few weeks ago, we got him a really nice Batman costume.
What can I say–he loves superheroes!
Nothing wrong with superheros, Mat! 🙂
I don’t remember people decorating for Halloween as a child, other than the obligatory jack-o-lantern. Canadians were slow coming to the house decorating table but I notice that the trend has picked up. I don’t do much anymore as we are in the country and rarely see a trick-or-treater. The field next to our house is where a local farmer has his pumpkin stand so there are lots of pumpkins, gourds, scarecrows and witches, hay bales, giant pumpkins that he grows for a local competition (the weigh-off is this Saturday) and giant sunflowers. I sort of piggy back off his display. We usually put some pumpkins out but the wild storms have started up again (100 km winds, rain, ice pellets and snow last night and again today) so decorations take a real beating.If it’s not securely nailed down it will likely blow away 🙁
Yikes, Olivia! I didn’t realize that those storms came often. Our exchange daughters loved Halloween because like Canada, it happened in Australia and Germany then, but wasn’t as big. I think it is much larger now.
Halloween is our favorite time of year.. we even had huge Halloween parties every year.. where famous people would come, like Ozzie, Marilyn, Dorothy, Harry, and even a plumper with a butt crack.. (sorry for the name dropping) But since the scale down.. I sold or gave most of it away.. I did however keep the stuff I made in ceramics that I keep for my table as well.. Finding room is a huge problem. But I found having a few treasures means more to me than the house completely decorated.. I will miss the babies in their costumes though.. so I think our local Moose Lodge still has a party for Halloween I will check it out.. I still dress up for the occasion… even if its just for the two of us.. that can always be fun… lol
Your post made me smile, Becky. I loved all of the name dropping! 🙂 I agree though, that having just a few treasured things is better. Each and every one of my decorations make me smile when I look at them. The Halloween tree my mother made, the ceramic pumpkin that reminds me of that first year of being on my own, having my own space. It’s all good.