Halloween at Home: How to Have a Memorable Halloween!

Halloween at Home: How to Have a Memorable Halloween!

My brother & I dressed up as Scully & Mulder from The X-Files. We had the BEST costumes! Thanks Mom!

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. There’s no pressure to have the perfect turkey to serve or anxiety over having presents for everyone. It’s pretty simple, candy, pumpkins, costumes & friends (plus a little spookiness, you have to have at least one spooky moment!).

I remember only trick-or-treating one time in an actual neighborhood, I enjoyed it but strangers made me uneasy and being a shy child I had a difficult time walking up to the strange & spooky houses. Fortunately for me the following year my church started a charming festival event on Halloween called “Pumpkin Palace”. It was complete with carnival games, prize tickets, candy, goldfish in plastic bags, pony rides and even an elephant that you could ride around in the straw arena. It was the most magical place I had ever seen and captured my whimsical child heart. Every year the event I most looked forward to was Pumpkin Palace.

As I got older I began to do set-up for the event, make sure booths had candy & enough beanbags, that kind of thing. I would even get to watch the beautiful elephant make her majestic entrance into the straw arena. It was still so magical and getting to watch others enjoy it made my treasured night even more precious.

It’s been 2 years since my church stopped hosting Pumpkin Palace. They wanted us to move into our own communities & neighborhoods instead of leaving them to be at church. At first I felt robbed of my prize night & felt rather devastated over the ending of such a sweet era. But, “Necessity is the mother of invention” (Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott) and with my family we planned out a wonderful new way to celebrate Halloween.

We will be carrying on this tradition tonight!

Here’s what we do:

We invite friends & family over for chili & a bonfire set up out front in our fire-pit with plenty chairs & warm blankets. We have loads of candy for trick-or-treaters and coffee travelers from Starbucks for the weary & chilly parents – this was a HUGE hit last year cause honestly, isn’t it nice for the parents to get something too? We have candles lit in the house, all our lights outside covered with those plastic jack-o-lantern from Target, and of course creepy movies playing in the background to set the mood (my personal favorites include: Sleepy Hollow – lots of spooky moments, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas – you have to sing-along, and The Addams Family – hilarious!).

We polish the night off with pumpkin pies, s’mores and a reading of “The Hallowiener” – seriously one of the cutest children’s books I’ve ever read. It had all of us in stitches! Go get yourself a copy!

Via Barnes & Noble

 

Last year was one of the most pleasant surprises as it kept the magic of Halloween alive for me even in the new setting.

I encourage you to put a fun little twist on your evening. See what you can do to serve & love others in your neighborhood even if it’s as easy as having some hot coco for the kids & parents. It’s a wonderful time to greet others, shed love on lives & be a place of light and joy on a dark evening.

Have a very Happy Halloween!

What traditions are you keeping up this year?

Molly Keating
Molly Keating
Hello! I'm Molly and I run & manage the Blog here at O'Connor. I grew up in a mortuary with a mortician for a father who's deep respect for the profession inspired me to give working at a mortuary a try. Work at O'Connor has brought together two of my deep passions, writing & grief awareness. In 2016 I earned Certification in the field of Thanatology, the study of Death, Dying and Bereavement. I am honored to be able to speak on these taboo topics with knowledge, compassion, and a unique perspective. I want to sincerely thank you for following & reading the blog, I hope that this is a healing place for you.

24 Comments

  1. Fitz says:

    Hey Molly,

    Great post! The picture of you and Andy SCARED me! It made me realize how dated I am:-) Halloween is one of my favs also. Our neighborhood goes all out. In fact, there are carloads of kids being dropped off each year to enjoy the festivities.

    I can’t give out the address though…..you’ll have to take a number.

    Enjoy!
    Fitz

    • Molly says:

      Haha!
      I would love to see your neighborhood Fitz! That sounds absolutely insane. We had a great turn out of trick-or-treaters but our neighborhood sounds nothing like yours. Pretty calm with just a few chaotic moments.
      Thanks for reading this post! I had no idea we liked the same holiday – that kind of scares me a bit!

  2. Anne says:

    Molly
    The whole event sounds fun, caring, and sooo easy to pull off. You will have to let us know how it turns out, but I will bet you have found the new tradition.
    The photo of you and Andy is beyond precious! I love it!
    Thank you for sharing tips on a great, wholesome way to memorialize probably the second favorite holiday of most children.
    Love
    Anne

    • Molly says:

      Anne,
      It went beautifully! So many of the parents we had were thrilled about the coffee! We even had one family that said, “Oh we remember you! You’re the coffee house!”. Success! It was a great evening and I think the hospitality that we tried to show really poured out on a lot of our trick-or-treaters as we had the most polite group of kids we’ve ever had! They were all so sweet & intentional about thank you’s. It was really a charming night and I’m looking forward to next year already!

  3. Jeff says:

    You are adorable! The Scully and Mulder costumes are great memories and X-Files still scares you. Perfect!

    I much prefer the home scene over the 12 hour marathon that was Pumpkin Palace. Too many people and too many hours for me. I love getting to know the neighbors and welcoming fall outside bundled up with a fire and “just tea, thank you.”

    It is a wonderful opportunity to welcome in the season, visit and meet new people. If you like that sort of thing.

    Happy Halloween Molly!

    Jeff

    • Molly says:

      Totally agree. I love the new tradition and even though I resisted it and even felt some resentment against being told to “stay home” I’m so happy that it’s become such a pleasant night with our neighbors & friends. I’m so glad you enjoy it too!

      Thank you for reading!

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