I love Halloween!

[Sir Masksalot]

I like to grab Halloween cards each year.

I love sending Halloween cards. I'd mail out a hundred every October if I knew that many monsterkids.
We share the same taste with at least four of the styles you posted, scarey1scd.

[Hepcat]

Heres our kitchen. The little woman likes witches and such so this is her little world...

Does she keep much of that decor year round?

[marsattacks666]

Great thread

[AlexPhilip]

Gosh, why do I love Halloween? It's spooky, it's a celebration of fantasy and creativity. It brings the community together. It's all about giving and not receiving (at least for the adults). I love the Fall. I love scary movies. I love celebrating horror and I think being able to laugh at it for one night is healthy for humanity. I've never associated Halloween with Satan or anything like that. I do recall in college I invited a friend to my dorm because I was going to tutor her on some math homework. When she walked into my room and saw all the Classic Horror movie posters on my wall, she said "oh my, this place is Satanic". She made me go back to her room and listen to gospel music...

[Mike Scott]

Welcome to the UMA, Alex! 

She made me go back to her room and listen to gospel music...

[scarey1scd]

Hepcat- Yep, all the shots from inside our home is what it looks like 24/7 365. Ive been blessed with a great girl (only took me 51 years to find her lol)

[Hepcat]

Ive been blessed with a great girl (only took me 51 years to find her lol)

You're still lucky to have actually found one like that. Usually it takes 51 years of vigorous training to get them to share our kind of aesthetic preferences.

[Hepcat]

And I love all the tacky kids' costumes from the late 20th century! Whether by Ben Cooper, Collegeville or Halco, whether horrific or just cartoony, none of that matters. What's key is that they be tacky kids' throwaway costumes that could be purchased at Woolworth, Kresge, Ben Franklin, W.T. Grant, G.C. Murphy,  J.G. McCrory's, Newberry's, Zellers, Metropolitan and other five-and-dime stores across the nation.



I still recall the awe and longing with which I admired the costumes hanging from the ceiling of the downtown Kresge and Metropolitan stores in my neck of the woods. I knew though that there was no way my mother would spring for something so profligate as a single use costume back in my trick or treating days pre-1965. Still because of how closely these costumes are linked in our minds to the joy of trick or treating, they're highly prized by sundry Halloween enthusiasts and collectors these days:

Here are a few examples:

Ben Cooper


























Collegeville

























(That's Katnip from Paramount Cartoon Studios and Harvey Comics Publications above.)


And of course these masks and costumes make for a fabulous present day display. Here are some shots from Sandman78's Collegeville Halloween costume collection:

[BigShadow]

I need to vent.  I love Halloween and everything that comes with it: decorations, spooky things, store displays, the autumn weather, and of course movies.  Today I finally had some time to go out and get some candy for trick r' treaters and to get some extra special goodies for my young nieces. 

So I started off at Big Lots.  One small isle of about ten decorations spread out and nothing further for Halloween.  But they did have a huge Christmas display.  No candy, spooky goodies, or anything else Halloween-related.  Discouraged, I left for Target.

At Target all the isles where the Halloween stuff was bare with Christmas decorations going out.  One isle had about 5 kids costumes and a few small bags of Reese's.  Thats it.  No decorations, no store displays, no music...nothing.

Next was Barnes & Noble.  They wouldn't let me down.  They usually have a cool Halloween display up and some Halloween books I can get for my neices along with candy.  Nothing.  No display.  No books.  No nothing.  I asked my wife, who works part time there on weekends, what happened to al the Halloween stuff.  She said it was taken down a few days ago to make room for the Christmas and regular displays.  But it's not even Halloween I said.  She said try Giant Eagle they might have something.  Angerly I left the store mumbling under my breath at the displeasure I was feeling.  I even told her this is why stores are suffering, because they don't care about the customer, only what's coming next.

At Giant Eagle they still had some pumpkins and decorations outside for sale, but inside, near the flower section was all Christmas decorations.  The isle of Halloween candy was mixed with Christmas candy and decorations.  I grabbed a few bags and left.

I think these stores need to slow down and enjoy the holiday at hand.  There is absolutely no need to take down Halloween decorations to make room for Christmas when Christmas is two months away and Halloween hasn't even hit yet!  To say the least, I'm upset.  Thankfully I get to sit at home and watch monster movies and have some coffee before heading to work at 10p tonight. 

[Hepcat]

That's also the way it is at the two Dollarama stores in my neighbourhood:



Xmas stuff has already largely replaced Halloween items.

[Hepcat]

What's key is that they be tacky kids' throwaway costumes that could be purchased at Woolworth, Kresge, Ben Franklin, W.T. Grant, G.C. Murphy,  J.G. McCrory's, Newberry's, Zellers, Metropolitan and other five-and-dime stores across the nation.

And those five-and-dime stores ran fabulous ads for their Halloween costumes and candy in local newspapers!

[Hepcat]

I like to grab Halloween cards each year. Dont have anything "vintage" but been collecting them for a few years now.

The little paper bags that people filled with treats for tricksters at Halloween in the 20th century had graphics very similar to those of the vintage cards. The vintage treat bags below absolutely scream Halloween!















And these Halloween themed shopping bags are perhaps even better!

[marsattacks666]

[Lunkenstein]

Thanks for sharing so many great pics everyone. They've brought back wonderful memories of Halloweens from my youth.

[Hepcat]

And I love the trick or treating!



Both the shelling out and devouring of the leftovers, supplemented by any deeply discounted sale stock from local stores!

The MAN used to dole out one of the small bags of Humpty Dumpty Potato Chips that were sold in Halloween boxes of 25:



When the Humpty Dumpty name brand disappeared in 2006 he switched to Cheetos:



And these comparatively new Old Dutch Popcorn Twists:



In addition, he's been giving out Halloween boodle bags with several of the following items:



Oh Henry! has been our favourite chocolate bar since Neilson Sweet Marie was discontinued some ten years ago.