I Prefer DIY Halloweens to Current Mass-Produced Holiday.

Me too!

You would love my neighborhood. We thought we were doing it up with our little cemetary but a few of our neighbors have brilliant decorations. I'll have to get some photos.....

Mo took his costume out for a test drive in the yard yesterday and received a million complements. It even earned me a "You're the best, mom!"

Boomer--

What is he wearing this year?

He's going as a ghostbuster again.

We did save a few pieces from last years costume but I haven't managed to find them since the move (I'd especially like to find the ghost trap we made because it was really cool) so I started from scratch. It turned out pretty good! It's amazing what you can do with bottle caps, odd bits of hardware and hot glue.

Here's one of the houses that is near my neighborhood. I think we'll go this weekend:

http://www.davisgraveyard.com/slideshows/2007/

I took some photos of the house a block over today but I have to run get the car washed while the sun is still shining....

Those were awesome.

Nevermore with the ravens....heh.

Pretty amazing, huh?

And it's free!

They do accept contributions to the local high school drill team but it isn't required.

They make all the stuff themselves. From the newspaper article the other day, I gather they have come up with some kind of projection device that has "ghosts" wandering through the yard at random times.

There is something so silly and lovely about it -- grown ups who do something just for fun.

Past a certain age, fun doesn't get the attention it deserves. Fun should be more important.

I'm all for frivolity--providing it isn't standardized frivolity.

If I ever lose my sense of ethics, one of my targets will be the giant holiday inflatables. They are ugly.

I might possibly make an exception for Skeletal Death on an Inflated Motorcycle perched on the ranch house roof--or I might not.

This year the kids are making their own costumes. I've had it with the $40 pieces of crap they sell. Duckie spray painted some cardboard boxes and is going as a robot (if he falls over he's done for) and I'm helping Ducklet make some butterfly wings. We'll see how it goes. We're not much for decorating, but we do have some carved pumpkins on the front porch.

What with all the roof stuff happening (the guys are here fixing the leaks now) I've been staying out of the yard. When it's done-done I'll put out some stuff. (Pumpkins, a rattly motion-sensor skull thing, a big hairy spider, some cobwebs.) Nothing inflatable.

Sozlet designed her own costume but I'm doing the work. (Have to finish it... ugh.)

What I can't stand about Halloween in the midwest is figuring out how to keep them warm enough for trick-or-treating. Putting a coat over everything ruins the effect. Supposed to be mid-50's though... she'll need something.

This year, my daughter wanted to decorate for Halloween, and this is
what she came up with....

CJ--

Gruesome little girl, isn't she?

I like it.

Since I have to decorate the clubhouse for holidays I rarely get anything done at my own house. I don't care for all the prefab stuff, either. Would rather be creative if I had the time.

I'll be serving about 500 cups of hot cocoa at the clocktower halloween night, so no one will be stopping at my house anyways. I get to see more of the kids and their costumes this way than if they came to my door, and many of the moms have been talking about working on the kids costumes so I'm anxious to see their handiwork.

There were a few years when the kids were little that I made / printed our own holiday cards. Cards are way over priced now. I don't step foot in a Hallmark.

Oh man!

Mo and I had to do a pet food run today so we drove past the Davis Graveyard. It really is amazing. Rumor has it that they run little classes on how to do it. If so, I want to sign up!

I remember those severed arms from the 70's when wed drive around with one coming out of a car trunk.Ahhhh the good old days.

Halloween, in the little town near us (POP 3200) has a tradition of decorating the homes more extensively than they do for Christmas. A lot of these lit up inflatable giant cartoon draculas and frankensteins are not very scary (or creative, just costly) but the whole town strings up purple and orange lights along with these inflable toys.
Now if I was a kid, Id be out bb gunning all those inflatable monsters.

Not that Im condoning such antisocial acts.

Farmerman--

I've thought of unsheathing my trusty hatpin.....

FOR SHAME!!! say three our fathers and seven hail Marys and make a perfect act of contrition.

Farmerman--

My hatpin hand is stayed by the thought of the children who live in the Inflatable Infested houses who think that their parents have excellent taste.

Christmas is for children? Perhaps, but Halloween is more so.

If you're ever in Mountain View, CA around Halloween, check out the DC Cemetary on Yosemite Ave. The guy is a prop designer for a film studio and he sunk a large chunk-o-change into an animatronic display that loops only four times an hour. It's the most amazing private, free Halloween display I've ever seen.