Halloween is just around the corner – a night of ghosts, goblins, witches, zombies and the ubiquitous Sexy Lady Firefighter/Cop/Bumblebee. For some, it’s an opportunity to don another face, another personality for one night. For others, it’s an opportunity to wrap oneself in a roll of toilet paper (mummy, amiright?) and hit the town consuming Halloween-themed shots from test tubes and ending the evening by doing one’s best impression of the vomiting jack-o-lantern. Or maybe you’re the type to turn your garage into a haunted house and make those little trick-or-treaters earn the hell out of their candy. Bonus Peanut Butter Cups if your life-like Frankenstein makes someone six or older cry.
But for some of us, Halloween is a month-long build-up of awesome. Like Christmas. Or ten-percent-Tuesdays at Safeway. Well, you can’t trick-or-treat every day, and barhopping in mummy garb on October 15th will get you some funny looks indeed. So how do you keep in the holiday spirit in the days leading up to Halloween? Here are some ideas!
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Eat some spooktacular treats. Leftover (or pre-emptive) Halloween candy is always choice, but there are definitely other options. Why not make some:
Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin cupcakes
Zombie brownies
Pumpkin pie
Candy apples
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While we’re on the subject of tastiness, you know what’s awesome?
Halloween-themed beers and other goodies!
Hobgoblin
Pumpkineater (by Howe Sound)
Amber’s Sap Vampire
Coney Island Freaktoberfest
Crystal Head Vodka (for the less wallet-conscious among us)
And, of course, any red wine ever (or cherry Sourpuss!) can easily be re-labeled “True Blood”
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For the more literarily-inclined, sometimes nothing is more satisfying than curling up with a mug of bright orange
jack-o-lantern hot chocolate and
a spooky book. Might I recommend:
- Halloween, a compilation of super-spooky stories edited by Paula Guran. My favourites were Struwwelpeter" by Glenn Hirshberg (which I re-read immediately upon finishing to look for details I had missed!) and “The Sticks” by Charlee Jacob. The former is couched in spooky local lore (old man, haunted house, spooky kid) but the real terror turns out to be just a little too real-world for comfort. “The Sticks,” meanwhile, offers a straight-up supernatural tale dark and creepy enough for Stephen King.
- Your old Goosebumps novels tucked away in the basement - Slappy still gives me nightmares.
- The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales
-
The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories by H.P Lovecraft
- The Little Stranger, by Sarah Walters. A dark, literary ghost story set in a decaying mansion in post-war England. Shivery-good.
- Variations for the more faint-of-heart: Harry Potter, The Dresden Files, Charlaine Harris, Dean Koontz (his Frankenstein series is way fun) or Neil Gaiman's
The Graveyard Book.
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Snuggle up with your sweetie (or cat or beer), turn out the lights, and watch something spooky. Like:
- The admittedly terrible made-for-TV movie
HalloweenTown
-
Insidious, which my boyfriend yawned through but which almost made me cry
- Old episodes of
Charmed and
Buffy
-
The Nightmare Before Christmas
-
The Ring
-
The Blair Witch Project (Yes. Yes, I am a wuss. That movie terrified me)
- Anything black-and-white and featuring Vincent Price
-
The Brothers Grimm
-
Paranormal Activity
- The
Scream movies! Especially, of course, the first one.
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And of course, you need to decorate! I like:
Blacklights, strobelights, floodlights
As many jack-o-lanterns as I can fit on my front steps
Cut-out ghosts and goblins in windows
Dressing up a plastic skeleton in old sweatpants and a hoodie and perching him in a tree
Spiderwebs. Everywhere.
Light-up skulls along the sidewalk
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Some final ideas:
Paint jack-o-lanterns on your finger nails
Go to a local haunted house, country fair or the like. In Calgary, I like Screamfest and Heritage Park’s Ghouls Night Out
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What do you do to celebrate this most awesome of holidays?
